Train Smart-Get Impressive Results

These past couple of posts may be a complete revelation to you or it could be something you've been incorporating for years just from intuition. A little over a year and a half ago it was a total eye-opener for me. I had been seriously training since I was about 17 years old and yet my world changed at age 23 in terms of training. I had just arrived home from playing in the Appalachian League and met with my pitching coach/trainer Ron Wolforth (of Pitching Central and The Baseball Ranch) to talk about the upcoming offseason. He gave me a short lesson on the body's energy systems (much like my last article) and how we needed to target the ATP system.

So I set out to do just that. Everything I did for 5 months was geared toward short duration, explosive exercises and the results I witnessed were amazing. Not only did my average velocity on my fastball increase a couple of miles per hour but I felt so much more explosive as an athlete. How can I justify making this type of subjective comment? Before I left for spring training, I dunked a basketball for the first time in my life. I ran a sub 7 second 60 yard dash for the first time in my life. My agility in drills such as the shuttle run were drastically improved. Not to mention I dropped 2 % in body fat while maintaining my exact same weight. I was more cut and more in shape than I had ever been in my entire life all from changing my training habits.

People often stand in awe of the abilities of professional athletes especially in terms of what they are able to do physically and too many people put off these abilities to "God blessed them with their talent." I'm so sick of hearing that. Yes, some people have the innate gift of being faster, stronger, or more explosive than others but that doesn't mean a person who isn't considered the fastest, strongest, or most explosive can't become an elite athlete. If trained with the right methods and through hard work it is amazing the types of changes it is possible to undergo in terms of athletic ability.

Brian Oates

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Email: brian@oatesspecialties.com

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