Are weak hips a real thing?

CaCO3Girl posted:

Bulldog 19 posted:

Your son's knee valgus movement (knees collapsing in) is caused by a weakness of the hip abductor muscles (of which there are quite a few). Most notably the two muscles you want to focus on are the glute medius and the glute maximus. Both of these muscles play a huge role in knee pain and biomechanics in adolescent athletes. 

While I believe you, and will look into those areas, I have a naive question.  I am interpreting this to mean my son has weak butt muscles, is that right?  What I don't get is how a catcher who sits in the squat position a LOT can have weak butt muscles.  Common sense would say that the catcher has the best butt muscles on the team...why the disconnect from common sense?

I think you got some good responses to this question above. I would guess it's a combination of factors. You may have strong muscles, but if your body doesn't use those muscles, then what good does strength do? And yes, if your hip flexor muscles are overactive (or "tight") then your glutes aren't going to activate appropriately. Let me give you an analogy here... when you flex your biceps, your elbow bends and the and comes to your shoulder. Your triceps muscles relax. When your triceps muscles are contracted, your biceps relaxes and your arm straightens. Your triceps and biceps muscles are considered antagonist muscles.. they work against each other. The same can be said for your hip flexors and your glutes....

Here is a link to a great book that is focused on "functional mobility and movement efficiency for baseball".  Well worth the $47.00.  Son has had the opportunity to work with David Ray on a couple occasions when we have been in Nashville.  

Baseball Movement Essentials 

I have an additional question. Is a weak core similar? I have a growing boy (just turned 13 and is 5'10 and 165).

As we are prepping for the season, we are trying to strengthen his core through some training.

ex. backward sprint, forward sprint, leap frogs, planks, squats (w/o weight) etc.  Right now he tends to fall off to the side when pitching/throwing.  

We are doing this in conjunction with some arm care training to prep him. I am probably looking at 2-3 more weeks flat ground before any mound work.

SoxIn7 posted:

I have an additional question. Is a weak core similar? I have a growing boy (just turned 13 and is 5'10 and 165).

As we are prepping for the season, we are trying to strengthen his core through some training.

ex. backward sprint, forward sprint, leap frogs, planks, squats (w/o weight) etc.  Right now he tends to fall off to the side when pitching/throwing.  

We are doing this in conjunction with some arm care training to prep him. I am probably looking at 2-3 more weeks flat ground before any mound work.

 

I can't speak to the core question, but I can say my son only falls off to the side when he doesn't plant his foot correctly.

There are some good responses on this post and a couple of points that were made that I'd like to expand on:

1. There is no reason an 8th grader should not participate in a resistance training program. As long as the exercises and volumes are appropriate for his skeletal makeup and ability to learn the movements he will see huge improvements from getting on a lifting program.

2. As a strength coach at a private facility, I'll admit I'm biased, but I definitely recommend hiring someone to teach him how to lift weights correctly. ALTHOUGH, someone made a great point above: if it'd some dunce having him do 3 sets of 10 using machine circuits than run and take your money elsewhere. You don't need to invest in 1 on 1 training. Group training is perfectly fine. Just make sure the coach has a good resume of training athletes.