CSP Elite Baseball Development Podcast: Speed Training with Lee Taft

Written on April 8, 2020 at 4:22 am, by Eric Cressey

We’re excited to welcome speed training expert Lee Taft to this week’s podcast for an awesome discussion of baseball movement competencies and how to coach them. Lee is highly qualified to work across all sports, but I’ve found his work to be particularly impactful in the baseball world. CSP-MA Director of Performance John O’Neil takes the lead as a guest host as well.

This is a timely podcast, as Lee’s popular Certified Speed and Agility Specialist course is on sale for $200 off this week. I’m a huge fan of Lee and this resource – so much, in fact, that it was filmed at Cressey Sports Performance – Massachusetts. It’s now required viewing for all our staff members. You can check it out and take advantage of the great discount HERE.

Show Outline

How Lee developed into the coach he is today
How Lee approaches youth athletic development
What the 7 movement patterns of speed are and how these principles translate into sport specific results
What is a lateral run step is, how Lee teaches it, and how it’s different from a traditional crossover step
How can base stealers optimize their setup to maximize acceleration
Why an initial step back with the lead leg is not a bad move first move for a base runner and why observing an athlete’s center of mass is more meaningful when addressing acceleration
What the upper body’s role is in creating efficient running patterns and how the arms specifically work for baserunners when stealing
How can infielders can improve their setup and defensive start position
Why the traditional defensive mindset of get your glove on the ground and be as low as you can is the wrong strategy for optimizing a player’s athleticism
How initial hand position and the movement of the arms work to propel the body out of the start position to fielding the ball
How outfielders can refine their defensive setup
How the incorporation of a split step into a defensive player’s approach can create a quicker initial move to the ball and help to expand a fielder’s range
What minute but key movement competencies Lee incorporates into athletes’ training, including the dissociation of their upper and lower half and learning to run an opposite direction your eyes are looking
How Lee incorporates curvilinear speed work into his athletes’ training
How deceleration isn’t emphasized enough when discussing qualities of position players
What the common compensations Lee sees in baseball players’ running mechanics are
What mistakes coaches are commonly making when teaching and training speed in the game of baseball
What principles Lee prioritizes when incorporating conditioning into athletes’ training
How Lee would implement conditioning into a baseball program’s training calendar and how he would apply his conditioning principles to specific scenarios like managing a pitchers’ workload between starts
What the priority training qualities are when working to train power in hitters
What med ball fake throws are and why are these specifically useful when training hitters

You can follow Lee on Twitter at @LeeTaft and Instagram at @LeeTaft.

Podcast Feedback

If you like what you hear, we’d be thrilled if you’d consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.

And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!