Speed and agility training for baseball is a hot topic and often a very misunderstood concept. Most coaches and players think that by simply using an agility ladder or cone drills that an athlete will become more agile. In fact, many strength and conditioning coaches will try to impress you by doing these fancy agility ladder drills, cone drills and practicing on running technique. Unfortunately, they are missing the boat when it comes to speed training for baseball.
When it comes to increasing running speed, it all starts with building a solid foundation of strength. Your strength is your foundation and without it, you won’t improve your speed much. Let’s take a car for example. What car do you think would go faster – a car with more horsepower or less horsepower? Obviously, you would choose the car with more horsepower because it has more potential to go faster.
In terms of speed training for baseball, your strength is your horsepower. You can work on all the running mechanics and “quick feet” drills you want, just like you can have a mechanic work on your car, but if you don’t have the strength, or if your car doesn’t have the horsepower, then it’s not going to go fast.
Why Agility Ladders and Cone Drills Don’t Work
Another problem with “speed and agility” drills are the fact that these drills are predetermined. In a baseball game, you don’t know which direction you are going to have to move to track down a fly ball, field a ground ball or block a wild pitch. It is unpredictable. When you do agility drills, you aren’t improving force development, instead you are getting good at picking your feet up off the ground quickly. What good is it to pick your feet up off the ground quickly if you cannot apply the force to go anywhere?
So what if you are already strong and have a good, solid, foundation of strength?
If you want to become a more agile, explosive and powerful baseball player, you need to improve the rate you can display force quickly. The greater your rate of force development is, the more explosive and faster you will be. In addition to proper weight training, some of the best ways to improve rate of force development include sprints, medicine ball throws and jumps.
So before you hire a strength and conditioning coach, make sure you ask them how they develop speed for baseball players. If it revolves around cookie cutter cone drills and agility ladder drills then be weary of what they are offering.
P.S I know that choosing a strength & conditioning program isn’t easy. There are a lot of factors that go into it like price, time & results. In my book, The Parents Guide To Strength Training For Baseball, you’ll have all the information you need to give your son the best chance to succeed. Just CLICK HERE to download it for FREE today.
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