It’s been even another crazy year for everyone, but that didn’t stop us from continuing our efforts to develop great ball players while educating the community at the same time. A few years ago, I started a series in which I posted the most popular blogs of the year. These are the articles that received the most traffic, according to our hosting statistics. It seems to be a favorite of everyone, so here we go again with the most popular baseball articles of 2021.
1. Top 6 Med Ball Drills for Pitchers and Players
Med balls are a staple in the world of baseball strength and conditioning and with baseball being primarily a rotational sport, med ball work provides us with real-world transfer. This article by RPP strength coach Zach Kollar sums it up.
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- Click here Top Six Med Ball Drills
2. Assessing Pitchers in the Age of New Tech
Baseball, like every other industry, is under siege from new technology and it’s making sure the game evolves in many ways. Some love it, some hate it, and everything in between. Whether you’re a fan of technology or not, it’s difficult to ignore. It’s here in full force and it’s changing baseball with it. Here’s an article I wrote with my partner Bahram Shirazi for Inside Pitch magazine.
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- Click here Assessing Pitchers in Age of New Tech
3. How to Use Blast Motion and HitTrax Info to Improve – Part 1
Earlier this spring we added a HitTrax machine to our hitting program and we’ve been busy incorporating it into how we assess and train our players. this article, written by my partner Bahram Shirazi and our Director of Hitting Ethan Newton reviews what pre-contact metrics from Blast Motion and post-contact data from HitTrax tell us about a hitter and his aptitudes.
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- Click here Blast Motion and HitTrax
4. How Can Poor Hip Mobility Impact Arm Health?
When assessing the lower half of a pitcher’s mechanics, often hip mobility issues surface and should be addressed. The purpose of this article by Zach Kollar is to help provide insight on how we initially assess hip mobility, common issues associated with a lack of hip mobility and ways to improve it.
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- Click here Hip Mobility and Arm Health
5. How to Generate More Power and Velocity with Proteus
To be a more efficient baseball player, it’s important that you have both high amounts of force (power) and acceleration in your throw or in the box. A few months ago, we had a Proteus Motion machine installed here at RPP. This is a highly advanced piece of technology that can visualize and measure movement and the human body in three dimensions. Here’s a quick summary I did on some of the ways we use it during our assessments here at RPP.