Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Common Medications that Could be Blocking Your - or Your Clients' - Fitness Progress - In a recent post on overlooked assessments, I talked about how often trainers miss the importance of medications on entrance health histories.  The good folks at Precision Nutrition took it a step further and offered this outstandingly thorough article on some of the medications that most commonly negatively impact fitness progress.

Understanding Lars Anderson: A Study in Baseball Makeup - This was an outstanding write-up by former big leaguer and minor league manager Gabe Kapler.  It gives great insights into the mental side of baseball and how it can often overpower even the most physically gifted athletes.

Podcast: Maximum Strength with Eric Cressey - This was an interview I did for Scott Iardella's website.  We touched on a number of different subjects, so if you're looking for some variety, it'll be a good bet.

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There's one question that I get almost daily, and in spite of the fact that it drives me bonkers, I still do my best to answer it:

What supplements should I take?

The problem isn't that there aren't some supplements out there that can really help.  Anyone who's done even a cursory review of the research can speak to the value of supplements like Vitamin D and fish oil.  And, anyone who has ever reviewed the typical teenage athlete's diet can appreciate that a greens supplement would go a long way.

The bigger issue is that this question is an example of the carriage getting put in front of the horse.  In other words, the people asking the question are usually getting way ahead of themselves and need to focus on proper diet first. 

If you don't know what a healthy diet actually includes, how can you know what you need to supplement (dictionary.com: "to complete") with to get to where you want to be?

It goes beyond that, as the supplement question opens a big can of worms for several reasons:

1. The margins in the supplement industry are absolutely absurd - As a result, there are a lot of unethical people who flock to this industry in hopes of making some serious cash, playing on people's ignorance and insecurities. This is why you see bold advertising claims, doctored-up before/after photos, and - shamefully - products that don't actually make their ingredients list.  Some companies may use cheap fillers to keep their costs down, or include banned substances unbeknownst to the consumer in order to improve efficacy.  As a result of all this, you can't just recommend a supplement anymore; you also have to take the reputation of the brand into account.

2. It's a dynamic industry - With big money and potentially world-changing discoveries to be made, the game is constantly changing.  New research is published daily, and new products enter the market just as frequently to complement the daily influx of brands.  Plus, new uses for old supplements are always being introduced.  As an example, we once thought creatine was just a supplement for athletic performance, and now it's being looked at as a valuable supplement in treating many chronic disease states. Unless you're reading journal articles full-time and asking around in the industry, it's hard to stay on top of all the new information.

3. Dosing matters - Using the creatine example again, we were once all taught that we needed to load creatine for the initial period - and most of us who did it spent the first 7-10 days on the supplement with gurgly stomachs and diarrhea.  Now, we know that's not really necessary.  And, contrary to what we were told back in the 1990s, you don't need to crush a load of simple sugars to get the muscles to "suck it up." How much you take, when you take it, and what it's taken with all impact a supplement's efficacy.

4. Supplements mean different things to different people - If a person is financially comfortable, he or she can likely afford a new-age and potentially marginaly effective supplement in hopes of some return-on-investment.  For someone else, that $40 might be a huge deal.  What works for one athlete won't matter nearly as much for another, too; the baseball players with whom I've spoken haven't really benefited at all from beta-alanine supplement, but the competitive cyclists and soccer players have thrived on it; the metabolic demands of the sport are entirely different.

Additionally, everyone has a different social perspective on what supplements mean.  I once had a mother ask me about creatine for her son, and she commented that she viewed creatine as a "gateway drug" like marijuana.  This backlash is only getting worse and worse because of the unethical actions of a few professional athletes (blaming supplements for positive tests) and supplement companies (not living up to label claims).

For all these reasons, I really outsource my supplement questions to people who stay much more up-to-date on the topics than I can.  At our facility, I'm fortunate to have a great nutrition folks who stay as up-to-date on the research as possible - and also has a great mindset from which to discuss things with athletes, coaches, and parents.

