Baseball Opinion

Planning your high school football workouts can be very difficult. There are literally thousands of exercises to choose from, so, how do you know which to use? Aside from the basics like Squats, Deadlifts and Bench Press, how do you choose?

Well, you need to select the exercises that are best for making your stronger and faster on the football field. Your football workouts should ALWAYS strive to make you stronger, which, in turn, makes you faster.
The Power Clean

I realize that not including the Power Clean in an article about football training of any kind is a right bit of sacrilege, but, they simply weren’t in the top 9. I am not, however, anti-Power Clean. In fact, if used correctly, they can add a few slabs of muscle on the upper back and traps and increase explosiveness.
However, two things need to be taken into account:

1. Can the Coach actually teach them?

2. Where and how will you place the exercise?

Now, the Power Clean is NOT that complicated. It’s just not. Anyone with half decent athletic abilities will be able to pick it up quickly. The bigger problem is, many guys just have no idea how to teach them. I suggest either taking the USAW Club Coach or Sports Certification course (you’ll learn a lot, even if you’re pretty experienced), finding an Olympic Lifter to teach you, or, getting Jim Schmits’ Olympic Lifting Manual and DVD.

Once you know how to teach it, it will only take a session, max, to have an athlete learn how to do them.

Second, where and how do you use the Power Clean to help increase speed and explosiveness.

There are steps to perfecting a baseball bat swing and you first need to start at the beginning. You need to know how to start your swing so you can hit the ball as good as possible. It is as the start of your swing that you begin to generate power that can push your ball way into the outfield.

The trigger action is really crucial for your baseball bat swing. This aspect of hitting determines the power of your swing and how far the ball will travel. Since you at least want to get a base hit while you’re at bat, practicing your trigger regularly will improve your batting average.

During the trigger, your weight and power are transferred from the front, then to the back, and to the front again, all in a very short time. This is the building of momentum that transfers from the bat to the ball.

The trigger mechanism is so important because it prepares you for any pitch that is thrown. It starts your baseball bat swing early so you can be ready for the fastball. It also allows you to be prepared so you can wait for the curveball.

Players use different parts of their body to shift their weight, including their legs, feet and hands. It doesn’t really matter what you use, as long as your weight is shifted forward at the point that you swing the bat. So, you must build up the power before the ball reaches the hitting zone. This will take a lot of practice to calculate the right timing, but once you master it, it will be second nature to you.