When you say “yes” to playing 12 months of the year are you really saying “no” to developing your physical skills to throw faster, harder or run faster??

T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] When you say “yes” to playing Baseball baseball and play more games against 12 months of the year are you really good competition. Your options are saying “no” to developing your physical either play both a summer and winter skills to throw faster, hit harder or run season of baseball or play one season faster?? This question we get almost on plus join a travel team. Both of these a weekly basis at our clinic. Before we options often lead you to playing and get into the physical development side training 10-12 months of the year. Some of things, our next question is usually: teams may even train two or three “Do you want to play just for fun or take times a week. However, to make serious baseball more seriously?” If you answer improvements in baseball specific skills, this question honestly, the results will this will need to be increased to at least often be very different. 4 to 5 days a week due to how our body makes changes through motor learning PLAYING FOR FUN new skills. This creates a problem though if we try to sustain this high volume of Australia actually has a good schedule training for 10-12 months a year. If we set up for baseball if you are truly just put to the side burn out or boredom playing for fun. We rarely play more developing, then we have the big issue than once a week, we rarely train more of the development of physical skills vs than once a week and there are multiple baseball (sports specific) skills. weeks out of the year that are scheduled weekends off (not to mention the PHYSICAL SKILLS VS occasional rained out weekend). This BASEBALL SKILLS often provides everyone plenty of rest between games, especially those that Baseball is advancing at a rapid rate have to pitch or catch during a game. in many ways thanks to improvements We often still recommend for most in technology and sports medicine. players under 14 years old that it is still Baseball players are bigger, stronger, a good idea to play a different sport throwing harder and hitting harder or activity for the summer vs winter than ever before. There are always season. Doing it this way gives you the exceptions to the rule with players like chance to meet new friends, discover a Tim Collins ( in MLB who is 5’7” new sport that you enjoy or help your throwing 98mph) or Jose Altuve (5’5” body develop during its growing years. a MLB MVP), but the average player For those usually older than 14 years height, weight and strength continue to old, if you love the game, your team climb. In knowing that, how do we help mates and the culture of baseball then develop players to reach their goals of no need to worry. Go and enjoy playing getting to the next level? Do we just the awesome game of baseball every keep taking ground balls, pitching more week! bullpens or hit for hours in the cage every week? Sadly, that is only half the PLAYING FOR FUN & COMPETITION battle of today’s game. Only a very small group of players will physically develop Unfortunately, many of the attributes this way with the assistance of great mentioned above of why baseball in genetics. However, we can train these Australia is set up to play for fun are physical skills of throwing the ball faster, not helpful at all in developing elite hitting the ball harder, and running faster. level players. Playing only one game a We will go into detail on how to develop week and training only 1-2 hours a week these skills in section 3 “How to Develop sadly will rarely help a player develop Your Physical Skills For Baseball”, but into your next superstar athlete. It takes to get bigger stronger or faster you time, hard work and specific training can not be tired from training. Training to develop into an elite level baseball your physical skills is demanding and player. I empathise with players and requires rest and recovery for your their parents who want to excel in muscles to get stronger. If you continue

Contact the team today to see how we can help you T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] to train your baseball skills (taking ground balls or practice etc) you will either get injured from pushing your body too hard or not get much stronger because you are tired. This creates the big problem and back to our original question of “should I play baseball all year round?” It is not an easy decision to say “no” to playing in the winter season or “no” to a travel team. I get it. You think if I don’t play in this team then I won’t get picked in the team for next season. Or I will miss out on an opportunity with a great . However, I want you to think of every time you say “yes” to playing in a winter season or playing in a travel team you are actually saying “no” to your physical development and an off-season. Sometimes realising what you are actually saying “no” to is very powerful in helping you make your decision. Do you want to be the player at the age of 17 that looks smooth with the baseball skills on the field and throws 75mph on the mound or who doesn’t have the power to hit a ? Or do you want to be the player who may not be as polished, but throws 90mph or can hit the ball over the fence. If you are a MLB scout or an American college coach the answer is pretty easy which player they will want. Our next step “How to structure your Off-Season”, will expand on how to excel in your baseball career. Most players can not play and train hard in the traditional way 12 months out of the year. We need dedicated time away from throwing or hitting at high intensity and high volumes so our bodies have a chance to get bigger, faster, and stronger without the issues of fatigue or high injury risk.

How to structure your off-season

We have now covered the importance of deciding if you are playing for fun or playing for fun plus being competitive. If you chose “Playing for Fun”, you can relax in the fact that there is not often much you have to do in terms of planning. However, before we get started on the three main categories we have outlined, I must tell you that in doing player programming for Baseball players for well over a decade, I have never used the same program twice. Each player is unique in both their goals as well as their physical development. Individualising every player’s program has been the key to player development and injury risk reduction. Injuries are a major setback in development in young players, whether it causes you to miss out on making a representative team or causing you to spend time recovering from an injury instead of having a great off- season training period. If you follow someone else’s plan you will get sub-optimal results or increase your risk of injury.

