We welcome San Francisco Giants pitcher Tyler Beede to this week’s podcast. I've known Tyler since early in his high school years, and these years have been filled with experiences that are of tremendous benefit to players, parents, and coaches. From long-term athletic development, to the mental side of living up to high expectations, to overcoming injuries, Tyler is a guy who is wise beyond his years and very articulate in sharing his lessons.
This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. It’s a NSF-certified all-in-one superfood supplement with 75 whole-food sourced ingredients designed to support your body’s nutrition needs across 5 critical areas of health: 1) energy, 2) immunity, 3) gut health, 4) hormonal support, and 5) healthy aging. Head to www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey and claim my special offer today - 10 FREE travel packs - with your first purchase. I use this product daily myself and highly recommend it to our athletes as well. I'd encourage you to give it a shot, too - especially with this great offer.
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Thank you for your continued support!
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With the growth of our Palm Beach Gardens, FL facility, we are opening up position for the right candidate to join our team as a strength and conditioning coach.
To that end, we'll be hiring a strength and conditioning coach to join the CSP-FL team in the next month. This position will primarily be involved with the strength and conditioning training of professional and amateur athletes (particularly in the baseball realm), but will also include daily work with general population clients and post-rehab cases.
Responsibilities for this position include:
Strength and conditioning coaching in both semi-private and personal training formats
Performing assessments
Writing programs
Participating in staff and intern educational in-services
Qualification Requirements:
Experience working with athletic populations, particularly baseball
Willingness and ability to collaborate with sports medicine professionals
Strong interpersonal skills
Proficiency in written communication and with Microsoft Excel
Familiarity with social media platforms
Nationally recognized certification
Desire to work as part of a team
Applicants can submit resumes and cover letters as a single PDF document to CareersatCSP@gmail.com. The deadline for applications is May 5, 2022.
Cressey Sports Performance is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will be considered regardless of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship status, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected under local, state, or federal laws.
We welcome St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Drew VerHagen to this week’s podcast. Drew speaks to overcoming injuries, developing as a pitcher in Japan, and how he attacks both offseason and inseason training and throwing. This episode is timely, as my new Thoracic Outlet Syndrome course debuted earlier this week, and Drew details his experienced with both the diagnosis, surgical intervention, and rehabilitation for his TOS.
A special thanks to this show's sponsor, Ancore Training. This cutting-edge training innovation serves as an amazing replacement for cable columns and functional trainers, allowing you to train important movement patterns at a lower price point, with invaluable portability, and while taking up less space. We have multiple units at both our facilities and love them. Head to www.AncoreTraining.com and enter coupon code CRESSEY at checkout to save 10% on your order.
This episode is brought to you by Ancore Training. Ancore is an attachment that rigs up easily to power rack, support beam, or wall mount. Once it’s set up, you can do chops, lifts, rotational patterns, presses, rows, and a variety of arm care exercises. Basically, if you can do it on a functional trainer or conventional cable set-up, you can do it on Ancore – but at a dramatically lower price and with much less space taken up. For these reasons, it’s a perfect addition to baseball facilities and home gym that might have limited space and budget. And, we have multiple units at both Cressey Sports Performance facilities.
Perhaps most importantly, Ancore travels extremely light; you can throw it in a backpack or suitcase and not even know it’s there. I know of coaches and players that are taking these units on the road to overcome underequipped weight rooms and hotel gyms.
When all is said and done, it saves space, money, and headaches while also offering the benefits of portability.
To learn more, head to www.AncoreTraining.com and enter coupon code CRESSEY at checkout to save 10% on your purchase.
Podcast Feedback
If you like what you hear, we'd be thrilled if you'd consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.
And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
I'm really excited to announce that my new resource - a collaborative effort with the Fascia Training Academy - is now available. This two-hour course, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome: Diagnoses and Interventions, has been close to two years in the making.
In it, we take an unprecedented deep dive into understanding, identifying, and treating Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Featuring detailed anatomical animations, guided cadaver dissections, practical exercises, and powerful case studies, it takes you "under the skin" to give rehabilitation specialists and fitness professionals essential knowledge surrounding this potentially debilitating condition. You can learn more HERE.
*Yes, you read that right: the product includes excerpts of a cadaver dissection (and accompanying voiceover) for the absolute best look at upper extremity functional anatomy that you can imagine. It's a remarkable perspective if you want to truly appreciate how structure dictates function. Gross Anatomy was the single-most beneficial course of my academic career, and I'm excited to share a glimpse into that world with you.
I'm psyched to announce that the new limited edition 2022 Minimus collaboration between Cressey Sports Performance and New Balance is now available! This is our third custom training shoe since 2017, and in each of the previous two runs, they’ve all sold out quickly. Check them out:
This minimalist footwear option makes for a great option for lifting, sprinting, change-of-direction, and medicine ball work. And, it's available in both men's and women's sizes. For more information, check out the links below:
One of the more concerning trends I’m seeing on the youth sports scene is the how often the youngest kids are compared to their peers. This is an issue among programs monetizing sports participation, coaches responsible for identifying/developing proficiency, and parents concerned that their kids are falling behind.
I’m somewhat uniquely positioned to speak on this because I’ve been involved on the development of 12-year-olds who’ve eventually become professional athletes. And, more importantly, I’m a parent of three daughters. The older two, Lydia and Addison, are 7-year-old twins.
The most important lesson you learn as a twin parent is that people will always think saying “double trouble” is hilarious even though it’s incredibly hackneyed. Once you move past that, though, lesson #2 is more actionable: you should never try to compare your twins to one another.