Fortunately for us, though, we also have the good folks at Examine.com and their expertise at our fingertips on this front, too. They're a 100% transparent, independent organization that scrutinizing supplement efficacy - and a whole lot more in the health and human performance industries. In other words, everything they publish comes from peer-reviewed journals and is without influence from supplement companies - so you don't have to worry about "bro science" infiltrating their findings.

Their offering has expanded dramatically since the site was founded over a decade ago, and with that in mind, I’m going to encourage you to check out Examine 2.0, the newly launched update to their flagship offering. Examine distills thousands of studies into actionable insights. They also include monthly updates of the latest research, helping you to stay on top of what’s new in the industry (and get CEUs in the process). Through 8/25, you can get a big discount as one of my readers at http://examine.news/cressey.

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Today, I'm going to tackle one of my biggest pet peeves in the baseball world: people saying that throwing builds arm "strength."  Sorry, but it doesn't. 

What I'm going to write below might seem like wordplay, but truthfully, it's a very important differentiation to make.  If young athletes believe that throwing builds arm strength, they'll quickly convince themselves that year-round throwing is safe and acceptable, when it's actually one of the worst things they can do for long-term health and development. Here's what you need to know:

1. Throwing builds arm speed - which is power.  Power is heavily reliant on muscular strength.  If you can't apply much force, you can't apply much force quickly.

2. Throwing also builds muscular endurance in the arm.  Muscular endurance, too, is heavily reliant on muscular strength. If you don't have strength you can't have strength endurance.

If you enhance muscular strength, power and endurance will generally improve.  That's been shown time and time again in the research, both in throwers and other athletic situations.  However, if you train power and endurance, strength almost never goes up.  Otherwise, we'd see loads of athletes stronger at the end of seasons than they were at the beginning. In reality, if you check rotator cuff strength and scapular stabilizer proficiency at season's end, it's generally much lower.  As physical therapist Mike Reinold describes it, managing arm strength during the season is a "controlled fall."

This underscores the importance of using the off-season (including a period with no throwing whatsoever) to improve rotator cuff strength and optimize scapular control.  Simultaneously, athletes gain passive stability at the shoulder as the acquired anterior instability (secondary to increased external rotation from throwing) reduces.

Now, we need more research to see if it's the case, but I think that one of the hidden benefits of throwing weighted baseball is that doing so essentially helps us blur the line between arm strength and speed, as I outlined in this presentation a while back:

Of course, it depends heavily on the volume, frequency, load, and type of weighted ball drills utilized, as well as the time of year at which they're utilized.  However, as I mentioned, it is somewhat of a noteworthy exception to the rule of throwing a 5oz baseball.  Weighted balls surely still take a toll on arm strength over the course of time, but that might be a "slower fall."

Regardless, when you're talking about a throwing program, feel free to say that you're building "arm speed" or "arm endurance," but let's all appreciate that you definitely aren't building "arm strength." 

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This week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading (and listening) will have a heavy baseball focus.  Check out these websites:

Elite Baseball Mentorships - We've run two of these, and the feedback has been fantastic.  With that in mind, today is the early-bird registration deadline for the August 18-20 Phase 2 (no prerequisites required). We'd love to see you there!

Talking Shoulders and Elbows with Eric Cressey - This is the audio of a podcast I did for the Blue Jays Plus Podcast.  We discuss baseball injuries, player development, and a host of other topics. I come on the show at the 34-minute mark, in case you want to fast-forward to it.

The Surgery that Changed Baseball Forever - With the upcoming induction of Dr. Frank Jobe (who thought up and did the first Tommy John surgery) to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Will Carroll wrote this outstanding four-part article for Bleacher Report.  Here are the links to check out each of the articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

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Today’s guest post comes from my friend and colleague, physical therapist Eric Schoenberg.  Eric is an integral part of our Elite Baseball Mentorships.

