Your core is the part of your body that connects your legs and feet to your arms and hands. In proper hitting mechanics, the bat speed generation phase occurs when you body moves from the loaded position through the swing and bat-ball contact. This requires that the power from the initial forward movement started by legs to transfer through the core and hip rotation to the hands on the bat. Not only does the batter want an efficient power transfer through the core, but also wants the core to add additional power to increase the bat swing speed. So, what type of core training is needed to increase your bat speed?
Traditional Core Training
If you Google core training or core exercises, you will find lots of information pertaining to "Six Pac Abs" and developing a "ripped abdominal." The problem is that washboard stomach muscles will not increase your bat speed. These programs develop muscle bulk, not rotational power. Their exercises and training work on building the slow twitch muscle endurance through maximum weight lifting. A baseball swing is a short duration forceful muscle contraction that utilizes the fast twitch muscle groups. Getting ripped is great for the beach, but it is not going to help increase your bat velocity through the strike zone.
Sport Specific Core Training
To develop an explosive powerful swing, an athlete needs to train using quick and powerful rotational exercises. In the post, Increasing Your Bat Speed, I provided one example of overload and underload sport specific resistance training.
Another example is the rotational medicine ball throw. To do this, you will need a 3kg to 5kg[1] medicine ball and a concrete wall. An athlete should line up with their shoulder line pointing to the wall, just like a batter facing a pitcher. Start as a right handed batter with the medicine ball on their right hip about 5 to 7 feet from the wall. The athlete quickly and powerfully rotates their core and throws the medicine ball against the wall and catches the ball when it returns. Reloads and quickly rotates and throws the ball again. They should do the rotate, throw, and catch 10 times. Take a short one minute break. Turn around to be a left handed batter, placing the ball on their left hip, rotate and throw 10 times. Take a short one minute break. Turn to be a right handed batter for 10 throws. Take another short one minute break and become a left handed batter for 10 throws.
It is important to do this exercise from both the right and left side to keep your muscle development in balance. When one side of your body is developed more than the other, it can lead to injuries and loss of your range of motion.
Additional Recommended Resources
Below are two very good resources and free newsletters that I have found and subscribe to for player development, additional training exercises, and sport specific drills.
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Baseball |
Softball |
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| Trainer |
Dan Huff
Dan is a NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist, the author of three baseball specific strength and conditioning manuals, and is currently the strength and conditioning coach for NCAA Division 1 athletic department. |
Marc Dagenais
Marc is a certified coach, has coached at the university level, and worked with the Canadian Women's Softball National Team. He currently an elite amateur softball coach and provides training to amateur and professional athletes. |
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Newsletter |
Dan's free newsletter provides easy to implement, sometimes challenging to do, baseball specific exercises. |
Marc's free newsletter provides core training exercises and softball drills and tip. |
| Website |
Baseball Strength |
Softball Performance |
Summary
Developing your core strength increases your bat speed by developing explosive rotational power and increases the efficiency of the transfer of force from the initial forward movement in your legs, through the abdominal section, and into the hands. The medicine ball drill, done three to four times per week for a couple of weeks, will provide noticeably more "pop" in your swing within a month.
Try this drill out for a couple of weeks and leave a comment below letting me know how your new found bat speed in working for you in your game.
Photo Credit: Roger Smith
[1] The proper medicine ball weight needs to be evaluated based on the athlete's current age and core strength. A key requirement is that the athlete is able to quickly and explosively rotate while maintaining proper rotation mechanics when throwing the medicine ball against the ball. As a general guideline, athlete's under the age of 14 years should use a 3kg to 4kg ball, athlete between 14 to 18 years use a 4kg to 5kg ball, and college athlete's can use 5kg and above. If in doubt about which weight to use, choose the lighter weight to enable the explosive rotation. Too heavy of a weight will slow the rotation down and develop slower core muscle memory.
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