Going Mobile

The power for any baseball player comes from the ground. And the ground is where we start our warm-up routine with a series of exercises starting with the ankles and working up through the hips. The first ten exercises are stretches performed before any of our individual defensive workouts. Also included are five extra stretches that we perform during the defensive portion of on-field batting practice. Our catchers will use that time to focus on mobility and flexibility if they are not catching bullpens.

Mobility/Flexibility Routine
1. Wall Ankle Mobilization
2. Rocking Ankle Mobilization
3. High Tension Ankle Mobilization
4. Kneeling Hip Flexor
5. Hip Circles/Fire Hydrants
6. Froggers/Quad Rockers
7. Frogger Squat
8. 90/90 Hip Stretch
9. Figure 4 Stretch
10. Lateral Squat Shuffle with Reverse Skip

Extra Stretches
11. Ankle Inversion/Eversion with Band
12. Lateral Excursion with Band
13. Thoracic Spine Mobility—Double Tennis Ball
14. Thoracic Spine Mobility—Foam Roller Extension
15. Thoracic Spine Mobility—Stability Ball Rollout

ROLLED BALL SERIES
Left-Knee/Right-Knee/Primary/Secondary
1. Rolled Ball Pick-Ups (Left/Right/Center)
2. Rolled Blocks (Left/Right/Center)

Below is video footage of each of our warm-up stretches:


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If It's Important to You, Chart It

During our practices, we like to chart our players. We will chart everything from pitch selection and execution on the offensive side to fielding and throwing errors on the defensive side. Working with catchers, the main thing I like to chart is blocks (or saves—like a goalie), passed balls, drops, 50/50 balls, and plays made. We will also keep track of stolen base statistics including pop times.

Below is an image of a "Catcher Gameday Chart" created by the great Jerry Weinstein of the Colorado Rockies. I have yet to employ this chart in a game but I am looking forward to using it this season. I will post some more charts as the spring progresses. If you would like an excel file of this chart, please email me.

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