The At-Home Training Plan Checklist

1. The week at a glance

This is the same weekly framework as the M4P Hitting Development Guide: two movement and power days, two skill days, one game-speed day, and rest. The order across the week is yours; the mix is not. Tick the box when the session is done, not when it is planned.

Two skill days means two, even in season. Three cage nights and no movement work is how plateaus are built.

Sources: S1

2. Before every session

Five to ten minutes, every time, before a swing or a throw. The throwing items are the Arm-Care Starter's daily prep list; the movement items are bodyweight only.

• Break a sweat: about five minutes of light movement (Arm-Care Starter).
• Arm circles, small to large, forward and back (Arm-Care Starter).
• The band series from the Arm-Care Starter daily prep checklist, on any day the athlete throws.
• Easy catch, starting close and building out (Arm-Care Starter).
• Movement warm-up, slow and controlled: light jog or skips, bodyweight squat and hinge, forward and lateral lunges, standing trunk rotations.

Sources: S2

3. Skill session checklist (two per week)

• One cue for the session, chosen before the first rep. Write it at the top of the log.
• Quality over volume: about 40 focused swings, or the throwing count your coach set. Not 200 without a thought (M4P Hitting Development Guide).
• Film one rep from the side, the same angle each time.
• Log the session: the cue, what it felt like, and one number if you measured one.
• Stop when quality drops. Reps after that train the wrong thing.

No weighted bats, overload or underload work in this plan. That kind of work needs an age floor and a coach-written progression; it is not something to add from a checklist.

Sources: S1

4. Movement and power session checklist (two per week)

Bodyweight and a light medicine ball. No added load unless a coach prescribed it. Write the patterns your coach gave you in the blanks; M4P athletes, use the Movement Prep and Power and Strength blocks from your written 4-week program.

• Movement prep (pattern, sets x reps)
• Lower half: squat, hinge or lunge pattern (sets x reps)
• Rotational power: medicine-ball throw pattern (sets x reps)
• Trunk and brace (sets x reps)

If nobody has written these for your athlete yet, that is what the assessment is for: the 4-week program that comes with it fills in exactly these blocks.

Sources: S3

5. Game-speed day (one per week)

• Live arms, a machine at game speed, or competitive rounds with a score attached.
• Watch timing and decisions, not mechanics. Mechanics are for the skill days.
• One note afterwards: what held up under speed, and what did not.

Sources: S1

6. Rest, and the red flags that mean stop

Rest is part of the plan, not a day off from it. Adaptation happens when the athlete is recovering. Soreness is normal. Pain is a signal.

Stop training and seek guidance if your athlete experiences any of the following (from the Arm-Care Starter):

• Sharp pain in the elbow or shoulder during or after throwing.
• Pain that lingers into the next day or gets worse with use.
• Loss of velocity or accuracy paired with discomfort.
• Tingling or numbness down the arm or into the hand.

Sources: S2

7. The weekly log

Three lines a week. They feed the 'what changed in training' rows on the Baseline and Progress Worksheet.

Sources: S4

8. When the plan should change

At the end of a 4-week block, re-test (the worksheet) and change the plan on evidence: the cue that stuck becomes the default, and the limiter that did not move gets the next block. If nothing moved and the sessions were done, the plan was aimed at the wrong thing, which is the most common reason a home plan stalls.

What a coach-written plan adds is the aim: an assessment finds the biggest limiter, and the 4-week program is built against it, with the blocks above filled in.

Sources: S3, S4