Coach Fox

Growing up, my dad always used to say:

“I can handle the losses. That’s baseball. Any team can win on any given day.

What I can’t handle is when you beat yourself.”

When programming our S&C for Summer Ball schedules, we need to understand 3 important questions:

1️⃣ What is already trained in-season through games, practices, and skill work?
2️⃣ What needs to be compensated for through training?
3️⃣ How much stimulus can we realistically recover from?

━━ Sprinting / Agility Work ━━
Baseball already accumulates a large amount of:
🔹Acceleration
🔹Deceleration
🔹Change of direction
🔹Curved sprinting

What baseball does not expose athletes to as often is true top-speed sprinting.

Excessive added sprint volume can accumulate stress on the hamstrings, groin, and hip flexors—especially during dense schedules.

Things to implement alternatively:
1️⃣ Hill Sprints:
Great for lactate threshold buffering. Lower limb speeds reduce hamstring stress while still challenging force output and conditioning.

2️⃣ Form Running:
Low-intensity sprint mechanics, movement quality, or footwork.

3️⃣ Extended Sprint Exposure:
Low-volume sprints at 120–150 ft to maintain top-speed capacity and keep tissues prepared. This does not need to be high frequency. Even exposure once every couple weeks can help maintain these qualities.

4️⃣ Seated Machine Row Drop Sets:
An alternative conditioning option that saves the legs while also building upper back volume to help balance anterior-dominant movement patterns. Again, this does not need to be implemented frequently. Even once every couple weeks can maintain conditioning/capacity while managing overall fatigue.

━━ Overhead Training ━━
In-season priorities often shift toward:
1️⃣ Tissue maintenance
2️⃣ Cuff stability
3️⃣ Scapular control
4️⃣ Maintaining mobility and freedom of movement

We can still train Shoulder Press Variations in heavier rep ranges to maintain strength and capacity, but often with lower overall volume. Always account for throwing volume and recovery demands.

⬇️ Continued in comments.

We often see posts of Griffey finishing high and are told: replicate that.

But how we explain the cue matters.
How the player is built matters.
How the player moves matters.

The finish isn’t necessarily the goal—
it’s a reflection of how the swing unfolded.

Context matters. Outcomes will vary.