The off-season is a great time for baseball players to improve their game with speed workouts. Here, we'll focus on building your physical foundation, honing your skills and applying that to what you've learned on the field.
Building Your Foundation
Improving speed and agility requires a combination of strength, power and injury prevention work primarily focused on the hamstrings. You need to be able to exert force against the ground quickly, and to do so in a horizontal direction. If you're (understandably) concerned about shoulder health, you may want to consider substituting Front Squats for Back Squats and performing Lunges, Split Squats, and Step-Ups with the bar on the front of your shoulders.
Best Exercises
- Squats
- Lunges/Split Squats/Step-Ups
- Romanian Deadlifts
- Good Mornings
- Back Raises
- Reverse Hyperextensions
- Power Cleans
- Snatch/Clean Pulls
Honing Your Skills
Taking the time to learn technical skills can help minimize mistakes on the field and save you tenths of a second, which can make a huge difference during both offensive and defensive play.
Best Skills to Master
- Acceleration
- Shuffling
- Crossover Step
- Drop Step
Applying Your Foundation
Once you've spent four to eight weeks building your base, situation-specific drills come into play.
As you do these drills, continue to work on your physical foundation and use the fundamental skills exercises as warm-ups.
Here are some sample off-season workouts. The first is a sample week focused on developing your physical and skill foundation; the second is skill application.
Sample Week 1
Monday
- Squats: 3x4-8@75-85%
- Romanian Deadlifts: 3x4-8
- Dumbbell Bench Press: 3x4-8
- Pull-Ups: 3xMax
- Front/Side/Rear Deltoid Raises (circuit): 3x10 each
- Standing Starts: 3x20 yards
- Shuffle Right/Left: 3x5 yards each direction
Wednesday
- Clean Pulls + Power Cleans: 3x6+3@60-70% of Power Clean
- Snatch Pulls: 3x3-6@60-70% of Power Snatch
- Standing Starts: 3x60 yards
- Cross-Over Step and Sprint 20 yards: 3x each direction
- Shuffle Right/Left + Crossover Step + Sprint 5 yards: 3x each direction
Friday
- Superset: Split Squats: 3x12-15 each leg + Dumbbell Inline Press: 3x12-15
- Superset: Lunges: 3x12-15 each leg + One-Arm Dumbbell Rows: 3x12-15 each arm
- Superset: Good Mornings: 3x12-15 + Front/Side/Rear Deltoid Raises: 3x20 each
- Superset: Reverse Hyperextensions: 3x15-20 + Triceps: 3x12-15
- Biceps: 3x12-15
- Biceps/Triceps: 3x12-15 each
- Cross-Over Step and Sprint 20 yards: 3x each direction
- Shuffle Right/Left + Crossover Step + Sprint 5 yards: 3x each direction
- Drop Step + Sprint 5 yards: 3x
Sample Week 2
Monday
- Squats: 3x2-6@80-90%
- Romanian Deadlifts: 3x2-6
- Dumbbell Bench Press: 3x2-6
- Pull-Ups: 3xMax
- Front/Side/Rear Deltoid Raises (circuit): 3x10 each
- Standing Starts: 3x40 yards
- Double Drill: 5x
- Shuffle Right/Left: 3x5 yards each direction
Wednesday
- Clean Pulls + Power Cleans: 3x6+3@60-70% of Power Clean
- Snatch Pulls: 3x3-6@60-70% of Power Snatch
- Standing Starts: 3x20 yards
- Crossover Step + Sprint 20 yards: 1x each direction
- Shuffle Right/Left + Crossover Step + Sprint 5 yards: 1x each direction
- Base Stealing Drill: 5x
- Get Back to First Drill: 5x
Friday
- Superset: Split Squats: 3x12-15 each leg + Dumbbell Inline Press: 3x12-15
- Superset: Lunges: 3x12-15 each leg + One-Arm Dumbbell Rows: 3x12-15 each arm
- Superset: Good Mornings: 3x12-15 + Front/Side/Rear Deltoid Raises: 3x20 each
- Superset: Reverse Hyperextensions: 3x15-20 + Triceps: 3x12-15
- Biceps: 3x12-15
- Biceps/Triceps: 3x12-15 each
- Crossover Step + Sprint 20 yards: 1x, each direction
- Shuffle Right/Left + Crossover Step + Sprint 5 yards: 1x each direction
- Drop Step + Sprint 5 yards: 3x
- Outfield Drill: 5x
Photo Credit: Getty Images // Thinkstock
