Georgia Southern Player Development

Welcome to

PLAYER

Development

About The Program

Within Georgia Southern’s Baseball Player Development, we believe in a comprehensive approach to player development that integrates holistic development both in the weight room and on the field. Our mission is to train athletes to excel not only as baseball players but as robust movers who can maximize their performance and potential on the field.

Our program is tailored to teaching incoming athletes the foundational principles of movement quality and intent. Within this program, we strive to be one of the most intentional teams in the country, in everything we do and it starts with effort and intensity. Everything is done with savage intent in mind and perfect movement quality with a set approach before they step into the exercise.

Our strength and conditioning philosophy is designed with the complete athlete in mind. By focusing on developing functional strength, speed, power, and deceleration, we help players enhance their physical capabilities to create an efficient transfer to the game of baseball. We tailor our training plans to each player's individual needs based on position, years in the program, injury history, and playing time come season.

Together with the assistance of Strength & Conditioning, Sports Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Sports Medicine, and Sports Coaches, we provide a comprehensive support system for athlete development to maximize recovery, performance, and transfer to the field.

Iron works

olympic weight room

for georgia southern athletics

Equipped with the newest technology, equipment, and onsite nutrition station Ironworks is the olympic weight room for all 17 Division I sports at Georgia Southern University.

alongside being one of the few schools in the sunbelt that dosent have to share their WEIGHT ROOM with football.

With 16 racks, 5 air compressed keiser columns, jump mats, laser timing systems, velocity based TRAINING units, Whats That Strap rotational slings, and prototype technology taken from professional MLB organizations, the list of POSSIBILITIES when it comes to developing you over your 3-5 years here is endless.

High Performance integration

Every hand within the athlete development process must be present at the table to ensure everyone is on the same page to maximize performance

with that being said, all four disciplines within sports performance co-exist at the same time to provide a well-rounded experience to the athlete during their time here at Georgia Southern.

Sport Coaches

Transparent with weekly practice format (High days vs Low Days).

High days in the weight room with high days on the field.

S&C + Sport Science

Modifying volumes and intensities
Daily Readiness (RPE)
Arm Care + Restoration
Rank, Record, Publish

Athletic

Training/Psych

Sport

Coaches

Sport

Nutrition

S&C + Sport

Science

Nutrition

Nutrition is the game changer
Individual meetings with athletes and nutritionist
Education sessions monthly

Athletic Training

Injury history
Not a one-size-fits-all-S&C program

Modifications (Short/Long Term)

Arm Care + Restoration

baseball support Staff

Bekah

sam

dr. Megan

leger

monaco

bryd

Sports Nutritionist

athletic trainer

Sports Psychologist

the high/low model

when it comes to training a baseball athlete, it's important to ensure that we are consolidating stressors.

To reduce monotony and decrease injury risk we keep our high-intensity days in the weight room consistent with our most taxing days on the field. The same goes for our low-intensity days which are paired with our off days or low-intensity days on the field.

This allows the athlete to train in peaks and valleys instead of burying them with high-intensity efforts every day of the week as most programs do which often times leads to decreases in on-field performance and higher risk for injury.

Keep the high days high and the low days low as less is always more

High Days

Dynamic Warm Up + Mobility

standard warmup
target mobility in hips, arms, scaps, etc.

Speed development

Prep for sprinting
Speed Work
fast and powerful sprints with lots of rest time

power development

Jumps, intensive med ball throws, speed
Rank, Record, Publish. Competition = Intent

strength development

Two main lower-body compound lifts
technique and intent

accessory movements

Arm Care
Rotational Exercises
Core Work
Recovery

Total Lift Time: ~60-90 min

LOW Days

Dynamic Warm Up + Mobility

Dynamic C.O.d. drills
mobility in hips, arms, scaps, etc.
Jumps

3-Station Prep (Inseason)

10-15 minute warmup
three movements.
train new movements without taking away from the lift.

strength development

Two main upper-body compound lifts
less stressful than lower body days
Prepares athletes for the next high-intensity day

power development

med ball throws, Jumps
Rank, Record, Publish. Competition = Intent

accessory movements

Arm Care
Rotational Exercises
Core Work
Recovery

Total Lift Time: ~45-60 mins

speed

Development

the biggest aspect of our program is targeted around speed development.

