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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.

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Training Explosiveness through Strength Training

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For parents of some young athletes (for the scope of this article I’m talking about athletes ages 13-16), lifting heavy weights seems to get a bad rap. Years ago players were told not to lift weights because it would make them too “big”.  You could even hear words like “stiff” or “tight” getting thrown around at the drop of a hat.

While I whole heartedly believe in the phrase that “age is wisdom”, this would be one of those times that I beg to differ.  Being strong is a good thing.  And if you want to be explosive you have to be strong first.  Performance, speed (have I got your attention now?) and injury prevention all are built on a foundation of strength. But exactly what type of strength training and at what age seems to be where parents (and strength and conditioning coaches for that matter) get tripped up.

Most of you who read my blogs know that I spend a great deal of time emphasizing training according to where the athlete is during the season. Let’s take a look… Continue reading “Training Explosiveness through Strength Training”

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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

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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”

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3 Reasons for Lower Back Pain after Pitching

Lower Back Pain after Pitching

Unfortunately, 90% of the pitcher population cannot handle the amount of lumbar extension Tim Lincecum put his body through. It’s no mystery that low back pain can severely compromise velocity, as well as command, in pitchers. In Part 3 of this series on Pain Site vs. Pain Source, we’ll look at low back pain and some possible “sites” distally that could be causing it. We’ll also look at some things we can do from both the strength and mobility (mechanics) side that may help to relieve unwanted stress in the area. Lower back pain after pitching can be caused by many things, but for the scope of this article, we’re going to concentrate on… Continue reading “3 Reasons for Lower Back Pain after Pitching”

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Top 10 Questions on Weighted Baseball Training

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Weighted baseball training is just one of the tools used in our baseball throwing programs to help athletes achieve a higher velocity ceiling. As with any protocol, the “dosage” (volume and intensity) in weighted baseball training is paramount in order to maximize their effectiveness safely. Below are the top 10 questions we get asked often regarding weighted baseballs, including how they work, and how we integrate them into a total throwing program used to increase size, strength and velocity on the mound. Continue reading “Top 10 Questions on Weighted Baseball Training”