Conditioning for Baseball

With winter upon us, it may seem that baseball is far away, but now is the time to start your conditioning program to be ready for the spring! I recommend the Triple Threat Baseball Conditioning Program available on DVD produced by Jeff Fourney (former strength and conditioning coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks). The 3-disc DVD set covers baseball-specific conditioning instruction for competitive baseball players, including the most important physical aspects of baseball...speed, power, and agility:

• Flexibility Training (16 min): covers proper warm up, dynamic and static flexibility drills, and exercises, to help improve full range of motion in baseball skill movements.
• Weight Training (27 min): learn to improve strength with baseball specific weight exercises. Learn proper lifting techniques to excel strength gains. Learn the secret of a strong man s game to help you rise above your competition.
• Medicine Ball Training (20 min): Functional and sport specific movements is what you will find with our Medicine Ball training system. A player who does not possess the specific explosive strength that baseball requires will find it difficult to climb the higher levels of baseball.
• Plyometric Training (16 min): plyometric training bridges the gap between strength and speed to create power.
• Speed Training (40 min): regardless how good your game already is, speed instantly raises it to another level and adds quality to your performance. Learn why the acceleration phase is the most important for a baseball player and how you can improve it to help every area of your game.
• Agility Training (23 min): improve your foot speed and balance. Reaction time and first step speed will improve with these exercises. Learn the mechanics of becoming an explosive base stealer and how to be more explosive out of the batters box to improve home to first base times.
• Advanced Speed and Power Suite Training (42 min): for enhanced take-off and jumps and specific base stealing techniques. Includes some of the most intense workouts from running drills that mimic the manner in which muscles fire and work in hitting, pitching, and all movements in the game.
• Advanced Power Cord Training (30 min): uses drills specific to baseball that apply explosive resistance through a full range of motion.