At every level, baseball training revolves around strength, speed, agility and flexibility training. An effective baseball strength training program is designed to significantly improve your performance and NOT about bulking up! The fact is a baseball player has very little external forces acting upon them. This means you should not be training like a football player because you will never have a 270lbs opponent trying to rip you head off on the field and tackle you to the ground.

Too much size can reduce your range of motion, restrict your quickness and agility and hamper your execution of skills. Strength training for baseball is very different from a contact sport like football. The main priority for baseball players is to develop maximal strength and then convert those gains into explosive power, in particular hitting and throwing power, as well as acceleration. It's important to remember that bigger muscles are not necessarily more powerful muscles.

Another concern when working with any over-head sport (pitchers, tennis players, quarterbacks) is the Glenohumeral joint (commonly known as the shoulder joint). Coaches and players know that shoulder injuries are a particular concern in baseball. Pitching (the overhand throw in particular) places an inordinate amount of stress on the shoulder complex. While strength and conditioning can help to prevent such injuries, traditional weight lifting exercises may not be suitable in targeting the correct muscles or the correct movement patterns. Fortunately special exercises can be easily adopted into a baseball training program which will help to significantly reduce the risk of overuse damage.

At Van Hook Sports we will design a program that will take into account all the specific demands of your position on the field. If you would like set up an appointment please feel free contact us with any questions you have. info@vanhooktraining.com