Youth Baseball Training

Why Everything You Have Read About Baseball Training is Dead Wrong

By Jon Doyle.

Why is it that the majority of baseball strength programs are basically adapted bodybuilding routines? Protocols so archaic that dinosaurs wouldn’t even use them.

It literally makes me sick when I read some of the information on baseball training that is circling around these days. Not only will the majority of this information not make you a better athlete and player, but has a high likelihood in causing injuries and leaving you WORSE off than before you started! Yes, much worse.

For example, I know most people don’t want to hear this, but the bench press and throwing don’t really go hand in hand and for pitchers, I believe the overused exercise is downright dangerous. Name me one person you know that has benched for any amount of time and hasn’t experience some kind of shoulder problem. Chances are no one comes to mind. In the sport of baseball, not much can be done with a bum shoulder.

I also believe that another mainstay in these "programs", the lat pulldown, is a complete waste of time and can potentially contribute to a shoulder imbalance as well. Both of these exercises stress internal rotation, the same movement as throwing a baseball. What is the point of performing hundreds of internal rotations (throwing) and then coming into the weight room and placing a tremendous amount of stress on that same muscle group?

So when you factor in that 99.9% of baseball players have muscle imbalances in the shoulder girdle already, and then these imbalances are made more pronounced by doing a ton of internal rotation work in the gym, its no wonder why almost every baseball player has a shoulder problem at some point in their career.

I saw the off-season program the other day that a certain major league franchise gave out to a client of mine. It was basically the same program that Muscle and Fiction ran last month. It was a complete joke and guess what was trained on Monday or day 1 of the program? Yep, chest and triceps. Legs were not until Thursday and I saw very little baseball specific core work or posterior chain work (the basis of all baseball movements) beyond leg curls on a machine.

Pre-hab was also virtually non-existent except for some standing rotator cuff drills that really didn’t stress the cuff at all. Not to mention that there was just as much volume of internal rotation as external rotation. This will hardly correct any imbalances that the sport undoubtedly creates.

The following seem like common sense, but I feel that I must cover them because I see ballplayer after ballplayer making the same mistakes

• Machines Suck...I am begging you to get off of them
• Slow, controlled movements also suck big time for baseball players
• Pyramid training (going from 12, 10, 8 reps and increasing the weight as you go) is one of the worst training protocols for baseball players.
• Using split routines is horrendous for baseball players. Funny how most baseball programs focus on bodypart training and use pyramids.

I simply cannot believe that these organizations would trust their multi-million dollar investments to such poorly thought-out programs. It’s no wonder why most star players won’t let these guys give them advice if their life depended upon it. The smart ones seek out the few strength and performance coaches that have a clue about what it actually takes to prepare for the long, grueling season. A baseball player is of no use to his team if he cannot be on the field every day or maintain his day in the rotation. The big pay days and scholarships simply do not come to those who are injury prone.

Make sure that your program allows the body to evolve as an athlete and baseball player through increases in true strength that will transfer onto the diamond. Training the body to move in a harmonious a fashion, a Renegade mainstay, will allow you to reach your levels of athleticism and performance beyond your wildest dreams.

Think I’m kidding? I went from a slow, chubby and basically unathletic high school freshman who was cut outright from the baseball program to a college scholarship and then onto an All-American candidate my senior year, setting a few school records along the way.

I don’t tell you this to brag, but to show you it is possible through working hard and smart. I see athletes overcome many obstacles and critics on a daily basis, so I know success is possible and almost certain if you follow the correct methods. All of the info is there, ripe for the picking. The questions remains, “How bad do you want it?”

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