One nice thing about strength - it's about the last attribute to leave us as we get older. Even at your "advanced age" (I'm 49) you can be as strong or stronger as you were in your 20s. It's simply a matter of training properly for your game.

     It may be that you're doing the right things, but not in the proper amount - too many or too few exercises, reps, or sets. You might also be doing some exercises that are hampering your progress.

5)  "What are your best five strength drills with weights or without for a 12 year old?"

      1) Push ups, 2) Pull ups, 3) Ab crunches, 4) Supermans (on stomach, lift arms straight out front while lifting legs, as if flying. Up, back down is one rep), 5) One Leg squats.

     Start with two sets of 10 reps, 2 minute rest between sets. Work up to 2 sets, 15 reps. When he can do this, go to 3 sets, 10 reps. Work up again to 15 reps. When he can do 3 sets of 15, he's ready to begin weight lifting.

6) "I just bought your three booklets, and am playing fall ball on an aau team in New York, and have about 3-4 weeks left in our season, playing tournaments on the weekend (4-5 games). I play outfield, both for my school and aau team. During the off season, I'll be doing 2 different preseason workouts in doors, one night a week each, for my school and aau team.

"When I referred to workouts, I meant like drills and batting practice and a few conditioning things, not really weight lifting, I do that on my own. As of right now with 2 weeks left in the season I run everyday (sometimes not if I'm playing a tournament on a weekend), a little more then 1.5 miles because my coach says to do that to strengthen our legs as well as our lungs."

     Quit the distance running now. Long distance running will make your legs weaker for the power movements required of a pitcher. Do the sprint intervals in my S & C program. And pitching doesn’t require strong lungs.

"Then I alternate my weight training mainly during weekdays, one day squats using a smith machine approximately 185 lbs at 4 sets of 8. And then bench press the other days, usually free weight, not the smith machine, 130 lbs 4 sets of 5. I believe you said that if you run and weight train it slows down your strength increase..."

     Good. Smith machine OK for squats, BAD for bench press. LD running will adversely affect your strength/power work. Follow my S & C program as specified.

"I plan on stopping the long distance running once the season is over and starting to lift more and according to your plan." 

     Good!

"Oh, a few more things. I don't know if this matters but im 6'1" and 160-165 and am just about to turn 15, in sophomore year."

     In this case, DO NOT do the power phase of my weight training workout until you are 16. At this age, your growth plates will likely be closed. They may well be now, but without X-ray verification, we can only guess. Just alternate back and forth between the hypertrophy phase and the strength phase. Do everything else as specified in the program.  If someone makes comments about your weight/size, ignore them. You have a lot of growth still ahead of you. Be sure to eat properly and get LOTS of rest – no late-night partying!  ;-)

"I'm trying to gain some pounds in order to make varsity and at this point my longest shot was around 385'. I also plan to start basketball in the middle of November for conditioning."

     A key thing about gaining weight – keep all of your workouts to 60 minutes or less. This may be difficult to do if you’re on the basketball team, but you don’t want to run off all the muscle/strength you’ll be gaining!

7) "My son has no speed on the base paths. He's hit several over center fielders head (no fence), just making a double. One dad jokingly asked if he stopped at first for directions! So, do you have some drills or workouts that can help his speed develop?

     The best way to run faster is to practice running faster. Running has its own set of mechanics that can be improved upon by a knowledgeable coach. See if the high school sprint coach, or a nearby college sprint coach can work with your son.

     The two biggest things to work on are stride length and stride frequency. No doubt there will be other "tweaks" to his running style and mechanics that will improve his speed.

     An excellent baseball-specific running speed development program can be found by clicking here.

8)  "I purchased your strength and conditioning book, "The Baseball Fit Guide" and I have a couple questions.  I bought the book for my daughter who is a 16 year old softball player.  We are about the start the Strength Training program on page 6 of your book.

"Is there anything in this program that is not appropriate for a 16 year old girl?  She has worked out some before, both with the team and individually.  Just wanted to make sure we aren't taking any unnecessary risk of injury."

     Everything in the booklet is very appropriate for your 16 year old daughter.

"Is the workout intended to be done as a circuit (e.g., each exercise once, then repeat entire sequence for second and third set) or as individual sets (e.g., three sets Bench Press, then three sets Bent Over Rows...)?"

It can be done either way. My personal preference is to do all 3 sets of an exercise before moving on to the next. But, you'll note that each exercise moves to a different muscle/group, so it can be done as a circuit very effectively. I designed it this way for those with limited time, as doing the workout as a circuit is faster. If your daughter works hard, she'll make excellent progress with either method. She may find the circuit approach to be very challenging physically at first.

"The diagram on page 10 shows both squats (3) and knee extensions (3a).  Is this intended to allow the athlete to substitute one for the other or should she be doing both exercises?"

Yes. For beginners, or those who have not worked out for a while, I recommend the knee extensions as a way to break back in. But, nothing beats squats, so done with light weight and proper technique, beginners can safely do them instead of the knee extensions.

9) My oldest son is a freshman and is 5”11” and weighs 130 lbs. was an excellent hitter on his middle school team and played 3^rd base. He’s probably close to done growing.  My 12 year old is 5’2” and weighs about 85 lbs. and plays shortstop and pitches and is a pretty good hitter.

Should I have them both do the medicine ball workout together or is there a concern about the epiphyseal-plate closure as you discussed on page 13 of the power/plyometrics in strength conditioning.

No problem at all with the med-ball workout - no issues with epiphyseal plates.  Start them out with a 2 lb ball, such as a basketball.

Also, does it make sense to do all these at one time or should I stagger these and keep in mind we’re in Connecticut, so it might be tough getting outside in the winter.

 With younger players, I recommend a staggered approach. Based on each of their training priorities, start with one program. After several weeks of getting used to that, you can add program #2, and a few weeks later, program #3. The key thing to monitor is how they’re feeling both physically and mentally. Should they ever need a break, skip a workout and then pick back up with the next workout. Don’t worry about making up the missed work.

  You can check out this report on my main site with some ideas on how to integrate all three workouts at the same time:

http://www.baseballfit.com/baseball_skills.htm

10) I have been looking over the strength training phases for the off season and I became confused. It says 80-85% of 1RM for the bench press and squat during the strength phase, and then 85-90% during the power phase. My question is why would I keep the other exercises in the 50-75% range for all 18 weeks?

  Note that we're making this increase on two key compound lifts, the bench and squat. A number of the same muscles are being hit with these two lifts as for the other lifts that we're keeping in the 50-75% range.

  Why this will matter, and why it helps ball players is that using these percentages in this way helps you focus your energy on lifts that are of particular value to player performance. In the meantime, we're not neglecting the other lifts/muscles.

  Wouldn't the same amount of weight at the 75% of 1RM for a long period of time (say 4 weeks) decrease my strength/power?

  It could, but this will vary from player to player and lift to lift. You may find that 50% of your 1RM is sufficient to get your 3 sets of the recommended rep range for a particular exercise, where it may take 75% to do this same thing for a different exercise.

  Also, note that the rep ranges vary as well, as do the rest periods. You'll agree that you can do more reps at say, 60% of your 1RM than you can at 75%, and that how long your rest between sets with further affect how much weight you will lift. With this combination of variables, you'll maintain/increase your strength with these other lifts.

  Finally, all of this is very much individualized. As you perform the workout, you'll know over time how your body will respond to these various demands, and you'll adjust accordingly to make the progress you want.