Top 6 Med Ball Drills for Pitchers and Players
Med balls are a staple in the world of baseball strength and conditioning. This really shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Baseball is a rotational sport, so med ball work provides us with real-world transfer to the sport. It is also one of the only ways to train upper body strength-speed in the frontal plane. Baseball med ball workouts and exercises are applicable to both hitting and pitching and can be used to create more efficient movement patterns and improve sequencing. However, drills using med balls are often performed poorly, largely in part because most athletes do not possess the understanding of what they are trying to accomplish with the exercise. Continue reading “Top 6 Med Ball Drills for Pitchers and Players”
Assessing Pitchers in the Age of New Tech (Inside Pitch Magazine)
Interested in a hard copy of the article please click here.
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. Those that are too close-minded to take the time to expand their knowledge of the new performance metrics run the risk of being left behind, both in terms of overall knowledge about the game and improving an athlete’s efficiency in performance. Continue reading “Assessing Pitchers in the Age of New Tech (Inside Pitch Magazine)”
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. Now in this 3 part article, we’re going to review what pre-contact metrics from Blast Motion and post-contact data from HitTrax tell us about a hitter and his aptitudes:
-
- Part 1: Pre-contact data provided by Blast Motion
- Part2: Post-contact data from HitTrax
- Part 3: Correlations between pre- and post-contact results Continue reading “How to Use Blast Motion and HitTrax Info to Improve — Part 1”
Reading Data… The Importance of an Accurate Frame of Reference
Sometimes when analyzing video, things are not as they seem visually and can send both athletes and coaches looking down the wrong rabbit hole for solutions. Continue reading “Reading Data… The Importance of an Accurate Frame of Reference”
Sean Hard’s Path to New Jersey State Champion
As many of you know, senior pitcher Sean Hard and his high school team St. Joe’s (Montvale, NJ) recently won the New Jersey State Non-Public A Group Tournament. They actually won their league, county, sectional and ultimately the state championship, all in the same year. Sean’s record for the season as a pitcher was 8-0, 50.2 IP, 87 K, 2 R, 0.62 WHIP, 0.36 ERA. He topped out at 95 mph at the final game of the year. There are a lot of things Sean has done right during his development and it’s important to highlight how he got here, as no one has worked harder at this craft than this young man. Continue reading “Sean Hard’s Path to New Jersey State Champion”
How to Improve Blast Motion “Other” Metrics
Blast’s “Other Metrics”, which are generally used for providing additional context to their 3 Scores, are as follows:
-
- Vertical Bat Angle
- Time to Contact
- Peak Hand Speed
- Power
There are several potential physical impediments that could lead to undesirable scores in all these metrics. Similar to the other Scores, issues could range from the bottom of the kinetic chain all the way to the top, including limited ankle mobility, lower body weaknesses, limitations on t-spine disassociation and even weaknesses in the shoulder region. Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion “Other” Metrics”
How to Improve Blast Motion Plane Score (Contact)
Blast’s Plane score measures the percentage of time during which your swing is on plane (on-plane efficiency %) and the angle you make contact relative to the horizontal (attack angle). According to Blast, this metric is relevant because players that stay longer on plane:
-
- Consistently barrel up balls
- Can better adjust with their body
- Are more consistent with exit velocity and launch angles
There are several potential physical impediments that could lead to an undesirable Plane Score. Issues could range from lower body weaknesses, limitations on t-spine disassociation and even weaknesses in the shoulder region. Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Plane Score (Contact)”
How to Improve Blast Motion Rotation Score (Power)
Given the rotational nature of hitting a baseball, there are variety of potential physical impediments that could lead to an undesirable Rotation Score (rotational acceleration and bat speed). Issues could range from the bottom of the kinetic chain to the top, including lower body weaknesses, hip mobility limitations, t-spine related issues and even weaknesses in the upper extremities. Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Rotation Score (Power)”
How to Improve Blast Motion Connection Score (Consistency)
Blast’s Connection score links together what your body and your bat are doing prior to and at the point of contact. It uses Early Connection and Connection at Impact metrics as the basis for your score. Maintaining good connection at impact (90 degrees) for all pitch locations is an indicator of dynamic adjustability. According to Blast, players with good Connection score:
-
- Display better swing adjustability in all pitch locations
- Have better plate coverage
- Generate more power to all parts of the field
There are variety of potential physical impediments that could lead to an undesirable Connection score, with Early Connection having slightly different potential set of issues that Connection at Impact.
Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Connection Score (Consistency)”
How to Improve Deficiencies in Blast Motion Baseball Metrics
This webpage and the associated pages have been prepared as a part of our partnership with Blast Motion to integrate our performance training content into Blast Solution. For further details, you can reach us here at RPP or contact Blast directly.
Blast Motion Baseball sensors are an easy to use piece of equipment and provide a tremendous amount of valuable swing-related information at a very reasonable cost. Their scoring system includes metrics on several topics, including:
-
- Rotation (power)
- Plane (contact)
- Connection (consistency)
The problem is not everyone knows how to address the issues highlighted by the sensors, and not every issue is a skill-related one. Deficiencies in Blast metrics can be also caused by mobility, strength and postural related issues, up and down the kinetic chain. Continue reading “How to Improve Deficiencies in Blast Motion Baseball Metrics”