Top 6 Ways To Build Power For Baseball — 5 Tool Sports Science (2024)

Power is the name of the game in baseball. That is why your training approach to build power is extremely important to your development as a baseball player. This is the bread & butter of our programming. Want to know a secret? The vast majority of our testimonials were built through the weight room. Why? It’s not rocket science! Most athletes that want to perform at a higher level lack the power to perform at that level. Period. Most people think it’s just some “unlock” they need in their mechanics, but the reality is their current horsepower capabilities are nowhere near where they need to be. The irony is that their lack of power production is keeping them from their mechanical breakthrough. In other words, they want to race against Lamborghinis, but their bodies are Toyota Prius’s! If you need to build power there is no other way to do it then with strength & conditioning and nutrition. It basically comes down to this: strength & conditioning, mobility/movement training, biomechanics training and nutrition is how you build an explosive baseball athlete. Your training should not only build more power through your kinetic chain, it should also bulletproof your body to minimize your risk of injury. The gym is a controlled environment to enhance yourself as an athlete, but also improve your movement quality. Your movement in the weight room translates to movement on the field. Basically, if you’re bad at moving in the weight room, you'‘re probably bad at moving on the field. Here are the top ways we use strength & conditioning at 5 Tool Sports Science to build bigger, faster, stronger and more resilient baseball athletes. They are in no particular order because they are each a system of systems, meant to be used together in a periodized program to enhance performance.

Strength Training

Strength training in this case is building strength through traditional lifts like the back squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, lunges etc. Our goal is to build a base of strength of 2x bodyweight in the squat/deadlift. Strength is the backbone to an explosive athlete, but it is not the end all be all. Strength training tends to be slower movements that allow your body to produce as much force as possible over a long duration of time. For example, a 1 rep max in the back squat could take 3-4 seconds to complete the lift. The body uses all of that time to muster all the force it possibly can. However, activities in baseball like a swing, pitch or sprint require the body to produce force at key times in .1-.2 seconds. So, the body needs to be able to produce as much force as possible in very little time. This is why you can’t just focus on strength. Strength is the back bone to power production and a key ingredient, but you need to be good at rapidly tapping into that strength.

“Heavy resistance training uses a relatively heavy load (.80% of 1RM) and is performed with a relatively slow velocity because of a large external resistance that must be overcome. This method has been reported to increase maximum muscular strength and to result in enhanced muscular power or dynamic performance.” - The optimal training load for the development of muscular power. (1)

Plyometrics

Plyometrics are jumps, bounds, hopping etc. and they are used to improve power output and increase explosiveness. As a stand alone training method their effect is minimal, but when combined with strength training they produce some very good results. They utilize the stretch shortening cycle (eccentric, isometric, concentric), help bridge the gap between speed and strength, increase rate of force development, improve reactive strength, and help athletes improve the efficiency of explosive movements. Plyometrics are quick explosive movements that allow you to train your body to rapidly tap into the strength you have built through strength training. For baseball players this means quicker and more explosive movement while hitting, running, throwing and fielding.

“With reasonable confidence, it can be said that parallel squats are conducive to the development of hip and thigh strength, while the simultaneous application of plyometrics permits effective use of this strength to produce explosiveness in sports or events demanding speed and quickness. In other words, the role of plyometrics is to facilitate the neuromuscular system into making a more rapid transition from eccentric to concentric contraction, whereby maximal ballistic force is generated. This leads support to the theories of Gambetta, O’Shea, and Yessis and Hatfield, who believe that plyometric training is the link between speed and strength” - The effect of six weeks of squat, plyometric and squat-plyometric training on power production. (2)

Olympic Lifts

Olympic lifts are some of the best lifts to develop power for baseball and they are a staple in our programming. They get a bad rap in baseball, but checkout my article here where we debunk a lot of the myths about olympic lifting in baseball. They are another great way to enhance your ability to tap into your strength. The result is improved athletic ability in jumping, running and throwing. If you are serious about developing freakish horsepower, olympic lifts should be a big piece of your programming.

“Because of the potential of these lifts to produce high-power outputs and their movement and velocity-specicities to many sport
activities (e.g., jumping,running, throwing), Olympic-style lifts are considered as some of the best training exercises to maximize dynamic athletic performance.” - The optimal training load for the development of muscular power. (1)

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Velocity Based Training

Velocity based training is using Linear Position Transducers to measure the mean concentric velocity or peak concentric velocity of a lift. You attach a cord to the barbell and it will display on a monitor the velocity of the barbell during the lift. Generally, you will use mean concentric velocity for lifts like a squat, bench press, deadlift and peak concentric velocity for higher velocity movements like jump squats, power clean, medicine ball drills or plyometrics. This is a very effective way to enhance power! It allows the athlete to compete with himself each rep to produce maximum effort and allows the coach to collect data and track improvements. If you have the means to use this technology I highly recommend it.

