SO, you’ve made it this far, you’re all in on in-season training as an absolute MUST as a ballplayer to be the best you, you’ve created some tangible goals for the in-season training period, and now you want to know the ins and outs of HOW to train in-season, things to key in on and things to be on the look out for. So if you MISSED either of the first two parts of the series start there:
[PART 1: Why Should I Train In-Season]
[PART 2: What Should My Goals Be In-Season]
Once, you’re done there, let’s get to it:
The first and biggest key regarding in-season baseball strength, power, and speed training is tracking, collecting, and analyzing readiness / fatigue data.
Having some idea when you step into the gym how much juice you have is pretty important stuff, all the time (which is why we track that type of data every single day here at ATS) but becomes even MORE important when in-season. In part 2 of the series we talked about avoiding going off the rails with your training and ego lifting, this point is kind of the opposite here: track your readiness if you’re scoring relatively low it may be a good time to auto-regulate your training for less intensity (less load on the bar) and focus more effort on recovery modalities like low intensity movement and / or passive modalities like we now offer in our recovery studio.
There are MANY ways to track readiness and nervous system fatigue and here’s the deal: no one way is head and shoulder better than another. Here at ATS we do a daily 5 question readiness survey VIA our friends at TrainHeroic, this allows us to collect subjective data reported by the athlete on how they’re feeling. This HS in-season we’ll also be using a daily objective measure of fatigue tracking via grip testing. Now, again you may have seen other ways to collect objective measurements for readiness testing: vertical jumping, short sprinting, tap testing, and more all come to mind. It doesn’t particularly matter WHAT you collect as long as you collect SOMETHING and utilize the data for your best self.
The second big rock you want to keep in mind for your in-season training is the idea that GAMEPLAY and PRACTICE are the focus, and therefore trying to create LITTLE to NO SORENESS through your strength and power training is the KEY.
So how do we train and not create soreness? Well, number one (like we discussed in part two of the series) is we stay consistent and on plan. A lack of consistency is a surefire way to add soreness back into the conversation (although I’d take two days of soreness over not peaking for the playoffs - but that’s a separate conversation entirely). So first and foremost, again: STAY CONSISTENT WITH YOUR TRAINING.
Next up we have to tackle the idea of exercise selection. For in-season training we want to select exercises we’re:
Familiar with
Minimize eccentric contraction (that’s the “negative”)
Eccentric contractions are predominantly to thank for the muscular soreness or delayed onset muscle soreness we feel after a strength training session (or any training session for that matter). So selected exercises that minimize that type of stress is a sneaky cheat code for maximizing in-season training. Some really good exercises on the minimizing eccentric side are: sled pushing and pulling, bottoms up split squats, trap bar deadlifts (dropping from the top portion), and step-ups just to name a few. You’ll notice these are for the most part also exercises we do throughout the off-season so we’re relatively familiar with.
The third big rock you want to keep in mind for your in-season training is the idea that GAMEPLAY and PRACTICE are predominantly on the “speed” end of the force velocity continuum.
I know what you’re thinking: “what does that mean and why should I keep it in mind!?” Well quite simply all movement occurs at some point on the force velocity continuum: throwing, sprinting, and maximal effort swinging are all relatively unloaded and FAST movements. In the in-season our goal should not be to do MORE movements like these, as they already play a huge role in terms of total volume of our daily activity, but instead supplement them with movements that occur further to the other side of the force spectrum. Heavier strength training, offside medicine ball throwing, and more loaded means of training allow for us to build robustness and not continue to fill the same “bucket” of training means.
So there you have it, a few things to keep in mind for your in-season training, NOW if you’re an #ATEAM athlete you have ONE MORE a special part 4 of the series to be on the lookout for regarding some slight schedule changes, optimal training schedules and recovery studio access, stay tuned to that! In coming weeks I’ll also be highlighting some more of our FAVORITE in-season exercises and progressions, stay tuned!
-CJ Appenzeller, MS