Dominating Your Hitting Prep Time
The most overlooked part of training and games is preparation and warm up. Hitting is one of the most complex and least understood aspects in all of sport combined with a culture of coaching and instruction that is notably more conservative in its methods than most.
My favorite sentiment is “a cheetah or wolf doesn’t warm up to chase prey.” This is correct in the sense that no organized calisthenics are taking place somewhere on the plains of Africa, but a wolf and cheetah actually does prepare and anticipate before attacking prey. They stalk and plan, and during that prep time numerous hormones are being released to help prepare their bodies to prime for attack. I might also add that no wild animals sit for 7 hours in a crappy desk with terrible posture prior to attacking prey. This is survival. Luckily baseball is a luxury and not survival. Tricking ourselves into thinking “survival” would surely improve overall intent, but let’s focus on how we can prepare body and mind to improve performance. This argument is great for the value of general warm-up, but what about priming the body to utilize roughly 640 muscle groups to deliver a 2-pound bat in under .15 seconds to a ball that is moving faster than most cars on your local highway. I think I am still on topic here.
By understanding some basic biomechanics and kinematics, we can prepare our bodies to do damage to baseballs consistently. If we can get our bodies moving fast while also building confidence, what better scenario can there be to start a day of practice or play?
Here are some requirements for hitting and how we can replicate them in a dynamic warm-up specific to hitting:
The swing requires stability on one leg and weight transfer between legs
· Lunging in the sagittal and frontal planes
· Lunging with rotation
· Adding a little bit of balance work
· Favorite exercises:
o “The greatest stretch in the world”
o Lateral mobility lunge with overhead reach
o Glider reach and coil (rear hip)
o Split squat coiled holds
The swing requires optimal hip and ribcage posture
· The spine should have a natural resting set of curves and this should be addressed in a training program if not already
· Adding postural control to the warm up can improve swing posture over time, but is especially great in the youth populations where puberty and growth can affect stability and proprioception
· The hips and thoracic spine need a good starting point to rotate optimally
· Favorite exercises:
o Perfect table pose
o Bent over rotation
o PVC pipe isolated turns with breathing
o Paloff presses in varied stances
Note: The swing requires violent rotation to happen through the hips, spine, and shoulders. Are you preparing the body to rotate fast? Too much static stretching happens at the youth level and not enough athleticism building, stability, and overall movement efficiency during pre-game and pre-practice preparation. The swing is a set of movements and not so much isolated motions. Once a more general prep has taken place, we should add a few exercises that safely promote rotational speed and better swing patterns into the equation.
The swing requires us to be ready to move fast. My favorite swing speed build-ups that promote speed but also better sequencing:
· Hip swings
· Any medicine ball swing or chest pass variation
· Band rotations
The shoulder girdle is vitally important to controlling the barrel and managing the amount of speed and force created by prior segments in the chain of movement.
· Scapular movements during the swing are very similar to scapular movements in the throwing motion
· The shoulders internally and externally rotate during the swing phase
· Severe contraindications through the shoulder regions can cause lack of an ability to path the barrel optimally through the zone (lordosis, stiff shoulders, asymmetry, flat back posture, etc.)
· Often forgotten link in the process of generating bat-speed. The hips are bigger force producers but shoulders also need to be taught to rotate (in sequence) with speed.
· Favorite hitting specific shoulder moves:
o 2 part scap flys
o simple banded rows in lunge position
Are we blending some swing deficiency work into our prep? It’s a great way to make sure we feel our body moving well in a very swing-specific manner.
· Slow motion swings with one or two hands
· Hockey stick turns (split-grip)
· Fungo toss
Can we (do we have time and focus) to prime vision and decision-making skills in our warm up prior to competition? (Check back for a following post on priming vision and decision making prior to competition).
Hopefully you enjoyed this post. Overall, we want to understand how the body works so we can better prepare it to work well under game conditions. Check out the video below for the some information about proper warm up. If you have feedback or are obsessed with hitting like me, holler at me by email or through any of my social media platforms.
Thank you!
Jordan Stouffer, CSCS, BMS
Rounding Third Baseball Performance