We know that the physical demands of baseball are particularly lower in comparison to other sports, and what a coincidence, so is the motivation and desire of baseball players to train at a high intensity. Baseball is one of those sports where you truly can “out-train” the sport, meaning you are able to train at a much higher level than ...
Read More »Author Archives: Dana Cavalea
Offseason Training For Baseball
“What program should I use during the off-season to help me throw harder and increase my bat speed?” This might be a question some of you ask your Coaches on a yearly basis. As I continue to travel and meet young ballplayers of all different shapes, sizes, and mental make-ups, this is the question that I typically am embraced with, ...
Read More »Training for Performance Not Just Strength
So how strong is strong enough? As I travel throughout the United States and answer e-mails from a world wide audience, the same questions keep repeating themselves, most of which include the word strength. Strength is just one of the characteristics and athlete needs in order to be successful, but definitely not the most important. I recently read a statistic ...
Read More »Dynamic Warm-Up for Baseball
Its Warm Outside…But Are You Warm Inside?? What do you mean warm inside? When it comes to warming the body up in order to compete in a baseball game or practice, it is imperative that we are not only heating up the muscle, but more importantly we are turning ON the muscle, while activating the Central Nervous System. So this ...
Read More »The Development of Big League Speed
Through the years as I have had the opportunity to compare and contrast speed, and speed development training protocols at the Big League Level vs. The Youth Ranks, time and time again it is seen that the professional athlete has an incredible amount of “natural talent/ skills,” but struggle with the ability to adapt to the development of positive speed ...
Read More »In-Season Training for Baseball
This headline is synonymous with the word; Confusion. In-Season training has become somewhat of a mystery in the baseball world. Some say we should do it, some say that we shouldn’t, some say just go on a maintenance program. In my opinion, neither of these responses is valid. Whether you are embarking on an off-season program, pre-season program, or in-season ...
Read More »The Difference Between the Big League Player and You
Besides the difference in athletic ability and developed talent that Major League Baseball Players possess, often times they are often more physically developed then a typical youth player, college player, and young Minor Leaguer. When choosing a workout program, I often hear younger players say they want the same program as a Roger Clemens or a Albert Pujols, but the ...
Read More »Performance Training to Enhance Skill Development
Often time through my travels I hear Coaches complaining that their ballplayers just aren’t making the corrections necessary to become better players. Basically, coaches perceive their athletes as ignoring their feedback from either the teams head coach, hitting coach, and/ or pitching coach. Over the course of this off-season I have had the opportunity to watch some of the nation’s ...
Read More »Is Today a Leg Day? Back and Bi’s? Chest and Tri’s?
When it comes to training like a body builder, the formula above would work. If you plan on being an athlete, hopefully a successful one, then you need to stop thinking in terms of muscles, and start thinking in terms of movements. The whole objective behind weight training is to enhance performance on the field and the only way to ...
Read More »Conditioning for the Modern Day Ball Player
This is a topic that is often left up to guess work and is really one in which could create a stronger athlete later in the season if this program is devised correctly. The biggest misconception, when it comes to conditioning, is that sweat and ballplayers that are keeling over have just been through a quality conditioning session. If we ...
Read More »Machine Training vs. Free Weight Training.. Train to Move!
Many people that I come across always ask me about this so called “debate” on machine training vs. free weight training, which one is better? In my mind there really is no reason for debate. If you carefully analyze sport, and compare and contrast it to the training methods in which you are using, you will be able to answer ...
Read More »Top 5 Exercises for Bat Speed!
Many studies have been done that say training must correlate directly to the movements that take place in sport. This is a wordy definition for the phrase: sport-specific training. If we want greater bat speed we must replicate our swing dynamics using resistance to build strength, and speed training to build power. Strength and Power are directly related. Power in ...
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