Maximizing Game Day Bat Speed
By guest author: Steve Zawrotny
If you're a hitter - baseball, slow pitch, or fastpitch softball, you'll definitely find this to your liking!
I'm a big proponent of appropriate strength & conditioning
as a way of increasing GAME TIME performance. This includes generating maximal bat speed. Unfortunately, science says what most of you are doing in the on-deck circle just prior to stepping to the plate is hindering your bat speed and quickness right when you need it most.
What are most of you doing in the on-deck circle? Swinging some type of heavy implement. Why is this wrong? I've summarized below the results of a study done in 1991 by Dr. Coop Derenne of the University of Hawaii-Hilo. Results are ranked fastest to slowest by implement used. Bat velocity was measured by use of a photosensing computer timer. Players were college age; game bat weight was 30 oz:
1) Wooden overloaded bat (34 oz)
2) 27 oz underloaded bat
3) Standard 30 oz game bat
4) 25 oz underloaded batv
5) Power swing (adds 32 oz to bat)
6) 23 oz underloaded batv
7) Donut ring (adds 28 oz to bat)
Notice that the WORST item was the standard heavy batting donut. Also, using UNDERload (light) bats produced better readings than heavier implements. Just swinging your game bat with no weight attached produced better readings than any of the heavier tools!
The question you may be asking is WHY? Why, when you grab two or
three bats or another heavy device, swing them vigorously, then grab your game bat (which now feels light as a feather) does this slow you down? You feel so much faster with your game bat after this, don't you?
What happens is simple fatigue of the fast twitch muscles you're depending on to perform at your best. At an imperceptible, neuromuscular level, all of this heavy work just before performing actually tires you out! So, right at the time you need to be your fastest, you've just slowed yourself down. It's sort of like a sprinter running a bunch of sprints or laps minutes before a race. Yes, he's warmed up, but he has also depleted too much of his energy, so he cannot perform at his peak.
Notice that the two best times were with weights that were about 10% above & 10% below the game bat weight. Just enough weight (the 34 oz bat) for you to get warmed up and ready, but light enough to not affect swing mechanics. The underload bat (27 oz) is noticeably lighter, allowing for an effective warm-up and priming the body to swing faster - overSPEED training.
Don't confuse this on-deck performance with a regular workout using heavy implements to develop strength and power. During such a workout, you're not appearing at the plate facing perhaps a 90 mph fastball. Tiring the muscles during a workout is the point.
However, this data underscores the fact that bat speed is most effectively developed by a combination of both heavy and light training. DO NOT NEGLECT OVERSPEED/UNDERLOAD TRAINING! If you only train slow and heavy, mechanics will be negatively affected (a real problem with a refined 'power skill' such as hitting) and you'll perform slow as well.
So put down that heavy device in the on-deck circle and go light! Especially when you're facing serious gas! And slow pitch hitters who are not facing 'gas,'you too need to generate maximal bat speed to drive the ball hard/deep.
Steve Zawrotny, MS, CSCS
405.373.3253
steve@baseballfit.comFREE REPORT: "Harmful Resistance Exercises Baseball/Softball Players Should Avoid"
VISIT: http://www.BaseballFit.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Zawrotny
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Showing posts with label baseball coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball coaching. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Importance of Training Qualified Youth League Coaches
The Importance of Training Qualified Youth League Coaches
By guest author: Dave Rosene
From my observations, adults involved in American youth baseball programs today generally can be categorized in 5 groups. I hesitate to call them coaches because they are either not qualified or don't spend enough time learning the profession. It is not a weekend position. Coaching is a serious business because you impact the lives of children, and it has to be positive and correct. We have too many situations where kids are getting the wrong advice and instruction, and it always results in inferior play when players play at a higher level. It must be corrected!
There are superb baseball teachers and coaches throughout the United States. All of them have the same qualities: disciplined, well-prepared, understand and communicate baseball strategy and teamwork, and develop individual player skills, and they coach high school, college, or professional baseball. The reasons are financial or competitive, and what youth baseball is left with is people in the aforementioned 5 groups.
