Georgia Personal Training for Baseball
Increase Speed, Improve Agility, Gain Strength
What Will Your Training Program Focus On?
Every GPT training session is specifically catered to the needs of the individual athlete. We consider all factors such as age, position, physical and mental maturity, athletic strengths and weaknesses, current fitness level, personal goals, etc. Today’s infielders can be split into two categories. Middle infield and Corner Infield. Middle Infielders are usually slick fielding, with great hands, quick feet, elite speed, and strong accurate arms. Corner Infield is typically your bigger guys. Power hitters, with elite arm strength. Often lacking in speed, but still possess very good agility and lateral quickness.
At GPT, we provide strength, speed, and agility workouts specifically designed to improve an infielders performance. Typically our infielders will train 2-3 times per week for either 60 or 90 minutes. One session is focused primarily on lower body strength and explosiveness, speed and agility, lateral quickness, balance, and joint integrity. This workout might start with a dynamic warm up. Then move into baseball specific lower body strength work (which would be more dynamic versions of traditional lifts that are more applicable to sports performance; lots of single leg work, fast twitch components to everything, unstable surface work, progressive resistance, etc.) Next would be Plyo drills. Plyometrics are the foundation of every leg workout we do. This is due to their unrivaled ability to develop power, speed, explosiveness, and flexibility simultaneously. We would finish with some balance and accessory work targeting the hips, knees, ankles, and feet; all of which play a vital role in both injury prevention, and power output.
The next session would be the upper body session. For baseball we are going to stay away from heavy chest, shoulder, and bicep work and instead focus on core strength, rotational power, shoulder stability, and the posterior chain. The back muscles are far more important than the chest and biceps in almost all sports, but specifically baseball. The lower and mid back play a huge roll in all force production movements like swinging and throwing. In addition, an athlete looking to add muscle mass or increase weight can significantly develop their back without running into any range of motion issues that occur with too much chest development. Just like the lower body session, our upper body sessions utilize explosive movements that directly translate to baseball. Examples would be Jammer swings (pictured on the right), med ball throws and slams, certain Olympic lifts, plyometric movements, and extensive core work utilizing rotational movements rather than just traditional sit ups and crunches.
3 session per week clients will usually opt for one session to be entirely speed and agility focused. Which we prefer as it allows us to dedicate an entire session working on the most important athletic tool there is. These sessions would include a dynamic warm up, agility drills with hurdles or the quick foot ladder, resistance sprints with a sled or parachute, overspeed sprint work with a bungee or declined surface, lateral quickness drills, plyometrics, and additional accessory work targeting joint integrity and the central nervous system. With 2 time per week clients we typically work in speed and agility with their lower body focused day, or depending on the needs of the athlete, we can incorporate it as part of both weekly sessions.
How Long Will Personal Training Sessions Last?
At GPT, we offer 45 minute, 60 minute, and 90 minute training sessions. The sessions will either be one on one, or with 1-2 other players. If we have multiple athletes training we will have multiple trainers on site. Any player may specifically request one on one sessions only during the initial sign up process. For those players that do train with others, we will only train athletes together if it makes sense. They have to have similar needs. We won’t pair a 12 year old SS with an 18 year old Catcher. We won’t have a group of three going where one is on leg day, and the other two are on upper. Pitchers can easily train legs with position players, but we typically prefer to separate them for upper body. Personal attention and specificity are the keys to our athletes’ success. Most of our current players are doing one hour sessions either 2 or 3 times per week, but we have also seen players doing two 45 minute sessions per week have tremendous success. More important than the length or frequency of a session, is the athlete’s effort. Personal training is always a considerable investment, which is why we do everything in our power to have affordable options for every budget. No kid should fall short of his or her dream because they didn’t have the financial backing to get the help they needed.
