Why Baseball Players Should Do More than Just Play Baseball
As the baseball and softball season starts to wind down across Ireland, many teams and players may already be looking towards next season. The weather is still great for getting outside, but as we transition to the fall and winter, teams will start to move inside to continue with their training. However, even though we all love baseball, variety in activity is important for athletic performance, and the off-season is a great time to play something different.
One thing that makes baseball and softball different from other sports is the repetition of the same explosive movements. We throw and hit from the same side; we sprint in straight lines counter-clockwise; and we stick to fielding specific positions. This isn’t bad within the context of developing baseball-specific skills - specificity and repetition are important for performance. But that also doesn’t mean that’s all we have to do to be good at baseball. Giving your body different things to do can be valuable in developing your athleticism.
A great example of this within our own bodies is how our bones respond to loading. Bones adapt to mechanical loading by increasing their density, but repeated loading in the same way, such as during distance running, provides less of a stimulus over time. But when we add new and varied loading, such as change of direction and deceleration, we provide new stimuli for the bone to adapt to. That is to say, different activities can be beneficial for our bodies, and this can carry over to a variety of activities.
This is especially important for kids, as there has been much debate over whether kids need to specialize early in order to go far in their sport, or if a multi-sport approach is better. While the relationship between sport specialization and performance is complicated, early single-sport specialization is associated with an increased risk of overuse injuries. Plus, playing multiple sports exposes kids to different movement demands, skills, environments, and physical loads.
For the average recreational adult, though, variety is still valuable. Variety is the spice of life, and this is especially true when it comes to the physical and mental demands of sports. Even if baseball or softball is your primary sport, participating in other sports can expose you to movements, speeds, positions, and physical demands that baseball doesn’t. You might sprint differently, change direction more often, jump, react to unpredictable movements, or use your body in ways that baseball doesn’t require. Those experiences can help you become a more adaptable athlete, even if they don’t directly make you a better hitter or pitcher.
None of this replaces throwing, hitting, or baseball-specific training when those things need to be trained. But doing something different doesn’t take away from being a baseball player. It can help you become a more adaptable athlete - and a better athlete can ultimately become a better baseball player.
