Pilates For Baseball

Sports Conditioning offers an edge over the competition. The purpose of sports conditioning is to complement current sports training. Sports conditioning is more demanding than general fitness training. Sports conditioning is ideal for children who strive for greater performance in any sporting activity. It is meant to enhance an individual’s strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, speed, and power, which can be carried over into all sports.

Athletes perform exercises with weights, fitness bands, medicine balls, bodyweight, etc. Athletes and coaches are constantly seeking an advantage over the competition to help them achieve an edge. Many teams and athletes can gain an edge over the competition through intense sports conditioning programs. A good sports conditioning program incorporates specific skills into strength and conditioning to help athlete target specific performance requirements.

Besides improved performance, the conditioning program is an important step in injury prevention. Many athletes are not aware that sports conditioning is a necessity for injury prevention. Conditioning can help develop the strength, flexibility, and agility necessary to protect joints from injury. In recent years more coaches and parents have come to realize the benefits of a conditioning program. Proper training can reduce the incidence of injury in young athletes and also offers teams a chance to grow strong together. Teaching a young athlete proper technique will prevent injury and ensure results, but there is always a chance for injury, even if the body is properly protected and conditioned.

Sports conditioning helps prepare athletes to better able to apply their sport-specific skills. Traditional fitness training is great for helping people look good and achieve basic fitness goals such as weight loss, strength gain, cardiovascular endurance, and more flexibility. Athletes of all levels and abilities need a more sports-oriented training program besides general fitness. Young athletes must include unique exercises that feed into the skill requirements of their sports.

Sports conditioning should be directly related to the type of sport in which the individual participates. A good conditioning program includes strength, power, speed, quickness, agility, movement skills, deceleration, balance, reactivity and anaerobic capacity. The conditioning program should be specific to the sport and should meet the individual needs of the athlete.

The only way to train for peak performance is to have a plan. The conditioning should be complementary to the demands of practices and the game itself. The goal should be two-fold, peak performance in games and future goals. The intensity and extent of an individualized program should take into account the physical needs of the athlete and their goals after a careful evaluation, the time frame established to reach the goals, and the amount of hours each week an athlete can regularly devote to a program.

Sports conditioning is now a year-round commitment for many athletes. It often includes four training seasons each year: pre-season, in-season, post-season, and off-season. The most important aspect of sports conditioning is establishing a good fitness base. Once the athlete has a high level of general fitness they can begin to train with more advanced and more sport-specific exercises. Youth sports conditioning is a fast growing trend in today’s fitness industry. Keep in mind that sports conditioning should be directly related to the sport in which the athlete competes. Most sports conditioning programs are designed for athletes who are training to improve their performance, but they do offer injury prevention benefits because the athlete will become stronger, more flexible, and more ready to compete. Make sure you find a quality program with qualified trainers because your child’s health and happiness come first.

By Karen M. Goeller

There are many components that contribute to an effective tennis-training programme but whilst most people will readily mention strength, endurance, flexibility, speed etc one of the most important yet understated components is variety.

Your body is fantastically adaptive in as much as if you repeat the same thing over and over you will adapt and it will become the norm (an important factor in learning), however if you perform the same workout routine (no matter how good it is) it will eventually prove counter productive as all initial gains you make plateau and there will be no overload and any gains will be reversed.

Think of it another way, if you play your favourite song over and over again for too long it will eventually lose its early appeal.

This is where using other sports and methods of training (or cross-training as it is known), is important.

For the pro players that I work with, participating in other sports keeps them physically and mentally fresh (they obviously play so much tennis) whilst still promoting a training stimulus.

For my junior players (minis included) as well as my recreational adults (some very serious and not too recreational by the way), it is a way of training many of the fitness components critical for tennis away from the tennis environment whilst still retaining a competitive games – based edge. This is especially true of the “mini” juniors for whom early “specialisation” in a single sport has been shown to be counterproductive.

Here are some ideas to either spice up or enhance a program you are currently doing, or to get you started on a new one.

1. Participate in sports such as basketball, soccer, baseball or volleyball.

All these sports have the stop-start repeated sprint tempo that tennis requires with soccer providing a multidirectional agility-training stimulus that is vital for effective court coverage. Although basketball and volleyball include many directional changes as well, they have a large leg power component to them through the repeated jumping that takes place.

Baseball has many useful tennis related aspects to it such as pitching and getting the ball from base to base (which are throwing actions like the tennis serve) and sliding to make base can be very useful when you come to play on clay where sliding is a vital component for success.

2. Use outdoor activities.

Cardio training can be achieved by running, hiking (also good for leg strength), skating (balance and agility), skipping (co-ordination), cycling and swimming, to mention just a few. If you are in a park you could use equipment such as benches, balance beams, monkey bars, rope climbs etc. to do body weight driven exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, balancing, step-ups, squat jumps, tricep dips, calf raises, etc.

As always start slowly and at your own pace and progress slowly increasing the length and/or intensity as you improve.

So, with a little thought and creativity you can combine all the fitness components necessary for improving tennis performance into workouts that take place away from your normal tennis environment, thereby allowing you to be physically and sometimes more importantly mentally fresh every time you step back on the court to play a match or have a lesson.

Who knows you may even find yourself having fun whist getting fitter and improving your tennis!

Before starting any exercise program, always be sure to first consult your physician.

Team apparel is what gives the team an identity and a personality, adding the final touch making them ready for the match. The team apparel should be of a bright color and each of the jerseys, caps and other accessories must have the names and numbers of all the players. This is what helps the audience identify them from up on the stands. Also, after a while if a player has been performing amazingly well, his number becomes very popular and fans start looking to buy a jersey or T shirt with the number on it. Children especially love to wear T shirts and jackets with their favorite star players name or number. This gives them a newfound confidence and draws respect from their friends. Each and every team in the various sports played across the world has a unique color code, pattern and style that they follow.

Sometimes it is specified by the governing board, while other times, they simply follow a tradition. The number 23 in football world is identified with David Beckham of England who is very popular for his performance on the field and for his good looks. This can be seen in the movie that was released where a young girl aspired to become like him. Such is the impact of sports memorabilia and the apparel worn by the players. There are various company that offer to make the team apparels based on the specification given by the team’s manager or head. Football, basketball, baseball,hockey,volleyball are all sports that have uniforms and the players wear same color style outfits. In fact every team has a cheer leading squad who are also fitted with their own specially made team apparels. There are some other events which involve individual participation, but they might be representing a country, in which case the clothes they wear will be uniform for all from that country, this can be seen in athletics or gymnastics.

For volleyball, the players are required to wear a collared T shirt and a pair of shorts, and similarly every sport has its own set of rules of how the uniform should be. Based on this, the companies will manufacture the team jerseys and T shirts. Depending on the requirement of the game, and rules applied the team apparel should be made. For example, in a Wimbledon tournament, players are instructed to wear only white colored outfits, and so based on their needs, team apparels, are created. It is therefore essential to adhere to the rules of the game, the necessity and style that would best suit the sport. They outfits must be neat, smart looking, comfortable and not very fancy. If all these criteria are worked on, then the players will be able to focus on the game instead of on what they are wearing. In most sports, players will have two kinds of team apparels, one that they were during the match and other type worn for practice sessions and during warm ups.