Should Baseball Players Run Long Distance? How Baseball Conditioning Should Actually Be Programmed
By Dr. Carmen Jansante, PT, DPT, CSCSUndefeated Physical Therapy & Performance | Pittsburgh, PA
Should baseball players run?
It depends on what you mean by “run.”
Baseball players absolutely need to be conditioned. They need to be able to repeatedly produce high levels of force, sprint, accelerate, change direction, throw, hit, recover, and do it again.
But that does not necessarily mean baseball players need to spend their conditioning time running miles around a track.
Baseball is an explosive, intermittent sport. The physical demands of the game are very different from those of a distance runner. Because of that, baseball conditioning should be designed around the qualities that actually matter on the field.
At Undefeated Physical Therapy & Performance in Pittsburgh, PA, this is an important part of how we approach baseball performance: training should prepare the athlete for the demands of their sport.
Practice Makes You Better at the Skill. Training Makes You Better at Performing the Skill.
There is an important distinction between practicing a sport and training for a sport.
Taking batting practice can make you a better hitter. Throwing bullpens can make you a better pitcher. Fielding ground balls can make you a better infielder.
But simply practicing those skills does not automatically maximize your strength, power, acceleration, speed, or conditioning.
That is where physical training comes in.
If we want an athlete to become more explosive, we need to train explosiveness.
If we want an athlete to become faster, we need to train speed.
If we want an athlete to tolerate repeated high-intensity efforts, we need to train that quality.
And if we want conditioning to transfer to baseball, the conditioning should resemble the demands of baseball.
The goal isn’t simply to make an athlete tired. The goal is to make the athlete better prepared to perform.
Baseball Is an Explosive, Intermittent Sport
Think about what actually happens during a baseball game.
A pitcher produces a highly explosive delivery.
A hitter produces a high-velocity swing.
An infielder may react, accelerate, field a ball, and throw hard.
An outfielder may have to accelerate rapidly to close space on a fly ball.
A baserunner may need to accelerate out of the batter’s box or sprint from one base to another.
None of these actions are slow, steady-distance efforts.
Baseball requires a combination of:
Acceleration
Sprint speed
Change of direction
Rotational power
Linear power
Throwing velocity
Repeated high-intensity efforts
The ability to recover between efforts
Position-specific workload tolerance
Research examining Major League Baseball workload using Statcast data found meaningful differences in running demands between positions. High-speed running was greatest among outfielders, followed by infielders and catchers. (Sage Journals)
That is important.
It tells us that even within baseball, conditioning should be position-specific.
An outfielder and a catcher do not experience the exact same running demands.
So why would we give every baseball player the exact same conditioning program?
Baseball Players Need Speed — Not Just the Ability to Run
One of the biggest mistakes I see is treating “running” and “conditioning” as if they are the same thing.
They aren’t.
A baseball player can improve their general aerobic fitness by jogging for several miles. But that does not necessarily mean they have improved their ability to accelerate quickly, reach top speed, change direction, or repeatedly produce high levels of force.
In baseball, acceleration is especially important.
One study examining 1,896 sprint efforts in 302 baseball players found that acceleration over the first 13.7 meters (approximately 45 feet) was particularly important for getting to first base. The researchers concluded that coaches should emphasize maximal sprinting over the first 13.7 meters to maximize performance to first base. (PubMed)
That is a very different demand than running two or three miles at a steady pace.
Baseball doesn’t just require you to cover distance. It requires you to cover the distance quickly.
What About Long-Distance Running?
Long-distance running isn’t inherently bad.
There are situations where lower-intensity aerobic work can be useful. Baseball players still need the ability to recover between innings, between pitches, between defensive plays, and throughout a long season.
The problem is when long-distance running becomes the primary method of conditioning for a sport that is predominantly explosive and intermittent.
If a baseball player spends a significant amount of their conditioning time jogging several miles, they are spending that training time primarily developing the ability to sustain a relatively low-intensity effort.
That is not the same physical quality as:
Sprint → recover → sprint → recover → accelerate → change direction → recover → sprint again.
That second sequence looks much more like baseball.
Pitchers Still Need Aerobic Fitness
This is where the conversation needs some nuance.
I am not saying baseball players don’t need aerobic capacity.
They do.
Pitchers, particularly starting pitchers, may benefit from developing an adequate aerobic base. Research in professional pitchers has found relationships between aerobic fitness measures such as VO₂max and several pitching-performance metrics, although the relationships were generally modest and do not establish that increasing VO₂max directly causes better pitching performance. (PubMed)
So the takeaway shouldn’t be:
“Pitchers don’t need aerobic conditioning.”
The better takeaway is:
“Aerobic conditioning should be developed in a way that supports the demands of baseball.”
You can develop aerobic capacity without automatically turning a baseball player into a distance runner.
Conditioning Should Resemble the Game
If the goal is to prepare a baseball player for baseball, we should consider what the athlete actually has to do.
Instead of only asking:
“How many miles should this athlete run?”
Ask:
“What physical qualities does this athlete need to repeatedly perform during a game?”
That changes the conversation.
We want the athlete to be able to:
Accelerate.
Sprint.
Decelerate.
Change direction.
Recover.
Repeat.
And maintain the ability to produce high levels of force and power throughout the competition.
That is the conditioning target.
A Better Baseball Running Hierarchy
Rather than immediately prescribing long-distance running, I prefer to build running conditioning around increasingly demanding, baseball-specific efforts.
1. Acceleration
Start with short accelerations.
Examples:
5-yard accelerations
10-yard accelerations
10-yard falling starts
10-yard split-stance starts
10-yard lateral-to-linear accelerations
These teach the athlete to produce force quickly and get moving.
