Archive for January, 2010

Being injured is tough.  It raises questions in oneself such as, is it really healed? Am I going to re-injure it? Am I going to have to endure another rehab stint, or worse yet, another whole surgery?  Is my career going to end if I hurt it one more time?

All of these gnawing questions plaque every ballplayer who undergone rehab or the surgeon’s knife.  Many get over these fears once they return the mound and are assured by their pain-free performances that problems are safely in their past.  Yet, many players never fully get over this mental hurdle and face decreased performance as they hold back, protecting their body from the 100% effort that they fear will result in further injury.

Thing is, this is no way to live, and certainly no way to play.  It takes a lot of reckless abandon to sprint full speed on a hamstring that has been painfully pulled, or really try to hammer a fastball by someone on an elbow ligament that tore from the bone just a year ago.  Even years down the road from an injury these doubts still persist and can hold a player back from his true potential.  So, how do we get past these mental speedbumps and roadblocks?

This is, unfortunately a tough question to answer.  I think for many, it just takes a gradual approach building confidence in the repair bodypart, with sustained pain-free performance that will ease the mind completely.  This is the path the sensitive person would probably prefer, the guy or gal who doesn’t like to push through pain that might not be indicative of any structural damage.

I make mention of structural damage because it’s an important distinction to make in one’s rehab.  Especially after surgery, the repaired bodypart is never like it used to be, and weird, random pains are a daily occurrence, even well down the road. Thing is, they usually don’t mean a damned thing.  Speaking from experience, I had some pain in my forearm that was unrelated to my Tommy John surgery.  They told me just to keep going, because it wasn’t something worth slowing down for.  Talk to anyone who has undergone surgery, and they most likely received the same advice from their surgeon at some point.

So, some people need to see pain-free results to be convinced to allow themselves to put forth a little more potentially-injurious effort, but others just need to feel their back against the wall…

I had this conversation with my friend Zach Clark, who has enjoyed a great pro career in the Orioles system for the past 5 years.  He worries about his arm sometimes, despite being a number of years out from his last major injury.  With a guy like him, who is only a level away from the Major Leagues, he has more reason than others to protect his arm by holding back.  His career has been maintaining on his current effort level, and an injury would seriously compromise his future.  So, he has a lot to lose and not too much to gain (since he has been successful doing what he has been doing) by trying to a little harder.

But, for a guy like me, who is in post-surgical and post-collegiate limbo, I have much less to lose.  The way I see it, if I hold back to protect myself and only throw, say 88, I jeopardize my attractiveness to scouts and pro coaches.  Yet, if I throw without inhibition, I may (or may only perceive to) put my arm at greater risk.  Now, my arm is certifiably fixed, but remember we’re not talking about reality here, only perception.

Either way, for a guy in my situation with his back against the wall, it’s damned if you hold back or (perceptibly) damned if you don’t.  So, I choose to attempt to reinjure myself with each and every pitch.  Sounds reckless, right?  Well yeah, it is, but not more than any other pitch thrown by any other pitcher at full speed…

A pitcher has to have confidence in himself and his arm to throw at his maximum velocity any and every pitch if he needs to.  So, post-surgery or not, the intent needs to be to throw the shit out of the ball every single time.  Throwing the ball with such intent is what separates pitchers labeled “aggressive” and those labeled “nibblers” or “conservative.” And you don’t have to throw 100 miles per hour to throw your pitches aggressively…

So reason with yourself, and make a deal with your arm if need be.  I’ll give you an example of the deal I made with my elbow a few months ago:

Me: Elbow, I’ll make you a deal: I’m going to abuse you, and I’m going to throw each of my pitches from here on out with the intent to destroy you again.

Elbow: Whats in it for me?

Me: I’m going to give you more strengthening exercises than you could ask for, so that if you get hurt again, it’s your own fault.  I’ll ice, massage and treat you better than any of my past girlfriends.  You’re gonna be taken care of, so you better start taking care of me and my career…

Elbow: That sounds like a lot of work.  Do I have a choice?

Me: No. And f you start hurting and complaining to me, I’m gonna get angry and start throwing even harder out of frustration, because I know there’s nothing actually wrong with you, and that you’re structurally sound and plenty strong to withstand at all.

Elbow: So I should just keep my mouth shut, is what you’re saying, because you’re not gonna stop no matter what I do?

Me: Babies often cry for attention, and I’m done babying you.  Cry all you want, no one will be listening.  I’m not gonna pitch scared anymore.  I’m giving you all the strengthening you could possibly need, so it’s just go time, no questions asked.

Elbow: I hate you, Dan.

Me: I hate you, too, but we’ll be friends again someday.

These are one of my favorites. Not only are they a great posterior chain (glutes, hamstring and lower back) exercise, but they really work the core as well. These are a great excuse to hold heavy things in your hands, which will develop excellent grip strength. Lifting the heavy weight on only one side of the body really recruits the obliques to hold your torso upright.  If you go heavy you will feel that pull on your core immediately.  Keep your chest and eyes up, your lower back flat and use your legs to lift.  If you don’t regularly train your grip, it’s almost surely going to be the limiting factor, as your legs can most likely lift more than just one hand can hold. Good Luck!

