Posts Tagged ‘warbird throwing academy’
May 10, 2012 | 
Author More questions….”What should I do after I pitch?” Here are my suggestions, in order: Read the rest of this entry »
Good mechanics are the precursor, but how do we actually throw strikes? One of the many things taught in Warbird Throwing Academy.
One of my students, Freshman lefthander Ryan Basden, threw a perfect game last week. His mother was kind enough to send me over the clipping, as I wasn’t able to make the game. I had seen him K eight batters over 5 innings in a previous start this season, so I can’t say I’m surprised that he has continued to dominate. Ryan has a hammer from hell and a sinking changeup to go along with his 6’2″, 220lb frame. He’s got some physicality and some talent, to say the least. Ryan has been taking lessons from me for over a year and was in my Warbird Throwing Academy this offseason.
It’s always great to see my students taking a winter of hard work out onto the mound. Couldn’t be prouder…
This time of year, with more than half of my athletes out playing, my stress level mostly abates. I’m left with more free time to see my summer ahead of me, right as the sun starts poking its head around. I find my thoughts happily wandering so much that I’m often left unable to put word to page. The one thing that really melds the pleasant warmth of sunbeams into a holistically “summer” feeling, is music.
It’s officially spring. It’s time to feel good – here’s a few songs that are flat-out awesome and I believe can be enjoyed by the young, hip kid and older fuddy-duddy type alike. There’s a lot of rap using classical beats and I personally dig the combination. These songs are all, to my knowledge, lyrically pretty “clean” and appropriate. Radio-approved music is getting worse and worse (Rack City is the worst song ever), but this stuff is too cool to hit the radio anyway. I wore #13 last year in Fargo, so I’m gonna give you 13 of my favorite songs that are a bit off the beaten path.
I’m gonna start you off with a song that I guarantee almost no one has heard. If you have heard Nujabes before, please leave a comment and let me know. The dude is apparently dead and you can’t find his album, but I caught some of his stuff a few years ago from a friend. Some of his stuff is elevator music, but the following song is really good… Read the rest of this entry »
Check out this chart containing all the relevant info regarding Warbird’s first 30 students. It’s been a great offseason, and the results speak for themselves…. Read the rest of this entry »
A pretty simple way to conceptualize how velocity and location affects a hitter.
I flew out to Southern California almost two weeks ago to attend Alan Jaeger’s pro camp. Alan stumbled upon my blog a year ago after I linked to one of his long toss articles, and we both thought I’d learn some good stuff from the trip.
The camp was 4 days and geared mostly toward mental training, which I will discuss more in another post. Though I have been a lifetime self-taught long-tosser, I learned a few things from Alan that have had a profound affect on the way I’ve approached the training in my Warbird Academy since I returned home. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been crazy busy the last few weeks getting back from California, which was a tremendous experience, organizing my schedule (booked to the teeth) and writing new programming for 50 strength training students and 42 Warbird throwers. Here’s a few things to look forward to on my site in the next week or so:
1. Early results from the first 30 Warbird Throwers. A rough look at my data suggests that my group has gained on average 3 miles per hour and as high as 7. I’m pretty excited, and have new technology (Thanks Mike!) to share throwing data on my site. Check out the Player Velocities Page under the Warbird parent tab. If you’re not local you won’t know the names, but you can check the progress some of my hard workers have made. Nick Hieb, a Junior, just threw in front of a few college coaches and sat 3-4mph higher than he had previously peaked as of last year (his peak is about +5-6). Pretty excited about him – he’s earned it.
2. My Trip to LA for Alan Jaeger’s Pro Camp was awesome. I have lots to share but as of now too little time to share it. Soon – it was well worth the trip.
3. I’m going to share via video some of what I’ve learned about velocity this winter, and I’ve learned a whole, whole lot. The radar gun is the greatest pitchers’ training tool ever created, in my opinion. You’d be amazed how much pitch-by-pitch feedback can do for a thrower and a coach who wants his kids to throw harder. I’m not going to give away my proprietary program, but I will give you insight into what you can do at home today to throw harder immediately.
Thanks! Stay Tuned….
We throw the 2oz JUGS lite flights to give us an idea of theoretical near-maximum arm twitch speed, the theoretical near-max of how fast your arm can go. A true theoretical max would use no weight at all, but 2oz comes reasonably close. This is measured on flat ground with no competitive adrenaline, so theoretical max would be higher than this as well when factoring in a mound and competitive, in-game atmosphere, which to me personally adds 4-6mph based on years of radar gunning.
Measurements were taken with a new Stalker Sport 2 radar gun set to Tenths. The goal of testing theoretical max arm speed, as we do in all of my Warbird Throwing Academy groups, is to see what we could potentially achieve if we strengthened the arm enough. Can I strengthen enough to throw actual 5oz baseballs as hard as these lite flights? We will see. Once we have measurements of the theoretical max, then we work to bring the actual baseball max up to the level of the theoretical max. We also use these to increase the arm’s speed – throwing heavier balls never allows it to run at it’s full clip, so to speak. In the same way plyometrics allow strong but slow athletes to convert their strength into explosiveness, so does throwing lighter balls for baseball and softball players.
No Jesse Heatons were seriously injured in the filming of this exercise (though he did have a nice bruise). This was not particularly safe done without a helmet, so don’t try this on your own. Jesse’s a college player at Saint Scholastica, and one of my toughest strength trainees.
It must be pretty amazing to throw a real baseball 97 MPH; it must provide a feeling of invincibility. My hat’s off to the few who actually can.
Interested in some DBSP SWAG?
I was just flipping through my iPhone looking for a photo for a future blog post, when I came to a realization: there’s a big story to be told via my photos. So, I decided to share the best of the best with you. This is unlikely to be in perfect chronological order, but I’ll do what I can.
This was in Spain last Christmas, which isn’t technically 2011, but it was within 4 days or so and is worth sharing. This was the best breakfast ever, and was provided every morning in our hotel. Fruit, meat and yogurt. Pretty simple, but healthy and delicious. Jamon Serrano is the ham shown, which is cured for 400 days and sliced paper thin; it’s incredible and unlike anything made in America. Depending on the pig’s diet, the fat can even melt at room temperature.
But for as well as Spaniards do breakfast, they don’t seem to have a clue about what is, and what is not CREEPY. Christmas just passed, and I guarantee one-surgically-removed-one-button-eyed-denim-Santa did not come down anyone’s chimney, at least not without a greeting by a shotgun. Seriously – these things (there’s another one in a top hat next to it) were creepy as hell, and did NOT want to make me buy whatever crap they were peddling. Read the rest of this entry »
Welp, I’m officially 26. I’m like 45 in the baseball world, but so be it. Anyway, I’m going to share some of my vast wisdom on this day…26 little pearls for you. Enjoy or don’t. Read the rest of this entry »