Archive for the ‘Baseball’ Category

This is a drill that I have been doing for about 9 years now.  I learned it from my friend Duane Rhine, who taught me the curveball that got me into college.  My hammer was the only reason my 78-81 arm ever saw the mound as a freshman, and this drill helps tremendously to get the spin and consistent release down.

The point of the bucket? Well, that’s your “strike” release point.  Don’t expect the ball to break at such low velocity; just work on getting tight spin from your grip and follow through. Learn to nail that bucket on a consistent basis and you will have no trouble spotting up that curve in game situations.  It’s all about repetition with proper mechanics.

This is a topic on which I need you, my readers, to give me some feedback. Everyone has their own methods and little tricks to keep their arm fresh.  Some guys hurt more than others, but any high level baseball player finds a way to deal with pains, aches and soreness to make it to the next game.

When my arm feels like tired garbage, I first try to flush it with blood. I do this either by:

1. Running
2. Performing lightweight, high rep exercises for that body part
3. Performing some other sort of conditioning like jumprope or light weight training circuits

If I have those weird little pains, extra soreness or aches, I might hit that area real hard with some soft tissue work.  This means I will roll on it with a foam roller, tennis ball or baseball, hit it with a massage tool, rolling pin, or my good ol’ knuckles.  Whatever the implement, I dig to the trouble spot and try to rub out any knots, and promote new bloodflow to the area.

If my elbow or shoulder, for example, gets extra sore or develops a little pain, I will also tend to crush it with extra prehab.  If my forearm hurts on the top part, I will crush my forearm extensors with wrist rolls, wrist extensions, hand openers, etc.  Again, this is trying to get blood and a new stimulus to the troubled area.

....whatever works

I’m only a believer in ice immediately after throwing, or any traumatic exercise for that matter, and I never ice after an hour has passed from my throwing session – this would slow bloodflow and have the opposite effect I’m looking for.  Ice immediately after an injury or strenuous exercise reduces inflammation, but otherwise it just reduces bloodflow.  I occasionally will use a heating pack to increase bloodflow if I’m really achy, but never the same day as the session that caused the ache.

So, it’s your turn…what do you do to keep yourself on the field and feeling good?  I want your secrets for your arm, but any body part will do!

Dear High School Pitcher,

It is time to make a decision.

I know you want to play college baseball, and I know you dream of one day being a major leaguer.  Thing is, no matter how well you perform for your high school team, 80 mph pitchers don’t make it anywhere; Sorry to burst your bubble.  You’re just not that good in the grand scheme of the baseball world.

Chances are, its already too late, but you can maybe turn things around if you are willing to train real hard and real smart.  If you want to give yourself a fighting chance, you have to do it now.  Not in two weeks. Not tomorrow. Right now.

And let’s be honest, your current workout program probably consists of going to school with bedhead and coming home to eat Easy-Mac.  That works for some people – genetic freaks.  And as you check your biceps, let me assure you that you are not one of these freaks; I have friends who can throw almost as hard as you with their non-dominant arm.

Don’t mistake me – I want you to do well, move on and continue to live the dream. But it is time for a little introspection and a new plan of action, because things obviously aren’t working.

I’m a strength coach.  I see you guys come in to our facility all the time.  Let me tell you exactly who you are, as you invariably fit into one of the following profiles:

The Weak Kid

5’10″, 145 pounds. 76-78 mph.  Arms and legs that look like fleshy lo mein noodles. He can do 15-20 “pushups”, but not one of them is technically correct.  Do you really think that guys who throw 90 mph do it with this little strength?

The Strong, But Scrawny, Kid

6’1″ 160 pounds.  79-81 mph.  Sure, he can do 8 chin ups, runs all the time and isn’t lacking functional strength.  But guess what?  If you’re “strong” but still don’t throw hard, then you need to do something different, and consider putting on some weight.  Congrats on being lean and explosive, but Force still equals Mass x Acceleration, and your mass just isn’t getting that baseball moving.

The Out of Shape Kid

6’2″ 230 pounds, 20%+ bodyfat. 80-81.  Again, you’re not a genetic freak, so don’t even start to tell me how C.C. Sabathia’s hypnotic jiggling helps him throw shutouts.  You need to lose a bunch of weight, which might reveal some dormant athleticism and power production.

