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Hip Exercises for Pitchers, Improving Internal Rotation

hip exercises for pitchers

Similar to T-spine mobility, hip IR is absolutely essential to creating a smooth deceleration path. If the hip closes too early upon foot strike, the arm can open up early, causing an early release and cutting the ball. This can be a killer for not only velocity but spin efficiency and vertical break as well. In addition, a poor decel pattern can cause the arm to “slam shut”, creating damaging forces on the shoulder and elbow. Below are several great hip exercises for pitchers we use at RPP to get some of that IR back.

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What are the Most Common Pitching Mechanics Issues?

pitching mechanics

When you train as many pitchers as we do, often times common themes begin to emerge. One such theme is the types of pitching mechanics issues that we observe often in pitchers.  Well, here they are, along with some things we do (barring any glaring mobility issues observed in the assessment) from a corrective standpoint both in the tunnel and in the weight room to address them.
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How to Create the Best Prescription for Power

When I first started training, I like many others believed that if we just keep improving absolute strength our athletes would continue to get bigger, faster, and stronger. Fast forward to many years later, and I can tell you with a great degree of confidence (and experience) that most metrics crucial to sport such as speed, explosive ability, and change of direction can only be improved for about the first year simply by increasing absolute strength, as in getting stronger, by utilizing big compound lifts under high load.  However, Continue reading “How to Create the Best Prescription for Power”

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Which are the Best Baseball Band Exercises for Pitchers

Band Exercises for Pitchers

There is certainly no shortage of pitching bands and baseball band exercises for pitchers.  There are actually so many that it can make your head spin.  We use several baseball band exercises as a part of our pre-throwing routine and over the years we have refined them down to what we believe to be the min / max of what you should be doing. Continue reading “Which are the Best Baseball Band Exercises for Pitchers”

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5 Lower Half Pitching Issues Preventing a Consistent Release Point

Lower Half Pitching

It’s no mystery that one of the keys to successful pitching is a consistent release point.  While I do believe that the term “repeatable delivery” is a bit of a stretch, and that many times inconsistency in your arm slot can be a major cause of difficulty in repeating your delivery, I believe we need to dig a little deeper and look closer down the kinetic chain to lower half pitching issues. Continue reading “5 Lower Half Pitching Issues Preventing a Consistent Release Point”

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Speed Training for Baseball Players… Part 2

Speed Training for Baseball Players

Speed training for baseball players covers a number of different speed disciplines.  Ball players sprint, decelerate, change direction, move laterally, all within short bursts of time.  In Part 2 of of this article (click here for Part 1) on speed training for baseball players, we’re going to review:

    • Linear Acceleration
    • Lateral Acceleration
    • Lateral Change-of-Direction

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Speed Training for Baseball Players… Part 1

Speed Training for Baseball Players

Doesn’t matter the sport, everyone wants to be fast. Unfortunately, not everyone is, but everyone can surely get faster. This comes down to a few key principles, and it’s not just about running a faster baseball 60 yard dash. In this 2-part article, we’re going to review speed training for baseball players, position-specific speed and some of the techniques we use here at RPP to get our guys more explosive and faster on the field. But let me start by bringing up a few crucial points. Continue reading “Speed Training for Baseball Players… Part 1”

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3 Pillars for Enhancing First Step Quickness

As a driven high school baseball player with hopes and dreams of playing college baseball your attention is constantly being directed towards sculpting yourself into the quintessential 5-Tool player. The 5-tools below are skills of the game that scouts are looking for in potential prospect(s) to help give their teams the greatest opportunity to compete and ultimately win a national championship.

    1. Your running speed & overall athleticism
    2. Your throwing strength & accuracy
    3. Your defensive skills
    4. Your batting average
    5. Your ability to hit for power

The intention behind this article is to hone in on the first tool…. SPEED, and answer the question “WHY?”. Why is speed such a sought-after tool for scouts and offer you 3 things YOU can do to develop this skill. Continue reading “3 Pillars for Enhancing First Step Quickness”