What I Learned From The Winter Olympics
Coach Dan Huff, CSCS
I'm more than willing to admit that I hate the winter. It really has nothing to offer me, especially since I got rid of my Camaro and can't do crazy donuts in the snow anymore. Sure, I enjoy an occasional snow day and love watching my dog have a blast trying to find the snow balls that I throw for her. "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby But as much as I hate the winter and can't stand any of the winter sports I love watching the Winter Olympics. I don't understand the events for the most part and the only thing I like about ice skating is watching them fall down… hard! So, if I don't like the events, why do I like watching the Olympics? To be perfectly honest, I love watching the personal interest stories of these athletes. No, not the stories of people overcoming family struggles, economic difficulties, or psychological issues. I couldn't care less about that. I love watching the stories of how hard these athletes train to get to where they are today. They have the strongest work ethic I have ever seen when it comes to working out. Some of them have top notch training centers with all of the bells and whistles while others have rusty old weights in the back of a barn. While their training facilities may be as different as night and day there is one thing that they all have in common and that is… Intensity! These athletes are training for an entire lifetime to spend only moments in the spotlight. How awesome is that? And most of these events are decided by hundredths of a second. In fact one of the speed skating races was determined by .006 seconds, yes that 6 thousandths of a second! With that split second being the difference between a medal and an "also ran" don't you think every single repetition of every single set deserves 100% intensity? Do you think that these athletes are wasting time with exercises & drills that don't contribute directly to their goal of winning a gold medal? So how does this apply to baseball? You've heard that baseball is a game of seconds & inches, right? Well, that means that every play in baseball is similar to an Olympic competition. If you are .01 seconds late on a pitch you might fly out to right field to end the game instead of driving in the game winning runs with a 2 RBI double off the wall in the left-center gap. The difference between a ground out and an infield single is a matter of inches either way. So, what determines if these inches and seconds go in your favor? Intensity! I've seen so many guys think that they are doing a great thing by spending hours in the weight room. They do a dozen exercises with hundreds of repetitions for each muscle group. And they wonder why I kick them out of the weight room for wasting their time. When you get into the weight room you need to remember one very simple concept -- Quality Over Quantity! I'd rather have you focus with 100% intensity on 3 or 4 exercises per workout knowing that you are squeezing every drop of benefit out of every single repetition instead of doing twice as much work with half the intensity. And when it comes to exercise selection make sure that you have a solid answer as to how the exercise that you are doing will benefit you on the baseball field. Don't waste your time & energy on exercises that don't have any carry over to the skills that you need on the field. If the sport of baseball doesn't need it, don't do it! It's really that simple. So the next time you set foot in the weight room take a look around and see who is training with the intensity of an Olympian and who is wasting too much time with too little intensity. Step up your intensity to swing those inches and seconds in your favor!
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