2. Short Sprints
Progress into slightly longer efforts.
Examples:
10-yard sprints
15-yard sprints
20-yard sprints
30-yard sprints
These can be programmed with adequate recovery so that speed, rather than fatigue, remains the priority.
3. Longer Baseball Sprints
For athletes who need greater sprint exposure:
30-yard sprints
40-yard sprints
60-yard sprints
The appropriate distance depends on the athlete and position.
An outfielder may need more exposure to longer high-speed efforts than a catcher.
4. Change-of-Direction Sprints
Baseball isn’t played exclusively in a straight line.
Consider:
5-10-5 shuttles
Lateral-to-linear sprints
Shuffle-to-sprint
Backpedal-to-sprint
Crossover-to-sprint
Reactive change-of-direction drills
These can better replicate the movement demands of defensive play.
5. Arc and Curved Sprints
Outfielders in particular rarely run perfectly straight lines when tracking a baseball.
Curved or arc sprinting can be incorporated to expose athletes to:
Acceleration
High-speed running
Body control
Cutting
Deceleration
This is another example of making conditioning look more like the sport.
What About “Foul Pole to Foul Pole” Running?
A traditional baseball conditioning session might involve athletes running from foul pole to foul pole repeatedly.
There is nothing inherently wrong with running that distance.
The question is:
Why are we doing it?
If the goal is general conditioning, it can accomplish that.
But if the goal is to improve a baseball player’s ability to accelerate, sprint, change direction, and repeatedly produce high force, there are often more specific ways to accomplish it.
Instead of automatically prescribing:
Foul pole → foul pole → foul pole → foul pole
consider:
10-yard sprint → recovery → 20-yard sprint → recovery → change of direction → recovery → repeat.
Or:
5-yard acceleration → 10-yard sprint → walk back → repeat.
Or:
20-yard sprint → 20–30 seconds recovery → repeat for multiple sets.
The exact prescription should depend on the athlete’s age, position, training age, competitive schedule, and current workload.
A Simple Example of Baseball-Specific Conditioning
For a healthy high-school or college position player who is already accustomed to sprinting, a conditioning session might look something like:
Option 1: Acceleration
2–3 sets
5 × 10-yard sprints
Full recovery between repetitions
2–3 minutes between sets
Option 2: Sprint Conditioning
2 sets
5 × 20-yard sprints
30–45 seconds recovery between repetitions
2–3 minutes between sets
Option 3: Mixed Baseball Conditioning
3 rounds
10-yard acceleration 20-yard sprint Change-of-direction sprint 30–45 seconds recovery
2–3 minutes between rounds
Option 4: Higher-Speed Exposure
For an athlete who needs more exposure to high-speed running:
4–6 × 30–40-yard sprints
Full recovery between repetitions
The goal is not to turn conditioning into a punishment.
The goal is to train the qualities the athlete needs.
Don’t Confuse Fatigue With Conditioning
One of the biggest misconceptions in sports conditioning is that a workout is better because it makes an athlete more exhausted.
That’s not necessarily true.
If an athlete finishes a conditioning session completely exhausted but their sprint mechanics deteriorated, their speed dropped dramatically, and they were simply trying to survive the workout, we need to ask what quality we actually trained.
There is a time and place for metabolic conditioning.
But baseball performance isn’t about being the athlete who can jog the longest.
It’s about being able to produce high levels of force and power repeatedly while maintaining skill and performance.
We don’t want to make distance runners. We want to make baseball players who can repeatedly produce high levels of force, recover, and do it again.
The Goal: Better Repeatability, Not Just More Mileage
Baseball conditioning should ultimately help an athlete maintain their ability to perform.
Can they sprint?
Can they accelerate?
Can they change direction?
Can they recover?
Can they throw hard late in a game?
Can they maintain quality movement when fatigued?
Can they repeatedly produce high levels of force without their performance falling apart?
Those are much more relevant questions than simply asking how many miles they can run.
Long-distance running isn’t inherently bad.
It simply isn’t the only — or necessarily the most sport-specific — way to condition a baseball player.
Baseball is dominated by short, explosive bouts of acceleration, sprinting, throwing, hitting, and defensive movement.
Your conditioning should reflect the sport you’re trying to become better at.
At Undefeated Physical Therapy & Performance in Canonsburg, PA, we use this same principle throughout baseball rehabilitation and performance training: identify the demands of the sport, identify what the athlete needs, and train those qualities intentionally.
If you’re a baseball player, parent, coach, or strength coach in Pittsburgh looking for a more individualized approach to baseball performance, return-to-play, or physical preparation,
contact Undefeated Physical Therapy & Performance
Email: carmen@undefeatedpt.com
Phone Text or Call: (412)627-2131
References
Freeston J, Soloff L, Schickendantz M, Genin J, Frangiamore S, Whiteley R. In-Game Workload Demands of Position Players in Major League Baseball. Sports Health. 2024. (Sage Journals)
Coleman AE, Amonette WE. Pure acceleration is the primary determinant of speed to first-base in major-league baseball game situations. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. (PubMed)
Gillett JS, Dawes JJ, Spaniol FJ, et al. A Description and Comparison of Cardiorespiratory Fitness Measures in Relation to Pitching Performance Among Professional Baseball Pitchers. Sports. 2016;4(1):14. (PubMed)
Yang SW. Assessment of professional baseball players aerobic exercise performance depending on their positions. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2014;28(11):3289–3292. (PubMed)
Major League Baseball Statcast. Running Splits / Sprint Speed. MLB Statcast defines Sprint Speed as a player’s feet per second during their fastest one-second running window. (baseballsavant.com)
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