Guess what?  Sports are political, especially pro sports.  Thing is, not everyone grasps this concept, and this conversation seems to be had by disgruntled players every other week.  Guess what?  I hate this conversation.  If you wanna talk about politics, go cry to someone else. I’ll be in the weight room, or outside running sprints, or out long-tossing.  Keep talking about how other guys get chances you won’t get; I’ll be out making my own path to the finish line.

Sure, we would all love to be that guy who hits .220 in college and gets 3 years to live the dream in the minors because our dad is the lawyer for the Yankees.  But you know what? That guy knows deep down that he didn’t earn it, and no matter how many chicks he gets under the pretense that he is a “pro,” deep down he knows his own athletic impotence.  I’ll know deep down that anything I obtained was earned.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that it hurts that you’re an “honest” one, out there doing your best just to get beaten out of a spot by some guy who knows more influential people than you do.  Thing is, though, you don’t deserve it more than a lot of people, you know, people who work harder than you.  You just got lucky by having a good arm, or a good bat, one that you maybe didn’t deserve any more than the promotion that other guy got.

So let’s all stop crying.  I don’t cry about how I’m 5’11, right-handed, 24 years old and missed my last season because of surgery.  I don’t give a shit that I’m gonna get passed up by guys who won’t be as good, but who received more money than I, or who were granted a favor by an executive.  It’s gonna happen, I know it, but I can’t control it.  I control ME.  That’s it, and I make sure I’ve got everything in order.  Even then, whenever I start feeling entitled to something, I check myself, because I am naturally gifted compared to a lot of average joes and I’m pretty sure I didn’t earn my genetics.

You know who has this conversation the most?  The guys who work the least.  The guys who don’t do anything for the first 5 months of the offseason then jump on the bench press with a month to go.  These are also the guys who will quit and blame their loss of passion for the game on the politics.  But the guys who put their heads down, take care of themselves and just WORK,  they understand that they’re leaving it all out on the field or the weight room every day. Sure, they care that they get passed over, but hard work is honorable, and you just can’t hold people down who refuse the life of mediocrity, refuse to blame the world for their failures, and refuse to quit when faced with adversity.

I think I invented this one, but who knows if this hasn’t been done before.  Genius aside, I really liked how this works.  It trains your forearm in resisting a moving weight by activating the muscles that are responsible for radial and ulnar deviation. Ulnar deviation is the last movement of the forearm as a baseball bat flies through the zone, and the motion of the curveball also utilizes this plane of forearm motion. You can also hold the barbell off-center, which makes it much, much more difficult.

This exercise requires a partner, a barbell and some grip strength.  Choose a weight that you can hold without the added motion for 20-40 seconds, and do sets until your grip gets crushed (3-5 sets will do it, depending on the weight and your strength).

Yesterday Ben asked me if I wanted to post some inspirational videos.  I told him I was the wrong man for the job.  You see, I don’t watch sports movies.  I don’t seek out inspirational videos.  I don’t like to be inspired by the doings of others.  I like to just keep on going.

I appreciate others sending me videos of this sort, and I watched one by Will Smith that my friend Tim O’Brien sent me.  I liked what Will said, but the thing is, that stuff just doesn’t get to me anymore.  Waiting to develop into a pro caliber ballplayer has taken significant effort nearly every single day of the last 6 years of my life. Because I have realized that change takes time, and I can’t throw 1000 pitches in a day to perfect things all at once, I have to go to sleep and wait until the next morning arrives, so I can get after it once more.

The video Ben posted yesterday, I won’t even watch it.  My motivation comes from within – the hurt inside me that has been caused by my dreams moving away from me seemingly at the same pace that I claw toward them.

But no matter what, I just wake up and get to it.  I do as much as I can for one day, and then I rest so that it all sets, making me a little better than even that previous morning.

Yet, through all this time of training and waiting, I am inspired by a few other things from within, and I’ll share them with you…

• The day I throw in front of a scout, have it together, and get signed afterward.  I see it clearly in my mind, down to to the venue and the individual pitches.  It’s already happened and will happen; thing is, it just hasn’t yet happened.
• The People I Know Who Believe If Anyone, I can. If I quit, then who else is left to be the example of what can happen when you refuse to quit?  I’d be just like every other mediocre person on this planet.  I have one life to live, and going after things until they get really hard, then quitting, would be a horseshit way to be.  I’m the guy who will keep going and won’t quit, even when everyone else thinks it’s time to hang em up and call it a career.  Other guys in the bigs have done it, and quite frankly, I think I’m stronger willed than even they.  One more day is one more day to improve, so hanging on can only better my chances.
• “The final chapters are yet to be written.” My strength coach, Fred Cantor, said this to me one day in the weight room as I explained to him how my opening day start didn’t go well, despite my preparation and optimism.  I rarely break composure, but I was on the verge of losing it at this point.  He doesn’t show it in the same way as others, but I know he is one of my biggest fans.  What he said was subtle, but it stuck, and I kept it mind as I continued to control my own destiny.
• “A Resolute Man Will Find A Way” This is my favorite phrase ever uttered by a human being, and it was said to me in an email by my favorite philosophy professor, Roye Templeton.  I had written to him telling him about my poor performance and elbow surgery, because the last time we had spoken there was optimism of me being drafted if the season went well.

