Category: Hitting

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Educating Your Staff… The Palooza Experience

For the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of presenting with some of the brightest and innovative minds in baseball. Always being a big believer in educating my coaches and athletes, last year, I brought two of my coaches from RPP along with me to listen and learn when I spoke at Pitch-A-Palooza.  If you’ve never heard of it (hard to believe), Palooza is Lantz Wheeler’s 3-day extravaganza that brings together 500+ (it grows every year that I’ve presented there), forward-thinking coaches, trainers, PT’s and data/tech analysts.

The “take-home” for my guys was so beneficial that it prompted me to bring 5 of them this year. My strength coach, 2 pitching coaches, my hitting coach and a data intern all accompanied me to grab some knowledge and just as important bond as a unit. Palooza is somewhat of a “meeting of the minds” looking to both listen to and share with each other different mind sets on making players and coaches healthier and more efficient at what they do. It’s a welcome break from the world of social media we live in where many times, people troll each other’s posts simply to stick out their chest and criticize each other.

At the end of the event, I asked my guys for their impressions and their favorite presentations.  Here is their feedback.  Enjoy… Continue reading “Educating Your Staff… The Palooza Experience”

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Creating Stability and Better Energy Transfer in the Swing

I was sitting with our Director of Hitting Evan Klugerman yesterday and he brought up a great point regarding efficient sequencing and mechanics when looking at K-Vest data. While collecting data for our high school guys, he was surprised at how many inconsistencies there were in sequencing from swing to swing within the same player profile, as compared to the MiLB guys he had been testing last year with the Orioles. I thought it would be a great quick blog. Continue reading “Creating Stability and Better Energy Transfer in the Swing”

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Top 10 Things to Do to Get Recruited for College Baseball

college recruiting tips

There’s no doubt the baseball college recruiting process is a maze. Parents and players often don’t know where to begin. There is really no road map and no guidelines.  Hopefully, this article will help put some parameters around what needs to get done before and during the summer months.

Here’s my list of Top 10 things to do during the summer to get recruited for college baseball.  I have attempted to list these in series.  Much of this might seem basic, but you’d be surprised how many parents ask us “where should we begin?”

Continue reading “Top 10 Things to Do to Get Recruited for College Baseball”

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New Jersey’s Most Comprehensive Baseball Training Facility

baseball training facility

RPP Baseball is a high performance baseball training facility located in Paramus (Bergen county), New Jersey. From the weight room to our pitching and hitting programs, we utilize the latest in technology, in a holistic and data-driven approach which allows us to assess, train and re-assess players on an ongoing basis. Our athletes are walking testimonials as to the power of our highly customized programming. Below is a summary of our extensive services for pitchers and baseball players: Continue reading “New Jersey’s Most Comprehensive Baseball Training Facility”

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Blast Motion Baseball Metrics, Rotation, Angles and Power

blast motion baseball

In my previous internship before RPP, part of my responsibilities included watching Minor League baseball games. After my first few games, I noticed a recurring trend, every player wore a Blast Motion Baseball sensor during the game. As I saw more organizations’ Minor League teams, not all had their players wear the sensors; however, the idea behind it was simple, data collection.

At RPP, we use Blast Motion sensors for the same purpose, and this allows us to help identify and develop athletes’ inefficiencies. The only difference is we do not have the ability to collect data from athletes’ in-game at-bats. Therefore, we collect data from batting practice at our facility and are still able to get a good picture of what an athlete does well, and what they struggle with.

Continue reading “Blast Motion Baseball Metrics, Rotation, Angles and Power”

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Patrick Jones Podcast – Building Baseball Players

I wanted to bring to your attention a recent Podcast that I participated in with Patrick Jones Baseball. Patrick is one of the premier hitting coaches in the US and he has been running a podcast for quite some time. We covered a wide variety of topics but here are a few that stand out:

    • Using strength / mobility to help adjust mechanics
    • Velocity-Based Training (VBT)
    • Reading kinematic sequence charts and related information
    • Mechanical differences between loose and tight movers

Building Baseball Players with Nunzio Signore

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Training Players with the K-Vest for Improved Swing Mechanics

k vest baseball

An efficient swing path allows a hitter to keep the barrel in the hitting zone from approximately the back of home plate all the way through contact and ultimately into extension where the bat should continue to stay on plane with the flight of the ball. Once competition reaches higher levels (i.e higher throwing velocities, better ball movement), an athlete’s “preferred posture” becomes a necessity to create a more optimal vertical bat angle and allow the athlete to better adjust to pitches higher or lower in the zone. Continue reading “Training Players with the K-Vest for Improved Swing Mechanics”

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Baseball Warm-up Routine for Position Players

baseball warm-up

Too many players at all levels either (a) treat their warm-up like a hassle or (b) simply don’t do it properly.  The baseball warm-up routine for position players below is meant to provide you with a comprehensive and easy protocol similar to that being done by top professional baseball players (pitchers click here). A proper baseball warm-up program before a game should take 15-20 minutes before you pick up a ball.  It’s in four parts as follows: Continue reading “Baseball Warm-up Routine for Position Players”

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An Analytical Look at the Baseball Swing Plane

baseball swing plane

According to HitTrax, well-hit balls are generally hit within 24″.  On the other hand, a 93 mph fastball takes 1.585 milliseconds to travel those same 24” once it reaches homeplate.  We’re not dealing with a lot of time and every millisecond counts.  So, let’s review exactly what can happen during those 1.585 ms! First, let’s define the baseball swing plane and what it means to “be on-plane” so we’re all on the same page… Continue reading “An Analytical Look at the Baseball Swing Plane”