Spring training 2016 has officially begun in Tampa, Florida as the Yankees pitchers and catchers reported to George M. Steinbrenner Field for the first time. As players were heading over to the complex, they were greeted with a new feature on one of the back practice fields.
A hill has been added to one of the back fields as a new conditioning tools for the players. The club hopes that it will help add more power to the players’ legs.
Matt Krause, the Yankees’ director of strength and conditioning, requested the conditioning tool in his first season. It was not until this year, his third, that the Yankees granted his request and implemented the hill. Krause implemented the same regime in his time with the Cincinnati Reds.
In an interview with Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News, Brian Cashman said that “it was really important in Matt’s mind, so we got it. He does a lot of technical runnings, form runnings, backward, forward, cutting and stuff like that.”
.@Yankees install a HILL at spring training facility at the request of conditioning coach https://t.co/Gq2iYxtGR5 pic.twitter.com/luHdNWBXrm
— NY Daily News Sports (@NYDNSports) February 18, 2016
The hill will work “not only cardiovascular, it’s actually strengthening the leg muscles. It’s basically from the core down,” Cashman said.
Cashman also said Krause believes that implementing the hill is very important to “help prepare our pitchers especially, but both position players and pitchers in terms of conditioning work in spring training.”
