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Assessing Pitchers in the Age of New Tech (Inside Pitch Magazine)

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)”

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Sean Hard’s Path to New Jersey State Champion

Sean Hard

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”

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Why and How We Incorporate Long Toss in Our Programs

long toss program

Long-toss is a concept that we see many athletes under-utilize, misinterpret, or perform improperly. We use our long-toss program in a variety of ways to help our athletes maintain proper throwing volume and intensity depending on where they are during the season or their throwing program.  But generally, it is our belief that long-toss should be a staple in every pitcher’s routine, specifically to increase intensity in the throw and get the arm and tissue used to the stress of throwing (otherwise known as Davis’ Law). Continue reading “Why and How We Incorporate Long Toss in Our Programs”

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How to Improve Unintentional Cut on a Fastball

cut fastball

Improving an unintentional cut on a 4S fastball can be particularly challenging. It’s a habitual release pattern of the ball with a cut and trying to change years and years of a specific movement pattern moving at high speeds requires dedication and work. In this article, we are going to review many of the methods we’ve have used with some success when addressing excessive and inadvertent cut on a fastball.

However, this article does come with a disclaimer: We’re not necessarily suggesting that you must fix a cut on your 4S fastball. If a cut fastball is an effective pitch for you, and you would like to continue to throw your 4S fastball this way, you should continue throwing it that way. This article is meant for those who have a cut and would like to adjust their fastball to move like a regular 4S fastball with additional back spin and perhaps higher velocity. Continue reading “How to Improve Unintentional Cut on a Fastball”

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Early Trunk Rotation and Losses in Pitching Velocity

early trunk rotation

While performing hundreds of video analysis and mocaps yearly, “early trunk rotation” rears its ugly heads more than 90% of any other disconnect we see. An early trunk puts the upper body in a more compromised position to accept ground reaction force and effectively block with the lead leg while negatively affecting timing issues and transfer of force up the chain. It can also contribute to a late arm or an arm that “drags”.  All this, of course, can ultimately lead to losses in pitching velocity.  The key is finding what is causing this early rotation, training it and putting the arm in its “sweet spot”. Continue reading “Early Trunk Rotation and Losses in Pitching Velocity”

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Pitching Biomechanics: Hip Shoulder Separation, Closing the Gap

hip and shoulder

We have talked in the past about hip-shoulder separation and its importance in the pitching motion. In this article, we will dive deeper into the idea of “closing the gap” after max separation has occurred. More specifically:

    • When does it occur (timing)
    • How quickly does it close (explosiveness)
    • How completely does it close

We will also review some potential issues and how we may address them.

Continue reading “Pitching Biomechanics: Hip Shoulder Separation, Closing the Gap”

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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 baseball 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.
Continue reading “What are the Most Common Pitching Mechanics Issues?”

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How to Create the Best Prescription for Power

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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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What 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 for pitchers 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 “What are the Best Baseball Band Exercises for Pitchers”