We’re excited to welcome St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas to the podcast for Episode #13. A special thanks goes out to this show’s sponsor, Versaclimber. It’s my absolute favorite conditioning option, and they’ve got a great 10% off offer going for our podcast listeners at https://www.Versaclimber.com/Cressey.

Show Outline

• Why Miles decided to stay close to home and attend Division 2 powerhouse Nova Southeastern in FL
• How adding weight, gaining strength in the right places, and improving body awareness while in college allowed Miles to make a velocity jump and become an MLB draft pick
• How Miles quickly ascended through the minor leagues, but realized the consistency needed to be a mainstay in MLB
• How he worked to become a more consistent pitcher in all facets of his game as a result
• How Miles transitioned from a reliever to a starter
• Why Miles added a slider to his pitch arsenal as a starter and how this shorter, harder breaking ball complements his big, loopy curveball to challenge hitters in a different dimension
• Why Miles chose to bet on himself and leave MLB after the 2014 season to play in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan
• How being exposed to the Japanese style of baseball taught Miles many invaluable lessons
• How Miles refined his arm action in 2015 to 2016 to take unnecessary stress off his arm
• Why Miles values first pitch strikes and works to play the percentages to efficiently get hitters out
• How Miles models his throwing and lifting program in season on a 5-day rotation
• What it is like for Miles to pitch to one of the greatest catchers of all-time, Yadier Molina, and what young catchers can take away from this legend’s unbelievable knowledge and skill set

You can follow Miles on Instagram at @magic_mikolas39 and Twitter at @lastoneformiles.

Sponsor Reminder

This episode is brought to you by Versaclimber. In addition to being a phenomenal option for training all across the energy systems continuum, the Versaclimber exposes individuals to important fundamental movement patterns: scapular upward rotation, hip extension, and a synced-up crawling pattern. It’s also non-impact, and can therefore be used with a wider variety of clients than other conditioning modalities. They’ve set up a great discount of 10% for our listeners; you can learn more at https://www.Versaclimber.com/Cressey.

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