Baseball Training

Baseball Training By Yourself

At first glance, it would seem that there are not a whole lot of things you can do to improve your game on your how.   In actuality, there are a ton of things one can do to get baseball training by yourself.  

1.         Practice your swing daily.   By simply swinging your bat everyday you will develop muscle memory that will result in a stronger and smoother swing. 

2.       Build up your arm speed.    Practice throwing weighted baseballs.    Some should be heavier and lighter than a standard baseball.   This will help increase your arm speed because of polymetric factors. 

3.       Increase your arm strength.   Use a piece of elastic about 3 to 4 feet long or purchase one with a baseball on the end.   This can be used to stretch out your arm and strengthen all the muscles in your throwing arm.   Also, you can periodically throw “long toss” to be able to throw the ball farther.   This is done by throwing the ball at various distances that increase in length as you go.   The ideal is to be testing the limits of your arm strength by the end of the exercise. 

4.       Get stronger for all aspects of baseball.   By starting a weight training program designed for baseball players, you can get increase your arm strength, swinging power, and increase your stamina.    A weight training program can be used at anytime after your 8^th grade year. 

5.       Get a faster bat.   Use a plastic broom and take off the sweeper end and swing it like a bat.   You will be able to swing this more quickly and by incorporating this into your swing routine, you will develop some polymetric effects when you go back to your regular bat. 

6.       Get faster.   Take lessons from a speed coach to develop faster speed.   They will teach you a number of drills to help make your faster.   You can also purchase parachutes and cones to help with this training. 

7.       Get a stronger bat.    Practice hitting a somewhat flat basketball off a batting tee or hitting a tire with your bat.   This will help you develop strength in all the muscles used for hitting a baseball.   One caveat: while hitting the tire, save your best bat for games only and not for hitting the tire with.   It will increase your best bat’s longevity. 

8.       Become more balanced and flexible.   Take tai chi or other martial arts classes, yoga classes, or even ballet.   Do not laugh!   Even football players like Herschel Walker have taken ballet to improve their flexibility.   Improved balance and flexibility will help your batting swing, pitching motion, and increase your stamina by being more resistant to injuries. 

9.         Take baseball lessons.   A good baseball instructor can give you tons of tips and training exercises to improve your game.   By getting lessons from a top instructor, you can start practicing their tips and develop muscle memory.   Then, you can videotape your training and see where you can still improve.   Training works best if you periodically follow-up with your instructor. 

As you can see, you do not have to have a teammate or be at practice to get better. By applying a little time and will power, you will find that baseball training by yourself can be even more effective that training in practice.

*To get some tips on improving your sliding technique, check out Baseball Training Sliding.