The ability to properly assess, interpret, and manage hip range of motion (specifically rotation) is a critical skill in preventing injury and improving athletic performance in a baseball player.  Proper hip rotation sets up better alignment and direction in the pitching motion which sets up proper pelvic and trunk rotation and an improved ability to generate torque.  Stodden, et al. reports a direct correlation between increased hip rotation ROM and increased throwing velocity.

As we covered in Phase 1 of the Elite Baseball Mentorship , a pitcher who does not internally rotate fully through the back hip will tend to land closed-off.  While some pitchers may use this to improve deception or get more movement on their pitchers, this positioning can lead to the pitcher (especially a less experienced one) to either miss high and arm side or attempt to throw across his body and cut the ball.  The pitcher will in turn try to “make up” velocity with his arm/shoulder due to the movement faults in the kinetic chain. This compensation is a very common cause of shoulder and elbow injury in pitchers.

Additionally, Kibler, et al. notes that kinetic chain deficits are discovered on examination in a majority of patients with SLAP (superior labrum anterior-posterior) injuries. Deficits in hip abductor or extensor strength, deficits in hip rotation flexibility, or core strength weakness have been identified in 50% of SLAP injuries.

In Phase 1 of the mentorship program, we discussed in great detail the importance of understanding total motion of the shoulder as a key risk factor in pitching injuries. A recent study from Garrison, et al.  once again demonstrated that total ROM (ER + IR) is a better metric for predicting injury risk than GIRD (Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit).

These same concepts also apply to the hip.  However, there are fewer research studies and less consistent findings of hip ROM norms in rotational athletes.  In addition, you will see some clear differences in ROM based on position (pitcher vs. hitter) which need to be appreciated when designing training and rehab. programs.

Tippett reports increased hip IR in the trail leg (vs. lead leg) of college baseball players. In contrast, Hills (2005) reported no significant difference in hip IR between the back hip and lead hip in hitters, however hip ER and total ROM was significantly greater in the back hip. Whereas, Laudner, et al. notes that in pitchers, there is less internal rotation of the trail leg than position players resulting in a less effective and potentially more dangerous throwing motion.

Anecdotally, as we look at the lead leg in a hitter, internal rotation force often exceeds available hip internal rotation ROM resulting in microtrauma to passive structures and resultant instability of the hip (i.e. abnormal gliding and shear forces of the femoroacetabular joint).  As a result, and similar to the shoulder, the athlete will lose dynamic stability (motor control) causing unequal distribution of force on the weight bearing surfaces and finally osseous (bony) or labral pathology ensues.

Finally, from a strength prospective, there is a clear difference between recruitment patterns used to hit a baseball vs. throw a baseball.  EMG studies by Shaffer and Jobe et al. show hitters rely much more on the lower half and core for power development and transfer, while using the upper extremity/hands more for position and direction.  On the other hand, pitchers seem to rely more on energy created in the core and upper extremity, potentially placing pitchers at an increased risk for upper extremity injury.

Key Takeaways

1. Failure to properly identify and correct hip ROM deficits (especially lack of hip internal rotation in pitcher’s drive leg) will result in increased injury risk throughout the kinetic chain.

2. Asymmetrical rotational patterns in baseball players result in need for training and rehabilitation programs to work rotation in both directions.

3. Continued proof of the need to respect structural changes (i.e. retroversion) as well as position specificity (i.e. pitcher vs. position player) in developing effective training and rehabilitation programs.

4. From a treatment perspective, don’t just rush to stretching what seems “tight”. Consider the principles of relative stiffness, pelvic alignment, breathing patterns, and lumbopelvic stability before we start cranking away at the hip joint.

If you would like more information regarding the mentorships, please visit our website, www.EliteBaseballMentorships.com.  The early bird registration deadline for the August 18-20 Phase 2 Mentorship is this Thursday, July 18, 2013. Click here to register.

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Today's guest post comes from my business partner, Pete Dupuis.

I’m pleased to say that tomorrow marks the 6-year anniversary of Cressey Performance being in business.  This also happens to be the 5^th consecutive year that I have brought the upcoming date to Eric’s attention, only to learn that he was completely unaware of the occasion. I guess time flies when you're having fun!