My senior year in college, at a bar, I was introduced to a senior female athlete who I had seen in the athletics department for 4 years but never spoken to.  She said, “You’re the guy who trains really, really hard.”  I said that it might have been me.

It was one of my most proudest moments.

resolute |ˈrezəˌloōt; -lət|adjectiveadmirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering

Yesterday as I was driving to work, I saw a silver hatchback something, maybe a Chrysler or a Dodge, with a huge JESUS scripted on the side in maroon and navy lettering.  There was also a cross after his name, just to make sure you knew it was that Jesus. Hmmmm.  That’s interesting, I thought.  So I took my eyes off the road and decided to inspect the driver of this conspicuous vehicle.  What I found was a white male with a thin face and dirty appearance, sporting a long beard that took at least a year to grow.  It WAS Jesus!

As I laughed at what I had just seen, it dawned on me: If I was Jesus, the son of God reincarnate, back to hang with the people of the 21st century, I would do exactly what he was doing: blatantly advertising myself in plain sight.

Why would I do this?  For the irony and self-amusement, of course.  Religious folk love to throw out the “What if that poor beggar you just denied is Jesus” to illustrate how we should all treat others well, because we never know who might be watching or judging us.  They all assume that If Jesus was to come back among us, he would be dressed quite lowly, blending in among the vermin, and not at all like the “king of kings.”

This picture absolutely cracks me up!

But yet, If Jesus came back with a silver hatchback to drive with his corporate logo on the side, sporting full beard and era-appropriate threads, no one would actually believe it was him.  If he had a sense of humor he would certainly get a good laugh at it as well, because nothing he could ever say or do would convince sane people that the Jesus would run around in a silver car with his name on it and shake hands while sporting a 6 inch beard and desert-wear.

So yes, If I was Jesus, back to spread my word to mankind, I would do it like this guy in the silver hatchback.  I’d throw out the all the stops, shake your hand, look you in the eye, and hand you my informational pamphlet.  Then I’d get back in my sporty ride, and chuckle to myself at how much fun this all was, as I looked for another soul to save.

This video is of Frostburg freshman Adam Baxley banging out a box drill.  We use this to develop both foot speed and conditioning.  Having him block increases game carryover as well, and will give him the stamina to perform pop-ups from his knees into the late innings.  Hip flexor, leg and core strength are all stressed in this drill.

Applying the deliberate practice principles to your throwing

In my last post, I talked about the deliberate practice principles laid out in the book Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.

To refresh, deliberate practice involves

• Working on a specific aspect of performance
• High repetition
• Continuously available feedback
• Highly demanding mentally
• Isn’t (usually) much fun

In this post I’m going to talk mainly about the third piece of the puzzle, focusing primarily on how it relates to improving throwing mechanics and velocity.

Feedback and throwing mechanics:

To start, you’re probably wondering why “throwing mechanics” and not “pitching mechanics.” Paul Nyman of SETPRO was the first to make the clear distinction between these two activities. Pitching is about doing everything you can do get the batter out, whereas throwing refers to the specific movement patterns/sequences that your body goes through to apply force to the ball. When you hear people talking about posting leg position or hand break timing or whatever, what they are really referring to is a player’s throwing mechanics.

Feedback is particularly under-appreciated when it comes to players and velocity development. When was the last time your pitching coach brought a radar gun to your team’s bullpen sessions? I can tell you that, in my experience, at the high school level and below this form of feedback is almost nonexistent.

So how do you make sure that you’re applying the continuous feedback principle and aren’t wasting your practice time on empty repetitions? Here are a couple ideas…

Read the rest of this entry »

….was the phrase uttered to 4 of my athletes this week.  You see, we have a policy here at Athletic Edge, that, if you puke, do it in a trash can, and if you puke in a trash can, you’re gonna get rid of the bag yourself.

Now understand that pushing people to puke isn’t the sign of a good trainer, nor is it ever my goal.  Furthermore, I never insist that someone on the brink of vomiting would continue to work – it’s simply not productive for any of us.  If they let me know, I’ll insist that they rest.

Yet, I can at least respect those who work until they puke, because it’s not easy and it’s not a good feeling.  Like I said, I don’t want or ask them to do that, but if they quietly go to that point, then hey, at least they worked hard.

Reason for all the fluid loss this week was that I had a large group of college players with whom I have been working 3 times per week for 4 weeks now.  Workouts started out tame, and have progressed to be pretty difficult.  The guys who have come consistently are in great shape, and can now handle a heavy conditioning workload.  Those who, because these workouts were voluntary for their school, decided not to come regularly but DID decide to show up on the last week got a rude awakening.  They were hurting, and left with a leaky, smelly trash bag in hand.  Shame.

Oh, and don’t drink a quart of blue gatorade 10 minutes before working out.  Turns out, it comes back up in a beautiful shade of green…