4.0 DELI SCRUBS

Of course I know we all have better things to do everyday besides thinking about how far the Scrubs will go into the playoffs this year and what we ALL can do to help us ensure we take the Championship when we get there. I do know one thing that is for certain though, every single one of us want to be the last team standing at Tony Gwynn Stadium. We're about 4-5 weeks away from that game and have a few weeks of baseball left in between. What if you could take a 3 week program and lift your average .100 heading into the playoffs? That's right baby... Coach Shane is back with another training session that will only help you be a more complete Champion.

Objective: WAKE UP THE SCRUBS BATS (or at least mine)

The speed of the bat head through the hitting zone is crucial for making good contact and for hitting the ball as far as possible, two good things for a hitter. There is no question that a slow bat is a bad bat.

To be honest, a quick bat does not ensure a hitter a great average either. We know a good hitter has many more qualities than strength and bat head speed. My point is to remember the other qualities which are important parts of hitting before expecting increased bat head speed to cure your average!

Now I'm not a BASEBALL or HITTING expert, I think we can all agree on that, but I went and found someone who does specialize in increasing Bat Speed. No one knows more about improving bat speed than Bob Alejo (former strength and conditioning coach of the Oakland A's and now the Personal Conditioning Coach of NY Yankee's Jason Giambi).

Here is areas of focus we'll all want to focus on over the next 3-4 weeks.
I'm sure we all visit the gym at least once or twice a week so no excuses...Knuckle Up Scrubs...

Abdominal Training

The trunk (abdominals and low back) creates a powerful twisting motion during the swing. Rotational torque provides speed and momentum to the arms and eventually the bat head. Like other muscles, it is necessary to develop strength by using resistance. A common mistake with abdominal training is to perform body weight resisted exercises and expect the abdominals to continually gain strength.

In the beginning you will develop a certain amount of strength. However, after a while the exercises become nothing other than calisthenics or maintenance type movements. To develop strength you must add some sort of resistance the movement-as is the case in all exercises. The good news is that you can use most of the same traditional stomach exercises plus added weight, to get the desired results.

The three areas for you to concentrate on are the lower, upper and oblique abdominals.

Upper Abdominals

Weighted crunches (non-weighted crunches shown) - Lying on your back with legs up in the air, knees bent at 90 degrees, hold a weight of your choice at straightened arms length. Using only your upper abdominals, raise only the upper body, keeping your back flat on the ground. Three sets of 20-40 repetitions.

Lower Abdominals

Hanging leg raises - Hang from an overhead bar, with your feet not touching the ground. Your grip should be about shoulder width. Contracting the lower abdominals, lift the legs together, knees bent at 90 degrees, so the knees are just above waist height. Lower and repeat. Three sets of 10-25 repetitions.

* This a difficult exercise which does not require much weight to increase the difficulty. Use ankle weights for the resistance.

* Do not rock back and forth to make it easier to raise the legs.

* To increase difficulty without adding weights, keep your legs straight while lifting them.

Rotational Abdominals

Standing weighted twists - Put yourself into an athletic stance with your feet spread at a comfortable distance and your knees slightly bent. Hold a weight about six to 12 inches in front of your body. After a slow warm up, begin to twist at the waist (do not twist or bend at the knees) as rapidly as possible. The key to rapid movement is maintain a low, balanced stance and make sure your shoulder reaches the chin on the twist. Three sets of 20-40 repetitions.

Leg Strength

Never underestimate the value of leg strength for good, powerful hitting. The legs do not appear active. And in terms of movement, they really are not. But it is the strength of the legs that enable the abdominals and trunk in general, to promote bat speed.

As the swing begins, the stride is in place and the body begins to rotate. Without a firm base, the body will not be able to generate any strength from the legs into the trunk. Simply, the force is generated from the ground, into the legs, to the trunk and finally the bat.

Without leg strength, the force necessary to start a powerful bat is not produced. To take it a step further, the swing might be flawed due to only upper body generation and nothing to stabilize the legs.

Basic leg strength has been outlined in previous articles. Safe to say, do not expect to have the best swing or the most powerful bat if you are only going to work on the upper body and ignore your legs.

Forearms

Beginning with the grip and finishing with the forearms (the two are connected), the bat head will take the proper path if there is strength in the hands. Notice how I say hands instead of forearms. This is because the grip strength (fingers, hand) is the most important part of forearm strength for baseball.

Take a look at a swing and follow through. The movement is not about forearm flexors or extensors. There is really no point in the swing where these movements are dominant. However, the hand and hand strength are involved the entire time.

You can have strong forearms, but not necessarily a strong grip. This is why you must work grip specific exercises into your routine, such as squeezing tennis balls, racquet balls and softballs. This will strengthen the fingers, hand and overall grip. When you add these exercises to the already common wrist curls and reverse wrist curls, you’ll have excellent results.

Total Body

When you are looking for running speed, a powerful swing or miles per hour on your fastball, you don’t just work the specific muscles involved. Take the approach that the entire body is a system and when all the parts are working together and efficiently, the outcome will be much more positive than singling out certain muscles. Train your whole body if you want optimal results, not to mention reducing the risk for injuring yourself.

See you at the YARD! And remember...[b] Play to WIN!

Thanks Shane for that info! The only problem is I don't think it is going to be our hitting that stops us from getting to TG stadium, its our pitching. Also since Cole is not on our roster I don't think we could get there without beeing disqualified anyways! We will see! The Scrubs have a history of drama in that area. Lets go out and just have some fun, since batting average doesn't count anyways its run production! I left 12 runners on last week myself! We need to be more clutch when we get guys on!

GDizzle you have a great point. Here was my thought process: because of our pitching situation we must hedge our success with our whoopin sticks. Especially with the rabbits on the bases. Here is the thing, lets say game 1 of the playoffs Cole can't pitch for some reason (my hunch is he will because I got a jackson that says the umps don't pull I.D.'s), but if he doesn't pitch the numbers and stats say that with our other pitching options will likely give up 2 touchdowns over 9 innings-that is 12 runs. If we score 13 runs we win! It's not like football where the defense can score, so we must step it up in the hitting department overall and like you said Gdawg with the rabbits on base. I'm going to do some crunches right now...

with a 12oz Widmer Hefeweizen!