This past weekend, there were three new people elected into the baseball hall of fame. One of them was Tim Raines who played for the New York Yankees. Raines was probably the second best leadoff man in his era to Rickey Henderson. He led the National League in stolen bases for several years.

If Raines had been fortunate enough to play for the Yankees today, his strength coach would have been Matthew Krause. Krause talked the Yankees into putting a 30-40 yard hill down in their spring training complex to work on their speed.

Being the stolen base person that Raines was, he would have loved this guy.  

Krause feels that the hill training is great for his baseball players speed development for a ton of reasons.

  • With over 50+ athletes in spring training, it would be pretty expensive to get traditional speed training devices – cords, sleds, etc. Once the hill is built, you don’t need anything else and you can run waves of athletes on the hill without having to switch devices back and forth.

  • The hill puts your body in a good shin angle and body lean for developing speed.

  • Because the hill is at an angle of 12 degrees it is perfect for his athletes. The angle eliminates stress on the calf and Achilles. Plus the athlete can have a greater ground contact because of it.

  • The uphill runs helps decrease the impact on the runner’s body. Because of this, knee soreness and shin splints can be greatly reduced, plus other common injuries in the lower extremities.

  • Uphill running develops strength, flexibility, and elasiticity.

  • Downhill running develops speed and controlled max speed.

  • Try to avoid finding a hill that is greater than 15 degrees. Mechanics start getting compromised and it isn’t what we are searching for.

If you can’t afford a good speed coach, then take some time and find a good hill. The hill will be your very own speed coach. Focus on mechanics and run hard and you should reap the benefits in no time.

Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/