Martial arts for baseball players?

No experience with martial arts and baseball, but it sounds as if that type of player may benefit from meditation or yoga.

I wonder how Bilal and his son are getting on.

Ha ha ha ha ha

Its a great winter sport,I like all the stretching but the broken toes and thumb sometimes linger into the spring.

Yes.

 

The end goal is the same. And I've read that some professional ballplayers use these techniques. But high school ballplayers? I wish. Which is why I'm hopeful some here have some experience with martial arts. 

 

I remember as a kid that Steve Carlton was a black belt. And when Jack Buck talked about it on KMOX in St. Louis, it was in the context of the mental advantage, not physical. 

Neither meditation or yoga (which I've seen Bryce Harper and other players do) is an easy sell to HS kids. My kid has done a little yoga, but mostly unwillingly.

So my suggestion would be someone like Steve Springer, or many of the others out there, who speak at length about the mental game.  It's all about learning to let those past at bats, and even past pitches in an at bat, go.

It can be done, though they will have their ups and downs at first. Eventually they get to the point where those downs are few. As a parent I've always felt that my role evolved into somewhat of a mental coach.  His baseball coaches handle the rest, as dad doesn't know anything anymore.

Mental part of baseball becomes the hardest part eventually. It's what separates the players.

One son's HS coach swears yoga was the difference in their state championship.

Carlton would daily squeeze uncooked rice in a bowl to build strong fingers.

He could loosen the cover on a baseball. That is physical.

Next story is the first AB off Carlton by our former Australia team coach Jim Lentine.

 

Bob

I am a big believer when it comes to martial arts as a training technique in baseball.

 

Many years ago we hired a Karate instructor to work with our college baseball team during the winter.  He knew nothing about baseball and I knew nothing about Karate.  After several meetings we took the Karate drills that related to baseball and put together a program.   Our players would go through one hour of Karate 4 days each week.

 

The results were amazing, increased flexibility, better balance, better conditioning, better mentality, better body control, and quicker reactions.  We worked with this instructor for three years.  A combination of luck and this training resulted in absolutely no injuries serious enough for any player to miss a game in three years.

 

To this day, our former players still talk about those old Karate sessions.   I don't know of  anything I have ever seen that produced so much improvement away from the baseball field.  There really is no danger involving the mind, in fact, it actually helped in controlling the mind and using the mind.

 

None of this was easy at the beginning, but after time players could do things they never imagined.  One day the instructor came in and laid face down on the floor with his arms reached straight out above his head.  He then took his finger tips only and proceeded to do push ups.  This looked completely impossible.  By the time the season started most of our players could do it.  Our pregame stretching would end with players doing these push ups.  We just did it to blow everyone's mind.  I didn't do it, but it involved using muscles in the body rather than the arms.

 

Once again, we designed a program that used certain Karate techniques and movements that were related to baseball.  We weren't breaking boards or bricks. I'm positive that it improved every player in one way or another.