Prep Baseball Report sat down with performance trainer Casey Fisk to discuss Strength Building in today’s Baseball Players

About Casey Fisk: Fisk is the owner and head performance trainer at Fisk Performance Training.  He holds degrees in exercise science from Illinois State University and in education from Ferris State University.  Casey is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and a personal trainer (CPT) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). 

PBR:When a person generally thinks about Speed & Agility one always assumes linear speed is the ultimate goal, can you speak about the process of speed and agility trainings?

Fisk:Baseball is a different animal in that regard. By and large, baseball is a "turn and burn" sport. We don't have to shuffle back and forth and change directions, like basketball and football players do when reacting to their opponents. Baseball players react once, and then it's about speed to a point on the field. As such, sprint work is huge. More to the point, it's about anticipation and footwork into the first 2-4 steps. Top-end speed can’t be impacted as much through training as can the time it takes to reach it and the distance covered as you reach it. Both of those are incredibly impactful.

PBR:Discuss the importance of getting a baseline of an athlete’s performance?

Fisk: Stated simply, a person's "after" photo means little without a "before" photo. How much progress did you make, and how long did that progress take? That's where the rubber hits the road from a training perspective.

PBR: How can poor/ inadequate nutrition be detrimental to a player’s strength and conditioning program?

Fisk: Would you put diesel fuel in a Ferrari? The human body is the only machine that will change both its form and its function based on the fuel you feed it.  Nutrition makes up 70-85% of how you look, feel, and function.

PBR:Discuss your philosophy on recovery phases for in-season and off-season strength building for Fisk Performance Training?

Fisk: Post season: Recovery: I believe that baseball players should take 2-3 months off from baseball skills work after the season to focus on correcting the strength and flexibility imbalances that the rigors of the sport produce. For example, if a player throws and hits right-handed, he is constantly planting and rotating against/over his left leg. Over time, if this is not balanced out through proper training, the player is at a greater risk of injury. I'm tempted to specify where the injury may occur, but the truth is that injuries occur at the weakest point in the kinetic (movement) chain. The planting and rotating over the left leg will, obviously, affect the lower back, hip, and knee (especially the IT band). If the lower body is strong enough to accept the game stresses, the focus shifts to the thoracic spine (upper back), rotator cuff, shoulder girdle, and elbow. Whatever is weakest will fail first. Throwers must identify their weaknesses and train to strengthen them and bring them into balance with the surrounding musculature. Attempting to do this while continuing to create the imbalances that the game itself promotes is difficult.

Off Season: Strength and Size: Following our post-season work, we have about 3-4 months to focus on becoming a beast. John F. Kennedy once aid, "If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help." There are no limits of milestones to reach and rest on during the off season. How strong can you get? Let's find out. Our primary exercises are front squat, back squat, deadlift, bench press (yes, bench press), and barbell row. 

Understand this: The primary importance of strength work is to maximize our power work in the pre-season. Some trainers don't like Olympic lifts, but I think that the power clean is one of the most powerful indicators of strength, speed, coordination, timing, and athletic ability that we have at our disposal in the weight room. On average, a lifter can power clean 50-60% of what he/she can back squat. Our goal for a HS varsity athlete is to have him/her power clean his/her body weight at least one time. That means that he/she would need to be able to back squat roughly 2X body weight during the off season.

Side note: Every year, we do a PFP (Pound-For-Pound) competition. In a 7-day span, our athletes perform a 1-rep max on back squat, bench press, and power clean. We add their totals and divide the sum by their body weight. The 5X club is in the pantheon of HS baseball athletes. 

In Season: I don't care a lick if players get stronger during their competitive season. They've had the entire off-season to get stronger, and now the focus is on competition.  I care a whole lot that they don't get weaker or less explosive, because that directly relates to on-field performance. I like a 2X per week in-season program in which the athlete performs one max rep set with his/her preseason 5RM weight, followed by 2-3 sets of power/speed work with roughly half of that weight. These sessions should take no more than 30-45 minutes.

NOTE: Why in the world would a coach emphasize the importance of an off-season lifting program, if he/she is willing to give back those gains during the season? I'm on-board with a coach who believes that strength helps, and I respect a coach who doesn't believe in lifting weights (and I hope my players compete against yours). I can't fathom the reasoning that strength is important from November through February, but it doesn't matter from March through June. I'm in the camp that believes that strength is never a weakness. All I ask is that coaches deliver a consistent message. If it doesn't matter for three months of the year, it doesn't matter for the other nine. If it matters at all, it matters all the time.

PBR: What are your thoughts on the increase in Labrum Injuries?

Fisk: I have worked with 11 baseball players who were recovering from labrum surgery, and EVERY doctor indicated the need for the athlete to strengthen the postural muscles in the thoracic spine in order to retract the scapulae (shoulder blades). Essentially, the doctors were advocating postural improvement. Posture is HUGELY overlooked in the assessment of modern throwing athletes. These kids spend a large amount of time sitting, reading, typing, texting, and playing video games - all of which reinforce poor posture. When a thrower's shoulder blades protract (shoulders round forward and/or down) the acromion process of the scapula presses on the labrum, rotator cuff tendons, biceps tendon, and acromio-clavicular (AC) joint. Simply retracting the scapulae (pulling them back toward the spine) through proper strength training allowed each of these 11 athletes to move on and play D-I baseball without further arm trouble.