Improving Power Output in Rotational Athletes

For the basis of this article, it’s important to note that we primarily work with softball, baseball, and golf athletes. To some degree, all sports are rotational so the importance of rotational power is a must in all sports. Even linear actions, such as sprinting derive most of their power from rotational power development. The reason that we began working with a lot of softball players in our area was fairly simple, they were injured. Anyone around the youth softball or baseball world can tell you that the seasons are blending together more every year with a constant tracking and evaluation of performance metrics in their sport. From an athlete or parent’s point of view, this can be a difficult thing to understand and it quickly becomes frustrating. They want to become better at the technical aspects of their sport (hitting or throwing) so they practice more and it works for a while. Then there is a tipping point where performance decreases and then injuries begin. This is something that I refer to as “Bigger motor, same brakes” problem. When we’re tracking sport specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI) like pitching speed, exit velocity and they’re increasing power output, we need to make sure that we’re increasing our ability to control the additional forces and keeping proper kinematic sequencing. Here are some of the mistakes we commonly see (and have been guilty of at some point), what we should be looking for, and the solutions for these common areas of concern in rotational athletes. 

Mistakes. Let’s start with mistakes. I think it’s first important to point out that most people helping these youth athletes are doing what they feel is correct because they care. We frequently have to seek new ways to challenge our thought process and constantly evaluate performance removing our own bias as much as possible. 

1- Core Training. Training the core is very important. There is no getting around that. Misguided core training (countless sit ups and Russian twists) is a waste of time at best. Many times, this can lead to survival tactics that has athletes using more low back and momentum to finish exercises than actually training the movement they’re attempting. Core training is also misunderstood in the way we try to isolate the abdomen muscles, but in reality and sport training needs to be progressed and trained from the ground up in a dynamic fashion and with load. If we can’t load properly from the ground up into our core structure, then we will always have compromised movement patterns in sports. 

2- Replicating Sport Movements. In thought, it makes sense to mimic sport movements in the weight room. If those movements were able to use heavier loads or move at a higher velocity we could expect to see a direct transfer to sport. The issue we have found is generally that sometimes the best thing for the athlete is to add what they’re not doing in sport. For example, instead of trying to rotate faster, can they stabilize? Once they can stabilize can they lift a heavier load? As an example, we began working with a high level golf player. She was doing her weekly hitting lessons and drills to improve club head speed and driving distance. When we began working together, she struggled to maintain a plank position for over 30 seconds. We built stabilization and then moved into compound lifts like hex bar deadlift and squats and progressively increased the load on those movements. As a result her club head speed increased significantly and her driving distance increased over 35 yards. 

3- More Volume. When beginning with untrained athletes, we have learned that they have a very low capacity for efficient movement. Sometimes it’s a strength issue or it’s more of a neurological inefficiency that needs addressed. This is easy to see using tests from the TPI screening like Torso Rotation, Pelvic Rotation, and Pelvic Tilt Test. In these tests, you’ll see if the athlete is actually able to indecently control their torso or their pelvis. If they can’t then there’s potentially a muscular restriction which will limit power output or there’s a poor neurological pathway in the movement which could increase energy leaks during their sport movement. Practicing these drills as part of a warm up is a great way increase efficiency and takes very little time. When we simply find an issue, whether strength or neurological, we need to keep quality in mind over quantity. 

Screening Rotational Athletes

Needs Analysis

Athlete Name

Sex

Goals

Injury History

Training Experience

Sport(s)

Position

Demands of Sport

Sleep

Happiness

At this point, I believe every athlete should have a movement screening and performance assessment prior to training and then reevaluated every 8-12 weeks from there. While this may seem like a lot to fit, we have to understand that if the point of things like showcases in front of college coaches is to display the best performance possible then we need start with a firm base of understanding of what we really need to develop. We use a basic Needs Analysis with our movement and performance screen to develop a proper plan for each athlete. Here are some things to include in your Needs Analysis

Having these basic questions covered helps you have a base understanding of the person you’re working with before any training. As my friend, Todd Hamer always reminds me when working with athletes it’s “People first, Athlete second, and Sport third”.