In years past, Eric has been thankful for the reminder and eager to pull together his annual “lessons learned” blog post.  This time around, he told me that our 6^th anniversary is “just about as cool as turning 22”, and that I was welcome to take the annual write-up off his hands.  I’ve decided to run with it, but will be taking a different approach. 

Instead of presenting a collection of lessons learned, I’d like to highlight the six moments and/or accomplishments I am most proud of during CP’s brief history.  Please note that this list is absolutely not prioritized in any specific order.  I’d be perfectly fine with each and every one of these six topics being #1 on this list.  Here goes!

1. 2,320 in 2,190

CP has worked with 2,320 different athletes during the 2,190 days we’ve been in business.  This means that I’ve had the pleasure of outlining our price points and training model so many times that I can effectively give the pitch on auto-pilot. I have also spent a considerable amount of time fine-tuning the answer to the question “so what do you do?” that pops up every time I sit down next to a stranger at a wedding.  You’d be surprised how difficult it can be to articulate what we do without just taking the easy way out and saying “I own a gym”.

Most importantly to me, this statistic means that we have managed to generate more than one lead a day over a 6-year span without ever spending a dollar on conventional advertising.  Instead, we focus on results, and never say no when someone asks if they can get their hands on a CP t-shirt to wear around their baseball clubhouse.  I couldn’t tell you what the industry standard is supposed to be for successful lead generation, but I am proud of this number.

2. Our Dream Facility

As we’ve mentioned before, our first facility was smaller than the footprint of our current offices.  Upon opening our doors during the summer of 2007, we were in a space that could be best described as “bare-bones”.  The windows were broken, the space was dusty, and the bathrooms were questionable at best.  With this being said, I was every bit as proud of that first unit as I am of our current facility.

On August 26, 2012, we opened the doors to a training space that fits our needs perfectly.  I spent the majority of the three months leading up to this event preparing the layout for the space, installing carpet tiles for the warm-up area with our resident handy-man Pickles, and painting accent walls in the office.   During that same time, Eric, Tony, Chris, Greg and Michelle were keeping CP cranking at a record-setting pace so that the bank account was getting replenished while I spent aggressively at Home Depot and Perform Better!

I think I speak for our entire team when I say that we are thrilled with our new-look gym. 

3. Productive Internship Program

At last count, CP had had the pleasure of working with over 70 different interns.  These 70 individuals not only worked hard to become better coaches during their time with us, but they also helped to create a training experience for our clients that kept them excited about training, and eager to be part of the CP community.

It seems that all of our former interns have gone on to be great professionals within our field, and many have successfully transitioned to being influential contributors to the world of health and fitness.  I am pleased every single day to see them doing big things throughout this constantly evolving industry.

In six years, I have reviewed more than 500 internship applications, executed roughly 200 telephone interviews, and sent out over 400 emails notifying applicants that they have not been accepted (least favorite part of my job).  When all was said and done, the 70 accepted applicants rose to the top of the list, and we’ve been very fortunate to have their help in cultivating the CP Family.  Which leads me to…

4. CP Family

A couple of years back, we had an intern who was truly flustered when I told him that my biggest piece of advice for making the most of his experience with us was to focus on creating relationships with our clients.  He had just completed an internship at a strength & conditioning facility where he’d been specifically told, “you’re not here to make friends…you’re here to coach."

This couldn’t possibly be further from the mentality we have when it comes to creating a family atmosphere within the walls of CP. I am fortunate enough to wake up excited to go to work every single day, and it is because I’m going to a place where my job is to make friends and facilitate an environment that people are excited to visit.  We take this component of our business very seriously, and there are many CP clients who I consider to be part of my inner circle of friends.

Most importantly, this type of environment is one that can’t exist without employing a staff that truly cares about its clients.  While I haven’t gone ahead and given the CP team it’s own spot on this list of achievements, I can say with confidence that you will not find a staff in this industry that cares more about being great at what they do. 

