Improving foot speed

If speed is so important in baseball, why don’t many players specifically train to make themselves faster?  They spend a lot of time improving handwork and glove work to improve the quickness of their catching and throwing transitions.  They hit

the weight room to improve strength, bat speed, and power.  They may run some sprints and incorporate some distance work for overall endurance and stamina.  So why don’t they specifically train to be a better sprinter to get down the line faster or steal more bases?  That’s the first thing scouts look for so you can’t say it is not important enough to train.  In my opinion, here are several reasons why players avoid speed work:

• Players assume you can either run fast or you can’t.  It’s not something you can really improve on much.  WRONG!
• They feel that if they wanted to train in running, they would have gone out for the track team not the baseball team.  WEAK ARGUMENT!
• They hate running so they avoid doing it.  VERY SHORT SIGHTED!
• They don’t know how to train to become faster.  IT’S A REASON BUT NOT A GOOD EXCUSE!

Sprinters constantly work on the minor details that make themselves faster out of the gate and throughout the total distance they have to run.  The drills they use everyday are great for any athlete willing to put in the work to become better runners.  Here is my advice …

Step #1:  Talk to a track coach!

That’s exactly what I did recently.  Tomorrow’s post is the audio of that 20 minute interview!  You don’t want to miss it!  Future posts are coming that will touch on many of the things we talked about.  Stay tuned!

Have any great resources, tips, or information for players and coaches looking to improve their speed?  Leave them in the comment section below.  It now works fine!  We’d all love to hear from you!