The Cross Over Movement Blog

In my newsletters the past couple weeks, I have written about hamstring and hip issues several times. On his blog, Vern Gambetta tackled the issues as several Major League Baseball players have suffered hamstring pulls. He writes:

Based on my observations over the years here is my take on the hamstring pull situation in baseball and for that matter other sports. Too much emphasis on static stretching in warm-up.

I saw a basketball team start practice last night. A lap around the court followed by static stretching. My classic example of an inexperienced coach.

Flexibility of the hamstring is basically a non factor in hamstring pulls, it is dynamic hip flexibility that is important…The current rage in warm-up does not involve enough movement, way too much at walking tempo, you need to build the warm-up in a crescendo to top speed sprints…The hamstring is a transverse plane muscle that is stressed when running a curve and on deceleration. There is too much strengthening using non functional exercises in prone and supine positions.

Gambetta’s solutions:

More lunges in all planes, step-ups both low and high, more emphasis on running turns and at least two days a week of all out sprinting outside the game. It takes time and preparation with attention to detail.