Group 1 are ones with self-interest; they want to coach their child. That is to the detriment of the other team members, who usually are neglected or misused. This group type will also try to manipulate to stock the team with players to make their child look better. Youth baseball is about balance and skill development and not winning games. Group 2 have good intentions but are not experienced or skilled enough to help the youth players. In addition to learning from game experience, they must go to reputable coaching clinics and use the various multimedia reference outlets available to them to best develop the athletes. Group 3 teach throwing, fielding, hitting/bunting, and pitching incorrectly because they were poorly taught or not taught at all. Plus they refuse to change and learn, hazardous to skill development. Group 4 cares more about winning than about skill development, team strategy, and teamwork. They cause more harm than any other group because they confuse the youth players on the importance of winning youth games, and distort the priority of players, which should always be learning all aspects of baseball and maximizing their talents. Group 5 wants to be friends with players and are more interested in equal playing time and pleasing everyone on the bench and in the stands. They have little interest in teaching baseball and are worthless in developing baseball skills.
Baseball is a difficult game. What makes it harder is the paucity of top youth coaches. It is such a disservice to take beginning players with no habits and teach them wrong methods that are frequently never corrected. Youth athletes usually unconditionally trust people in positions of authority until the ones in authority breach that trust. We can't let this happen anymore. Our goal is to teach coaching candidates how to excel so they can pass it along to every player they come in contact with and establish themselves as positive role models, a daunting but not impossible task.
DNA Sports specializes in personalized baseball and softball skill programs, college recruiting education and preparation, and coaching clinics. Learn more: http://www.dnasportsonline.com
Dave Rosene - Co-Founder, DNA Sports
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Rosene
==================
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By guest author: Dave Rosene
From my observations, adults involved in American youth baseball programs today generally can be categorized in 5 groups. I hesitate to call them coaches because they are either not qualified or don't spend enough time learning the profession. It is not a weekend position. Coaching is a serious business because you impact the lives of children, and it has to be positive and correct. We have too many situations where kids are getting the wrong advice and instruction, and it always results in inferior play when players play at a higher level. It must be corrected!
There are superb baseball teachers and coaches throughout the United States. All of them have the same qualities: disciplined, well-prepared, understand and communicate baseball strategy and teamwork, and develop individual player skills, and they coach high school, college, or professional baseball. The reasons are financial or competitive, and what youth baseball is left with is people in the aforementioned 5 groups.
Group 1 are ones with self-interest; they want to coach their child. That is to the detriment of the other team members, who usually are neglected or misused. This group type will also try to manipulate to stock the team with players to make their child look better. Youth baseball is about balance and skill development and not winning games. Group 2 have good intentions but are not experienced or skilled enough to help the youth players. In addition to learning from game experience, they must go to reputable coaching clinics and use the various multimedia reference outlets available to them to best develop the athletes. Group 3 teach throwing, fielding, hitting/bunting, and pitching incorrectly because they were poorly taught or not taught at all. Plus they refuse to change and learn, hazardous to skill development. Group 4 cares more about winning than about skill development, team strategy, and teamwork. They cause more harm than any other group because they confuse the youth players on the importance of winning youth games, and distort the priority of players, which should always be learning all aspects of baseball and maximizing their talents. Group 5 wants to be friends with players and are more interested in equal playing time and pleasing everyone on the bench and in the stands. They have little interest in teaching baseball and are worthless in developing baseball skills.
Baseball is a difficult game. What makes it harder is the paucity of top youth coaches. It is such a disservice to take beginning players with no habits and teach them wrong methods that are frequently never corrected. Youth athletes usually unconditionally trust people in positions of authority until the ones in authority breach that trust. We can't let this happen anymore. Our goal is to teach coaching candidates how to excel so they can pass it along to every player they come in contact with and establish themselves as positive role models, a daunting but not impossible task.
DNA Sports specializes in personalized baseball and softball skill programs, college recruiting education and preparation, and coaching clinics. Learn more: http://www.dnasportsonline.com
Dave Rosene - Co-Founder, DNA Sports
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Rosene
==================
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