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”
5 Lower Half Pitching Issues Preventing a Consistent Release Point
It’s no mystery that one of the keys to successful pitching is a consistent release point. While I do believe that the term “repeatable delivery” is a bit of a stretch, and that many times inconsistency in your arm slot can be a major cause of difficulty in repeating your delivery, I believe we need to dig a little deeper and look closer down the kinetic chain to lower half pitching issues. Continue reading “5 Lower Half Pitching Issues Preventing a Consistent Release Point”
Best of 2020… Strength Training, Pitching and Hitting Articles
It’s been a crazy year for everyone, but that didn’t stop us from continuing our efforts to develop great ball players while educating the community at the same time. Here are the top received blogs of 2020. Continue reading “Best of 2020… Strength Training, Pitching and Hitting Articles”
Creating Lower Half Stability to Create Upper Half Mobility
Last week I posted a “before and after” shot of a proprioceptive drill that I use with our athletes to train anchoring the lower half in order to create a more stable platform at the hip and to actually allow the athlete to “feel” what we are attempting to train during a common throwing drill that we use with most of our throwers. It received such a great response that I decided to explain it in slightly more detail. You can view the post here: Continue reading “Creating Lower Half Stability to Create Upper Half Mobility”
How to Create a Better Lead Leg Block
Whether we’re talking about throwing velocity on the mound or exit velocity at the plate, improving and better utilizing ground reaction forces with a lead leg block is paramount. Training the lead leg to both produce and accept force will help to create a stable base and facilitate hip and torso rotation up the chain. Continue reading “How to Create a Better Lead Leg Block”
Exercise Videos for Off-season Training (Intermediate / Advanced)
The following list of exercises (intermediate / advanced) go hand-in-hand with the article published by Inside Pitch Magazine in the January / February 2022 issue… Continue reading “Exercise Videos for Off-season Training (Intermediate / Advanced)”
Exercise Videos for Off-season Training (Novice)
The following list of exercises (novice) go hand-in-hand with the article published by Inside Pitch Magazine in the January / February 2022 issue… Continue reading “Exercise Videos for Off-season Training (Novice)”
2 Great Exercises to Help You Post-up
This article is about correcting a mechanical issue with mobility/stability drills. It is NOT meant to replace adjustments in timing in the delivery by a coach. We always try to coach the athlete into better positions to help feel and move more efficiently on his own before going back to the drawing board / assessment. Continue reading “2 Great Exercises to Help You Post-up”
Zoom #3 – Weight Room Strategies to Improve Pitching Velocity (Part 2)
Please enter your information below to receive a Zoom access link and password to the recording of this webinar. Please make sure to check spam as it might end up in your junk mail! Continue reading “Zoom #3 — Weight Room Strategies to Improve Pitching Velocity (Part 2)”
How to Protect the Baseball Player’s UCL
Today, I want to review how to help stabilize and protect pitchers and baseball players’ UCL (also known as the Tommy John ligament) with several exercises we perform here at RPP. Continue reading “How to Protect the Baseball Player’s UCL”