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Athlete Highlight: North Hunterdon Junior and Rutgers Commit Chris Sand up to 87-89, T90

Rutgers Commit Chris Sand (Class 2025) joined us in September of last year looking to get a head start on the offseason and improve his mechanics, all with the intent of also bringing up his velocity ceiling. The 6’0” right hander came in weighing at  156 lbs. with a FB sitting 85-86, T87 mph in our initial evaluation. Now we sit here in the early part of the high school season and Chris has gained 3-4 mph, sitting 87-89 and T90 mph consistently, with more gains coming this spring and summer.

How did he do it?

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Podcast #94: Successfully Managing Your Kid’s Career and Staying Out of the Way

Graham Keen

Today we’re talking with Trish Keen, parent of one of our remote high school athletes, Graham Keen. Graham (Class 2027) is ranked #1 in PA and #30 Nationwide with Perfect Game. Needless to say he is an elite athlete who is tearing up the high school baseball world. Join us as Trish talks about the steps  she has taken as a parent to get him there, including:

    • Nutrition
    • Dealing with throwing volume and coaches
    • Diligence in the weight room

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Workload Management for Pitchers w/ Case Studies

With injuries on the rise in baseball, implementing a workload management system is a great way to help develop pitchers and mitigate injuries. Workload is a general term used to describe how much stress is being placed on a pitcher’s arm during both a throwing session and over a period of time (as in a week or month). Such a system can also be helpful in a variety of other ways, including:

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Podcast #93: The Jaeger / Sullivan Return to Throwing Manual & Schedule

Today we’re sitting down with Alan Jaeger and Randy Sullivan to discuss their new “The Jaeger / Sullivan Return to Throwing Manual & Schedule”. I had the privilege of providing the Strength & Conditioning portion of this manual and I am excited to sit down with the two of them and take a closer look at the manual. Topics Include:

    • How it differs from the standard back-to-throw protocol
    • The power of eliminating “target dates”
    • Using objective feedback

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Is Your Off-season Strength Program Working for YOU?

After 15 years of training baseball players of all ages and levels, I can tell you with the highest degree of certainty that the purpose of a great off-season baseball strength training program is to:

    • Increase explosive power
    • Create more efficient movers
    • Build more durable athletes

While different athletes will always require more of one of these adaptations than the other, when focusing on the youth population (13-18 year olds) the deciding factor is almost always:

    • Increasing lean body mass
    • Increasing absolute strength

Is your off-season strength program working for you? Let’s get into it…

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Athlete Highlight: Bergen Catholic Junior Bourke Reid is UP 7 mph, Touching 87 mph

RHP Bourke Reid joined us last September to get an early start on his off-season training. The 6’3” righty came in weighing 173 lbs. having topped out at 80 mph on July 22nd last summer at a Perfect Game event.  Fast forward to the end of the off-season, after packing on nearly 20 lbs. of lean muscle mass, Bourke is now touching 87 mph. And there is much more to come here. How did he do it?

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Podcast #92: Training Latin Players in the DR, Similarities and Differences with Brewers Blake Nation

Today, we’re sitting down with the Brewers Pitching and Development Coach Blake Nation. Blake was recently at the Brewers Dominican Academy working with the young Latin players. Topics include:

    • Mechanical trends and differences
    • Managing “high milage arms”
    • Coaching through the language barrier

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Podcast #89: Changing Body Composition in High Level Athletes

In most situations, athletes are generally trying to gain weight to become more explosive. But when dealing with higher level athletes that already possess adequate size and strength, the key generally lies in improving lean body mass and many times LOSING weight. In this week’s podcast, we’ll talk to RPP Pitching Coordinator Matt Goehrig and discuss the different parameters involved in his transformation…

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