Speed and agility training aids are used in all levels of baseball competition, from Little League to the pros. The level of difficulty involved in using these aids varies based on the caliber of the player, but the goal of all training aids is the same: to improve a player's or team's speed and agility for baseball.
History
Throughout the extremely conservative history of baseball, technology has rarely been a part of training baseball players. Instead of using speed and agility specific training aids, players would often resort to more menial ways of improving their skills. According to Curtis Garfield's "Sudbury, 1890-1989, 100 years in the life of a Town" Babe Ruth use to spend winters shoveling snow and chopping wood instead of training in a high tech gym for the upcoming season. It wasn't until decades after Ruth retired that players began using high-tech tools to enhance their on-field performance.
Short Distance Sprinting
Unlike football or soccer, baseball players rarely are required to sprint for more than 90 feet, the distance between home plate and first base. To help replicate this sprinting distance, some players use a parachute strapped to a players body and pulled behind them as they run. They will stand in the batter's box as if batting, do a mock swing, then sprint with full intensity down the first base line to the base. This helps increase a players leg strength, which in turn increases their speed by giving their legs more driving power.
Bat Speed
Not all speed in baseball related specific to running speed. Bat speed plays just as much part in the game as running speed. A 2003 study conducted at Kettering University by Dr. Daniel A Russell showed that the faster a bat is traveling when it makes contact with a ball, the farther the ball will travel. To increase bat speed today, instead of swinging an axe to chop wood like Babe Ruth, players can instead use a tool called the "swift stik" which looks similar to a broom stick with a rubber handle on each end. The tool is very lightweight, and helps players improve their bat speed, hand-eye coordination and muscle memory. To use it, the player stands next to a tee with a mini-wiffle ball mounted on top, and takes numerous swings at the ball.
Field Agility
Tim Bishop, the strength and conditioning coach for the Baltimore Orioles, told RipkenBaseball.com that good base runners and base stealers are rarely the fastest players. Instead, agility, timing and coordination play a key role in base running and playing the field. To improve field agility in baseball, players often use an tool that is commonly found throughout several other field sports. Agility ladders are used in football, soccer, basketball and baseball training to improve a players lateral speed and coordination. An agility ladder looks like a 30 foot rope ladder that is laid flat on the ground in a straight line. Players will move in and out of the ladder rungs, or sprint from one end to the other in a slew of agility focused drills.
Partners
Many of baseball training aids require the assistance of a partner, or at the very least, can be exponentially easier to set up with a partner. Having a coach or extra player there to assist in setting up each tool, will not only make the entire process run smoother, it also provides the player performing the drill with a shoulder to lean on in case of a pulled muscle or other injury.
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