The Untrained Athlete

5’11″ 170 pounds.  80-83.  He isn’t scrawny, is athletic and has good baseline strength. Yet, he has never picked up a weight, trained, or done anything remotely resembling betterment.  Doing anything might turn this guy into a stud.

Which one of these are you?  In a world all too concerned with self-esteem and feelings, it’s time to be honest with yourself, just as I am being honest with you. Your career, without change, will end on graduation day, and I guarantee being a student working toward a day job isn’t nearly as fun as being a college athlete working toward a championship.

Sincerely, A Realistic, Honest Strength Coach

I recently wrote a post on goals for the offseason.  A few days ago I was checking out the blog of Eric Cressey, who is strength coach in Boston with a large baseball client base.  One of his recent posts addressed how little time baseball players have each year to really remodel their physiques.  It’s called The Biggest Mistake Pro Baseball Players Make, and I think it’s definitely worth a read.  The offseason goes by fast, and it’s of critical importance.  Cressey writes for T-Nation along with my friend Nick Tumminello, and both of them really know their stuff.

Ever sprinted away from a stinging, furious, vindictive swarm of bees?

If you have, (likely with wet pants) then you know that there is an extra gear deep down that kicks in when the adrenaline is pumping.

This isn’t news; we have all experienced something like this in our lives, and as such we know that the body’s dormant physical potential is pretty amazing.

Thing is, in sport it is often difficult to summon this sort of extra-maximal (yes, I’m aware that term is senseless) effort, especially in situations when no one is watching and the game is not on the line. Read the rest of this entry »

Steroids get a bad rap in sports, and rightfully so.  After all, they give athletes an edge over their competition, and can subsequently take jobs away from “clean” athletes who are physically overmatched by “dirty” athletes.

Yet, a fundamental reason we spectators watch athletics is to witness, and vicariously share in and celebrate, the limits and athletic prowess of the human body.

This is one reason the Olympics has forever been successful, despite the fact that it often features sports that are obscure to the masses for the better part of 4 years.

Thing is, increases in human performance are beginning to taper down as we reach our genetic potential.  Back in the 1900s one could break a world record in the 100m dash by a half second.  Now, world records are lowered only by the hundredth, maybe a tenth if we are lucky.

Where is the fun in that?  We can no longer go out and see something we haven’t (basically) seen before.  If not for the actual stopwatches, no one would know the speed difference between Usain Bolt or Carl Lewis if not running against each other, because the speed difference that translates to even a huge 1/2 second difference in the 100m is likely not perceivable by the human eye.

And sure, sports have incredible value beyond just the limits of a singular performance, but thats not what is at issue here.  I’m talking about the single physical events: the sprint, the distance of the homer, the throw, the swim. These are objective, relevant and salient without mention of other competitors.

Thus, I would like to make an appeal for the greatness of steroids on the grounds that they allow us to continue to explore the limits of the human body, knowing that our natural genetic potential for athletic feats will one day, if not already, be tapped without them. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently had a run-in during a game, in which I threw behind (I missed) a batter who had gotten a hit off of me earlier and then ran his mouth about how easy I was to hit. A brawl nearly ensued, but he didn’t feel safe coming all the way out to me. Understandable. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s extremely important to pitch using the information a batter provides.  On a basic level, this is just understanding what a foul ball means.  If you throw your best fastball down the middle, and the batter fouls it off to the opposite field, he is late.  If he pulls that same pitch, he is early.  To the batter who is late, you force feed him your fastball and move it in on his hands if he starts to catch up.  If he is early, it’s probably time to show him an offspeed pitch. 

By giving a late hitter an offspeed pitch, or something away in the zone, you’re doing him a favor by accommodating his inferior (in respect to your velocity) batspeed.  By throwing offspeed to the early hitter, however, you are exploiting the fact that he is not keeping his hands back long enough in the zone. Read the rest of this entry »

If I have learned one thing from my psychology and philosophy classes, it is to recognize bad experimental design and flaws in logic.  Chris O’Leary, in his pitching mechanics analyses, is subject to both of these problems and presents superficial and baseless arguments.  This is disconcerting because many pitchers read his blog, fall for his arguments, and go about tampering with their mechanics in fear of his false prophesies.   Read the rest of this entry »