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What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Secret Sauce

Many pitchers who haven’t been to our facility often ask “What’s your secret sauce?”  Now, please remember I am not a strength or pitching coach.  I am just a guy with an Electrical Engineering degree, an MBA, 30 years of business experience and a dad.  So, much of my commentary is based on what I observe up close in our facility and as a parent of 2 boys growing up playing ball.  Frankly, over the years I have seen it all, from the straight up hitting and pitching facility to the strength and conditioning place.  RPP is different in every way.  And here’s why… Continue reading “What’s Your Secret Sauce?”

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What is Velocity-Based Training? What Are the Benefits?

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Athletes who are able to recruit higher ratios of Type II “fast twitch” muscle fibers have shown to be able to produce more power.  For ballplayers, this means that they are more likely to throw harder off the mound or have a higher exit velo at the plate.  Genetics do come into play, but many times they only give us a better “starting point”.  By no means should they dictate a definitive “end-point”.  After reading a copy of Dr. Bryan Mann’s book on velocity-based training (VBT) a light went off in my head as to how elements of VBT could be implemented here at RPP.    Continue reading “What is Velocity-Based Training? What Are the Benefits?”

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Interview with Tenafly’s LHP Aljo Sujak

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We are here with Tenafly’s LHP Aljo Sujak, who will be entering his freshman year at William and Mary this coming September.  Aljo was selected as Baseball Player of the Year this past spring by NorthJersey.com (The Record), which is obviously a significant honor. He started training with us about a year ago and spent the better part of last fall training 3-5 times per week.  He continued throughout the winter with the Pitching Lab and also trained all in-season throughout the spring.  Needless to say, as POY in Bergen county, he had a phenomenal spring season. As a primary pitcher, he blasted 11 home runs and during 56 innings of work he struck out 72 players.  He finished 5-2 with a 2.25 earned-run average.

Continue reading “Interview with Tenafly’s LHP Aljo Sujak”

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Training Explosiveness through Strength Training

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For parents of some young athletes (for the scope of this article I’m talking about athletes ages 13-16), lifting heavy weights seems to get a bad rap. Years ago players were told not to lift weights because it would make them too “big”.  You could even hear words like “stiff” or “tight” getting thrown around at the drop of a hat.

While I whole heartedly believe in the phrase that “age is wisdom”, this would be one of those times that I beg to differ.  Being strong is a good thing.  And if you want to be explosive you have to be strong first.  Performance, speed (have I got your attention now?) and injury prevention all are built on a foundation of strength. But exactly what type of strength training and at what age seems to be where parents (and strength and conditioning coaches for that matter) get tripped up.

Most of you who read my blogs know that I spend a great deal of time emphasizing training according to where the athlete is during the season. Let’s take a look… Continue reading “Training Explosiveness through Strength Training”

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Interview with Dominic Cancellieri Pitcher / Player at Bergen Catholic High School

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We are here with Dominic Cancellieri, who just finished his sophomore year at Bergen Catholic.  Dom is an awesome athlete playing both basketball and baseball at Bergen.  He is also an excellent student.  But I have to say that if anyone understands that strength training is integral part of an athlete’s success it’s Dom. Continue reading “Interview with Dominic Cancellieri Pitcher / Player at Bergen Catholic High School”

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Interview with Andrew Olsen Catcher at Don Bosco Prep High School

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We are here with Andrew Olsen, junior catcher at Don Bosco Prep.  Andrew is the ultimate student-athlete, top of his class academically and playing baseball at such a high level.  And frankly having improved his Exit Velo from 73 to 88 mph (this spring) there aren’t many that work as hard as he does in the gym. Continue reading “Interview with Andrew Olsen Catcher at Don Bosco Prep High School”