As we look forward to hopefully another great year here at RPP, it’s a good time to review where we have come from and how we got here. RPP’s youth clientele has increased nearly 6-fold since 2012. By any measure, that’s great and we are very proud of what we have accomplished. But explosive growth doesn’t happen for NO apparent reason; it certainly doesn’t happen overnight, and it definitely doesn’t happen without sleepless nights. Continue reading “Growth Doesn’t Happen Without….”
When talking about a complete or comprehensive training or throwing program, the conversation has to begin and end with “recovery”.
Many coaches believe that throwing strikes is more important than increasing velocity and that the two can’t be trained at the same time. I disagree. I believe that training both are equally important and can be trained at the same time. Sometimes it comes down to increasing the efficiency of an athlete’s throwing motion, so that their body works more in sync. Continue reading “Increasing Velocity and Command with a more Stable Stride Pattern”
One of the biggest mechanical disconnects I see when analyzing video from many of our pitchers is the ability to increase leverage on the front leg, from the time of first foot-strike to ball-release. Everyone has different opinions of what is an adequate amount of extension. For me, after analyzing hundreds of high school, college and pro pitchers, I’ve come up with what I consider to be an appropriate range of 20-30 degrees of additional knee extension between first foot-strike and ball-release. Continue reading “Half-Kneeling Overhead Med Ball Throw”
At our recent Pitching Seminar held at RPP, I presented a PowerPoint presentation on Identifying energy leaks in the delivery. The response from players and coaches alike (thanks Sean McGrath – Pitching Coach at U. Mass Lowell) made me realize there is a bit of a void when it comes to reviewing mechanics based on movement. This prompted me to start a series on the topic. Today is about “Knee at First Foot Strike”. Continue reading “Identifying Leaks in the Delivery — Knee at First Foot Strike”
As we begin the new year I would like to look back on 2016 and get a bit reflective. A few years ago I started a series in which we posted the most popular blogs of the year. These are the pieces that received the most traffic, according to our hosting statistics (you can click on the title of each to read the article). It seems to be a favorite of everyone so here we go again… Continue reading “The Best of 2016 – Baseball Articles”
Today I sat here reflecting on what a great year it has been and how thankful I am for everything that has come my way. Continue reading “What Separates Good from Great?”
Sunday, January 8th, 2016 at 11:00 a.m.
We’re very excited to announce our 1st Annual winter seminar covering all aspects of training for the OH athlete on Sunday, January 8th, 2016 at our facility in Sloatsburg, New York. Continue reading “1st Annual RPP Pitching Seminar (FREE)”
One of the things we pride ourselves on here at RPP is constantly studying, collecting data and trying to figure out better and more efficient ways to help our athletes achieve the greatest amount of success, both on and off the field. I feel it’s a big part of what separates us from many of the training facilities in our area, and the country for that matter.
This off-season we continued our research into achieving speed and power by building individual athletic profiles on all of our athletes (I’ll get into this more in a future blog). Our biggest “ah-ha” moment though came in the area of video analysis, analyzing pitching mechanics, correctives and velocity. It was the catalyst in forming our Pitching Rx program. Continue reading “Fixing Pitching Mechanics and Increasing Velocity…”
Imagine this, a high school pitcher’s body that throws a baseball at 80+ mph achieves that speed from hand break to finish in 1.5-2 seconds. That’s comparable to some of the fastest Italian sports cars out there. How you could NOT get young pitchers physically prepared for this type of explosive movement is frankly beyond my comprehension. In looking back and reflecting on what we offer young athletes, I think a lot of folks don’t totally understand what we do. So, let me give it a try. Continue reading “Pitching Lab — Getting After it in November — December”
