How Many Swings Should I Be Taking?
“Repetition, repetition, repetition!”
An incredibly common (and true) saying, but what exactly does it mean? How many days per week am I supposed to be hitting? And how many swings per day am I supposed to be taking? I’ll be perfectly honest, in my early days as a coach I had always preached the importance of repetition but I too never really broke it down for my players. I had always just assumed that players and parents knew what it meant, as if they had been hardwired from birth to understand how to effectively implement repetition into their training program. Which, now that I think about it, is a crazy assumption considering the unfathomable amount of times I’ve had to remind a high-level 14-year-old first baseman when it is or isn’t time to hold runners on. But nevertheless, I have learned my lesson and I am here to offer a little direction for those of you who may still be wondering exactly how to best incorporate repetition into your training. Some of this may seem pretty obvious to you and some of this may be new, either way I wanted to share some basic insights gained through over a decade of training experience.
How many swings am I supposed to be taking?
Well, my first question to you is “How good do you want to be?” I know I’m not supposed to answer a question with another question but I feel this is an important one to ask. The number of repetitions you are supposed to get is entirely dependent upon how much progress you want to make. Don’t worry, I will still give a more detailed breakdown than this but I just had to throw this out there to get you to think about a question that is rarely asked to players. If a player can establish how much progress they would like to make, setting a hard number of repetitions becomes somewhat obsolete. If progress is your goal, should you really be focused on the number of repetitions you’re taking? Or should you be more focused on doing it until you get it right? Of all the incredibly talented players we have had the privilege of working with over the years, the ones who were the most successful never counted reps. They just did what they needed to do to get it right, or as close to right as it could get for that day.
With that being said, my true answer to the question is the number of reps you should accumulate is really dependent upon the age, experience, and commitment level of the player. I have broken it down to two distinct categories and supplied a suggested training regimen for each. Also, the regimen you see down below apply whether you are in season or out of season, so even with games and practices you should still strive to find the time to improve your individual skillsets.
Recreational Players (Ages 7-13)
Recreational players are seasonal and can best be described as players who enjoy playing the game when baseball season is in. These players usually want to prep their swings for tryouts and make some moderate to solid progress throughout the year. These players love the game and want to have fun with it. While they do work at their craft, they are by no means expected to be hitting in the backyard until their hands bleed. For this category of player, my recommendation is to try to hit at least 2-3 days per week and accumulate 50 swings per day.
This recommendation is in addition to a private hitting session, so the total number of days in which they should be hitting should be around 3-4. Just a quick reminder, if you want to hit more than what is prescribed here, POWER TO YOU! The main goal here is to try to hit 3-4 days per week MINIMUM.
Sample Training Plan (Recreational Players)
Monday
50 Swings (Tee/Toss/Live)
Tuesday
OFF
Wednesday
Private Training
Thursday
50 Swings (Tee/Toss/Live)
Friday
OFF
Saturday
50 Swings (Tee/Toss/Live)
Sunday
OFF
Travel/High School Players (Ages 9-18)
Travel/High School players typically play year-round, although I do know quite a few who play multiple sports throughout the year. The difference between the travel/High School players and the recreational players is that the travel/high school players continue to hone their craft even during the seasons of the other sports they participate in. For instance, football players will still find the time to come in to get their work with their coaches in order to continue to build upon the progress they have made. This is absolutely recommended as hitting is incredibly technical and can best fit into the category of skills that if you don’t use, you lose. In addition to travel/high school players continuing their development year-round, they also tend to have a main goal of becoming a collegiate baseball player. To clarify, I am by no means suggesting that travel/high school players have a greater desire to play at the next level than the recreational player, I am just saying that this tends to be the case 9 out of 10 times. With that being said, if you plan on progressing to the next level, you had better be ready to put in a greater amount of work than those who do not. As mentioned before, for this particular group of players the number of reps really shouldn’t be the focal point. What is of importance is the frequency at which they are swinging, which is pretty simple. This group should be hitting every, single, day. The truth of the matter is that we say you need to be striving to hit 7 days per week, but the reality of it is that you will most likely fall short. The goal is to set our mark high and if you do fall short, you are only falling short by a couple of days. There’s an old saying, “Aim above the mark, to hit the mark.” So, if your goal is to hit 5 days per week, shoot for 7 and you will most likely hit your mark! The goal here, as you’ll see below, is to TRY not to take consecutive days off in a row. When you start missing consecutive days, it becomes a little more difficult for your mind and body to completely remember where it left off. Stay as consistent as you possibly can and remember, SOMETHING is better than NOTHING so if you only have time to take half the swings, take half the swings!
We do understand that life is busy and players need to keep up with the many other important things going on in their lives like family and SCHOOL. But we also understand that collegiate baseball is incredibly competitive. Those who move on to the next level have found a way to juggle all of the important things in life while still finding the time to hone their craft.
Sample Training Plan (Travel/HS)
Monday
75 – 100 (Tee/Toss/Live)
Tuesday
75 – 100 (Tee/Toss/Live)
Wednesday
Private Training
Thursday
75 – 100 (Tee/Toss/Live)
Friday
OFF
Saturday
75 – 100 (Tee/Toss/Live)
Sunday
OFF
Wrapping Up
Hopefully some of you who are new to baseball and/or private training found this helpful. And for those of you who already knew and understood this concept, hopefully it provided a little reassurance that you are on the right track. We have had a great privilege to work with and help develop some of the best and brightest young athletes in the area, the lessons we have learned in doing so really should be shared with you, our amazing supporters. This is just the first of many to informative pieces come, we hope to be as helpful as we possibly can in assisting each and every one of our players in achieving their goals!
P.S. If you have any questions at all or would like to request a future topic, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Thank you all for reading and have a wonderful day!
Noah Brewster