Offseason Conditioning That Produces Champions

By: Brad Warnimont - University of Rio Grande (Ohio)

The game of baseball is played in a series of short quick bursts, so as coaches, why not condition athletes in the offseason to enhance those attributes in players. The goal is to turn average players into contributors and good players into great players.

Utilize a lifting program three days a week--Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays
Similarly to many other programs with time and facility limitations, the entire body can be worked in these three days. On alternate days, Monday and Wednesday, the agility program is used. Split the entire squad into two groups and work for one-half hour. In agility workouts, use many exercises that improve players' reaction time, power and explosion.

Two workouts are recommended
The first workout is a station workout, and the second workout is a stairwell workout accompanied with plyometrics. In the station workout, the players exercise at each station for one minute (2 to 30 second sets). In between each station, the players run a backward lap on the track. The stations are as follows:

Two laps in 25 seconds each (track 1/11 of a mile)
Medicine ball abdominal work - 10 pounds. Two players back-to-back passing the ball over head (one set) and waist high (one set)
One legged dot-to-dot (both legs)
Jump rope
Reverse curls - wrist rolls with straight bar
Mountain climbers
Plyometrics - 12 inches, 24 inches, 36 inches only (one set on top, one set up and over)
Two-legged dot-to-dot (both feet each spot)
Throw-downs (abdominals)
One-legged half squats
Lateral hops over a 12-inch cone
Step ups - 24 inches
Side crunches with 10-pound medicine ball
NOTE: In the complete workout, run over a mile backwards.

The Stairwell Workout is as Follows:

Two-feet bunny hop every step, two times.
Two-feet bunny hop two steps, two times.
Two-feet bunny hop three steps, two times.
Two-feet bunny hop four steps, two times.
Two-feet bunny hop as many as possible, two times.
One-legged hop alternate legs, two times.
One-legged hop two steps alternate legs, two times.
One-legged hop three steps alternate legs, two times.
HOP up three steps, down two steps.
HOP up two steps, down one step.
Sit ups 15 second sets for three minutes.

PLYOMETRICS:
Box Height - 12 inches, 24 inches, 36 inches, 48 inches, 54 inches.

Workout - six times through, jumping on top of boxes and six times jumping up and over the boxes. The boxes are placed three feet apart.