The density of the college baseball schedule creates a challenge for coaches and athletes to train in a way that will consistently enhance the athletes’ performance. Consequently, approaching our latest season, I spent a lot of time thinking about the optimal way to organize training, calling other coaches who have worked in baseball and looking at a range of different ways to conduct in-season training via the internet and books.
I have spent the last three years working with Division 2 baseball, and my process and organization of training for those seasons has morphed into what I will present in this article. This could be used as a framework for coaches who are facing similar challenges.
In-Season Schedule
Our typical schedule consists of four ballgames a week: One game on Tuesday (often out of conference), then games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (typically in conference). Our baseball team typically plays about 60% of our games on the road, with travel times generally between 2-5 hours. On a regular basis, our athletes are spending time on moderately long bus rides plus full weekends in hotels.
With this schedule, we are essentially left with Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday to complete our weight training.
Bucketing by Position
The easiest training schedule to look at is the position players—they will go total body with their lifts all three days. The first training day is a power-focused day with moderate intensity and moderate volume. Coming off a three-game series, this lift should be fairly easy to recover from and not make them fatigued for their Tuesday game.
The first training day is a power-focused day with moderate intensity and moderate volume. Coming off a three-game series, this lift should be fairly easy to recover from and not make them fatigued for their Tuesday game. Share on X
The second day of training is a strength-focused day with low volumes and high intensities. This day is the hardest to recover from, which is why we plan it the furthest out from game day—I want to leave as much time as possible to recover while still driving a strength stimulus throughout the year. The last day of training prior to the weekend series will be low-volume plyos and med ball throws to try to create a potentiation effect for the series. This lift will also include a handful of auxiliary movements and oftentimes mobility as well.
Since the day before was challenging to the CNS, the following day should not be very strenuous to allow time to recover for the upcoming series. I would consider this the least important day of the week and it could be supplemented with some potentiation work on game days and/or some auxiliary work sprinkled in after the ball games. On Thursdays, the guys should feel better leaving the weight room than when they came in—I make sure this lift isn’t more than 30 minutes.
Designated hitters and Redshirts can have a slightly more aggressive training schedule to supplement the lower volume of gameplay they experience.
I use this template for relief pitchers as well. They may have to play on any game day. With their unpredictable schedule, organizing their training in the same way as the position group is the most effective. Movement selection may change between these groups, but all else stays the same.
Relief pitchers may have to play on any game day. With their unpredictable schedule, organizing their training in the same way as the position group is the most effective. Share on X
Tuesday starters will have a lower body, power-focused day on Monday. For these pitchers, the rest of the week can be organized in several different ways. A strength-focused day could be used on that Wednesday after throwing, or a power-focused upper body. The schedule for the weekday starting pitchers is the least optimal and clear to organize, but it is also the smallest group—for the pool of players that may land in the Tuesday starter group at some point, communication with the athletes is crucial to see what schedule they feel better on. Most of the time, the Tuesday starter will just see action as their total game load for the week—and, on rare occasions, they may throw a couple of innings on a Saturday or Sunday as well. It is hard to plan for this in advance on my side, as this will be an “as-needed” decision from our coaching staff.
Weekend Starters
The group of pitchers I work with like to train upper-body as far away from hard-throwing as possible. This leaves us to train lower body, closer to their start.
So, with this group, our first day of the week is the total body, strength-focused day. Wednesday is an upper body day with an emphasis on power, and Thursday is a lower body day with an emphasis on power. Volumes on both Wednesday and Thursday are low-to-moderate, with each lift typically taking about 30-40 minutes.
The group of pitchers I work with like to train upper-body as far away from hard-throwing as possible. This leaves us to train lower body, closer to their start. Share on X
Post-Game Considerations]
A common trend in baseball sports performance is to lift the weekend starters the same day they throw, putting their hardest weight room session right after their time on the mound. This seems like an effective strategy, but it can be hard to implement with the constraints of college athletics and the lack of access to facilities while traveling.
Many strength coaches at small schools do not travel with their teams, which creates implementation and accountability issues. While playing home games this strategy could be viable; typically, however, these constraints will not allow for the routine use of this strategy.
A common trend in baseball is to lift the starters the same day they throw, putting their hardest weight room session post-game. This seems like an effective plan, but can be hard to implement with the constraints of college athletics. Share on X
The use of post-game mobility training for both the starting and relief pitcher groups may be effective. As we have seen in literature, pitchers may experience significant decreases in shoulder internal rotation and elbow extension (McGraw, 2019). A post-game arm care program that includes exercises to regain ROM in the shoulder and elbow a few hours after a game may be of value. A short bout of weight training targeting athletes’ deficiencies or strengths may be effective as well, especially for the Friday and Saturday starters.
The other consideration is comparing what is more effective:
- Is it better to train a pitcher after their most stressful bout of throwing and work to consolidate the stressful stimulus?
- Or, is it better to allow 24-72+ hours of recovery (depending on what day the starter threw during the weekend) and then train hard in the weightroom, maybe pushing harder than could have been achieved after intense bout of throwing?
Final Thoughts
For coaches, organizing quality sports performance training for athletes in-season will always be an ever-evolving process. This style of organizing training has showed promise with our team and there have been positive increases in strength and power—the more exciting piece, however, is the buy-in that this organizational style has helped create.
When you have your players executing different training programs in the same room at the same time, those can become slightly harder to coach. But once the athletes understand that I have organized the week in a way to be the best for their playing/throwing schedule, they appreciate it and become more bought in to the process.
References
McGraw, Michael H., et al. “Shoulder and Elbow Range of Motion Can Be Maintained in Major League Baseball Pitchers over the Course of the Season, Regardless of Pitching Workload.” Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 7, no. 2, 1 Feb. 2019, doi:10.1177/2325967118825066.
