Hows it going everyone. I’m a college baseball player, a pitcher. I have worked a lot on my mechanics in the past few years and have gained a great deal of velocity, which is kind of besides the point.
The point is, pitching is a very very fast movement, specifically abdominal rotation, and abdominal flexing. Also propelling my body off the mound with my right leg. Than of course last but not least internal rotation of the humeris. Anyway I would like to train to make these motions even faster. I know which muscles are used in these motions and exercises I could do to target all of them, but I don’t know how I would train to try to increase the speed of the motions. Do I train with no resistance and just work on moving as fast as I can, almost like plyometrics; or do I work with light resistance like a small weight or med ball and once again do the motions as fast as I can;
Or do I work with somewhat heavy weight in like a 10-15 rep range and do them fast; or do I do them with really heavy weight say 3-5 rep range and as fast as I can (though that probably won’t be too fast); or do I do some sort of combination of them.
To sum it up, my question is basically about what kind of training do you do if you want to increase the speed of certain movements?
Once again I know exercises I can do to target each, I’m not really a beginner to working out but a beginner to this kind of training, so I’m more lost on what kind of resistance I should use in order to accomplish my goals. I’m also aware that I shouldn’t just focus on agonist movements but also antagonist movements and I plan to.
Sorry if I repeated myself a little here, I just wanted to be as specific as I could be as to what I’m looking for. I hope my rambling is comprehensible lol. Looking forward to hearing your advise. Thanks in advance.
Im no expert in this area by any means, but according to the SAID principle, if you want to get faster…then train faster!
I’d focus in lifting light weights as fast as possible, as well as trying to move heavy weights as fast as possible (even though actual speed wont be fast)
Thanks for the response Forbes. Training fast certainly seem to make the most sense. I was just thinking and maybe someone has this answer for me, how do boxers train to punch?
Not that they are exactly the same, but the motions seem somewhat similar in that they both seem to require a great deal of abdominal rotation speed. Right? Also I’d assume (I’ve never boxed in my life so I completely assume) that their powerful punch originates from the ground, in other words, their legs just like a pitcher.
I also assume that they work to get their fist traveling at the highest velocity they can to make the hardest punch, just like I want to get my hand, even more specifically my arm traveling at the highest velocity I can to make the fastest pitch. On top of all of that, cardio is huge in both boxing and pitching.
In other words I’m thinking that boxing training, atleast as far as abdominal, legs, and cardio (and perhaps other aspects), might be a good way to go? Anyone have an opinion on this?
There is a whole book that could be written about what you are asking about. Actually there are volumes of books.
It is a combination of many factors not the least of which is timing. Timing of your training, timing of the movement etc.
Start with defining your weakest link. Are you as strong as you could be? Does your speed fall behind your strength? Is your system in balance? Do you have injuries.
Net net - you ‘groove’ your body to sport specific movements. The strength of your body allows you to have stronger contractile muscular reactions coupled with a more efficient CNS. Add an efficient movement and as the body adapts you can increase speed(s).
The balancing act happens when part of the movement has stronger components than another part. Repeat the movement often enough or with enough force and you risk damaging the system.
Work on making the entire system stronger in the off season and use your in season time to refine the movements required to make the activity more efficient.
This is a 50,000 foot way of saying make yourself as strong as possible with the time you have when you are not playing your sport. Make sure you work on the things that are neglected by your sport to maintain balance.
If you tune yourself to be too specific too soon you only get trouble. Look at kids as young as 14 getting Tommy John’s surgery.
I understand what your saying, but I have a hard time thinking that just getting as strong as I can overall is going to do it. Here’s the reason I feel this way.
First I look outside baseball, like at people who can jump. Person A might be the highest jumper in the world, so he is probably the guy who can explode off the ground the fastest producing the highest jump. Now person B might be a world class squatter and be able to squat 50 times more weight than person A, but he can’t necessarily jump higher than Person A.
I’m not saying this is a fact, maybe the greatest squatters in the world can push off the ground faster than anyone else and are also the greatest jumpers and visa versa, I’m just thinking that they aren’t from what I can see (I’ve known some skinny skinny kids who could jump incredibly high), if that’s the case, strength can’t necessarily correlate to speed of movement?
I also look at runners, I went to highschool with one of the fastest kids in the country, that kids legs were able to move faster than anyone I’d ever seen. Now I don’t know once again but I don’t believe he had the strongest hip flexors or calves or hamstrings or quads in the school, but he certainly had the fastest.
So I feel like speed and strength can’t be the same thing. Even in baseball you see guys who can throw extremely fast and who are not very strong, Pedro Martinez back in the day, Tim Lincecum, etc… Their movements are extremely fast, but neither are strong at all.
Am I completely off base? If I am please let me know because I’m just guessing entirely but it just seems to make sense to me, that strength and speed are 2 different things and should be trained for in 2 different ways?
So a combination of strength training and movement specific speed work, I guess the action of pitching itself, would be the best solution? Is that what your saying?
[quote]UhHuh wrote:
So a combination of strength training and movement specific speed work, I guess the action of pitching itself, would be the best solution? Is that what your saying? [/quote]
yes, thats what RWElder0 was saying, in a really complicated way lol
[quote]UhHuh wrote:
So a combination of strength training and movement specific speed work, I guess the action of pitching itself, would be the best solution? Is that what your saying? [/quote]
By getting stronger, and hopefully pitching at the same time, you will train your CNS very well.
Plyometrics such as box jumps, and “drop push-ups” wouldn’t be a bad idea either if your strength levels are decent.
In general, for people with average genetics, getting stronger is the best way to get faster in untrained induviduals. Fro there exercises that increase one’s rate of force production are the logical next step.
Thanks bobbeh. Yeah - that’s what I am saying. Read Cressey’s book Maximum strength. Great off season training program to help you when you do in season specifics.