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Summer Velo Program… Are You Ready to Do What it Takes?

When it comes to learning and “buying-in” to a training regimen, most highly motivated and highly skilled athletes are all ears. This is called “athlete education” and nothing can be more rewarding than watching them “do what it takes to be exceptional”, while reaping great results at the same time.

Ramsey High School’s Ryan Vatcher, who is now up at Babson College, is a perfect example. Ryan opted not to play summer ball last year.  Instead, he enrolled in our Summer Velo Program choosing to work on his strength and mobility by living in the gym and working on fixing some mechanical issues through an intensive 5 day / week throwing-lifting program. This helped him create a higher velocity ceiling, as well as give him a better chance to succeed coming down the mound. Continue reading “Summer Velo Program… Are You Ready to Do What it Takes?”

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Testing and Training the Complete Pitcher… Power / Elasticity – Part 2

With the season beginning to get underway, I thought it would be a great time to emphasize that while practice is great for your “technical” work, improving your throwing velocity, exit velocity and first step quickness all start by improving and maintaining power and elasticity. These are developed in the gym and are the topics in Part 2 of this 3 Part series on training the complete pitcher (click here to read Part 1). Continue reading “Testing and Training the Complete Pitcher… Power / Elasticity — Part 2”

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Testing and Training the Complete Pitcher… Where do You Fall? Part1

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”

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Single Most “Over-Looked” Factor to Increase Performance

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”

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Strength Training and Throwing Programs

Top Joint

The increases in pitching velocity and the distance guys are covering when they go yard tells one thing for sure… Guys are getting in the gym and getting bigger, faster and stronger. Period.

That’s great. As a matter of fact, nothing could make me happier as a strength and conditioning coach. But let it be said, with training comes a responsibility on educating athletes as to how and when is the best way and time to incorporate it. This gets especially tricky when it needs to be integrated with a throwing program. What I’m really saying is that a great program should incorporate throwing and strength training as ONE program and not viewed as two separate entities. This is the premise of the closed loop training which we provide at the Pitching Lab here at RPP. Let me try and briefly explain why one hand washes the other. Continue reading “Strength Training and Throwing Programs”