Archive for the ‘Training’ Category
March 9th, 2010 | 
Author: I’ve been getting some questions about pitchers stretching routines, so I’m gonna share what I use as a pretty straightforward top to bottom stretch. In about 20 minutes you can hit all of your major muscles and joints, and be ready to go. I like to start with the lower body, and move between stretches as fluidly as I can.
First, get some blood flowing. 5 minutes of moving around at a good pace to build some muscle and joint warmth will improve all of the stretches.
I am listing these exercises in the most fluid and logical sequence, so do them in this order and they will flow together nicely.
1. IT Band
IT Band Stretch
The IT band is an aponeurosis, or flat tendon band, that stretches from the lateral hip to the knee. This is tight on many athletes, and can restrict the thigh in multiple planes of movement, as well as cause knee problems.
To stretch, straighten one leg and cross the other in front. Lean into a wall while keeping the stretching leg straight, and you will feel a stretch down the outside of the leg.
2. Hip External Rotators Read the rest of this entry »
It’s cold and dreary here in Baltimore, but spring is on the way and just around the corner. What does one usually do around April or May? Spring cleaning, of course! I’m messy, and disinterested in actually cleaning anything, but at this time, with the season on the horizon, it’s time to throw out the old and stale and bring in the new training exercises, methods and programming. If you don’t re-examine what you’ve been doing every so often, you’ll never be up to speed with your body’s continually changing needs.
Step 1: Identify The Clutter Read the rest of this entry »
This is a pretty neat drill that my friend Joe Cusimano showed me today. By grabbing the weighted ball (2lb) as your arm comes through in a pitching motion, you increase demand on your rotator cuff, thus strengthening the muscles that decelerate the arm through the zone. If you aren’t familiar with said decelerators, read my two posts on Throwing Anatomy (Part 1 and Part 2)
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!
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
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…
Grip strength is critically important, and I have been harping on it for some time. EVERYONE can use increased grip strength, and the implications it has on throwing harder, swinging harder and preventing injury are huge. Grip, or hand strength can be classified in many different ways, but today we are going to focus on just open and closed hand strength, the differences between them and their implications for pitchers and hitters.
Closed Hand Strength
This is just what it sounds like, holding things with a closed fist. This is the most important type of strength for a hitter to have, as gripping the bat is done with closed fists. This isn’t meant to be groundbreaking info, but I want you to see the carryover from the weight room to the field for both pitchers and hitters.
Closed hands gripping a bat