Today, I’m going to go over several baseball training drills that will help your players become conditioned to be the best they can be out on the field.
Linear and Lateral Skips
This drill focuses on linear and lateral skips with a change of direction. We’re going to use a five-yard distance.
Start with straight-ahead and backward. Skip straight ahead, pulling the knee up, heel up, toe up. Focus on keeping a good, solid core.
At five yards, push and come backwards. Push away from the direction you want to go. The skipping rhythm forces athletes to step down to the ground.
Now you’ll go lateral. Start by skipping in place so you get the skipping rhythm. Simply push away from the direction you want to go. Widen out your base of support.
The knees come up in front of the body, toes up toward the shin so we’re in a power position to step down and push away. Your core should stay solid–suck in the belly button, tuck in the back.
After this, do the same drill, skipping with a change of direction, except the coach will tell the player when to change direction.
Down-Ups
During this baseball training drill, you’ll use a box.
From the top of the box, drop down, jump right back up onto the box. This puts the stretch, or the loading phase, into the muscles. It’s not jump up then down; it’s down up. Stretch and explode.
Three sets of 10 will do great for this drill.
Runs
Now your players will do runs with the box. Put one foot on top of the box, one foot on the ground. Basically, switch feet. Get the running rhythm, bounce and pop off the ground. Just touch the box; don’t put weight on it.
Count your right leg 10 times. That would be one set. Do three sets.
Side to Sides
This baseball training drill is again using a box. Place one foot in the middle of the box and simply work laterally, side to side as you touch the box.
We’re looking for the weight to be on the outside leg. We want to get great cutting and change of direction out of this drill.
Multiple Boxes
We can vary different heights or we can have the same size box.
Basically what we want is that quick response off the ground. When my team does this baseball training drill, we finish with our highest box to get one big explosive jump at the end.
Use both feet at the same time. Remember to keep your core stable–suck in your belly button, tuck in the back. That helps deliver more force to the ground for better speed and quickness.
Next, go single leg. You’ve got to work to have body control with this one. Bounce off the ground. Lift your heel up.
We’ve got to make sure you’re safe in your training. Remind your players not to hook any toes on the edge of those boxes or they’ll scrape a shin.
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