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What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Secret Sauce

Many pitchers who haven’t been to our facility often ask “What’s your secret sauce?”  Now, please remember I am not a strength or pitching coach.  I am just a guy with an Electrical Engineering degree, an MBA, 30 years of business experience and a dad.  So, much of my commentary is based on what I observe up close in our facility and as a parent of 2 boys growing up playing ball.  Frankly, over the years I have seen it all, from the straight up hitting and pitching facility to the strength and conditioning place.  RPP is different in every way.  And here’s why… Continue reading “What’s Your Secret Sauce?”

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What is Velocity-Based Training? What Are the Benefits?

velocity based training

Athletes who are able to recruit higher ratios of Type II “fast twitch” muscle fibers have shown to be able to produce more power.  For ballplayers, this means that they are more likely to throw harder off the mound or have a higher exit velo at the plate.  Genetics do come into play, but many times they only give us a better “starting point”.  By no means should they dictate a definitive “end-point”.  After reading a copy of Dr. Bryan Mann’s book on velocity-based training (VBT) a light went off in my head as to how elements of VBT could be implemented here at RPP.    Continue reading “What is Velocity-Based Training? What Are the Benefits?”

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Interview with Tenafly’s LHP Aljo Sujak

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We are here with Tenafly’s LHP Aljo Sujak, who will be entering his freshman year at William and Mary this coming September.  Aljo was selected as Baseball Player of the Year this past spring by NorthJersey.com (The Record), which is obviously a significant honor. He started training with us about a year ago and spent the better part of last fall training 3-5 times per week.  He continued throughout the winter with the Pitching Lab and also trained all in-season throughout the spring.  Needless to say, as POY in Bergen county, he had a phenomenal spring season. As a primary pitcher, he blasted 11 home runs and during 56 innings of work he struck out 72 players.  He finished 5-2 with a 2.25 earned-run average.

Continue reading “Interview with Tenafly’s LHP Aljo Sujak”

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Interview with Dominic Cancellieri Pitcher / Player at Bergen Catholic High School

Dom Cancellieri Picture

We are here with Dominic Cancellieri, who just finished his sophomore year at Bergen Catholic.  Dom is an awesome athlete playing both basketball and baseball at Bergen.  He is also an excellent student.  But I have to say that if anyone understands that strength training is integral part of an athlete’s success it’s Dom. Continue reading “Interview with Dominic Cancellieri Pitcher / Player at Bergen Catholic High School”

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What May Have Caused the Noah Syndergaard Injury?

On April 30th in the bottom of the 2nd inning, just 38 pitches into his fifth start of the year, Noah Syndergaard threw a 2-1 pitch to the National’s Bryce Harper then proceeded to clutch under his arm. Something was obviously not right. The latissimus dorsi (lat) is one of the major players for stability and throwing gas, and Syndergaard just tore his.  I would like to go over what may have caused the Noah Syndergaard injury.

(Noah Syndergaard Injury)

Continue reading “What May Have Caused the Noah Syndergaard Injury?”

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Three Big Things That Can Help You Throw a Baseball Harder

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Every year we have the privilege of working with a large number of pitchers between October and March. While these athletes come in many different shapes and sizes, all requiring their own individual strength and mobility programming, this wasn’t the case when it came to analyzing mechanics on the mound. Let me explain. Continue reading “Three Big Things That Can Help You Throw a Baseball Harder”

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Losing Your Legs and Your Velocity Early in the Game

Losing Legs and Velo

It’s that time of year when I go out and watch all my guys (with a great sense of pride I might add) play ball and in doing so, get a chance to watch many other young pitchers on the mound as well. A common thread that I see with many of them is the similarities in the breakdown that happens in the later innings.

More often than not, I believe this is fatigue of the lower half. The pre-mature change in lower extremity kinematics and timing can generally be attributed to a lack of strength (or a loss of strength if they have stopped training in-season) bringing on many command problems as well as velocity issues. Today, we’ll touch on three topics. Continue reading “Losing Your Legs and Your Velocity Early in the Game”