Guys/Gals - Need your advice on how to improve Everyday 2016son 60 time.
Ran 7.4/7.6 consistently a year ago... now 7.9/8.1
Normal weight/muscle gain yet getting slower.
Would be a crying shame for this to hold him back. Natural MIF
Track, speed coach recommendations for Chicago metro?
Prefer northwest Chicago suburbs although will travel for a good coach.
Other advice/tips?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
This subject comes up all the time here. Do a search and you will find all kinds of suggestions. Best is for your son to contact the HS track coach and ask for a routine, as well as lifting program to match.
Check this article : http://www.perfectgame.org/Art...ew.aspx?article=1300
Also, how is he doing in the gym? My son spent about six months in the gym doing a lot of leg work - squats, curls, extensions, box jumps, shuttles, etc. in order to strengthen his legs for pitching.
A side effect - he went from one of the slowest kids on the team to one of the fastest.
Thanks BOF. Just wondering any Chicago recommendations. I've seen the track coach reference before which we will look into.
Rob/BOF - Think you hit on something as well regarding the weight training.
He played football his freshman year and I think the training associated with the program helped him.
Kind of simple. Time to work harder!!!!!!!!
Run faster. 
Do a search here. That is a great article posted above. Also check out Davis speed center.
My 2015 Catcher went from a 7.9 to 7.5 in 4 months. Technique was evaluated by speed coach. Tweaked it a little. What really did it is worked on the strengthening of the legs and core. Worked!
Everyday,
I swear I have posted this a million times but here goes again:
Sprint and speed trainers will give you a phased lifting program that matches the season you are in. For sprinters right after season with a little recovery time they go into a heavy weight lifting phase for x months, they then transition to an explosive phase, and then they taper down to maintenance phase during track season. They don't do a lot of running other than some technique work during the heavy lifting phase. When they get into the explosive phase they start to work on actual sprinting work. This is all done when they are fresh and they stop when there is any fatigue since it develops bad technique.
Baseball players should do the same thing, and they should be winding down their heavy lifting and moving into an explosive phase soon leading up to the season practice start in January. My point is that speed development is as much about lifting properly as well as running.
If it was me and my son had not been on a program, I would get him on a short heavy lifting phase now, probably going into December and then switch over to the explosive stuff.
Here are some good national references. I swear I should be getting commissions from these guys, but I have no vested interest in any of them other than spreading the word on how important weight training is to baseball.
I would start with eric Cressey.
Good luck!
It's a long way from 7.4 to 7.9 to the middle infield.
I too will repeat some advice I have offered on here numerous times. Make sure your son is preparing for and running the sixty in a way that leads to the best times. At my son's two Perfect Game events for example I noticed that he and maybe only five other guys were really doing some stretching and practice starts while most of the guys were standing around yakking. Get right up to the start line and run seventy yards hard. Notice I said seventy yards not sixty. I saw numerous guys slow down before the end of the sprint. They lost probably a couple of tenths of a second right there. If he can and they run in pairs, purposely pick someone faster than him so that he will be forced to run all out to try to beat the other guy.
DON'T RUN SIDEWAYS!!! I see so many guys that don't run straight through the track. They use energy and actually run a longer distance.
EXPLODE on the start!! Be low and come up as he runs the first twenty yards or so.
Arm movement especially side to side can really cost a runner precious time.
Leaning back as the player is running is not good technique either.
Be in shape to sprint! Those ten extra pounds around the middle or on the back on the thighs don't help.
Have the legs ready to run and run hard!
I honestly feel many guys can improve their time if they just work at learning HOW to prepare and run. Both my sons ran both high school and AAU track and the younger opted for track over baseball in college.
Here is an article PGStaff did some time ago that is a good overview:
http://www.perfectgame.org/Art...ew.aspx?article=1300