Training with the intention to move the load with the highest effort is believed to drive adaptations to training and is important during strength training designed to improve power output regardless of contraction type, load or actual/absolute movement velocity of the exercises. A number of thorough reviews of the relevant literature have been presented by different authors and it is suggested that there is also a velocity specific response to training. Velocity specific improvements in strength and power are more likely elicited by utilizing that actual movement velocity in training. Therefore the intention to move the load with the highest effort and the actual movement velocity are both vital stimuli required to drive and optimize adaptation. Linear position transducers can assist coaches and athletes in achieving both of these training goals. Regardless of the load being lifted, LPTs provide athletes with immediate feedback on actual movement velocity, which can help encourage them to attempt to express maximal effort. The direct measurement of velocity also allows coaches to optimize and monitor velocity specific training. It has also been shown that providing immediate real-time performance feedback (such as peak velocity) for jump squats yields higher consistency between sessions and greater adaptation and larger training effects to non-feedback training. - Researched applications of velocity based strength training. (3)

Ballistic Medicine Ball

Medicine ball training, which can be described as both ballistic and plyometric, allows baseball players to mimic the powerful, sequential, and rotational actions (e.g., hitting, throwing) that occur during a game. They allow you to get more sports specific while working on transferring power through the kinetic chain. Research has shown that they help improve throwing velocity, bat speed, better timing of the kinetic chain in both hitting and throwing, enhanced proprioception and coordination through all 3 planes (frontal, sagittal, and transverse) of human movement.

“Medicine ball training has several advantages: it is inexpensive; allows a wide variety of exercises to be performed sport specifically; allows athletes to strengthen the muscles of the torso in all 3 planes (frontal, sagittal, and transverse) of human movement; and develops sequential, explosive, rotational strength that mimic specific movement patterns. Additional- ly, medicine ball performance tests can provide strength and baseball coaches with a means of evaluating the effectiveness of their strength training program. Finally, the medicine ball hitter’s throw test used in this study appears to be a reliable and valid method of assessing sequential hip-torso-arm rotational strength, which directly applies to the sport specific movements of hitting and throwing a baseball.” - Effect of twelve weeks of medicine ball training on high school baseball players. (4)

Sprint & Agility

Sprint and agility work is vital to enhance dynamic athletic performance in baseball. It is another form of training to help bridge the gap between speed and strength, but it is also sport specific. Studies show free sprints, resisted sprints and agility training directly correlate to improvements in acceleration, maximal sprint speed, short area quickness (agility) and overall explosive leg power. All of which are vital for elite defense, baserunning, throwing and hitting.

“The findings of this research indicate that sprint running also can be used effectively as a training method for improving explosive leg power and dynamic athletic performance. Therefore, in addition to the well-known training methods such as resistance training and plyometric training, strength and conditioning professionals may well incorporate sprint training into an overall conditioning program of athletes striving to achieve a high level of explosive leg power and dynamic athletic performance.” - Effects of sprint and plyometric training on muscle function and athletic performance. (5)

So, there you have it! The Top 6 ways to build power in baseball. We use all of these methods in a periodized program to develop faster throwing velocities, sprint speeds and swing velocities. Strength and conditioning is the bread and butter of our programming. Make sure you are utilizing each of these techniques to get the most out of your training. If you want to learn more please follow us on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,) @stevenguadagni (Youtube) @5toolsportsscience and feel free to send in video of your pitching or hitting mechanics for a free analysis. If you want to train with us we have several options. Come down for Long Term Training at our facility, Remote 1 on 1 Online Training from home or The 5 Tool Prospect Manual and Nutrition Manual. Learn how to optimize your mechanics and perform at the highest level possible! Hope you guys enjoyed the article. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

References

1. Kawamori, Naoki, and G. Gregory Haff. “The optimal training load for the development of muscular power.” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 18.3 (2004): 675-684.

2. Adams, Kent, et al. “The effect of six weeks of squat, plyometric and squat-plyometric train- ing on power production.” Journal of applied sport science research 6.1 (1992): 36-41.

3. Jovanović, Mladen, and Eamonn P. Flanagan. "Researched applications of velocity based strength training." J Aust Strength Cond 22.2 (2014): 58-69.

4. Szymanski, David J., et al. “Effect of twelve weeks of medicine ball training on high school baseball players.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 21.3 (2007): 894.

5. Markovic, Goran, et al. “Effects of sprint and plyometric training on muscle function and athletic performance.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 21.2 (2007): 543.