My boy is 7 and plays baseball, he has some good skills, a couple of other dads who are really educated in baseball have said his coordination and skill is good and really shows well.  His gymnastics coach said he has some great upper body strength.  I am trying to come up with something that my son can do that will strengthen his middle body and hips area, this is where the power comes from in hitting and he needs to improve that to get more distance with the ball when he hits.  Thanks for the help

Richard

Frankly, at his age, if he’s in a certified CrossFit Kids program, he’s where he needs to be because he’s squatting, jumping, sprinting, and getting intro skill work to the Oly lifts and powerlifting, among many other things.

He is not in any program, i was looking at doing stuff at home, there is not a crossfit in our town.

Here are some movements that I feel would be a good start for a young ball player. It’s imperative that he learn the proper technique for all of these, which generally takes some time. So I will assume you or a certified trainer knows these movements.

Air squats, broad jumps, box jumps, standard burpees, Beck’s burpees, walking lunges, push ups, tuck jumps, sit ups.
Ball clean (use a basketball or soccerball).
Unloaded power cleans and snatches, unloaded thrusters, unloaded press and push press (use pvc).
Very light weight deadlifts (use a light kettlebell or some similar lightweight object).
Pull ups (begin with progressions and work over a long time to achieve a strict and then kipping pull up)
Sprints
Light weight sled dragging and pushing
Light tire flips/spartans (once he consistently demonstrates proper deadlift form)
Object throwing (eg, max effort basketball chest passes or backward, ie, flinging over his head, underhand throws)
Wheel barrow walks
Handstands, cartwheels

Again, it’s extremely important that your son moves well with these exercises before getting involved in any kind of high-intensity, coach-driven workouts. That doesn’t mean you can’t introduce these movements to him, then mix and match them to create a WOD that he can do. Just monitor and correct his form and allow him to govern his intensity level.

An example WOD at the ball field might be this:
Sprint home to first base (run through the bag properly), do 10 air squats, return home.
Sprint home to second (slide properly into the bag), do 5 lunges with each leg,  return home.
Sprint home to third (slide into the bag), do 5 burpees, return home.
Sprint a homerun (slide into home), do five push ups.
He governs the intensity of the sprint, you monitor his movements and cue proper form.

Richard Pennington - 14 April 2011 05:43 PM

He is not in any program, i was looking at doing stuff at home, there is not a crossfit in our town.

Where do you live (generally speaking . . . I don’t need a street address. )

TP

I live in Lufkin, Texas, about two hours north of Houston in East Texas.  I appreciate the specifcs and the example WOD,  i will sit down and see what i can put together with your suggestions and keep them coming as i learn what i can do with him and his abilities i will report back.  We had a game last night and did well the first two innings but got creamed after that.  Tonight we had another game and did well, we won which was our first.  It turned into a defensive game after we had a awsom 2nd inning and we just held on to take the win by two runs.  My son struck out twice but between those he had a line drive to first but the first baseman caught it just before it would have hit the ground about two feet in front of the first base pad. 

If i can get my son to have more power he can carry the ball up and out more and got to first base before the can get a chance to get him out.  He is the lead off batter so it is important he gets on base.