In the spring of 1995, Kris Benson was cut from the USA Baseball national squad. This item went mostly unnoticed in the baseball community, but to Benson, a pitcher for Clemson University, it was devastating. "This was the thing that motivated me the most," he recalls.

What it motivated him to do was hang up his glove and head straight for the Clemson weight room during the summer of 1995 and begin an extremely heavy weight-training program. In the process, he broke with baseball tradition and became a role model for the development of baseball strength and conditioning at the college level. Benson gained 17 pounds of lean muscle and 10 mph on his fastball, and earned the number one overall pick in the 1996 baseball draft, going to the Pittsburgh Pirates with a two-million-dollar signing bonus.

Benson's Story

If you are a baseball traditionalist you probably won't believe what follows. During the summer of 1995 Kris Benson entirely stopped throwing the baseball and concentrated on developing upper-body strength (see Table One) as pan of an overall strength program.

"I hadn't had a layoff from throwing the baseball in over seven years, and I think I might have been over training and a little burned out" Benson relates. "this was the first time I was able to really concentrate on weight training. In the past I would lift light weights before the season but I never sustained it for a long period of time".

For an accomplished pitcher to stop throwing and start heavy upper-body lifting might seem like an act of desperation, but in fact it is a classic example of an intelligent player listening to his body and having the confidence to plan long-term success. As Benson explains, had confidence that my throwing mechanics would be okay. I realized that when fall came around I would have enough time to sharpen my throwing skills. I lifted heavy-not high reps/light weights-four days a week using a split routine, Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday. On Wednesdays I would swim to maintain flexibility and work on my throwing mechanics."

"When Kris came to us he was very lean, but he was motivated, disciplined, and an extremely coachable young man," says Gary Wade, (Clemson's Head Strength and Conditioning Coach. 'We all knew he had a great deal of talent. In high school he was throwing fastballs in the mid 80's. When I think of him, I see him as a prime example of what commitment, dedication, and consistent working out can accomplish.

"When we evaluated him we knew that he needed improvement in all physical parameters, so we put him on a balanced, general development program," continues Wade. ‘Every day, Kris was the first guy on the baseball team in the weight room. He was there when we unlocked the door. We set up a program that we felt would help him, and he went after it.

"Kris has the unique ability to take each workout and put it into perspective in relation to his long-term goals. A lot of athletes look at it as just getting through it. Kris is focused on the long term. Every day he tried to improve, to make it count, because he knew that down the line it mattered. There is no better example of any athlete that I have worked with who took raw talent and converted it to success through hard work in strength training and conditioning."

A New Tradition

Benson's presence in the weight room that summer also fueled a budding tradition of highly-conditioned players, a tradition already started by Head Baseball Coach Jack Leggert with the aid of Wade. In the past three years, Leggert has taken the Tigers to the College World Series in Omaha twice and has won an Atlantic Coast Conference championship. According to Wade, Leggett's commitment to strength and conditioning has made the difference.

"In the past we were limited in what we did for baseball," says Wade. "But that philosophy has changed. We now train year-round. Jack is a coach who firmly believes in strength training for baseball. We have had players like Kris come here needing to add strength and power, so we put them on a power program for the off season with a maintenance program in season. This has made a big difference."

"Strength is the new innovation in the last five to 10 years," Leggett said. "Weight training both upper and lower body now receives huge emphasis on the college level. It has been one of the contributing factors to our success here at Clemson. There is no question that a player will get bigger, stronger, and faster and gain a mental edge. They feel better about themselves and are less prone to injury.

"Pitchers also have better endurance on the mound," Leggett continues. Whey are able to maintain velocity for a longer period of time and spot the ball more consistently. But it has to be done right. A pitcher who does a long throwing program along with the weight training and flexibility puts himself in the best situation. Weights without the fine tuning could work in he opposite direction."

In his 12 years as head strength and conditioning coach at Clemson, Wade has seen the attitude toward strength training for baseball change drastically. "Just before I came to Clemson I worked at the Detroit Tigers' organization," says Wade. "I can remember Lance Parrish and Brian Downing weight training and receiving a lot of heat from the coaches for doing so. But now, it's not a matter of if weight training is beneficial, but a matter of doing it properly. We all now realize it is necessary, not only for performance Put for injury prevention."

 "While a lot of players talk about lifting, Kris went out and did it. Along with a proper diet, you have to lift with the same purpose, intensity, and concentration he did. What happened for him will happen for others. Our players realize this, and it has made us more competitive."

An Inspiration

While Wade and Leggett built the foundation for baseball strength training at Clemson, Benson definitely brought it to another level. "Kris has been an inspiration to a lot of other players on the team," says Wade, "by showing that weight training is not just for football players, and that hard work does pay off."

"You see a pitcher develop the way Kris Benson has," says Leggett, "and before him Scott Winchester (who was drafted number 14 by the Cleveland Indians and was an AJI-American pitcher for Clemson), gets the other players excited about lifting weights.

"Kris has been a great example for us," continues Leggett. "While a lot of players talk about lifting, Kris went out and did it. thong with a proper diet you have to lift with the same purpose, intensity, and concentration he did. What happened for him will happen for others. Our players realize this, and it has made us more competitive throughout the conference and the country."

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