Sport-specific Training Regimens - Post Yours!

[kyleb]

delta k apparently played for one of the amateur teams I was on in Seattle not long ago, and inspired me to post my training logs in hopes of finding out what everyone else does to get ready for their sports.

Post-Season (Right after the regular season)

Cardio: Lots of elliptical trainer work
Arm Care: Primarily bicep curls, forearm stretching, arm circles with low weights, cable pull-downs
Lifting: Squat/Deadlift/Clean 5x5 regimen, hanging leg-raises, cable cross rotation
Throwing: Long toss, mechanics work, sporadic bullpen sessions (mainly focusing on refining the secondary pitches)

Pre-season (4-8 weeks before opening day)

Cardio: Primary focus is on wind sprints, though I run 2-3 miles 2x a week and swim 1 mile 1x week - trying to lean down for the season
Arm Care: Cable pull-downs, focus on flexibility and endurance
Lifting: Squat/Deadlift/Clean with lower weights, focusing on endurance programs and circuits
Throwing: Heavy bullpen sessions, batting practice, refining the mechanics and location of fastball (very few secondary pitch work except for changeup grip familiarity)

Spring Training (1-4 weeks before opening day)

Cardio: Wind sprints, wind sprints, and more sprints. Baserunning drills. Pitcher fielding practice.
Arm Care: Take it easy on the arm, light curls, bench, incorporating the whole body into my arm-specific workouts
Lifting: Less heavy programs (i.e. 5x5), more full body endurance and flexibility work - focus mainly on the core
Throwing: Mainly heavy exhaustive bullpen sessions, main focus is on setting up batters and utilizing secondary pitches to maximum effect. Play a ton of "first to 20" drills with my BP partner. Air it out once a week with long toss for endurance.

Things I do all year:

Fielding Practice: Take grounders at shortstop, fungoes from center field, pickoff moves (the new 3-2 pickoff move, 3-1, simple 2nd/1st pickoffs), work on staying low and getting a quicker release out of the glove.
Batting Practice: Hit the [censored] ball to right-center and punish myself everytime I pull a baseball that isn't middle-in. I have to work on staying inside the baseball and just going away with it, because I am badly fooled on outside soft stuff.
Classroom Work: Study MLB pitchers via video and photo stills, analyze my mechanics, listen and watch CD/DVDs from Dick Mills / Tom House / Mike Marshall, read various nutrition and exercise books, watch tons of baseball.

I'm sure there's more, but that's about it for now. Your turn! [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Hottentott]

Impressive, which type of league do you play in?

[kyleb]

[ QUOTE ]
Impressive, which type of league do you play in?

[/ QUOTE ]

A fairly big (6 divisions, 8-12 teams per division, 15 players per team) league that encompasses everyone from the should-be softball player to the ex-Triple A player.

[delta k]

Kyle, I missed this post the first time around so I'm glad I found it now.

I've never really followed a lifting program too seriously, and when I do it's for general strength rather than sport specific because I'm just not that knowledgeable. So I'd generally stop lifting heavy a month or so my season started and do more of the stuff you mentioned- light weights, bike, sprints, and some longer 20-30 minute jogs. And lots of leg work- stretching, wall sits, lunges, squats, etc.

Because I'm from Minnesota it's pretty tough to get out and throw a lot before the weather warms up, especially long toss, so I try to get my arm is as good of shape as I can from some stretches and lots of rubber band work. I throw a lot at the distance I can, about the size of a smallish/average gym, but I don't really spend time 'pitching' because, at least for me, I can't get 'serious' about pitching until I'm on grass and a real mound- sessions in the gym on a fake plastic mound in tennis shoes never worked well so I focused on just throwing and getting my arm ready to take advantage of the few days we'd have outside before the season started.

Story from that is we'd go to Florida to play in touraments over spring break each year and get creamed by teams who were in mid-season shape, because it was our first time being outside and 6 months. Not a great moral booster, that's for sure.

I never really took groundballs/flyballs in the gym either (how can you really?) so a lot of emphasis was placed on footwork and mechanics- simple drills about releasing the ball, getting it high, etc.

One thing the gym is good for is taking cuts. In the cage v a human, v a machine. Full swings on the tee, top hand, bottom hand, with the lower body already rotated, with no lower body, with no arms, etc. We'd cut up pieces of a garden hose and throw those since they were smaller and had some pretty wicked movement, and we could hit them all over the gym without fear of breaking anything or hurting anyone.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I've contributed (besides the obvious of reminding those with good weather year round how lucky they are) but hopefully someone gets something out of this thread and at the very least consider this a bump for some others to add their sport-specific training regimens.

[1C5]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Impressive, which type of league do you play in?

[/ QUOTE ]

A fairly big (6 divisions, 8-12 teams per division, 15 players per team) league that encompasses everyone from the should-be softball player to the ex-Triple A player.

[/ QUOTE ]

In this league, what % of people take training and working out and eating as seriously as you?

I am guessing .001%.

[kyleb]

[ QUOTE ]
In this league, what % of people take training and working out and eating as seriously as you?

I am guessing .001%.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a pretty good question. I would have to say in the upper division that the number is close to 50%, because most of them are ex-pros or current semi-pros on rehab assignments. In the lower divisions, the answer is literally 0%.

I could be playing in the upper division since (brag alert) I hit .390/.460/.450 last year while at 2b and LF, but I am playing in one of the lower divisions so I can pitch.

Today's workout felt real, real good.