Baseball Training Topic #2
Speed Camp? Conditioning Classes? Weight Training? When is it OK for Young Athletes to Start Properly Training and Why They Should
The Delicate Balance of Youth Training and Safety
Baseball players from T-Ball to the professional levels all train at Dream Big Athletics. Coaching at any age requires attention paid to each of the athletes’ needs individually. It has been proven time and time again that properly designed weight training programs increase strength and help decrease risk of injury. So…When do athletes need to start training to gain strength and improve their overall athletic performance?
When Is It Time to Gain Strength?
Typically speaking, athletes will begin to need to add strength as their bodies begin to change from children into adolescents. We all know and hear of the stories of the kids who go from 5’4 to 6’1 in a year- they often struggle with coordination, knee pain, back pain and are often told by doctors that they “could add some body weight to their frame”. The many forms of resistance training can help address all of these areas with young athletes as they grow into teenagers:
• Increasing leg strength through exercises like walking lunges and bodyweight squats can help athletes create stability around the knee that can help alleviate pain and discomfort as well as guard from serious knee injury.
• Relative strength improvements (strength in comparison to the athlete’s bodyweight) will greatly help an athlete improve their coordination and overall movement function such as running, swinging a bat, or throwing a ball.
• Strength through large ranges of motion will help improve mobility, a big factor in alleviating back, hip and shoulder pain.
• Improved scapular mobility and shoulder stability through exercises like band pull-aparts and rows are crucial in keeping the shoulders healthy amidst the demands of throwing a baseball.
• Adding muscular size through weight training, paired with proper sleep and nutrition habits help build muscle mass and improve body composition (lean tissue vs. fat tissue).
Before this “growth” phase, athletes can see improvements in strength and coordination, but it should be known that these improvements are almost entirely due to neural (nervous system) adaptations. This means that the brain to muscle connection has improved, but muscle size may not be drastically increased. Muscle size and strength adaptations really will not start to happen until puberty, as larger amounts of Testosterone and Growth Hormone are introduced to the muscles as children grow into teenagers and young adults, both of which greatly contribute to increases in muscle size and strength naturally.
How to Implement a Strength Program for Youth Athletes: Teach Movement Patterns FIRST
I cannot stress enough how important it is to first perfect basic movements before adding resistance. No athlete is ever too young to learn how to move properly! Here are some of movements that we use at Dream Big Athletics in our training sessions that should be taught to young athletes through basic bodyweight and band exercises:
- Bodyweight Squat: Heels must stay in contact with the floor. Knees should not cave in or flare forward beyond the toes. Focus on proper hip hinge (push the butt back) and make sure the thighs get to parallel with the ground. Keep the torso in and upright position. Once athletes can do this easily, they can add weight with the Goblet Squat.
- Lunge: Similar to above, make sure the knee does not cave in at all. Do not add weight until doing 10–12 perfect reps is too easy for them.
- Push-up: Many, many kids claim they can do 20 push-ups without really being able to do one full rep from the floor. 5 elevated push-ups or kneeling push-ups going through a full range of motion are far more beneficial than 20 half push-ups. I also like to program slow eccentric (5–6 seconds controlled on the way down) instead of concentric push-ups for young athletes who struggle with doing them normally.
- Scapular retraction: for those of you unfortunate enough to have a child with a shoulder injury, you should know how valuable this is to train. Take a look at any shoulder rehabilitation or physical therapy session, and it will likely have some sort of exercise were an athlete must pull against resistance. Going through a full range of motion pulling bands or light weights keeps the shoulders strong and healthy on a much longer term. These exercises can be done at any age and should be done on a consistent basis as rehab for a sore shoulder or to keep the shoulder from becoming injured in the future — especially given the great throwing demands that baseball players have.
Be in the Right Mindset
This cannot be understated- you must know why you are implementing whatever training methods you’re doing (or not doing) and see value in its application.
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Wrong Mindset: My Kid is Behind; He Needs to Catch Up.
Never rush the process of training or athletic development. All athletes, young or old, must first master basic movements before graduating to movements with resistance. You also cannot rush the process of puberty. As stated before, high levels of muscular growth happen on Mother Nature’s watch, not just because you’re lifting weights.
Wrong Mindset: My Kid Needs to Get Ahead of the Pack.
On the surface, this mentality does have benefits. Athletes with big goals of playing in Major League Baseball has got to be one of the coolest things ever. Over-zealous parents forcing that idea on their kids is not, especially if the player does not have the same intentions. The desire should come initially and primarily from the athlete, not the parents. Parental support is incredibly valued and needed during the difficult developmental process of baseball with young athletes, yet no one in the MLB got there simply because mom and dad wanted them to.
Wrong Mindset: No Lifting Until High School, If You Lift Before Then You’ll Stunt Your Growth or Get Hurt.
There is more than enough research out there to prove both of those reasons to be untrue. The problem here lies in the lack of understanding of the high value that a properly tailored training program can provide to an athlete of any age, and this attitude will ultimately stymie their kid’s development. At Dream Big Athletics, we have had baseball players over the years begin training protocols with us after years of neglecting the opportunities to train properly — beginning programs after their Sophomore year summer and unfortunately not taking advantage of the previous past 5 years!!! Unfortunately, many athletes in this case end up having to play “catch up” without any sort of foundational strength to their surrounding the joints (likely leading to issues in the knees or shoulders). This makes it a very difficult process initially with training.
Right Mindset: My Kid Wants to Start Weight Training.
When a young athlete wants to begin weight training, they will be taking their athletic abilities to the next level and bridging the gap among their competition! Strength and conditioning is an essential part of any sport, and when done correctly, athletes do improve their performances on and off the field!
Right Mindset: My Kid has been Injured in the Past and Needs to Start Weight Training.
This mindset truly does see value in what a properly designed strength and conditioning program can do for a young athlete as far as keeping them strong and healthy, or getting them back up to full strength. They understand that if their kid keeps pounding their joints in their sport without anything to absorb the force, they will probably be revisiting the doctor. Often times doctors or physical therapists will be prescribing resistance training after injuries consequently anyways. Injuries are pretty unavoidable over the landscape of an athlete’s career, but they are far more difficult to recover from if they occur continuously in the college recruiting years because of failure to properly train during the ages of 13, 14, and 15 years old.
Right Mindset: Strength and Conditioning is 100% Essential for Baseball Players of All Ages, and this is the Direction of Baseball for the Future.
With batting exit velocities and fastballs travelling over 100 mph much more frequently than in years past, this is a trend that is here to stay, and will only continue to get better and better for ALL baseball players. This mindset is incredibly positive and forward thinking, as individuals understand the long-term approach and process to having a successful, healthy career in baseball. Simply put, just turn on your favorite Major League Baseball Team and evaluate the sizes and performances of some of those athletes. For many of them, it has taken many years of playing AND proper training to have the physical prowess and ability to compete at the highest level of baseball. Tailoring developmental programs to strive for those performances will continually be goals of Dream Big Athletics Staff and the athletes we have the luxury of working with.
Conclusion
Inquiries in beginning baseball specific strength and conditioning programs generally start when the athletes are ages 12 or 13. This is a nice age to start with basic movement pattern training- training bodyweight and light weight exercises through full ranges of motion to help improve stability and coordination. Athletes usually begin to hit puberty within a year or two after this period anyway, so it goes hand-in-hand with natural development of the body as they grow. Weight training is great for any age and sport, coupled with the proper mindsets and guidance to ensure all the movements are done safely and effectively.
This article was written by Dream Big Athletics Head Strength and Conditioning Coach and Lead Professional Baseball Instructor Bill Miller, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS).
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