Contact the team today to see how we can help you T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] YEARLY PLANNING: PLAYING FOR FUN PITCHING/ THROWING You will see that for the most part you should be able to play all year round. We have added one week of non throwing, and two weeks of NO THROWING getting back into throwing to remind you don’t take three weeks off RETURN from pitching in a game and then go back to pitching a full game at TO THROWING the start of a season. Even if you are playing for fun you are running a NO PITCHING higher risk of getting injured if you take an extended break and then go OR CATCHING, PLAYING THE back to pitching the amount you were before you stopped. A simple FIELD ONLY rule is for every week you have off from pitching, you should take at least one week to get your arm back in shape.

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YEARLY PLANNING: COMPETITIVE BASED PROGRAMMING

Both of the below examples are to give you a basic guide to what we recommend. We use these programs below as a guide and then individualise as needed for players individual schedules and goals.

YEARLY PLAN: BOTH WINTER AND SUMMER SEASONS This template is a guide for players who want to be competitive in both their winter and summer seasons. We often recommend for the first few weeks of the winter season to DH if possible or take the first week or two off. This will allow you to maximise your shortened off-season, especially if you went deep into the playoffs for your previous summer season.

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YEARLY PLAN: MAXIMUM PHYSICAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT This guide is what we base our individual programs off for some great physical skill development specifically for baseball. This gives us the best chance of making maximum developments specifically in strength, weight gain, rotation power, running speed, throwing velocity and hitting velocity. With this program outline, we don’t have to worry about the potential fatigue from playing baseball or run a higher risk of injury. One thing to remember is there are exceptions to the guide. You may have heard of MLB throwing all year round, most recent notable names are Jacob Degrom and Clayton Kershaw. For seasoned MLB players who feel they have no major physical skill development to be made in the off- season, their focus is often on keeping their baseball specific skills sharp. They still often reduce their throwing volume and intensity during the off-season, but continue to throw with only a week or two off. This again is not recommended for teenage players looking to gain improvements in their physical skills.

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Contact the team today to see how we can help you T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] How to develop the physical skills for baseball

Developing the necessary physical skills to play baseball at an elite level can be extremely challenging. It requires a lot of patience and hard work. The good news is it also has a lot of other benefits of having a body in better physical condition and often learning how to lift weights the right way. “Our Learn To Lift Program” is the program we are most proud of as it teaches kids life long skills on how to move their body and lift or pull weights/objects the right way. This gives them a much greater chance of avoiding debilitating injuries later in life that we see in the clinic every day.

So how do I develop great physical skills for baseball?

STEP 1: HAVE A THOROUGH PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT

Have a thorough physical assessment by someone who knows baseball and the common issues surrounding baseball. This is not just about performance and where you may have a weakness that can be improved, but also where you may be vulnerable to injuries. The easiest way to not improve as a baseball player is to get injured and waste time recovering from an injury for several months. Once you have a physical assessment you can then work with your physiotherapist, strength coach and baseball coach to plan your individualised program. This is the key to not wasting your time doing someone else’s program that doesn’t get you the results you are looking for or performing a program that will get you injured.

Contact the team today to see how we can help you T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] STEP 2: DESIGN YOUR PROGRAM

Your goals along with your physical assessment will decide what path you take in your program design. In order to improve rotation power to hit the ball harder, throw the ball faster or improve your running speed, you need at least basic fundamental strength and motion. If we have a player that wants to perform our advanced rotation power program, but has never lifted weights before and has little strength and coordination, then we simply won’t let them. Two things will happen if we do, they will either get poor results and say the program doesn’t work or get injured because their body can not handle the challenging demands of the program.

For most players, getting stronger by lifting weights is an important part of their program. Although baseball players have very different lifting programs to football players, we still need to get stronger. Programs are often centred around getting strong and powerful legs that can then transfer the power through a stable core section and then released through a flexible but stable upper body. How strong the upper body needs to be will differ for each player, especially if you want to be a power hitter compared to a pitcher. Once you have adequate strength and motion, you can then advance your program to improve your rotation power or running speed.

Sunday

Saturday Rest day Foam Roller/Spikey Ball Dynamic Warm Up Friday Throwing 3 + Lift Day 3 Thursday Rotation Power 2 Running ground balls, 30 Lift Day 2 Adductors 30secs Handwalks 3 Wednesday Light throw to 90 feet Tuesday Bullpen up to 50 pitches Swings: 40 off tee, 40 ITB's 30secs 1-leg Supine Bridge 8/side Running ground balls, 30 live Monday long toss to 250+ feet Light throw to 90 feet Throwing 1+ Lift Day 1 Swings: 40 off tee, 40 Calves 30secs Sumo/frog squats Running3 ground balls, 30 live Triceps/lats 30secs Wall Ankle Mobs 4/sideRotation Power 1 Swings: 40live off tee, 40

