In Concord: Training When It Is Raining

The following article was originally posted to the blog of Five Tool Instruction, LLC (www.fivetoolinstruction.com) on December 10, 2014.

Baseball and softball are not all-weather sports. In a ball player’s mind, the only thing more annoying than a rainy day is a windy day. According to the weather forecasts from tonight through tomorrow, we are going to get both heavy rain and heavy winds here in the Bay Area! But this doesn’t mean your training needs to stop. Here are a few creative ways you can stay in top shape during the rainy season.

Arm Care: I am a big believer in the Jaeger Sports Throwing Program. Invest in a set of bands and follow their exercises. Alan Jaeger wrote an article all about the importance of continuing your throwing program indoors when the weather gets poor. The suggestion he made was to set up a pop-up hitting net indoors and throw into that. Adjust your effort level to replicate an outdoor throwing routine.

Batting: The easy thought here is to set up a tee and hit a bucket of balls into a net. Sure, you can do that, but it won’t give you a full workout to keep you in shape. Instead, try these drills:

1. Set up a net and a batting tee in a garage or under a covered patio.
2. Choke up on your bat and take 10 swings with your bottom hand only.
3. Still choked up on your bat, take 10 swings using your top hand only.
4. Now hold your bat as you normally would and take 10 swings.
5. Next round, place a ball on the tee and repeat steps 2-4, hitting the ball into the net.
6. If you have a partner, finish with 3 rounds of soft-toss, taking about 12 swings each round.

*GETTING CREATIVE* Don’t have a batting net or a tee? Try hanging a large blanket or bed sheet from the garage ceiling, leaving a 6-12 inch gap between the garage door and the backside of the sheet. Get wiffle balls or foam balls and perform steps 2-6. For your tee, find an old wooden push broom with long bristles. If it is okay, cut a about a 2-3 inch chunk off of the broom head. Use that as the head of the tee, and get creative with ways to suspend it about waist high. You can always skip the tee completely and do all those drills with soft-toss.

Fielding: Dry drills, dry drills, dry drills! They will get you up and moving as well as help build muscle memory. Dry drills are not used enough, and they take hardly any time to do! They make for the perfect activity during a rainy day.

Infielders: Work through your footwork as if you were fielding a ground ball. Pretend a ball is hit at you, to your left, and to your right. This visualization exercise will help you read real ground balls.
*GETTING CREATIVE* Pretend you are fielding a bad hop every once in a while. It helps keep the drill entertaining. Go have fun with it!

Outfielders: Similar to the infielders drill above, imagine yourself fielding a ground ball hit out to you. Work on your footwork coming through the ball and getting into your crow hop. You should also take some time to work on your first step. Establish where the imaginary home plate is. The wall behind you will become the outfield fence. Divide the wall into thirds. 1 will be left field, 2 center, and 3 right. Have a partner yell out a number, 1,2, or 3. You will drop step towards the number that is called out.
*GETTING CREATIVE* Pretend you are throwing out a runner at second base, then third base, then home. Imagine hitting the cutoff, and imagine throwing out the runner on the line. You can set up a net if you have one and throw into it.

Catchers: Get into your crouch position, as if a runner is on. Have a partner underhand flip a ball to you. Catch the ball in your catching hand and quickly transfer it to your throwing hand while exploding up and out of your crouch into your throwing position. Make sure you rotate the full 90 degrees as if you were throwing a runner out at second base.
*GETTING CREATIVE* Try this drill with and with out your glove. Catch five barehanded then five with your glove on. Repeat the drill for three or four rounds.

Pitchers: A nice dry drill to do is to slowly work through your pitching sequence. Start by looking in at the “catcher” and get your sign. Begin your wind-up or come set if you are practicing from the stretch. Very slowly come up to your balance point and hold that position for 2-3 seconds. Slowly lower your lead foot down and into your stride. When your front foot makes contact with the ground, immediately reverse and slowly return to your balance position. Repeat this two or three times then proceed through the throw and follow through. This drill should be done with out a ball, and you should not be throwing very hard. Perform the drill very slowly and under control.
*GETTING CREATIVE* Perform this drill with a small towel in your throwing hand. A face towel is a good choice. When you get to the throwing portion of your sequence, whip the towel out in front as if you were throwing. Try to make the tip of the towel whip against the ground.

Brian is the owner and lead instructor of Five Tool Instruction, LLC, located in Concord, CA.

Photo Credit: Rain bokeh by Kevin Dooley, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Modifications made: Image has been cropped from its original publication.