Pitching Shoulder Pain… Strength, Mobility, Mechanical or Overuse

Anterior Shoulder Pain Top

It seems that just about every pitcher, these days, has experienced pain at various points of their pitching career. For a pitcher or a position player, pitching shoulder pain can be a result of one or a combination of three things, lack of strength/mobility, mechanical disconnects and/or overuse.  Does the following scenario sound familiar? Continue reading “Pitching Shoulder Pain… Strength, Mobility, Mechanical or Overuse”

Interview with Jeremy Sheetinger (College Division Liaison w/ABCA)

Top Joint ImageToday my interview is with Jeremy Sheetinger, the College Division Liaison with the American Baseball Coaches Association (www.abca.org).  I had the pleasure of meeting him recently at the “Be the Best” Conference in Atlantic City.  Jeremy has a wealth of  knowledge that I think is extremely relevant to what we are doing here at RPP. Continue reading “Interview with Jeremy Sheetinger (College Division Liaison w/ABCA)”

Growth Doesn’t Happen Without….

RPP Growth 2012 - 2016

As we look forward to hopefully another great year here at RPP, it’s a good time to review where we have come from and how we got here.  RPP’s youth clientele has increased nearly 6-fold since 2012. By any measure, that’s great and we are very proud of what we have accomplished.  But explosive growth doesn’t happen for NO apparent reason; it certainly doesn’t happen overnight, and it definitely doesn’t happen without sleepless nights. Continue reading “Growth Doesn’t Happen Without….”

Increasing Velocity and Command with a more Stable Stride Pattern

Stride Pattern Top

Many coaches believe that throwing strikes is more important than increasing velocity and that the two can’t be trained at the same time. I disagree. I believe that training both are equally important and can be trained at the same time. Sometimes it comes down to increasing the efficiency of an athlete’s throwing motion, so that their body works more in sync. Continue reading “Increasing Velocity and Command with a more Stable Stride Pattern”

Half-Kneeling Overhead Med Ball Throw

Half-Kneeling Overhead Med Ball Throw Top

One of the biggest mechanical disconnects I see when analyzing video from many of our pitchers is the ability to increase leverage on the front leg, from the time of first foot-strike to ball-release. Everyone has different opinions of what is an adequate amount of extension. For me, after analyzing hundreds of high school, college and pro pitchers, I’ve come up with what I consider to be an appropriate range of 20-30 degrees of additional knee extension between first foot-strike and ball-release. Continue reading “Half-Kneeling Overhead Med Ball Throw”

Identifying Leaks in the Delivery – Knee at First Foot Strike

identifying-leaks-in-the-delivery-top-image

At our recent Pitching Seminar held at RPP, I presented a PowerPoint presentation on Identifying energy leaks in the delivery. The response from players and coaches alike (thanks Sean McGrath – Pitching Coach at U. Mass Lowell) made me realize there is a bit of a void when it comes to reviewing mechanics based on movement. This prompted me to start a series on the topic. Today is about “Knee at First Foot Strike”. Continue reading “Identifying Leaks in the Delivery — Knee at First Foot Strike”

Welcome to Remote Training

Dear Remote Athlete,

*** Please read entire letter.

Welcome to Remote Training at RPP! We’re very excited to be a part of your journey. We are 100% committed to your development and looking forward to helping get you to the next level. During the next several months, with a high degree of commitment and consistent effort, you are going to see significant gains.

Your monthly remote training programs will be placed inside your folders in the Client Portal. Depending on your programming, you will find some or all the following files: Continue reading “Welcome to Remote Training”

How to Determine Your Weights

How Much Weight Should I Use in My Program?

Please note: If you don’t have at least 6 months of prior lifting experience you shouldn’t be signing up for remote on-line training. You should be training with an experienced coach to make sure that form is taken care of first and foremost.

With that said, we recommend two different methods to help you calculate how much weight to put on the bar: Continue reading “How to Determine Your Weights”

The Best of 2016 – Baseball Articles

separates-good-from-great-batting

As we begin the new year I would like to look back on 2016 and get a bit reflective. A few years ago I started a series in which we posted the most popular blogs of the year. These are the pieces that received the most traffic, according to our hosting statistics (you can click on the title of each to read the article). It seems to be a favorite of everyone so here we go again… Continue reading “The Best of 2016 – Baseball Articles”