5. Seeing the System Come Full Circle

Following the 2013 MLB First-Year Player Draft, Eric wrote a fantastic post about the accomplishments and work ethic of current Chicago Cubs prospect, Kevin Brown.  Kevin has been a regular at CP since the end of his sophomore year of high school.  In the time since we’ve been working with him, we’ve watched Kevin transition from scrappy middle infielder on his high school varsity baseball team, to a division one baseball player who set multiple school records at Bryant University, to a 22^nd round draft pick who has since signed his first professional contract.

Kevin is, in fact, one of just a few athletes we have seen make this progression in their baseball careers (Travis Dean being another), and it has been rewarding to be able to observe the process first-hand.  I am proud of the fact that both of these athletes have been with us since the very first few months we were in business, and I’m proud of the fact that they both made it a priority to get a training session in at CP on the day that they each left to report to their first day as professional athletes. As you can see, they did not hesitate to sign the Pro Athlete Autograph Wall at CP.

6. The Fact that We're Just Hitting Our Stride

In a way, I’m more excited about what we’re going to accomplish, than what we have so far.  I’m excited about the career prospects of the 40 CP athletes who have been taken in the last three MLB First-Year Player Drafts.  I’m excited about the coming 2014 Draft.  I’m excited about our relationship with the good people at New Balance Baseball.  I’m excited for our college ballplayers to return to fall-ball ready to reap the benefits of a summer of hard work.  I’m excited to chat with the next person who calls to inquire about our services.

When finally stopped to think about it, I realized that I’m just plain excited about what we’re doing here.  And that’s pretty exciting.

To learn more about Cressey Performance, check out our website, or watch this video to learn more about our Elite Baseball Development Program.

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It goes without saying that push-up variations are among the best exercises you can incorporate for athletes for a number of reasons.  One problem with them, however, is that some athletes eventually get to the point that they can't progress them to make them challenging enough to provide an ample training effect.  That's why I like the slideboard bodysaw push-up; check out the video below to learn why:

Looking for more exercise tutorials like this?  Be sure to check out Elite Training Mentorship, where several coaches (myself included) upload these on a monthly basis - in addition to staff in-services, webinars, articles, and case studies.

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Back in the summer of 2013, a good friend of mine attended the a well-known national showcase with one of his athletes.  It was an invitation-only event for the best rising senior baseball players in the country.  At the end of the event, he texted me to comment on just how crazy it was that it seemed like dozens of kids were hitting 95mph on the radar gun at this event.  And, sure enough, in the post-event write-up, they commented on how over 100 kids topped the 90mph mark. 

That is a huge deal.

You see, if you backtracked just 10 years from that time, 90mph was a huge feather in your cap - and it essentially meant that you'd be getting drafted out of high school.  Now, on a regular basis, we have dozens of kids nationwide consistently throwing 95mph+ even when there were only 35 major league pitchers in 2011 whose average fastball velocity was higher than 95mph!  As I've mentioned before, average fastball velocity is higher in Low-A than it is in the big leagues. 

The question, then, becomes, "Where are all these power arms coming from - particularly at the younger levels?"  That's a question I'll answer today.

1. More specialization.

It goes without saying that early sports specialization across all sports is, unfortunately, at an all-time high. 

However, baseball is particularly interesting because there is an extremely high likelihood of arm injury along the way.  In fact, according to a 2008 study from Oullette et al., 57% of pitchers suffer some form of shoulder injury over the course of a season.  And, that doesn't even take into account elbow, neck, core, and lower extremity injuries/conditions.  It goes without saying that just about every player will have an issue or two (or 30) pop up over his four years of high school - and it's one reason why we don't see any more "clean" MRIs during post-draft physicals for high round picks. They're all damaged; it's just that some are worse than others, and we need to figure out which of the chips in the paint and rust on the hubcabs are clinically significant.

