Sports – Baseball
Dana Santas has experience creating baseball-specific yoga programs for numerous teams in MLB, including the Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays. She has served as the Pittsburgh Pirates Yoga Trainer for both the Major and Minor Leagues for the past two years. Additionally, she’s worked with players and coaches from the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, and has served as an expert speaker at the MLB Strength Coaches’ Winter Meetings. She was also the yoga trainer for the Denton Outlaws Texas Collegiate League Team for three years. Her work with baseball players has been featured on MLB.com, CBS Sportsline and Fox Sports.
Radius Yoga Conditioning (RYC) customized programs are available to baseball players and teams at all levels, including professional, collegiate, amateur, and youth. In addition to onsite training, RYC programs can be made accessible to all serious athletes–despite travel challenges–using numerous formats, including Skype/Facetime sessions, as well as customized videos, audio files and manuals accessed via the Private Client Portal. Refer to the Sports Programs and Private Training pages for more information on specific program options.
Dana working with collegiate players
Batting, throwing, running, sliding, pitching, fielding, catching…in baseball, there are many moves that involve virtually the entire body while keeping an emphasis on one side or the other. Players tend to bat predominantly on one side. They tend to throw from one arm and lunge more on one side. This can create some significant imbalances in strength and flexibility, and, depending on a player’s position, he/she may experience more risk of injury than others.
Pitchers, in particular, have to pay close attention to their joints. They need to maintain a strong, stable shoulder girdle with a full range of motion and power through the shoulder joint while also working to develop integrated core strength, hip mobility and pelvic stability. In addition to a strong core, proper posterior chain function and knee & ankle stability are essential as stabilizing factors for setting the stance during the wind up and absorbing the energy transfer during follow through. Short stops must be powerful, agile and mobile throughout the body to make rapid plays in a number of directions. And catchers deal with a whole host of issues associated with sitting in their knee and hip joints; to counter this they must have strong, well-conditioned legs trained to support the joints as well as exceptional core strength and hip mobility & pelvic stability to avoid hip flexor issues, lower back strains and compensation stress on the knees.
Looking at the DL, you’ll inevitably find shoulder injuries, hamstring pulls, and core strains (lower back and abdominal/oblique muscles)—injuries generally related to overuse, dysfunctional movement patterns/imbalances and lack of necessary flexibility. RYC works to restore the kinetic chain and address baseball players’ imbalances in strength and flexibility to increase overall mobility & stability and decrease injury. Techniques are also used to enhance range of motion in the joints while promoting stability, particularly for movements across the transverse plane, to improve batting, fielding, and throwing. For pitchers, special attention is paid to mobilizing the hip joints and stabilizing the shoulder girdles for decreased injury incidence and better performance.
Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental…the other half is physical.” With intense games going on for hours in stadiums filled with thousands of passionate fans, there’s no denying the importance of the mental aspect of baseball. It’s about being able to focus for long periods of time, block out the crowds, stay present in the moment—in your own body & mind, and not stress a missed play from three innings ago or the fact that this is the make-or-break game of your season. RYC trains players to use their breath as a bridge between the mind and body. Leveraging effective breathing techniques, players are better equipped to employ that mind-body connection during games and avoid the performance-killing effects of mental stress. RYC’s specialized breathing, visualization and meditative techniques, are offered as part of “Eye of the Hurricane Training™.”
To learn about yoga for youth baseball, visit the Youth Sports page.