2020-2021 Off-Season Training Review
2020-2021 Off-Season Training Review
Well, it was a roller coaster off-season for people all across the country. Different from any other year, we all had to deal with interrupted shut downs, stay at homes, and rely more on communication than ever.
This short blog is to wrap up some of our training from this off-season with athletes ages 13-18 which ran from December until mid-March!
Goals:
Get every athlete an assessment and intro to training
Explain reasoning for specific drills (belt, weighted balls, med balls, long toss, etc.)
Set a plan, discuss each player goals
Build better movers from the ground up
Follow a structured weight training plan during throwing shut down and progress into more specific training during on-ramp and velocity stages
Follow a 5 week on-ramping for all throwers
3-4 week velocity stage depending on level of athlete, results, attendance.
3-4 week blending stage - mound, bullpens, etc.
On Ramping:
Our 5 week on-ramping program consists of a steady increase of volume and intensity in throwing throughout each week. By the end of the 5 weeks, they will have 6 long toss (or similar) throw days and build up to 100% intensity with plyocare throws. Early on there are more days off and lower intensities. By week 3, we are throwing 4 to 5 days a week with 1-2 of those being light/recovery days.
We begin with overload training in the first week and low volume in catch play. We use Driveline plyocare balls for some specific drills including Reverse Throws, Upward Toss, Pivot Picks, Walk Aways, Closed 45’s, Catch to Throw, and more.
We add volume in plyocare and catch play throughout the 5 weeks. Each athlete is to communicate arm readiness, soreness, and how each day feels in our Daily Readiness Questionnaire.
By the end of on-ramping, throwers should not be “sore” from a long toss day. Following the on-ramp we progress to baseline velocity testing.
Athletic/Strength Baseline testing
We test the following things within the first 4 weeks of training to get a baseline breakdown for each athlete.
Grip Test
Body Weight
Lateral Bounds
Broad Jump
Vertical Jump
Trap Bar Deadlift OR Sumo Deadlift (3 rep)
Reverse Lunge (3 rep)
Medicine Ball Run N Gun (6LB)
Medicine Ball Positional (6LB)
These testings gave us a base foundation of power output, strength, rotational power, and more. Once we knew what each athlete’s “engine” was, we could create programming and attack deficiencies over the next several weeks. The goal was to re-test in the middle and end of the program to see growth in each aspect.
Velocity Baseline Testing:
After the on-ramping program, the first two things we test are pulldowns and plyocare velocities. How much and types of plyocare velocities depend on age and skill set.
Pulldowns are an advanced move with a running start that challenge the athlete to self-organize and “pull the ball down”. Day 1 is 5 throws at 100% after warm-ups. We take average and peak. From here, we want to see the average climb and be mindful of each day’s peak. Pulldown testing is only 1 day a week followed by recovery days.
Plyocare Velocity testing is on mound for pitchers and with positional footwork specific to their position. Pitchers will test step backs, walking wind-ups, inward turns, quick picks, and normal delivery. On plyocare velocity days, the catch play is done prior to testing. We have athletes go through our plyo warm-up series prior to catch play.
We typically see that plyocare velocities begin a little lower than expected due to getting comfortable with grip and intent. The yellow Plyocare ball (5.3oz) is typically 1-4mph below normal baseball velocity. We push guys to try and beat mound velocity with the gray (3.5oz).
From here, we progress to positional testing in the 3rd velocity day for baseline mound or defensive position velocity. Depending on how the three testings go, soreness after, and movement quality in each we set a plan moving forward to attack any specific deficiencies.
Velocity Training:
The velocity training component is about 3-8 weeks depending on the athlete, priorities within the training plan, movement quality and adaptations within training. Our older (16-18) athletes will typically continue pulldowns with overload/underload training for 1-3 weeks.
Advanced movers in pulldowns that struggle to transfer to the mound will go directly into mound blending. This can include more drill work, overload/underload, and/or extended bullpens.
Our intermediate (12-14) athletes will continue pulldowns for 2-4 weeks so they can focus on building up intent, control of body, and adapt to the advanced movement within a pulldown.
Blending to Season:
For the last 3-6 weeks, we shift focus from “velocity training” to in-game execution. Depending on the athlete’s needs, this can include more volume within velocity tracking, pitch design, and/or live at bats. Most finish the program with structured bullpens using Edgertronic and Rapsodo for some data and video feedback. Those that are stuck will revert back to velocity based training and/or a deload (lower volume and intensity).
Once we get to mid-February, we are losing most of our “varsity” players to bullpens at their schools for off-season workouts. This adjusts our training protocols around ensuring recovery days, proper lifting structure, and patterning work. While not ideal, we understand that HS/Travel coaches want to see their guys on high-intent days as well. We adjust training and make sure that communication his consistent so we are not overdosing throwing/lifting protocols.
Weight Training:
Each athlete goes through a similar process as our throwing protocols within our weight training. Now, we are often dealing with our athletes weight training in school for class or at practice. This requires us to make certain adjustments while also emphasizing the importance of matching your throwing and lifting schedules.
Our base process is as follows:
2 Week On-Ramping
4-6 Week Strength Phase
4-6 Week Power Phase
1-3 Week Blend to Season Phase
All depends on where each athlete stands with their baseline testings, deficiencies, outside training (school/practice), and how we can best fill in the gaps.
Some of our main lifts for our throwing athletes:
Reverse Lunge/Split Squats
Sumo Deadlift / Trap Bar Deadlift
Box Squats
Bench Press / DB Press / Landmine Press
Row Variations
KB Windmills / Turkish Get Ups
RDL Variations
Plank Variations
Palof Press Variations
Pullover Varations
While constantly evolving, we want to see our athletes be challenged often with the following:
Creating ground force
Overhead stabilization
Anti-Rotation
Rotation
Horizontal Pressing and Pulling
Variations of Split Stance Lunging, Pressing, Rowing
For more details on our lifting plans, e-mail us!
Review:
Not every athlete got to follow the “plan”, mainly due to time frame, outside baseball training (HS/travel/instructors) but we managed to hold to our plan of progressing in workload, detailed training, and building the engine for spring season.
We worked around several interruptions throughout training from contract tracings, illness, changes in schedules both at school and baseball practices, while trying to maximize time and efficiency on site.
The overall growth of the program with all types of athletes and plans provided us with real feedback on how our assessments and training transferred to the program as a whole and each individual athlete.
We then created graphs and overall program improvements for each test to show where athletes stood in each category. They were all based on how the numbers in the test compared to velocities throughout the program. For example, seeing how a medicine ball run n gun and pulldown velocity correlated (shown right).
The biggest correlation was our pulldown to positional velocity (shown below). This helps us validate the importance of the pulldown and how we blend and transfer that to the mound or defensive position.
For more on these charts, email us!
We have blogs for most of these training protocols and testings compared to velocity. See more on our other blogs at prpbaseball.com/blog!
Below is the overall program review with each individual testing growth throughout the program. We look to continue growing in our teachings, assessments, and how we handle each individual athlete!