This was obvious even when they were in the womb. When we’d go to ultrasounds, Lydia was front and center; we joked that she had her face pressed against the glass. Meanwhile, it would always take the technician and bunch of time to find Addison, who was always “hiding.” At one ultrasound, all we could see was the bottom of her foot.
When they were born, out came a brunette with olive skin (Lydia looks like her mom) and a strawberry blonde with a lighter complexion (Addison is a sunburn waiting to happen, just like dad).
Lydia came out screaming and ready to take on the world. Addison struggled a bit and needed four days in the NICU with oxygen and a feeding tube. Lydia was a feisty baby and always wanted her mother, and Addison was super mellow and could usually be found in dad’s arms while mom was holding her sister.
At 18 months, they flip-flopped. Lydia became the rule follower, and Addison started giving us attitude. Lydia ate just about everything we put in front of her, yet Addison’s taste buds refused to recognize the existence of all but about five foods.
Lydia walked five months before Addison (who was a little taller/heavier) did. Addison picked up swimming faster than Lydia. Lydia swings a bat right handed, while Addison does so lefty. Lydia was reading chapter books while Addison was still working on sight words. Addison, on the other hand, thrived with math relative to her sister.
Lydia is faster; Addison is stronger. Lydia listens intently and has picked up more “coaching intensive” sports like tennis, softball, and gymnastics quickly. Addison, on the other hand, is a bit of a space cadet in the field at softball games; she’s kicking grass and watching adjacent fields. Conversely, she’s in her element with creative initiatives like music, art, and dance.
I develop athletes for a living, and I can tell you without wavering that I have zero clue what sports my kids will enjoy doing next week, let alone years from now. Our twins have spent 99% of their lives together since conception and are completely different now, and we’ve seen unpredictable iterations of them to get to this point.
We don’t predict athletic success well at all. We don’t even predict what sports kids will enjoy well. You’d be amazed at how many professional athletes weren’t child prodigies or even standout middle school athletes. Let’s face it: puberty makes a lot of coaches look much smarter than they are!
In other words, the ONLY thing we can control is enriching their experiences in these sports while they’re participating – and comparisons don’t do that. What does work?
First, praise effort over outcomes. The reps – and the fun that comes with executing them with teammates/friends – are what matter. I can’t tell you a single score from one of my little league games, but I could write a book about an a**hole coach I had who took things way too seriously. In hindsight, he really didn’t know much about baseball, either.
Second, celebrate novelty. It gets kids excited, and participating in a variety of sports at a young age provides a rich proprioceptive environment that cultivates an invaluable athletic foundation upon which specific skills can later be built. This broad athletic foundation includes variability in planes of motion, speed of movement and the forces involved. Collectively, these exposures teach athletes to distribute stress over multiple joints and avoid overuse injuries at specific segments.
Third, appreciate that random practice outperforms blocked practice over the long-term when it comes to skill acquisition. Mix in a variety of drills and fluctuate the order and duration of them, then integrate fun competitions with them.
Fourth, recognize the importance of in-season and off-season periods. This fluctuation of the seasons helps keep kids from getting bored with certain sports, but also facilitates graduated exposures to stressors. A 10-year-old throwing a baseball 12 months out of the year is a terrible idea; playing some soccer and hoops is a great way to stay active while developing in different ways.
Fifth, as soon as a kid is mature enough for it, get them involved in a foundational strength training program. It’ll have a “trickle-down” effect to a variety of athletic qualities while reducing their risk of injury. Again, it has to be fun, just like everything else!
Summarily, don’t compare kids; instead, appreciate that they’re all unique and develop at different rates and in different ways. Youth sports is all about instilling a passion for the game, enjoying a sense of community, and fostering a positive lifelong relationship with exercise.
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Today’s guest post comes from Cressey Sports Performance – Florida coach and internship coordinator, Andrew Lysy.
Bear Position to Thoracic Bridge is one of the newer mobility exercises we’ve been using lately to enhance thoracic spine, shoulder and hip mobility.
Unlike many other thoracic mobility exercises, Bear Position to Thoracic Bridge actively stretches out your biceps and pecs in a closed-chain manner.
In addition to creating length in the biceps and pecs, the athlete will also be working on anterior expansion, manubrium expansion and shoulder extension, which can help you regain shoulder internal rotation.
A few important cues for properly executing Bear Position to Thoracic Bridge:
1. Actively push away from the ground with your legs and arm/hand. While pushing away from the ground, create a cork-screw feeling with your hand so that your shoulder doesn’t tip/dip forward!
2. While extending your hips, maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. This will help resist excess extension from your lower back and put all of the pressure on your hips!
3. Your feet and thighs should be parallel to each other.
This exercise is commonly used as a warm-up, mobility exercise or filler. We’ve used it for 2-3 sets for 5-8 reps. We’ve also held the Thoracic Bridge position for breaths.
Note from EC: If you're looking to learn more about how I evaluate, program, and coach at the shoulder joint, be sure to check out my popular resource, Sturdy Shoulder Solutions. It's on sale for $40 off through this Sunday at midnight; just enter the coupon code APRIL22 at www.SturdyShoulders.com.
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Thursday is Major League Baseball Opening Day, an event that's always circled on the calendars of just about anyone in the baseball world. We're excited to see all our pro players back on the field in games that count!
To celebrate, I've put my resource, Sturdy Shoulder Solutions, on sale for $40 off through this upcoming Sunday (4/10) at midnight.
This has been one of my most popular resources of all time, and it's particularly useful if you work with baseball players. Don't miss out on this great chance to pick it up at an excellent discount. Just head to www.SturdyShoulders.com and enter the coupon code APRIL22 at checkout to get the discount.
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