For now we will skip the weekly drills segment of our blog, that was supposed to take place on Tuesday, because of the great articles I found for youth hitting yesterday, if you have not read it check it out, and the relevant blog that I found for today by David Keesee. Keesee, who has been referred to on this blog before, recently wrote a blog entitled Baseball Training Strategy and the Effect of Lack of It. While Keesee believes that there should never be a time when a player does not train, this tactic may be impractical for those high school athletes that play basketball and/or football. However, for these individuals, Keesee makes some suggestions that will keep the rust off players from the long offseason.
Here are the direct ideas that Keesee suggests that players may implement in a minimal amount of time to effectively stay sharp, if they are unable to train all the time as Keesee recommends:
- Hitters- keep in touch with your swing and your eye for the ball by doing little quick drills like swinging at sunflower seeds, swing at a branch on a bush or doing some of the eye drills I provide for you on the website.
- Pitchers- Get a couple of sprints in, play a little bit of catch to keep the arm loose or study what major league pitchers strategies are against hitters.
- Infield/Outfielders/Catchers- Play a little catch now and then, get your workouts and training in (even if its light), watch major league games.
The benefits of Keesee’s suggestions are that they are position specific and allow players to stay sharp in simple ways. However, the often-overlooked aspect of baseball and sports in general that Keesee emphasizes is the learning aspect. The best coaches and players at every level will tell you that they learn something new every day about baseball, that they never new before. If you cannot train year round for baseball read a book about baseball, watch a re-run of an old game, or read articles about baseball online: like this blog maybe? You will be surprised how much you can learn.
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