In my previous articles, I’ve explained how too much softball leads to overuse injuries, why young softball players need a general strength and conditioning program, and how softball itself creates imbalances in the body that must be resolved.

Today’s article focuses on training abs and how most athletes are training them incorrectly. My goal with today’s article is to explain why coaches, parents, and players should train the core instead of just the abs, why the core is important for softball,  and how to train the core properly.

The rectus abdominis — or the “abs” — are a set of parallel muscles connected by tissue that run along only the front of the body. They are usually the first muscle that comes to mind when someone says abs because they create the ever-coveted “six-pack.

While the six-pack is an envied achievement, coaches, parents, and players should be more concerned with the abs’ function. They are necessary for posture and flexing the lumbar spine, the lower portion of the back. Lumbar flexion is most easily understood by envisioning the typical “crunch.”

Abs have very little function with rotation or side-to-side movement of the torso. If you’ve read my article on imbalances caused by softball, you know that softball is a unilateral sport, meaning that movement happens on one side of the body independently of the other side (throwing), and that it is a rotational sport (swinging), both of which involve the sides of the body.

Training only the abs does not address the unilateral and rotational nature of softball. And on a side note, training only the abs will not give you a six-pack either.

Stated plainly, the endless number of crunches most athletes do thinking they are strengthening their abs are doing absolutely NOTHING to increase performance.

When training athletes, I challenge you to think of training the entire “core”and remove the term “abs” from your vocabulary. For ease of conversation, the core consists of the abs, the external and internal obliques, and the erector spinae.

The internal and external obliques (obliques) are two sets of muscles that lie on either side of the abs. They both are important for rotation and side bending of the midsection, as well as compression of the midsection. For softball, that means swinging the bat and rotating through a throw.

The erector spinae (erectors) are a group of muscles that form the low back muscles and run the entire length of the back along the spine. They are important to straighten the back, stabilize the spine, and provide side-side rotation. For softball, that means maintaining any straight-back position (fielding, pitching, hitting), swinging the bat, and rotating through a throw.

Considering the movement of the body for softball, it should be clear that training the front, sides, and back of the midsection are necessary for performance.

The core is one of the most important group of muscles for all athletes, especially softball players, because it is where force and power are generated. The most efficient and effective pathway for force development is core to extremity, meaning force starts in the core and is relayed out to the limbs.

For example, a hitter braces the core to begin the swing, rotates through the core with the force produced, and transfers that force to the arms and bat. Another example is when a pitcher braces her core to begin her motion, pushes off the rubber with her legs, and transfers that force to her arm.

Teaching this proper sequencing of core to limbs is necessary to maximize the force produced and transferred through the body and to minimize stress placed on limb joints. A joint like to shoulder or knee can’t produce or sustain nearly the amount of force as the core can.

A highly skilled and even adequately strong softball player with an insufficiently trained core will produce an inefficient athlete prone to injury.

Even if you know everything I just said in this article, you are likely putting that knowledge to use inefficiently.

When most coaches and athletes do core work, they are usually on the ground doing some kind of bodyweight movement. There are two important problems with this method to training the core.

First, consider the athletic position softball players are in during competition: they’re on their feet, never lying on the ground. The most effective way to train the core is in a standing, athletic position, using what are known as ground-based exercises.

The second problem with typical core work is that it is usually bodyweight only. The muscles of the core are a type of muscle known as skeletal muscle, like the muscle in your legs or arms. Skeletal muscle must experience an “overload” in order to adapt and get stronger. Simply doing hundreds of reps of bodyweight movement does not produce an overload and train for strength; it trains for another muscle quality known as muscular endurance. Training for strength involves using external weight and doing a moderate number of repetitions per set (6-12).

While there’s quite a bit of information in this article, I cannot stress enough how important properly training the core is for young softball athletes. If you take nothing else from this article, remember these three key fundamental concepts:

            -The core is vital to the performance of softball athletes because it is where force is generate
            -Train the front, side, and back of the core musculature
            -The majority of core training for softball players should be in a standing, athletic position with                               weighted, ground-based exercises

Happy Training!