1. Oops!

This is precisely why none of my friends dress up in giant socks.  If I am going to celebrate something, I want everyone with a 100% unobstructed view (none of this half-ass piggyback stuff).

2. This weekend pretty much wraps up the baseball season for all my high school guys.  It’s interesting how coaches and athletes’ level of excitement about baseball changes over the course of the season – and this is true of all levels.  When the season starts, the players are fired up, and the strength coaches are ready for some down-time after a ton of hard work in the off-season.  Mid-season, the coaches are always fired up and prepared to get the guys in because they can never get as much training in as they need, but the players are just trying to find a day’s rest whenever they can.  By the end of the season, the players are tired of baseball and fired up to lift – and the strength coaches are fired up to start building some freaks after not having ideal training scenarios for the previous 6-7 months.

So, I guess you could say that mid-August kicks off the funnest time of the year for everyone.  And, I can honestly say that each year, I get more and more excited about the off-season.  Coming in to this off-season, we’ve got five high school guys (four of whom will be juniors this year) throwing over 90mph – and several more who are right on the cusp of it.  This is really exciting for me because it’s proof in the pudding that if you get guys in a good training program at an early age, you can really expedite their development – and keep them healthy in the process.  We’re going to have fun this winter!

3. Funny story: as I’ve mentioned before, I have a Facebook account, and loads of my readers are my internet “friends.” A lot of these folks are in the fitness industry, and as you can imagine, I get loads of invites to join these people’s groups – whether they’re for bootcamps in Istanbul, online education programs, product sales, or training styles.  Initially, I was a nice guy and accepted all of the invitations – but over time, I wound up getting so many emails that my inbox was overflowing and I didn’t have time to read anything, let alone the good stuff.  So, I started being more selective.

Unfortunately, some people don’t get the point when I turn down their invitation.  Recently, these folks with a new fat loss program for general population folks invited me to join their group, and I declined.  Now, six days later, I’ve received NINE more invitations to join their group.  Is that what they call pressure selling?

This is like back in college when you sat down in a big lecture class only to discover that the guy next to you was eating potato chips, coughing non-stop, and taking cell phone calls in the middle of class – basically doing anything he could to make noise.  You move to another seat, and he follows you…NINE times.

Really, I’m just not interested, dude.  Does that make me a bad person?

4. This week, I started up a new book – and a big one at that.  My fiancee looked at me last night like I had two heads, and asked, “Are you reading a textbook?”

My response was, “Yeah, I guess I am.”

It’s pretty funny that back in undergrad, I hated reading textbooks – probably because they were forced on me (both in terms of content and deadlines).  Now, years later, I have blown through a chapter a night simply because I picked the book and I decided when I wanted to read it.  I guess it’s true that experience yields perspective.

Oh, by the way, it’s Clinical Application of Neuromuscular Techniques, Volume 1: The Upper Body, by Leon Chaitow and Judith Delany.  So far, it’s fantastic.  Anyone who has ever questioned the benefits of foam rolling should be forced to read the first chapter, which outlines several benefits that are commonly overlooked (there is a lot more to this than just the “tissue quality” argument).  You have to consider the role of the autonomic nervous system and lymphatic system as well.

5. This book was actually recommended to me by Mike Reinold, who actually had a good blog whether or not curve balls are more dangerous than other pitchers for young throwers.  It’s a great comprehensive look at the topic.

Speaking of Mike, he and I have been throwing around the idea of doing a shoulder-specific seminar – from rehab to high-performance – at my facility this winter at some point.  We’d only open it up to 30 people at the absolute most, so there would be a lot of hands-on learning and direct interaction.  If you’d be interested, please drop me an email at ec@ericcressey.com.

Have a great weekend!