When kids specialize in one sport at an early age and try to play it year-round, it's like betting your life savings on the roulette wheel - except your chances of winning are even smaller.  And, even if it works out and the kid manages to be the next star, you dodged a bullet - and he very well may just be waiting for problems down the road, as a lot of the early specialization kids actually have very "old arms" even if they aren't symptomatic. 

Not surprisingly, the rise in specialization (as evidenced by the growth in popularity of fall ball teams, showcases, and opportunities to play for multiple teams during the "normal" baseball season) has paralleled the rise in velocity and injuries.  Can long-term baseball development be successful without specialization?  In my opinion, absolutely - but you have to tie up all the loose ends, and that's what my next few points will all be about.

2. Video analysis

If you want your velocity to increase immediately, there is no quicker avenue to doing so than reviewing pitching mechanics on video.  Dating all the way back to 2008, our first CSP pitching coordinator, Matt Blake, used the RightView Pro set-up extensively at Cressey Sports Performance for this very reason.  Many pitchers are visual learners, so this approach to coaching helps them to learn what needs to be corrected much more efficiently - and it's also of benefit to the pitching coach, as many movements in the pitching delivery occur so quickly that they really can't be spotted by the naked eye.

Surprisingly, there are still a ton of college and minor league teams who don't have video available to their players.  Access to video can be a huge game-changer, and it's one reason that a lot of high school kids are throwing harder and harder.

3. Competition

Ask any coach what one of the best ways to motivate male athletes is, and he'll tell you competition.  Most teenage guys thrive on trying to beat their buddies, opponents, or records that are in place.  Nowadays, there are more opportunities to compete (and less preparation), and any player in the country can hop online and see how his velocity compared to other guys' at the last showcase.  Although commonly overlooked, these competitive opportunities are big motivating factors to players.

4. Strength Training

I often tell athletes that "If you don't run fast, you won't pull your hamstrings." In other words, strength training can be a player's biggest asset, but also his greatest downfall if he doesn't approach it correctly.  You see, if strength training isn't approached correctly, it can do a world of harm - both acutely and chronically.  Obviously, the likelihood of getting hurt increases if you move with poor technique under external loading.  However, taking it a step further, strength training "solidifies" movement patterns.  This can be great in a rehabilitation context if you free up some new mobility and then want to create stability within that range of motion (or just maintain what you've got).  However, if you lift like a moron, you'll mostly just teach yourself to be better at moving like crap - and that's when chronic injuries kick in.

Unfortunately, casual observers to exercise physiology don't get that there is a huge difference between appropriate and inappropriate strength training for baseball players. And, this is why there are quite a few "old school" folks in the baseball world who attribute some of the high injury rates these days to lifting.  What they should be attributing the injury to (in part) is inappropriate strength training exercise selection, volume, and technique.  After all, there are just as many guys get hurt late in the season because they cut out lifting and lose strength!

Simply stated, strength training is helping guys throw harder; there's no doubt about it.  It's how that strength training is programmed and what's done to complement it that determines if the increased velocity will lead to an injury. Nothing happens in isolation.

5. More aggressive throwing programs

A decade ago, throwing programs were far from what they are today.  Nowadays, up-and-coming throwers are using weighted baseballs and long toss more than ever before.  No two pitchers are alike in how they respond to these modalities, but having them as tools at our disposal has certainly helped us to increase pitching velocity with countless throwers.

6. Less distance running

One of our minor league pitchers stopped in to check in with me over his all-star break a few weeks ago, and he came bearing great news.  He'd hit 98mph on the radar gun four times in a single inning a few nights earlier - after never having been above 94mph before this season.

Sure, we did a lot of things differently with his programming this off-season, from strength training, to throwing programs, to mobility and soft tissue work.  However, the single biggest change he made (in my eyes, at least) was that he started sprinting between outings instead of distance running.  I have seen this time and time again, and I'm happy to report that more and more coaches at all levels are starting to pick up on it, too. 

Everybody ran long distances back in previous decades.  Yet, we throw harder nowadays.  And, everybody seems to run long distances in baseball in east Asia.  Pitchers throw harder in the U.S.  Sure, there are a lot more factors that contribute to pitching success than velocity alone, but these observations are impossible to ignore.

