The Important Fall is Over

2010 World Series, Arlington, TX

Photo Taken by 

Jonathan Hall

The World Series is over, Fall Ball is over, and organized practice is over until January. The Fall World Series took it's usual course by being a straight sweep for the 4th year in a row. I was picked to coach with Nick Vera on the grey team. We had a mix of veteran players along with a majority of the freshman. Regardless we still came out on top. Being a 5 game series, the first to 3 wins is the winner of the series. We got the sweep, then lost the last 2 games of the series, finishing up at 3-2. It was a very well pitched series with few hits and not many runs. Wood bats were the main reason for this. Our team looked really good this fall and hopefully it transfers into the spring.

My 4 weeks of doing nothing is over and now I am cleared to workout, run, hit, and throw. I am going to start getting into it slowly. Everything is well.

During the fall we went to a 3 day a week workout schedule. If you wanted you could do extra workouts. Now that fall is over, we are back to our workout or running every day. One thing we as a team are trying to improve on strength wise is increasing forearm and grip strength. This will improve arm strength, bat control, and power. It is most important for hitting because bat control is a big part in the difference between an average hitter and a great hitter. If you look at clips of Derek Jeter, he is a perfect example of having bat control and forearm strength. He gets bloop and opposite field hits because he can get his hands inside the ball and use his arms to flip the ball the other way and up the middle. He has become the #1 New York Yankess' all time hits leader. As a team we are starting to incorporate a number of forearm and grip strength exercises to work on this. Here are some examples that would be posted on our whiteboard:

Forearms/Grip Strength:
Plate Grip: hold a 45 lbs plate in each hand. Hold them by the ridge on the rim (*Not the Handle*) Do this for as long as possible.
Curls/Reverse Curls: with Dumbells. Curl the DB up with palms down. Do the same with palms up. (Weight probably around 12-20 lbs)
Towel Pullups: Wrap a towel around a pullup bar. Grip each hanging part of the towel and do as many pullups as possible. Hang from towel at end for as long as possible.
Hammers: if you have a small, sturdy hammer and a wood stump, keep your elbow steady and hit the stump with the hammer up to 200 times with each arm.

These are a few of the workouts we do. There are other complex lifts but these should give you a solid burn in the forearms. Below is a video of Derek Jeter getting his record Yankees hit. Notice how he leans out and uses his arms primarily to drive the ball down the first base line. (Start movie at 1:10)

"Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off." - Bill Veeck