Posts Tagged ‘grip training’
June 7th, 2010 | 
Author: This is my first season pitching within a true 5-man rotation. In college and summer ball, there often are too many off-days to make the rotation stable. Weekend series in college mean that starters generally pitch once a week, giving ample time for physical and skill work in between outings.
But in the professional season, off-days are few and far between, and the rotation gives each starter 4 days to prepare for his next outing. Everyone is different in what he needs to prepare, but I’ll share my own preparation schedule that I feel gives me the best chance to succeed and stay strong throughout the season. Read the rest of this entry »
Grip strength is critically important, and I have been harping on it for some time. EVERYONE can use increased grip strength, and the implications it has on throwing harder, swinging harder and preventing injury are huge. Grip, or hand strength can be classified in many different ways, but today we are going to focus on just open and closed hand strength, the differences between them and their implications for pitchers and hitters.
Closed Hand Strength
This is just what it sounds like, holding things with a closed fist. This is the most important type of strength for a hitter to have, as gripping the bat is done with closed fists. This isn’t meant to be groundbreaking info, but I want you to see the carryover from the weight room to the field for both pitchers and hitters.
Closed hands gripping a bat
If you haven’t already realized, I love grip training and my favorite piece of equipment is my rock rings. These versatile rock climbing holds feature four different grips to challenge one’s open hand strength. They make for some super hard chin and pull ups, but can be tied to basically anything…like dumbbells!
Rock Rings rigged to dumbbell with carabiner
Close up of the three finger pocket in use
Pictured here is Adam Baxley, a freshman catcher at Frostburg U. What we did with him was a 4 hold drop set – he started with the most difficult grip (3 finger shallow pocket) then when he couldn’t hold anymore, picked the weights back up with the next easiest grip, ending with the big sloper hold. This way we were able to get his hands under tension longer, which resulted in a really tough grip exercise (he’ll attest to that).
Hand and finger strength is really under-appreciated and under-trained in the baseball community. This blows my mind, as the last thing a thrown ball is in contact with is the (drumroll please) fingertips! Sure, doing wrist curls, holding heavy things, etc. etc. develops grip and forearm strength, but it’s just not the exact type of strength I see as most important- fingertip strength. If you haven’t been to your local rock climbing wall recently, you’ll realize how lacking your finger strength is – even if you have monster forearms and a great closed hand grip.
I’m hitting the rock climbing gym 2-3 times a week right now. Do I expect it to help me throw harder? Yes. I do. Can’t imagine how it wouldn’t.