According to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, gyms may be re-opening at some point during the next few weeks.
Not knowing what to expect, if you’re considering joining us this summer, please take a moment and complete the form below. We will be providing updates as we get closer to re-opening. Continue reading “Re-Opening Post-COVID Closure”
You are at home doing everything you can to stay athletic. You are working out (the best you can), getting your reps in, throwing/hitting in the backyard, and filming yourself so that you can make sure you’re not developing bad habits. But as the weeks go by, you continue to see lower throwing and exit velos.
Hitting an MLB fastball requires the application of a huge amount of energy in the blink of an eye- roughly 130ms to be exact. That’s about a 1/8th of a second. Only through a coordinated series of contractions involving not only muscles but joints and connective tissue traveling up the kinetic chain into the hands and ultimately the bat/ball can we achieve adequate bat speed and quickness to hit a baseball traveling at speeds north of 90 mph.
This article is meant to familiarize many of you with the 12 positions in hitting mechanics that we look at when analyzing video at RPP (it’s not a “how-to” blog on analyzing mechanics).
In review, the swing cycle is broken down into 2 phases:
The Stride Phase (linear)
The Swing Phase (rotational)
In Parts 1 and 2 we broke down the linear phase into 7 patterns/positions that I use as a point of reference when looking at mechanics. Today, we’ll finish up this 3-part series by taking a look at the Swing Phase (rotational).
By Evan Klugerman (BA, Director of Hitting at RPP) and Nunzio Signore (BA, CSCS)
In this series of short articles and video analyses, as a part of assessing our hitters, I will be going over different components of a players’ swing, while Nunzio will help highlight potential issues and correctives both inside and outside the nets. Today’s topic is “Sway” and it starts at stance and set up… Continue reading “Video Analysis: What is Sway and How Can you Address it?”
By Nunzio Signore (BA, CPT, NASM, PES, FMS), Evan Klugerman (BA, Director of Hitting at RPP) and Bahram Shirazi (BSEE, MBA)
As an athlete, you are not able to move efficiently if your body isn’t in a position to do so. Incorporating assessments, strength training and data analytics into how we train players is a bit of an art. Since each and every player is different in every way, the key is to parse through the information and determine which pieces are relevant for each player. Below is a typical testing day for position players at our facility and it’s broken up into several sections:
By Evan Klugerman (BA, Director of Hitting at RPP)
HITTING IS HARD! Fortunately, technologies such as K-Motion, Blast and Rapsodo allow us to measure many metrics and movements, thus, giving the hitter a better chance to succeed. Unless you can understand and incorporate data into your training the value of data would be meaningless. I should also add that it is easy for hitters to get lost in the numbers unless the collective data is properly incorporated into their training.
As an athlete, you are not able to move efficiently if your body isn’t in a position to do so. In terms of timing, if your lower half isn’t in a strong stable position to efficiently transfer energy and allow the upper half to move, then you will have a tough time hitting at any level.
In Part 1 we began breaking down the linear phase into 8 patterns/positions that I use as a point of reference when looking at mechanics. We covered positions 1 through 4 and they can be viewed here. Today, we’ll talk a bit about positions 5 through 8 before moving on to the rotation phase: Continue reading “The Swing Cycle… The Linear Phase (Part 2)”
During the past couple of weeks both PBR and Headfirst Honor Roll showcases have announced partnerships with Blast Motion, whereby participants will begin hitting with Blast sensors during their events. Although they’re not the first to do this, more showcases are following this trend. On the one hand this is great news for the game. Technology is changing baseball for the better and the data can be invaluable for both evaluation and training. On the other hand, although I have a ton of respect for both of these companies, there is an issue. Continue reading “Going to a Showcase Soon? Did you Hear…”
