Reaction time, change of direction speed, first step quickness and acceleration are all skills that are required for the success of any baseball player or team and should be the focus on any baseball speed training program. Fortunately, these are all skills that can be taught and developed in any athlete. The important thing is to specifically address speed training in your preseason and in season practices and programs.

As I said before, when you consider how many close plays there are, for example, at first base, even an improvement of one-tenth of a second over the course of the 90 feet that athletes travel as they attempt to get on base could result in your team scoring multiple runs each and every game.

Coaches often endorse the idea that athletes spend countless hours at the batting cages. I always see players out there at the cages and at the fields fine tuning their swing mechanics. Yet, if these athletes spent more time and energy focusing the baseball speed training component of their game, their batting averages and on base percentages would benefit in ways that always shock the athletes that I work with. It’s really only a matter of altering your focus. Most coaches don’t know much about speed development or haven’t really thought about the benefits of this training because it wasn’t something that was focused on when they were younger and playing the sport.

However, the level of athletic ability that baseball players possess at every position has skyrocketed over just the past few years. In order to stay competitive, both coaches and athletes must evolve the way they coach and train. One of the most effective ways to improve your program and your chances for success is to implement proven baseball speed training techniques.

As I mentioned before, there are specific elements of speed training that directly apply to baseball players. By addressing these factors, your program and athletes will see the kinds of results that will have you wondering why you waited so long to make this a foundational part of your team’s training.

Change of direction speed training will help your infielders break on ground balls and turn double plays and help your outfielders track down balls or adjust to fly balls that they initially misread.

Improving first step quickness will add to the change of direction speed benefits. We’ve already covered the fact that milliseconds can have a significant impact on the final results of every game. Having the initial speed and quickness to turn base hits into ground outs and turn base hits into fly outs is a skill that your athletes must have. In addition, athletes who have a great first step are going to get on base exponentially more than athletes who have a difficult time getting going. While developing that lightning fast first step, athletes should be improving acceleration mechanics and speed. A 1/10 of a second improvement over the course of a 30 yard sprint is far from exceptional. If that improvement results in getting on base an additional 1 out of every 10 times athletes put a ball in play, do you think that would have a positive impact on your team’s success. I know how much baseball players and coaches pay attention to statistics, so I’ll let you think about the astronomical improvement to batting average and OBP that baseball speed training will address.

As you can see, baseball speed training is the missing component to your program. The best athletes in any sport are the fastest athletes and developing this skill can do nothing but improve your team’s chances for success. The bottom line is that there’s simply no excuse for neglecting this element of training.