7. More objective ways to quantify velocity

Have you ever wondered if pitching velocity has increased simply because technology has improved, and we therefore have more accessible means of measuring it?  The price of radar guns isn't as high.  Every stadium has a radar gun.  They make pocket radar guns, and we've evolved from just pitch velocity to a collection of other pitch tracking metrics via initiatives like Trackman, Rapsodo, and Hawkeye. 

Basic accessibility to this technology has likely contributed to kids pushing the envelope of what they would otherwise think they were able to do.

8. More peaks, fewer valleys

Remember when Justin Verlander hit 101mph on the radar gun in the 9th inning of his no-hitter in 2011?  You could call that a "peak" velocity moment.  In short, it's a lot easier when the stakes are higher, people are watching you, and the adrenaline is pumping.  Major League pitchers don't have as many of these because their professional seasons are a long grind: possibly 200 games in 230 days, if you include spring training and playoffs.

Younger pitchers, however, are more "excitable."  With shorter seasons, there are more "big games."  With showcases and tournaments each weekend, the stakes are higher. Heck, they get excited if a girlfriend comes to watch them pitch. In the lifting world, we call it the difference between a training max and a competition max.  A competition max may be as much as 10% higher because a lifter is deloaded from training stress and put into a higher pressure competitive situation. In young pitchers, everything seems to be a competition max.  It's great for demonstrating big velocity numbers, but may interfere with long-term health and development.

Wrap-up

Clearly, there are a ton of factors that have contributed to guys throwing harder at younger ages in today's baseball world.  They don't all apply to each thrower, as different athletes will generate velocity in different ways.  While this increase in average velocity has definitely made pitchers more dominant, it has, unfortunately, been accompanied by a greater frequency of injuries.  Understanding the factors that contribute to these velocity increases is the first step in determining how to keep kids performing at a high level while minimizing their risk of injury. 

For more information, I'd encourage you to check out my podcast, Should Pitcher Take Time Off From Throwing?

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It's been a while since I updated the free bonus I give to all my baseball-specific newsletter subscribers when they sign up for this free mailing list, so I figure now is as good a time as ever.  With that in mind, by entering your name and email in the opt-in below, you'll be emailed access information so that you can watch my 47-minute seminar presentation, Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes.  I've given this presentation to more than 10,000 coaches, players, sports medicine professionals in the past 18 months, and it's been a big hit.

In this free presentation, you'll observe a lot of our Cressey Performance athletes training and learn:

• Why different athletes need different approaches to power development
• Why it’s essential that you learn to train outside the sagittal plane
• Which medicine ball and plyometric variations I use with baseball players
• Why not all throwers have identical deceleration patterns or training needs
• How your arm care programs can be improved to reduce the risk of injury and improve throwing velocity

Hope you enjoy it.  Thanks for your continued support - and please don't hesitate to share this page to those who you think might be interested in and benefit from the information I present.

*Note: We respect your privacy and won't share your information with anyone.  Instead, we'll deliver you awesome content on a regular basis!

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with an athletic trainer friend of mine who used to work with one of our athletes.  He was joking with me about how when he'd brought up the concept of postural awareness to this athlete years ago, the athlete had really shrugged it off as being unimportant.  Now, years later, that athlete is taking posture more seriously and reaping the benefits in terms of health and performance.

This conversation got me to thinking about what it takes to get athletes to "buy in" to what you're saying to them or doing with them. Obviously, in this instance, it's likely heavily influenced by this young athlete simply getting older and more mature.  However, I often wonder how we can accelerate the process of having athletes commit 100% to the approach we're employing.  Below, I've listed a few areas I've found to be particularly important in expediting the process of athlete "buy-in."