Light throw to 120 feet Pre-Work: Overhead med ball slams (3x5, 3kg)

Deadlifts for Speed for strength Side-Lying External Rotation - (1-3kg) WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT 1 4 5 1 3 10/side 2 4 7 2 3

A1 A2 10/side

3 4 7 3 4 10/side Rotational Power Day 1 Pitching Drills: 2x10 reps per drill (flat ground) 4 3 5 4 3 10/side Warm up hip drills (with core velocity belt) SE/NW slams (technique, not power focus) Finisher plyo throws (mix of 3oz, 5oz and 0.5kg medball) Load on the turn (mix of 3oz, 5oz and 0.5kg medball) Single Arm Lat Pulldown Alternating Reverse Lunges (Front Squat Grip)Weigh more plyo throw with KOTH (mix of 3oz, 5oz and 0.5kg medball) WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT Step-Behind Shot Put Throw WEEK SETS 1 REPS (Left) 1 3 8/side 1 3 6/side 2 REPS (Right) Side to Side Rotational Scoop Toss Throws ( Use Rogue 6lb ball) A1 2 5 2 5 3 5 WEEK 2 3 8/side 2 3 2 5 SETS REPS (Left)

B1 B2 6/side 4 5 1 REPS (Right) 2 5 2 5 A2 2 10 5 2 10 3 4 8/side 3 4 Repeat Pitching Drills 2x10 reps if have time 3 10 6/side 2 10 4 10 2 10 10 4 2 8/side 4 2 6/side 10

Half-Kneeling 1-arm Overhead press Cable Internal Rotation at 90 degrees WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT Rotational Power Day 2 1 3 8/side 1 3 10/side Pitching Drills: 2x10 reps per drill (On Mound where possible) Warm up hip drills (with core velocity belt) SE/NW slams (technique, not power focus)

C1 2 3 8/side C2 2 3 10/side Milk Crate Move Walking Weigh more”/Motion Prep 3 3 8/side 3 4 10/side “Ride the Slide” Corkscrew the back hip Weigh more plyo throw with KOTH 2 handed throws only 4 2 8/side 4 2 10/side Split stance Overhead throws + KOTH (Use Rogue 6lb ball)

WEEK 1 SETS A1 REPS (Left) Reverse Curl-ups Weighted Calf raises, two legs 2 3 5 (1 set only) 3 3 REPS (Right) 5 (1 set only) 4 4 WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT WEEK SETS REPS WEIGHT 5 (1 set only) 5 Step-Back Rotational Scoop Toss Throws w/ CVB (Use Rogue 6lb ball) Repeat Pitching Drills 2x10 reps if2 have time 5 (1 set only) 5 1 3 8 1 3 10 5 WEEK 5 1 SETS A2 REPS (Left) 2 3 2 3 8 2 3 10 5 (1 set only) REPS (Right)

D1 D2 3 3 5 (1 set only) 4 4 5 (1 set only) 5 2 3 4 8 3 4 10 5 (1 set only) 5 5 4 2 10 4 2 10 5

Contact the team today to see how we can help you T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] Throwing faster or hitting harder

For players who want to throw faster, along with a physical assessment, an assessment of mechanics through video analysis and velocity reading is needed. If you don’t do all three you will have less than optimal results and often change something that will lead to an injury because a player physically cannot actually perform the movement. We can no longer just guess with our eyes what a player needs to fix in the throwing motion. It is just too fast for our eyes and brain to process. Once a player has adequate physical strength, a player can then develop safely and effectively good rotational power. This helps players create more range of motion and strength in hip/shoulder separation, which is key to producing more rotation power to hit harder or throw faster. This includes specific exercises and drills to make sure we have the correct timing/coordination and power for the challenging movement to take place. An individualised combination of lifting weights, timing drills and medicine balls exercises is often needed.

Running Faster

For players who want to run faster, along with a physical assessment, an assessment of mechanics through video analysis and accurate speed testing is needed. This is why we use laser timing gates for our assessments along with video analysis. Running faster includes a combination of strength and good running mechanics. Our running program does not have a strict requirement for already having significant experience in lifting weights, however, if you do not have good strength or perform suggested strengthening exercises while improving your running mechanics, you will likely get minimal improvements. So I urge you, if you want to be an elite baseball player when you have the choice of saying “yes” to playing baseball all year round think to yourself are you really saying “no” to your off-season and physical development?

Contact the team today to see how we can help you T: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] Are you looking to take your baseball career to the next level?

OUR PROGRAMS:

Strength And Conditioning Learn how to lift weights the right way for Baseball Throwing Assessment And Development 3 step assessment process with individualised throwing program Rotational Power Rotation power program individually designed to improve your hitting or pitching velocity Running and Agility 2 step running assessment process with technique training sessions

To learn more contact us on the details below

Shop 1B, 10-18 Robertson St, Sutherland 2232 Ph: (02) 8515 0326 E: [email protected] pontifexphysiotherapy.com