movement

Take a look around at your gym, weight room, or training facility. Do you see a squat rack? Good. What about a bench, free weights, or maybe plyometric boxes? Awesome. Maybe if you’re one of the fortunate ones, you see some resistance bands, medicine balls, or kettlebells? Terrific. This means your place for training is like 100% of the population. This can be a good thing. You have strength equipment, speed equipment, and power equipment. This sounds like it covers all the aspects in being a great athlete. However, the majority of training programs lack the single critical component in creating the ELITE athlete. This is of course being prepared for every chaotic movement involved in sports. Continue reading →

I wrote a blog last year that described how a pitcher should use his lower half during his delivery. That blog dismissed the other approaches that many coaches take while teaching pitching mechanics such as “drop and drive,” “tall and fall,” and the “up-down and glide out.” The best way to describe the appropriate use of a pitcher’s lower half is “load while moving forward.” Elite pitchers actually stay taller/straighter with their balance leg at the beginning of the delivery, but as they move down the mound the angle of their back leg increases, meaning their lower half generates a greater load as the forward movement toward home plate occurs. Here are a few pictures of this loading. Continue reading →

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mimic as “to imitate closely.” Many people think of mimicking with a negative connotation. They think of somebody making fun of another person by impersonating them. But that is a very limited application of the word mimic. Mimicking is actually a great thing and is something we have all done innately since we were born. As a baby you learned to walk and talk by mimicking those around you. Think back to elementary school when you were being taught to write cursive. How did your teacher teach you to make those letters? I know in my class we were each handed small chalkboards and would copy the letter that the teacher wrote on the chalkboard at the front of class—which was essentially learning by mimicking. In fact, mimicking is one of the best and most effective ways to learn and we employ the method in all aspects of life. Continue reading →

One of the most common pitching topics I have heard people discuss over the years is how a pitcher can get movement on his pitches. You have undoubtedly heard such conversations as well—whether it is at a pitching lesson/camp, while at a game, or even tuned in to an MLB game as the announcers discuss the pitcher on the screen. Anytime Greg Maddux was on the mound the conversation inevitably headed in the direction of movement. Most of you can visualize that incredible fastball Maddux would throw to left handers that started inside off the plate and would work its way back to the plate just in time to catch the inside corner. I was always amazed at that pitch. Continue reading →

Today I went to a local gym to workout and like always found great amusement in watching many of the lifts I saw individuals performing. The most interesting thing I witnessed was a trainer at this gym working out with a young athlete, probably high school age, whom I overheard saying that he was a baseball player. At this point I became interested in observing the types of lifts the trainer had him perform and apparently I began watching during the core exercise phase of this athletes’ workout. Continue reading →