As a parent who has gone through the college recruiting process, I believe showcases are probably the single best dollar investment for those aspiring to play college baseball. But how to stand out at a baseball showcase is an often ignored topic and too many young athletes are attending showcases just to attend.
Continue reading “How to Stand Out at a Baseball Showcase”
Different types of race cars produce speed in different ways. They also switch gears in different ways to reach top speed. Well, so do pitchers. In this 3 Part series, we’ll take a look at some of what I believe to be six of the biggest topics when determining and/or training a pitcher’s athleticism. Continue reading “Testing and Training the Complete Pitcher… Where do You Fall? Part1”
Today, we’re going to cover the topic of a baseball’s Total Spin rate vs. True Spin rate. We’ve previously reviewed how all spin is not alike, as some spin works for you to create movement and some spin doesn’t do anything at all. At any given moment, a baseball is likely spinning along all 3 axes at the same time. We’re talking a little bit of:
Continue reading “Baseball’s Total Spin Rate vs. True Spin Rate (simplified)”
Let’s face it, baseball is all about being explosive. To excel in this sport, remain healthy and stay at the top of your game, you must be able to move explosively through space. To do that requires an optimal level of power (a solid amount of muscle) and a minimal level of dead weight (fat). This muscle to fat ratio is known as Lean Body Mass (LBM) and it is today’s topic. Continue reading “Single Most “Over-Looked” Factor to Increase Performance”
Anterior core strength deeply affects lumbar extension, which in turn affects the position of the trunk/ thorax (rib cage), which is the “center of the universe” for a pitcher. This serves as a stable platform for the shoulder blades, ultimately affecting the position of the scapula, ensuring great “ball and socket” congruency and a better arm position at ball release when moving toward the plate. Continue reading “How to Build a More Powerful Delivery through a Stronger Core”
In Part 1 of this series, we wrote about how data and analytics provided by new equipment is changing the way pitchers are getting evaluated and trained. Today, we’re going to dig a little deeper into the baseball spin rate and review several related topics:
As much as some people don’t want to admit it, baseball is turning even more into a numbers game run by machines such as Statcast, Rapsodo and Trackman, to name a few. The ordinary fan watching a game on TV is getting a glimpse of this when they see Aaron Judge’s exit velo, launch angle, projected distance and exit velocity pop on the screen, or, when they’re watching Aroldis Chapman and instantly see his velo, extension, spin rate, and horizontal and vertical movement. Whether we like or not, data is changing the landscape for baseball players. And I can speak to this first hand, from my own experience with the Indians over the past 7 years. Continue reading “Analytics is Changing Pitcher Evaluations… You Better Get Ready”
In Part 1 (click here), we the concept of an excessive trunk tilt, how to identify it and some things physically that could help cause it. In Part 2, we’ll take a look at why it can be harmful to the shoulder and elbow and some things we can do to help get us a little more on the “straight and narrow”. Continue reading “Addressing and Treating Trunk Tilt at Foot Strike — Part 2”
As a part of what we do here at RPP, we’re always reviewing and analyzing pitching video of all different ages, levels and size. I can say without a doubt that 8 out of 10 or 80% of all pitchers we analyze lack sufficient use of their lower half. Continue reading “Power from Lower Half Pitching Mechanics”
In Part 1 of this series (click here), we talked about the importance of loading the lower half to help avoid a “quad dominant” delivery, some of the mechanical disconnects associated with quad dominance and certain things we can do to help get that ever elusive hip hinge. Today, we’re going to look at early hip rotation and its effect on maintaining force into the ground longer. This is a big disconnect we often see which ironically begins with the inadequate glute load we talked about in Part 1. Continue reading “Engaging the Lower Half to Create Power… Ground Reaction Forces — Part 2”
