The Youth Baseball Edge Podcast with Rob Tong: Coaching | Drills | Strategy · Rob Tong: Youth Baseball Coach, Consultant and Training & Development Leade

The Need For Speed (and Strength and Agility and Sleep) with Joey Greany

·44 min·4 clips

When should young athletes start lifting heavy - and how much is too much?

Rob opens the show with his usual promise of practical, actionable coaching advice. He also takes a minute for six shout-outs tied to five-star ratings and reviews. The interview with Joey Graney starts with speed. Rob asks how players actually get faster. Joey keeps the answer simple: they have to sprint. Real speed work means getting out and opening it up over 20 or 30 yards. Jogging around a field is not the same thing. Rob then asks about the idea that kids stop getting faster in their high school years. Joey does not treat that like a hard rule. He says players can keep getting faster through high school and college, and probably into their twenties. Even adults still train for speed. Sometimes the goal is not to speed up but to avoid slowing down. The conversation then shifts to how often speed training should happen. Joey recommends staying consistent all year. In the off-season, he points to two to three days a week. During travel ball, he suggests folding sprint drills into the warmup. Rob asks whether weight training can help speed. Joey says yes, especially when it stays in the two-to-five-rep range with real load. He also wants jump training in the program, including box jumps, squat jumps, and broad jumps. For younger players, he keeps the squat progression simple, moving from bodyweight squats to goblet squats and then into more advanced single-leg work like the rear-foot-elevated split squat.

As heard by us

Practical speed training for youth baseball, with sprint work, strength basics, and a clear roadmap for coaches and parents.

This episode stays close to the practical side of youth baseball training, tying speed work to strength, plyometrics, and year-round consistency.

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Why you'd press play

Need a practical speed-and-strength tune-up for youth baseball players?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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