Today’s focus for [tag]little league baseball tips[/tag] is the lower abdominals. The previous posting we worked on the upper abdominals. We round it out by combining the two and getting good overall workout for upper and lower abs. This will help every player to get into better shape and provide better strength for any position they play.
To work the lower abdominal muscles, teach your [tag]baseball[/tag] players to do reverse crunches. This is where your athletes lie on their backs with their hands behind their heads. They lift their legs in the air, bent at a 90 degree angle. The ankles can be crossed or uncrossed. Instead of lifting the shoulders off the ground, athletes lift their hips off the floor. As a [tag]coach[/tag], you need to watch that athletes’ shoulders stay on the ground. Tell them that they need to use only their abdominal muscles instead of helping with their leg muscles. This move should be slow and controlled. It is easy to let it get out of control and turn the move into a swinging motion. This reduces the work put on the muscles and makes it more a movement of momentum instead of strength. Athletes should do 3 sets of 15 of these moves.
To get a true work-out of both the upper and lower abdominals, athletes should do a double crunch. This is done when athletes curl both their shoulders and their hips off the floor at the same time. Coaches should watch that athletes do not curl their backs in an effort to touch their elbows to their knees. The movement should be controlled, stopping at the top to hold the muscles contracted for an extra moment. Again, athletes should do 3 sets of 15 of this move.