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Online now: 1 member: TABLE SETTER 11; 60 anonymousDiscussion: Can you get faster?
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| Oct. 10, 2015 HJ Men's 70 481 posts | Can you get faster? I am a 71 y/o rec sb player. During the last season I noticed that I was running a lot slower than last year. I also noticed others were slower. This is not getting winded it is running slower. I did some research and it seems to be that for fast running ankle strength is key and I found some special lifting exercises for this. My question is whether any one has every deliberately tried to run faster by some workout regime and whether it worked. If you have been successful at this, please advise what you think worked. Thank You. |
| Oct. 11, 2015 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | you can get faster but adding a 10th of a second to your 40 time might not be what you are looking for... and would take a lot of effort. They don't have shaved legs for 71 year olds ;-) |
| Oct. 11, 2015 hombre Men's 60 240 posts | JH, you can definitely increase your speed. To increase your speed you need to exercise your quick twitch muscle fibers. The maximum distance you probably need to train for is 70', unless your hitting insider the parkers. LOL After you warm up, run 4 or 5 70 foot sprints. Start slowly and increase your speed reaching 100% at 50 feet. Rest until you are completely recovered and repeat. Not allowing yourself to completely recover is like taking 100 swings at BP, you compensate for being tired and your mechanics suffer. Allow yourself one to two days rest before repeating. If you time yourself you'll see a noticeable increase in speed. Running long distances will work your slow twitch muscle fibers resulting in more endurance, but can actually decrease your sprint speed. It's like swinging a heavy bat. You increase your strength, but not bat speed. Good luck |
| Oct. 12, 2015 STL0 Men's 60 230 posts | HJ: The easiest way for me to get faster is by losing my gut but that hasn't seemed to happen. You probably are not afflicted with that ailment though. I keep taking my liquid supplement but it hasn't worked yet in the past 30 years. I not giving up on the Coors Light though, it may work some day. I just need to stick with it a little longer! |
| Oct. 12, 2015 stick8 1991 posts | Sorry up front to disappoint but the answer to the question is no. But what you can do is possibly get a quicker first step but that's it. A good friend of mine is a major league baseball scout. The two things they most look for in prospects is running speed and arm strength. If a prospect has those two they'll get a closer look. Like he says "we can teach 'em how to hit and teach 'em how to field. We can't teach speed or a good arm. Either you have it or you don't". That's reality. |
| Oct. 12, 2015 16wood Men's 65 77 posts | Is he trying to run faster than ever before or to merely regain some speed lost in the past 12 months? The latter could be caused by an injury, direct or indirect... BW |
| Oct. 12, 2015 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | HJ, how 'bout sharing those special lifting exercises you found for ankle strength. |
| Oct. 12, 2015 phils57 Men's 70 30 posts | HJ you can get faster. I'm pretty fast for a 67 year old and I'm starting a program running sprints on a slight decline. I'll let you know how it goes. Phil Campbell a senior sprinter has done a lot of writing on this subject. |
| Oct. 12, 2015 Pull My Finger 81 posts | About how much speed gain is expected to come from ankle exercises for guys over 60? |
| Oct. 12, 2015 Wes Men's 65 335 posts | the first ? is why do you want to run faster?? If are or have been fast and if you just want to turn a single into a double work on getting out of the batter box faster and making the turn at first base. I'm 75 and run for 65-70 and 75's. I like to make it from first to third on a grounder to out field. If you get your steps down and your turn at second it's easy. Also you plan on 50% bad throws from the out field or 50% of the time the third baseman will not catch the throw |
| Oct. 13, 2015 HJ Men's 70 481 posts | This is the link to the article. Within the article is a link to the actual suggested exercises. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/why-runners-get-slower-with-age-and-how-strength-training-may-help/ |
| Oct. 13, 2015 HJ Men's 70 481 posts | This is the link to the conditioning program: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00667 The link in the prior post has links to the study and other links. This may not make you faster but may help you stay fast longer. I think the precious advice to actually sprint coupled with the exercises my be most beneficial. |
