1. Mike Reinold polled some of the best in the world of manual therapy, physical therapy, and strength and conditioning (plus a schmuck named “Cressey”) to ask for their best career advice for students and young professionals in our fields.  Here is the post that emerged; it came out really well – and actually serves as an awesome adjunct to yesterday’s advice on starting out in the fitness industry.

2. I’m pumped to report that my advanced copy of Gray Cook’s new book, Movement, arrived yesterday.  I’m digging in to it tonight.  You can pre-order your own HERE.

Gray’s been talking about this book (and working on it) for years now, and there is no doubt in my mind that he won’t disappoint. I’m really looking forward to it.

3. Here’s a link to an interview with Cressey Performance and Lincoln-Sudbury athlete Adam Ravenelle, who is committed to play baseball at Vanderbilt:

Player Perspective: Adam Ravenelle

The thing I like the most about this interview is the fact that Adam emphasized the importance of in-season training and how valuable it is to young pitchers.  You’d be amazed at how many guys work their butts off in the off-season and show up to the start of the season strong…only to skip their lifting and flexibility work for the next 6-8 months.  It’s one step forward, and one step back – but not for guys like Adam who “get it.”  “Rav” has gained over 50 pounds with us since 2007 while going from the high 70s to low 90mph range – and having an open-minded and dedicated attitude toward in-season training has been a big part of it.

3. Speaking of throwing the baseball faster, Haag et al. found that pre-throwing static stretching did not negatively affect baseball pitching velocity.  This is pretty significant, as many modern coaches generally encourage players to universally avoid static stretching right before training and competition for fear of reductions in power output (that research horse has been beaten to death).

Personally, though, I’ve always felt that it was really valuable to stretch the throwing shoulder in the majority of our pitchers before they threw (the exceptions being the ones with crazy laxity).  Typically, we stretch guys (or encourage them to stretch themselves) into shoulder internal rotation and flexion.  It’s safe to assume that getting range in their directions is going to not only minimize the effect of the peel-back mechanism for SLAP lesions at lay-back, but also enable them to have a longer, smoother deceleration arc.

While more research is definitely warranted, my hunch is that static stretching is less “inhibitory” in the upper body than the lower body because the upper body deals with predominantly open-chain motion, and is therefore more heavily reliant on mobility than stability.

5. Last, but certainly not least, here’s a quick article about CP athlete Tim Collins, who was traded for the second time in three weeks, this time to the Royals.

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