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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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Podcast #88: Creating Better Global Movement Patterns with Dr. Ismael Gallo

Today we’re sitting down with Dr. Ismael Gallo, founder of Baseball Flows. Dr. Gallo and I spoke last year (Episode #33) and the response was so great that we’re sitting down again. This time we’ll discuss creating better movers on the field and training stability throughout larger ranges of motion through Dr. Gallo’s Baseball Flows.

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Podcast #86: Analyzing Mental Performance on the Mound with Mike Huber

Mike Huber

This week we’re sitting down with mental performance coach Mike Huber. Mike came to RPP the other day to watch an athlete who has been struggling a bit with command / control while on the mound. Today, he’ll discuss some of the visual signs he looks for when helping an athlete with the mental side of the game.

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Why Isn’t My Pitching Velocity Going UP?

Every off-season athletes come to RPP looking to improve their pitching velocity. Unfortunately, quite often they also believe that throwing harder is only about pitching mechanics. Not sure exactly where this type of thinking started but it points to a complete lack of understanding about where throwing velocity comes from.  Wish it was that simple!

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