The forces and rate of force development produced by an athlete during a top-end speed sprint are unmatched by any exercise done in the weight room. Sprinting is the tide that raises all ships

I always use the comparison that sprinting is equivalent to tuning up an athlete's engine. When sprint speeds increase, then power, force, and even qualities like bat speed and fastball velocity uptick.

Max Velocity

sprinting

Training top end speed work

accelerations

what speed work is not

sprinting with little to no rest

Gassers or 110's

speed ladders, bosu ball training, etc

creating a speed culture

run 20mph?

sign the sign + picture on social media

Pitchers

Pitcher training philosophy

When it comes to Training Baseball Pitchers, the one size fits all approach to developing Pitchers the same as a position player is outdated and incorrect to the demands and capabilities a Pitcher needs.

Here at Georgia Southern, Training for our Pitchers is not only seperate from that of a position player but even seperated based on what role you will have either as a starter or bullpen pitcher and individualized/grouped based on what the athlete needs to continue to approve their capabilities and maximize performance.

Training the

+90MPH THROWER

recovery

-Sleep, nutrition, hyrdation

-weekly mobility sessions

Arm Care

-Serratus Anterior + Lower trap + Uppertrap work

-post-start restoration day to restore Range of motion

-strengthen through full Range of motion

general

-train to be an athlete

-develop strength + size

-train power & speed work year round

midline

-creating a strong midline to transmit force between upper & lower half

Lower Half

-Weekly mobility sessions

-increasing force produced through strength + muscle size

-power work (jumps, Med ball, sprinting.)

Test year round: force, power & speed

pelvis

-Resequencing pelvic rotation

-Reinforce stacked ribcage + pelvis/preventing energy leaks

OFFSEASon

The offseason pitcher schedule is oriented around their high-intensity bullpen days throughout the week.

Lift Schedule in offseason centered around Bullpen days

Throw Then Lift, no early mornings + emphasis on skill

Pitcher Specific Warm-up

Inseason

Starting Pitchers

Like the fall offseason, the starting pitchers' schedule throughout a season is scheduled around their start date. The goal is to ensure that we place our high-intensity lift days farthest away from their start to ensure they are fresh and recovered.

Starting Pitcher Inseason Schedule
Emphasis	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Throw Live	Friday Starter	Saturday Starter	Sunday Starter
Restoration Session		Friday Starter	Saturday Starter	Sunday Starter
High Intensity Lift			Friday Starter	Saturday Starter	Sunday Starter
Low Intensity Lift					Friday Starter	Saturday Starter	Sunday Starter
Primer	Saturday Starter	Sunday Starter					Friday Starter

Explanation of the Inseason model

VBT for high inning guys to autoregulate

Recovery + Restoration Sessions post Throw

individualized

starting pitcher warmup

individualized

starting pitcher warmup

Individual meetings before the season with the starting pitchers to build their warmup based on needs and preferences

Prepare the athlete to do what they are going to do on the field. high amounts of rotation, emphasizing push-off forces, emphasize T-spine and hip mobility.

MEET HUNTER

LAKEY

ASSISTANT STRENGTH COACH BASEBALL W SOCCER

HUNTER

Hunter Lakey WAS NAMED The Director Of Baseball STRENGTH & and conditioning coach at Georgia Southern ON JANUARY 22, 2023.

Before his time in Statesboro, Hunter served as the Assistant Baseball Strength & Conditioning Coach at Mississippi State University for the 2023-2024 Offseason. Lakey spent three and a half years (2020-2023) with Elon University Sports Performance Department as an undergraduate assistant sports Performance coach. In this role, he was the lead baseball assistant where he assisted in all areas of their development. He also assisted with football and women’s lacrosse.

In between stints at Elon, Lakey spent time in the State of Texas working with the Texas A&M Football program as a Sports Performance Coach in 2022 and also at Texas Christian University (TCU) in 2021 interning with baseball and football. During his time at TCU, he completed a comprehensive internship education program led by Zach Dechant, one of the leading educators in baseball performance.

Lakey is from Burlington, N.C. with a B.S. in Exercise Science from Elon University. Lakey is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), AED, and CPR certified.

Experience