The post below is written by the staff at College Sports Advisors. You can reach them on their site here.
As the 2021 summer baseball season quickly approaches and the end of the dead period is finally here, recruiting will be back in full swing! There will be many showcase and camp opportunities in the months ahead, so our staff at College Sports Advisors wanted to share our recommendations about how to best approach these events. Continue reading “Showcase Tips That Make a Difference”
New book by Nunzio Signore “Velocity-Based Training, How to Apply Science, Technology, and Data to Maximize Performance”, published by Human Kinetics. Continue reading “Velocity Based Training (new book by Nunzio Signore)”
Long-toss is a concept that we see many athletes under-utilize, misinterpret, or perform improperly. We use our long-toss program in a variety of ways to help our athletes maintain proper throwing volume and intensity depending on where they are during the season or their throwing program. But generally, it is our belief that long-toss should be a staple in every pitcher’s routine, specifically to increase intensity in the throw and get the arm and tissue used to the stress of throwing (otherwise known as Davis’ Law). Continue reading “Why and How We Incorporate Long Toss in Our Programs”
(Carlsbad, California – 5/13/21) – Today, Blast Motion, the leader in swing analysis, player development and improvement, announced a partnership with Rockland Peak Performance (RPP or RPP Baseball) to provide high quality strength and mobility training content to athletes and coaches. This partnership provides Blast customers with a more complete training approach, allowing players to target the development of their physical performance and swing fundamentals based on their Blast Motion data. Continue reading “Blast Motion Partners with RPP Baseball”
We’re extremely excited about some return to normalcy this summer and wanted to take a moment and give you an update on some of the recent and upcoming developments here at RPP. Continue reading “RPP Baseball Mid-Year 2021 Update”
Improving an unintentional cut on a 4S fastball can be particularly challenging. It’s a habitual release pattern of the ball with a cut and trying to change years and years of a specific movement pattern moving at high speeds requires dedication and work. In this article, we are going to review many of the methods we’ve have used with some success when addressing excessive and inadvertent cut on a fastball.
However, this article does come with a disclaimer: We’re not necessarily suggesting that you must fix a cut on your 4S fastball. If a cut fastball is an effective pitch for you, and you would like to continue to throw your 4S fastball this way, you should continue throwing it that way. This article is meant for those who have a cut and would like to adjust their fastball to move like a regular 4S fastball with additional back spin and perhaps higher velocity. Continue reading “How to Improve Unintentional Cut on a Fastball”
The following warm-up routine is highly recommended to be performed prior to each hitting session for optimal performance (total time required approximately 15 minutes): Continue reading “Blast Motion — Warm-up Routine”
The anomaly of the step up in is how much it’s used while there is so little research available on its transfer to sport. Other than scattered research from the early 90s involving what the Eastern Bloc countries are doing with the step-up, the research on the exercise is limited (2). This makes it a bit of an “ugly stepchild” to the split squat or s. leg squat. While some coaches such as Mike Boyle believe that it should be avoided for athletes with knee pathologies (1), there are many coaches that have had great success with the exercise in healthy athletes. I myself love them as we train a primarily baseball population. Continue reading “Single Leg Progressions… Progressing the Step-up”
While performing hundreds of video analysis and mocaps yearly, “early trunk rotation” rears its ugly heads more than 90% of any other disconnect we see. An early trunk puts the upper body in a more compromised position to accept ground reaction force and effectively block with the lead leg while negatively affecting timing issues and transfer of force up the chain. It can also contribute to a late arm or an arm that “drags”. All this, of course, can ultimately lead to losses in pitching velocity. The key is finding what is causing this early rotation, training it and putting the arm in its “sweet spot”. Continue reading “Early Trunk Rotation and Losses in Pitching Velocity”
Having assessed hundreds of hitters at RPP, we have been exposed to all types of athletes and swings. As a part of our hitting assessment, one area we focus on is the player’s kinematic sequence and how energy transfers up the chain. Generally, we look for an efficient transfer of power up the kinetic chain in the following order, pelvis, torso, upper arm and hand. Although we have observed a large variety of different sequences, here are the 3 most common flawed sequences we observe among young hitters on K-vest: Continue reading “3 Most Common Kinematic Sequence Flaws in Baseball Swings”
