With the baseball season right around the corner for college baseball players, it’s that time of year where the primary emphasis becomes speed and power development.
We spent a lot of time in the previous phases enhancing movement quality (that’s always the goal first and foremost), maximal strength, force output, and sprinkled in sprints, plyometrics, agility work, medicine ball work, and various other forms of speed and power development.
Every phase has a specific goal we’re chasing to elicit an adaptation. With that, we want a seamless and smooth transition from one training phase into the next training phase that builds upon each other and better prepares the athlete for what is coming.
Every phase is meant to bring us closer to the season with the goal of maximizing the athletes on field performance by replicating specific movement patterns, speeds, loads, and demands the athlete will encounter on the playing field. This means we need to fully prepare the athlete for the stressors, forces, work capacity demands they will encounter for a season that can be drawn out for as long as 6-8 months. That leaves us with 4-6 months to optimize physical preparation and the athletic qualities we want to build to enhance athletic performance, keep them healthy, and on the playing field.
At this stage in the off-season, most college athletes are working on peaking in performance qualities prior to going into pre-season mode where they will be faced with more overall workload in the form of daily hitting, throwing, fielding, and sprinting. We do our best to not only prepare them for these demands, but to build resilience, durability, and sustainability in the process.
The approach is to individualize and personalize the athletes’ goals, needs, and desires to build a more well-rounded athlete who is capable of going out and performing to the best of their abilities for the long haul.