Next would be our Movement Screen. For the sake of this article, we will condense it to a few simple screens that allow for a gross assessment. 

Overhead Squat Test- Helps assess Shoulder, Thoracic Spine, Hip, and Ankle mobility. Grab a PVC overhead with arms at 90 degrees, feet shoulder width apart with toes straight ahead. Squat down into a full squat keeping the stick overhead and in line with the hips. Watch for any restriction and any heel lift or feet turning out to compensate for ankle dorsiflexion restrictions. 

Torso Rotation Test- Can the torso rotate independently from the lower body in a smooth consistent motion without restriction? When athletes struggle to rotate their torso, it limits the amount of separation they can create from one hip to the opposite shoulder. This is very limiting for producing a high amount of power. 

Pelvic Rotation Test- Can the pelvis rotate independently from the upper body in a smooth consistent motion without restriction? Athletes that can’t efficiently rotate their pelvis have a difficult time maintaining a coiled position. This can lead to them losing their stance early or not getting enough loading into their movement. 

Bridge with Leg Extension Test - This is to test glute and core stability. For rotational athletes, if they struggle to maintain stability when they’re hitting an object then they’re likely to go away or too far toward an object to create contact which would result in a decreased power output. 

Putting it Together

Once the information is collected, it’s then time for the athlete to train. For a overwhelming majority of the athletes that come to us, there is a large strength deficit. The technical skills have usually reached a point where they will not improve until strength increases. When referring to strength, it’s not as simple as an increase in max strength. For most of our athletes, we just look to gradually increase their work volume performed (Sets x Reps x Weight). When that number increases and the ability to recover is the same, we see an increase in performance. Here is an outline of a 2 Day Template that we would commonly use with our rotational athletes. The exercises can be subbed based on equipment available as long as the movements are similar. This could be used for up to 4 weeks with little to no variation other than gradually adjusting the reps, weight, or tempo weekly. If an athlete was to be in season using this template, you could simply control the intensity based on competition schedule and avoiding introducing new movements. Our goal on a weekly basis is to address all planes of motion and to have our athletes using their entire body more effectively. This has lead to a better overall performance in their sport. 

Day 1

Sets

Reps

Weight

In Place Warm Up

1x10

Change of Direction Sprints

5-8

A1) Box Squat

5x5

A2) Reset Vertical Jump

5x4

B1) 1 DB Overhead Press

3x10

B2) Blast Strap Row

3x10

B3) Standing Band Rotation

3x10

C1) Swiss Ball Glute Bridge

2x10

C2) Swiss Ball Plank

2x30 seconds

Day 2

Sets

Reps

Weight

Dynamic Warm Up

1x10 Yards

Sprints

5-8

A1) Football Bar Bench Press

5x5

A2) Chin Up/Pulldown

5x8

A3) Med Ball Scoop Throw

5x4

B1) RDL

3x10

B2) Slider Lateral Lunge

3x5-8/side

B3) Standing Woodchop

3x10

C1) Serrano Press

2x20

C2) DB Farmers Walk

If you’re working with rotational athletes, there is a lot of knowledge to be gained from observing athletes in other sports that are similar but different. For example, if you work with baseball or softball maybe observe golfers or tennis players and learn what they’re using for screens, training, recovery etc. There is a lot of carryover that will benefit the athletes in the long run. Rotational sport training has come along way in a short time in regards to collecting data and putting together purposeful training plans for athletes. When I started working with softball and baseball players 15 years ago, running poles and mile runs were standard protocol and while this is still happening, it’s becoming much less frequent. Rotational athletes also used to be advised to approach weight rooms only to use BOSU balls and resistance bands and now the attitude towards that has completely shifted. If you don’t believe so, look at a current picture of Tiger Woods at 47 years old and in his 27th years a professional. We have already seen a significant increase in performance in professional baseball and as access becomes more available, it will trickle to all other sports.

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