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Baseball Hitting DrillsBy Jon Doyle. When it's time to hit the gym, you have to use the right baseball hitting drills, the right tools and the right techniques that will help ensure that you see the results that you're really aiming for. The bottom line is this when it comes to strength training, and it's that you're looking for strength that's transferrable to the diamond.That means real, functional strength that works the way you want it to and improves the way you play. What that doesn't mean is loading up on more weight just to say that you can bench more, and it doesn't mean trying to get the biggest muscles because you want to show them off. It's about total body strength and functional capability that will actually make a difference in your productivity at the plate. Now, there are many different ways that you can accomplish the goal, and as mentioned, it's all about using baseball hitting drills in the right way when you get to the gym. One golden rule to begin with is that you want to spend the majority of your time performing compound exercises based on raw power. Examples of these exercises include movements like the clean and press, squats, dead lifts, and more. As much as 90% of your weight training should revolve around compound exercises like these. The rest of the 10% of your training will be supplemental exercises. These aren't meant to boost your muscle - that's what the compound training will do - as much as they are meant to be pre-hab exercises. In other words, by focusing on a few hard to reach muscles carefully, you can prevent injuries that would otherwise be likely to occur with many baseball hitting drills. But those compound exercises is really where you're training to improve your strength and power, and these exercises are meant more as protection and proactive treatment for injury prone areas. Another really important rule when it comes to weight training for baseball is that you should forgo the usage of machines entirely. Machines make baseball hitting drills far too easy, and they don't make you use any of the important stabilizing muscles and core muscles that are otherwise used almost all of the time in your training. Moreover, you get lucked into a strict range of motion which might not really be the best for you. So it's best to avoid machines, and in their place use all kinds of other equipment, including standard free weights like barbells and dumbbells, cables, and more. Also use medicine balls, kettlebells, and other odd objects which force your body to bring more muscles and body parts into play to cope with the unique features of the object itself. Another concept which will change the way you approach your weight training is that you should be focusing on explosive power and speed, under control, with lighter weights than you normally use. A baseball and a bat are not heavy objects, and instead are very light objects which you need to control with a maximum amount of force. That's the way your baseball hitting drills should be directed, using just 40-65% of your maximum weight, while focusing on generating controlled, explosive power. While you should absolutely be performing exercises which in some ways mimic the movements you make on the field, you shouldn't be looking to copy them exactly. Using a medicine ball for rotational work is a great solution, for example, but you wouldn't want to try to go through your pitching motion with a dumbbell. All you'll be doing here is messing with your mechanics. So consider finding exercises which translate to the field, but don't exactly replicate what you're doing. Finally, it's time to start paying attention to an area that most guys avoid, and that's the posterior chain. This includes your calves and hamstrings, your glutes and your lower back and core muscles. This is where so much of your power is generated, but it's an area of the body that is often ignored. Switching your focus here can provide you with quick and large gains to your total body strength and power. Baseball hitting drills should center on the way that baseball is played. Hit the weights in the right way and you'll improve your performance, and that's what it really boils down to. |
 
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