Back in college, we swung bats underwater. I am not sure it helped but it was interesting. We would get into water upto our chest and take 100 swings.
We did a lot of pool work for rehab/prehab for our arms. Despite what BlueDog said, it was a great source of excercise and strength training.
redbird
Nice to know that I am not the only one who has done this.
I like it because there is resistance with no returning force such as hitting a swinging tire---hit a tire the wrong way and you can ruin your arm joints
It. swinging under water, will build not only upper body strength but also bat speed
Nice to know that I am not the only one who has done this.
I like it because there is resistance with no returning force such as hitting a swinging tire---hit a tire the wrong way and you can ruin your arm joints
It. swinging under water, will build not only upper body strength but also bat speed
I've not only done it Tr, I still teach it to those who want to get stronger, and may not have access to therabands and weights. In the martial arts, we used water for all kinds of resistance training, and yes Aqua Puppy, it works.
Swinging a bat under water is an exercise in fooling yourself!!
quote:Originally posted by GFK:quote:Originally posted by PGStaff:
... One method for developing bat speed has always been swinging something extra light (ie. broom stick). Theory, you practice speed to get better at speed. It seems to me that it would be next to impossible to swing a bat under water at anything other than very slow motion.
I could understand the value for rehab or even strength gain... So here is one more question... does added strength automatically translate to more bat speed in every case? ...
What you are saying has been tested and is known as underload / overload training. DeRenne and many others have performed controlled experiments with training using overweight / underweight bats / balls to measure the effects on bat speed and pitch velocity.
The overload portion teaches the body to recruit more muscle for the movement. The underload portion teaches the nervous system to fire quicker. (This is paraphrased.)
I never seen anyone swinging in a pool. I have seen hitters use bats equipped with fins that provide air resistance proportional to bat speed.
Thank God! I finally see that someone knows what they are talking about on this board. There is so much mis-information on this thread about bat speed and strenght that it was like a train wreck and I couldnt take my eyes off it.
Swinging it water has been proven to reduce bat speed!!!!! It screws up your normal mechanics and builds that nice SLOW strength that most of you guys think is a good thing.
Strength + speed = Power
Power = bat velocity
Its all neuro recruitment of fast twitch muscle fiber. Yes it is slow twitch too but its the fast twitch supplying the explosiveness.
Over/under is the way to train for velocity and it needs to be within 4oz on either side of your game bats weight.
This is all proven in actually studys. Not, well my bat feels faster lab.
Hey dude, line drives are what you want. A base hitter is more valuable that a once in a while home run hitter. Theres not one pro hitter (except barry bonds) that wouldn't trade a home run hitting 200 batting avg.for a 400 avg. base hitter. You want to create bat speed. You will everything from go swimming with your bat and everything inbetween. First of all, yes, work out, second stay loose through the zone and at point of contact, also (see the ball all the way) and third work out those legs hard. Very hard. Whether your hitting or pitching your legs are your core. Make them STRONG!
go 3-5 oz over load on 35 dry swings full tilt then 3-5 oz underload for 35 swings then game bat 35 swings every other day in conjunction with your focused tee work on the opposite days. working 105 t-balls on muscle memory and form . i use ball pit plastic balls in the basement the trajectory matches and i dont hurt stuff . your control, speed and form will show . you gotta work hard to get what you ask ,ya gotta sweat !!!
