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ERFORMANCE P BASEBALL/SOFTBALL CONDITIONING A NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO IMPROVING BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL PLAYERS www.performancecondition.com/baseballsoftball Getting Back Baseball Legs— The Transition from Off-Season Training Joe Kessler, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Cleveland Indians Joe is in his third season as the Major League Strength and running, fielding and other baseball activity, we get players who start Conditioning Coach after being named to the position on January to complain of soreness/tightness in the back area. As a result, the 8, 2010. volume and intensity of the strength and conditioning program is Kessler, 30, originally joined the Indians organization in altered through exercise selection. The program complements the March of 2009. He spent the 2009 season as an Assistant Strength reorientation process rather than adding undue stress to the athlete and Conditioning Coach in Goodyear, Arizona based on what the players show me in movement pattern deficiencies. where he worked with players based out of the This becomes the focus of what we accomplish at this time so that Goodyear complex and assisted those who good movement habits are created early and last through the entire sea- were rehabilitating from previous injuries. son. Kessler’s previous experience includes two years as the Director of Athletic Develop- Program considerations—the all-important first ten days ment for OAK Athletic Development in We treat position players different than pitchers. This is es- Bourbonnais, IL and also spent two pecially true in the first ten days. We get the jump on pitchers and seasons as a Strength and Condition- catchers because they report earlier. Our general approach is to get ing Assistant with the Indianapolis players on a routine scaled back in volume with two or three cardio Colts from 2005-07 after interning machine workouts, lifting sessions, ground-based activities and speed with the Chicago Bears in 2004. sessions within the first ten days. Table 1 presents an outline of what Joe is a 2004 graduate of Illinois we do. State University where he majored in kinesi- ology with a concentration in exercise science. Table 1 Group Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 1 Prep/Cardio Condition Agility Lift Condition Agility Lift Condition Agility Lift 2 Prep/Cardio Lift Condition Agility Lift Condition Agility Lift Condition Agility 3 Prep/Cardio Agility Lift Condition Agility Lift Condition Agility Lift Condition We slowly bring back the lifting volume and loading they ex- e have a basic philosophy here with the Indians to cre- perienced in the off-season. This allows the player to focus on baseball, ate an environment of movement efficiency by ad- which is why they are there in the first place. You almost have to take W dressing movement pattern deficiency. This all starts a step back in the area of strength and conditioning to allow them to in spring training. We want to get the player’s baseball get back to baseball routine with a minimum chance of injury. Some legs underneath him. It is a priority while “re-integrating” strength and guys fight for a position while all refocus on the game itself, so we want conditioning into their daily routine. to establish an environment where strength and conditioning will com- pliment them during this transitional phase of spring training. Coming from off-season training All players begin with the Gray Cook Functional Movement When players arrive in the spring they came from an off-sea- System screening protocol and that allows us to flag problems early on. son of heavy and extensive training. The volume of strength and con- If we see problems, we bring athletes in the early morning and focus ditioning work must compliment their baseball work until they can on correcting the problem movement patterns before they practice and reorient themselves to the routine of baseball or get their baseball legs perform their daily routine. We can design their strength training pro- back under them. This process begins just by being in cleats their feet gram around their dysfunctional movement pattern. more, throwing more and getting up early. All the work in spring train- I think spring training offers an excellent opportunity to indi- ing is done in the morning which is the reverse for the regular season vidualize a conditioning program for each player in order to gain their when activity is done in the afternoon and evening games. With all the feedback and let them understand what the goal is. Often the players will sense what we want to accomplish as far as mobility and stability. routines: This is a great time for “buy in” from the players. It is also important 1. Tissue Regeneration for new player coming into our system to be mindful of what they ac- 2. Stretch complished in the past from other organizations and where they came 3. Activate from. We make a special effort to talk with them about their off-season 4. Incorporate training, what they did and what they would like to incorporate into the 5. Reinforce new routine we will establish for them. There might be some things they are used to and may get a little sore. This is the time to address Working it into baseball these issues and it must be dealt with immediately so that soreness does It is important and we are fortunate in the fact that we work not alter baseball mechanics. closely with the position player baseball staff in this process. We are always very aware of managing fatigue as a strength and conditioning The role of good communications and asking questions staff. We are the ones who see it every single day on an individual basis We work closely with our training staff during this process. in the training room and in the weight room. The coach may only see When a player has general soreness or fatigue, it becomes a discussion. it on the field of play in a team setting. An athlete may play in a fa- It is a planned process not only with trainers. but also with position tigued state on the field and will do his best to play through it because coaches and baseball staff. My role is to find out more about the situ- it is in the nature of an athlete to be competitive. However, they will ation from the player. I found that the initial comment about being sore come into the weight room dragging. It may be OK in the daily or is only the beginning of a process I use to learn about the potential weekly timeframe, but over time it will catch up with the player and it cause. This includes asking the how, what, when, where and why. will need to be dealt with. There will be much greater consequences if Take nutrition as an example: it is not addressed early on. You must constantly look ahead so that Q: What did you eat for breakfast? you can meet with your coaches and say, “This is what we have coming A: Egg whites and a waffle. up and we want to know how many consecutive days will this athlete Q: Egg white omlet? play in a row. What will their workload be on the bases and at bat?” A: Yes We operate under the rule that if you add something, you need to take Q: How many Egg Whites? something away. This is a two-way street; we can cut back but if a A: Six player takes 100 swings before batting practice, there may be a need to Q: Anything in the Omlet? adjust that as well. A: Yes: bacon, sausage, cheese, and ham. Q: What did they put on your waffle? The unique challenges in baseball A: Butter, syrup, peanut butter and jelly. Baseball offers unique “warm-up” challenges. A player may Q: What else did you have? take many swings, cool way down and in 90 minutes be up and take A: Bacon, Sausgae, Chocolate Milk, and Hash browns. batting practice. After that it might be another hour before the game depending if it is on the road or at home. Even the game itself is a series With the first question, the response yields a healthy 400-calo- of warm-ups and cool downs. It is an anaerobic sport played in an aer- rie breakfast but by the last question you are up to 1200 calories, much obic setting. It is doing sprints once every 5-20 minutes for three hours of it fat. You just keep asking questions. every day. In relation to spring training, this constant heating up and After the questioning process you may have to throw out the cooling down emphasizes the need to establish those baseball legs from planned conditioning and limit the volume of baseball skill work. You the very beginning. Getting up at 7:00 a.m. and taking ground balls at may want to focus on tissue regeneration with contrasting hot/cold with 7:45 for a month and a half takes some getting used to. There are al- stretching and myo-facia release techniques followed by a massage. ways peaks and valleys in baseball. If you add something, you must Then they work on the baseball activity; it is all specific to the individ- take something away, so often the strength coach becomes the recovery ual and the situation. If a player has sore hamstrings, you should get coach. Once this is managed, it is on to addressing dysfunctions, es- the details on what they might have done that day, be it fielding extra tablishing routines, and implementing necessary recovery strategies ground balls or a lunge workout.

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