- During the off-season, a baseball player directs the brunt of his training regimen towards the maintenance of core fitness levels. This type of training will ease the transition into preseason practices and will reduce the amount of time and strain needed to reach the elite levels of fitness needed to compete in regular season games. Running, jogging, calisthenics, weight-lifting and swimming are many of the popular training methods that a baseball player uses to maintain core fitness levels during the off-season.
- Although a baseball player doesn't normally engage in the same forms of strict, tailored and targeted forms of skill training and drills, a typical baseball player will do a significant amount of specific skill training and drills during the off-season. In addition to his fitness training, a baseball player will engage in mock baseball games and maneuvers, batting practice, outfielding work and scrimmage-type drills. These types of training maneuvers and drills serve to maintain specific baseball skills and talents while enabling a baseball player to enter regular season training with the majority of his skills intact and functional.
- A large part of a baseball player's success is related to his flexibility and nimbleness. In order to maintain adequate flexibility and to prevent the normal stiffness that usually results from a reduced training/exercise regimen, most baseball players will incorporate a schedule of stretching and flexibility exercises during their off-season training. This type of training will often include plyometrics, which are jumping and rebounding types of exercises, along with isometric and yoga moves and positions, which are both forms of static, progressive stretching and flexibility core exercises.
- Although a baseball player trains in a variety of ways during the off-season, the number of training days are reduced in comparison to normal seasonal training. This is done to prevent overuse injuries and strains that routinely happen when an intense exercise training schedule is continued without an adequate break or rest period. The off-season training time is what enables a baseball player to recuperate and repair while at the same time maintain fitness levels.
