Recent question from a HS varsity coach: “Should we be overhead pressing or “training shoulders” in our team workouts?” The answer is specific to the population: general population can certainly overhead press. Use a hammer grip, which is easier on the shoulder than an overhand grip, perform a good volume of retraction, and you’ll be fine However, for baseball athletes, I would strongly advise against it One of the reasons why the shoulder has such great mobility overhead, al

Everyone wants to know the right swing adjustment, the special drill, the “5 minute mechanics fix” It’s a gimmick oriented culture-ESPECIALLY American baseball which attracts a lot of lazy kids But most of them their issue isn’t a mechanical flaw It’s that they’re weak; lack muscle; are too slow twitch dominant; and lack athleticism The game speeds up drastically as the levels go up, and many guys haven’t made the consistent physical improvements necessary-and THAT’S why t

The truth about velocity is this: there’s many pitchers who throw hard but have no idea why. And to attribute their velocity to a cookie cutter throwing program; or their arm slot; or a mechanics tweak; would be foolish. In a study of 1400 pro pitchers (Reinold/Andrews 2009), every pitcher without exception were found to have in excess of 190 degrees total ROM in both their throwing AND non throwing shoulder. Furthermore, Bigliani et al found that 67% of pro pitchers had a

Unfortunately every athlete at some point ends up on the IL Thats because the more an athlete is exposed to the competitive environment; and the higher their outputs are; the greater the stress induced So the only way to stay injury free is to sit the bench The reality is injuries are multi-factorial and complex They’re systematic; bio mechanical; physiological; environmental; and then also just random happenstance-like in this case ^ which was a miscommunication between SS a

I was like every baseball kid out there: I dreamed about MLB, and I thought that’s where I was going But I had the same problem most young athletes have: I didn’t have any idea what it would ACTUALLY TAKE to get there I didn’t realize because I was comparing myself to my high school teammates, and my high school competition. And because I was winning high school awards, I thought I must be doing everything correctly But if I would have objectively compared myself to the MLB

Talent has 2 main components: 1️⃣ Usually bigger (anthropomorphically) and taller than the average 2️⃣ Genetic traits that allow for greater success than the average In baseball this is GH total ROM esp Ext Rot/ + sulcus sign/ ^ Beighton for pitchers, and for hitters it’s ++ Myelin Coating neurally Here's the key: all this you have NO CONTROL over-so it does not matter to YOUR PROCESS!! You’re going to have to be RELENTLESS with the one performance trait you CAN control: deve

This past week a HS pitcher came in for an intro, and said how he’s been stuck at 81-83 mph for YEARS. He said how frustrating it’s been: he’s tried weighted balls, pitching lessons, everything, and nothing has worked to this point What I told him was this: “What’s happening is that you’ve reached the “high school wall”, meaning you’ve maximized your SHOULDERS ability to throw a baseball, aka your genetic layback, and other hereditary shoulder factors that influence velocity.

I was a 16 year old 125 lb high school Junior, throwing 78mph. That exact year I read in Sports Illustrated how Pedro Martinez at 16 had weighed 137 lbs and was throwing 82 mph. The Dodgers had signed him, realizing if he threw 82 at 137, he might be really good once he “got some nourishment” as they put it in the article. Martinez gained 50lbs, FB went to 97mph (on the old Juggs gun, so 100mph now), and became Cy Young. I meanwhile stuck to all my low level baseball isms “i

1️⃣ Weight Releasers allow for supramaximal load on the eccentric, speeding it up. The faster the eccentric, the faster the concentric. This enhances the stretch-shortening cycle-which has great transfer to developing explosive power! 2️⃣ Weight releasers can be used as much as 15-20% above 1RM, but it’s important to consider that if the weight is too heavy the elastic like properties of the stretch reflex will be negated. Your body will seek to protect you, not to lift more.