Workouts That Increase Batting Speed

Batting speed for baseball or softball is important for overall performance as a ball player. Building up speed takes time and effort but can be accomplished through many different workouts. These include total body, weight room, abdominal and resistance workouts.

  1. Weight-Room Workout

    • One of the main sources of batting power and speed is muscle strength. According to Jon Doyle's award winning tips to improve early batting speed, weight-room workouts are a good place to start. A medicine ball should be used to do circuits that focus on torso and shoulder movements. These exercises should be done everyday to build upper-body and core strength. Range of motion exercises should be done for shoulder, hip and torso muscles everyday to help increase forward propulsion when batting. Tumbling drills and spider lunges can be used to build fine muscles and reaction time. One-arm snatches can be done using a dumbbell, kettlebell or barbell to build arm, wrist and hand muscles as well as improve motor skills. Doyle suggests keeping a relaxed body when performing these exercises because this will train your body to make explosive movements in a loose state, which is how you should be when batting (see reference 1).

    Abdominal Workouts

    • Core muscles provide rotational torque needed to increase batting power and speed. Lower and upper abdominals, as well as your oblique muscles should be strengthened in order to get the best batting speed results. Weighted crunches can be used to strengthen upper abdominal muscles. These are done by laying on your back with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle in the air while holding a free-weight straight in front of your chest and raising your upper body. Hanging leg raises, done by hanging on an overhead bar and pulling your knees up to just above your waist at a 90-degree angle, strengthen lower abdominals. While standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and abdominal muscles slightly crunched, twist from side to side as fast as you can while holding a free-weight about eight inches in front of your chest. This exercise will strengthen oblique and other core muscles (see reference 2).

    Total Body

    • Your body is a complex system. If one or more parts is not in tip-top shape, the system will not perform at its best. When working out to improve batting speed, make sure not to focus just on arms and core. Strengthen legs, back and heart as well. Go running to improve leg strength and build your lungs. Doing cardio will strengthen your heart and lungs. By training your whole body, you'll get a better outcome and help prevent injuries (see reference 2).

    Resistance

    • One of the keys to gaining more speed in your batting is to work out with resistance. This can be done using resistance bands or weights. A couple of exercises that can be done with resistance are standing ball chops done either high to low, or low to high. With this exercise, you attach a resistance band to an overhead object such as a pull-up bar. Then you grab the handle of the band with the hand that would be closest to the pitcher when you're batting, placing your other hand on top of that hand. For high to low ball chops, chopping motions are then done such as would be done if a ball were to be hit off a tee. For low to high ball chops, chopping movements are done such as would be done if you were swinging at a golf ball. Using a lighter resistance band and doing your movements in a rapid fashion, while still maintaining proper form, will increase the speed at which your muscles contract. This will transfer to gaining speed in your batting (see reference 3).