How to Increase Your Bat Speed in the Weight Room

Interested in increasing your bat speed in the weight room? Click here for our “remote” strength training program for position players.

How to increase bat speed is a topic that gets a lot of attention and interest from our baseball players.  Today, we’re going to review 6 topics and related exercises to increase bat speed in the weight room that are paramount and should be addressed in any training program: Continue reading “How to Increase Your Bat Speed in the Weight Room”

Pitching Biomechanics: 3 Factors in Kinematic Sequence

Pitching biomechanics

In conducting a pitching biomechanics evaluation and assessing a motion capture session, one of the most important things to examine is the kinematic sequence. This consists of the angular velocities and corresponding timing of the pelvis, torso, shoulder, and hand. These angular velocities can reach speeds upwards of 5000 º/s, and as such cannot be measured through standard 2-D video analysis thus requiring a 3-D motion capture system. This simple graph below off our Qualisys Motion Capture system is key to determining how efficiently an athlete is transferring energy from the ground up, through their body, and into the ball.

Continue reading “Pitching Biomechanics: 3 Factors in Kinematic Sequence”

K-Vest Baseball is a Game Changer for Training Ball Players

k vest baseball

The world of hitting is changing and it’s changing fast. As new technology is working its way into the world of baseball at break-neck speed, the information becoming available is opening the eyes of both baseball coaches and strength coaches alike and across multiple avenues as well. But once again as in pitching, this extremely explosive sport, leads us back to anatomy and the body’s ability to move through space quickly. So explosive in fact, that we are looking at microsecond movements only measurable by K-vest Baseball motion capture technology. Continue reading “K-Vest Baseball is a Game Changer for Training Ball Players”

How We Assess Hitters at RPP Baseball

hitting assessment

As an athlete, you are not able to move efficiently if your body isn’t in a position to do so. Incorporating assessments, strength training and data analytics into how we train players is a bit of an art. Since each and every player is different in every way, the key is to parse through the information and determine which pieces are relevant for each player. Below is a typical assessment for position players at our facility and it’s broken up into several sections:

Let’s review these with some specificity… Continue reading “How We Assess Hitters at RPP Baseball”

3 Questions When Analyzing Kinematic Sequence with K-Vest Baseball

k-vest baseball

HITTING IS HARD! Fortunately, technologies such as K-Vest Baseball, Blast and Rapsodo allow us to measure many metrics and movements, thus, giving the hitter a better chance to succeed. Unless you can understand and incorporate data into your training the value of data would be meaningless.  I should also add that it is easy for hitters to get lost in the numbers unless the collective data is properly incorporated into their training.

As an athlete, you are not able to move efficiently if your body isn’t in a position to do so. In terms of timing, if your lower half isn’t in a strong stable position to efficiently transfer energy and allow the upper half to move, then you will have a tough time hitting at any level.

It is important to understand how the lower body is behaving and how it should behave when a player is “on time”.  Here are 3 questions to ask when analyzing timing through the Pelvis of a Kinematic Sequence as measured by the K-Vest Baseball: Continue reading “3 Questions When Analyzing Kinematic Sequence with K-Vest Baseball”

The Best of 2019 – Strength Training Articles

By Nunzio Signore (BA, CSCS, CPT, NASM, FMS)

As we get closer to a new year I would like to look back and get a bit reflective. A few years ago, I started a series in which I posted the most popular blogs of the year. These are the articles that received the most traffic, according to our hosting statistics. It seems to be a favorite of everyone, so here we go again with the most popular of our strength training articles for 2019. Continue reading “The Best of 2019 – Strength Training Articles”

Creating Stability and Better Energy Transfer in the Swing

I was sitting with our Director of Hitting Evan Klugerman yesterday and he brought up a great point regarding efficient sequencing and mechanics when looking at K-Vest data. While collecting data for our high school guys, he was surprised at how many inconsistencies there were in sequencing from swing to swing within the same player profile, as compared to the MiLB guys he had been testing last year with the Orioles. I thought it would be a great quick blog. Continue reading “Creating Stability and Better Energy Transfer in the Swing”

New Jersey’s Most Comprehensive Baseball Training Facility

baseball training facility

RPP Baseball is a high performance baseball training facility located in Paramus (Bergen county), New Jersey. From the weight room to our pitching and hitting programs, we utilize the latest in technology, in a holistic and data-driven approach which allows us to assess, train and re-assess players on an ongoing basis. Our athletes are walking testimonials as to the power of our highly customized programming. Below is a summary of our extensive services for pitchers and baseball players: Continue reading “New Jersey’s Most Comprehensive Baseball Training Facility”

Blast Motion Baseball Metrics, Rotation, Angles and Power

blast motion baseball

In my previous internship before RPP, part of my responsibilities included watching Minor League baseball games. After my first few games, I noticed a recurring trend, every player wore a Blast Motion Baseball sensor during the game. As I saw more organizations’ Minor League teams, not all had their players wear the sensors; however, the idea behind it was simple, data collection.

At RPP, we use Blast Motion sensors for the same purpose, and this allows us to help identify and develop athletes’ inefficiencies. The only difference is we do not have the ability to collect data from athletes’ in-game at-bats. Therefore, we collect data from batting practice at our facility and are still able to get a good picture of what an athlete does well, and what they struggle with.

Continue reading “Blast Motion Baseball Metrics, Rotation, Angles and Power”

Patrick Jones Podcast – Building Baseball Players

I wanted to bring to your attention a recent Podcast that I participated in with Patrick Jones Baseball. Patrick is one of the premier hitting coaches in the US and he has been running a podcast for quite some time. We covered a wide variety of topics but here are a few that stand out:

    • Using strength / mobility to help adjust mechanics
    • Velocity-Based Training (VBT)
    • Reading kinematic sequence charts and related information
    • Mechanical differences between loose and tight movers

Building Baseball Players with Nunzio Signore