| Oct. 13, 2015 DieselDan Men's 75 600 posts | Unless you're restricted do to arthritis or old injures, just about everyone can improve on their speed. Just improving on your flexibility in your quads/hamstrings will help. Higher leg/knee lift will mean a longer stride and faster turn over. Prior to games jog the whole field to warm up then start doing dynamic exercises. In and out. Do some forward leg lifts as you hop from right to left leg moving forward; hop backwards lifting each leg up to your butt; side hop while swinging your arms from your sides to over your head (do not cross legs), then go sideways in the other direction; do a run (strider) at about 70% for about 30 yards; do side lunges (one leg out to the side while the opposite foot stays firm); striders; alternate lifting up each leg by the knee and ankle to your chest; stand up and bend at the waist as you kick back a leg, bend at the waist and touch the ground with a hand . Keep legs straight to get the best hamstring stretch. Now grab your foot and pull backwards while keeping upper body up. striders. Stretch achille tendons. After the game(s) do a cool down of static exercises. Striders, then slow and hold forward lunges for three sets. Now find a trash can or stands and put up a leg and move head towards knee slowly to stretch hamstring. You want to keep muscles from tigntening up and get rid of any elactic acid if you've done a lot of sprinting. If you're patient and motivated, in time your flexibility will improve and you'll be able to take that extra base or get to and go down to reach the ball more often. |
| Oct. 13, 2015 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | Thanks HJ for the links and DD for the tips. |
| Oct. 13, 2015 gman1 29 posts | think bout all the base hits you would have with one more step,,,,,,,i think the easiest way for more speed is to lose weight,,,,,,,, |
| Oct. 13, 2015 DieselDan Men's 75 600 posts | Missed one. Do forward lunges. Do not bend from the waist in order to get the best stretch. Then do a strider into side lunges, etc. |
| Oct. 13, 2015 armiho211 Men's 70 449 posts | i need to run slower, so i dont have to run for everybody and his brother! LOL ! |
| Oct. 14, 2015 DoubleL10 Men's 70 907 posts | Frankie, LOL! Here's a strategy to try next season: wear 3 pound ankle weights and long pants at your first tourney. Hopefully, the first time you run for someone, everyone will see how much you've slowed down! Of course, even with the ankle weights, I can think of some guys on the team you will STILL outrun! |
| Oct. 16, 2015 HJ Men's 70 481 posts | Thank you. As we get older we lose muscle mass so we probably must lose weight to compensate. Speed and weight is obvious and thank you for reminding me what I must do and have started to do. I believe I lost a lot of speed where orthotics during games after a bad plantar fasciitis attack. I think the ankles have to be free to articulate to be able to sprints. Thanks. |
| Oct. 19, 2015 DaveDowell Men's 70 4312 posts | HJ ... Of course, everyone recognizes that "getting older and losing muscle mass" does NOT have any effect on a player's ability to hit a softball for distance ... It MUST be the "bad" balls ... But that's another discussion thread! ... [grinning and ducking for cover] |
| Nov. 24, 2015 OZ40 549 posts | Come February it will be one year since I separated my Achilles. I was back to playing in July. I have most of my speed back, I am going to work this winter by mostly ice skating to build up the leg muscle and flexibility again. I don't know if I can get any faster over my pre-injury speed but I hope to get that back. |
| Nov. 27, 2015 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | At our age, fast and faster are relative terms. I think it is more who slows down less so they appear faster than everybody else. However, since my knee replacement, I have slowed considerably, so I am going to work in the off season on running sprints and trying to gain something back. It seems that after a surgery like that you tend to shorten your steps. Running down a hill will force you to lengthen your stride, and in theory that will help. (losing weight helps too). It's worth a try. |
| Nov. 27, 2015 GI Men's 60 228 posts | Easy Dave, that's like me asking a lady if she is expecting a child (and was not) Dave and Webbie I found I gained some speed when I tried a walker. HA happy holidays my friends, Gary Ingle. And Dave you would have been proud of your senior softball 4-some at Sunshine Acres golf tournament . Finished 3rd with 220 golfers and walked up front and donated 3rd place money back to kids and challenged rest of top 5 teams to do the same. 4 of 5 teams turned money back to the kids.Bless all..PS Webbie what if you have Barney rubble legs. |
| Nov. 27, 2015 k man Men's 65 326 posts | Webbie, be very careful with that running down a hill concept. Make sure the decline is very slight so as not to put too much pressure on your knees. Also if not too gradual, might find yourself running heel to toe which is not likely how you will be running on a flat field. |
| Nov. 27, 2015 k man Men's 65 326 posts | Continuing my previous thought Webbie, you would probably be better off running up the hill (incline) which would strengthen you leg muscles, force you to run on toes, and then when you run on horizontal ground, your legs should be stronger and be able to run faster. I guess you might compare it to taking practice swings with a weighted bat. |
| Nov. 27, 2015 crusher Men's 75 524 posts | Webbie, keep up the Down Hill running. If a bear gets after you in the mountains the bear is faster uphill compared to you because the bear has shorter front legs. AND, I be the Bear Effect will increase your speed no matter your age. James |