1. Deliver a consistent message.

Remember when you were a kid and wanted something you know you didn't have a chance of getting?  First, you'd ask your Mom and get shot down - and then you'd go to your Dad and try to sell him on it (or vice versa).  If your Dad didn't back your Mom 100%, it usually meant that Dad was sleeping on the couch you thought you still had a fighting chance to get your way.  The message had to be consistent for them to get you to buy in to their rules.

In the gym, it has to be the same way - and not just in terms of rules.  There needs to be a consistent message in terms of programming, nomenclature (i.e., what you call exercises), coaching cues, and what is deemed "acceptable" technique. If any of these factors don't line up along all members of your staff, athletes get mixed messages and begin to second guess you.

2. Start off with one-on-one interaction.

Every notice what happens when a coach yells at an entire team at once?  Usually, the entire team "wears it" - and then proceeds to gossip about the coach after the fact and shrug off the message he was trying to deliver.  In fact, he usually loses them a little (or a lot) more with each tirade. 

Conversely, think about what happens when a coach pulls aside a player individually and lets him know his conduct, attitude, or effort level hasn't been satisfactory.  Usually, that turns out to be a big kick in the pants for an athlete to step up his game and carry himself the right way.

This one-on-one interaction doesn't have to just be reserved for when something is going wrong, though.  It's tremendously important when you first meet with an athlete to discuss his/her goals and go through an evaluation.  I often video scapular screens with my baseball guys and discuss how their shoulder blades move relative to how we want them to move.  It educates them, but also makes them realized how individualized their programming and overall training experience will be. 

3. Individualize coaching cues to the athlete's learning style.

Taking the individualization theme a bit further, it's important to realize that all athletes have different learning styles when it comes to acquiring new movement pattern.  Some are kinesthetic (need to be put in a position), some are auditory (just need to be told what to do), and others are visual (need to watch you demonstrate it).  Being able to taylor your coaching style to their learning style - and not the other way around - is a great way to build rapport with athletes early on.

4. Overdeliver.

My good friend Pat Rigsby always talks about how the most successful long-term businesses are built on the concept of value addition rather than value extraction. In other words, it's always best to find ways to go above and beyond to improve a client or athlete's experience. As an example in the Cressey Performance world, I have a very good network in the college baseball world.  And, while we would never advertise that we help kids find schools, I've lost count of how many times I've put kids in touch with coaching staffs at schools that interest them.  Having a go-between expedites the recruiting process and helps them to get their questions answered.  We've donated training sessions to charity auctions, hosted BBQs for clients, and even written letters of recommendation for jobs, college, and med school for clients.  We aren't expected to do so; we're happy to do so.  And, doing nice things for others makes you feel a lot better about yourself than just sitting around trying to figure out ways that you can raise your prices.

5. Build a team.

Building a team is the ultimate sign of humility, which is a quality that I think just about everyone on this planet admires.  In surrounding yourself with people who have complementary skill sets to your own, you're recognizing that you aren't a genuis on every single topic, but will always go out of your way to find the best possible answer to their questions.  People who try to "go it alone" often think that they're offering a superior service, but in reality, they just haven't recognized how much better their offering could be if they surround themselves with bright people who can bring the collective "brain power" up a notch. Athletes don't want to hang out with people who think they know everything; they'd rather be surrounded by a team that'll help them get to where they want to be.

6. Be a friend - and that means being accessible.

I once heard a story about a training facility owner telling one of his staff members, "You're not here to make friends." It made me want to vomit. 

If you want to be successful in the world of training athletes, don't just expect to be a guy who can punch the clock and still thrive.  Remember that in the training world, we work while others play - so that means others work while we play. In other words, you might get phone calls, text messages, or emails from athletes with questions when you don't think you're "on the clock." And, while you don't need to be available at 3AM every night just in case, you should appreciate that making time for athletes outside of your normal "hours" can often pay off 100-fold down the road in terms of their buy-in to your programs.  If they know you're heavily invested in their success, they'll be invested in it, too.

These are obviously only six thoughts that first came to mind on the topic, but I'd love to hear your comments below.  What other ways can coaches and trainers increase the likelihood that athletes and clients "buy in?"

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