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

One of the topics that came up most commonly in the course evaluations and feedback from our first Phase 1 Elite Baseball Mentorship in January was “how lucky” Eric, Matt, and I are to have such a great facility (CP) to work in and “how nice it must be” to have strength and conditioning, pitching instruction, and physical therapy all under one roof (or in very close proximity to each other).

The truth is, professional relationships do not just happen unless you make them happen.   Coaches, business owners, medical professionals, and athletes themselves don’t let just anyone into their circle.  People are skeptical by nature and need to know that you care and are not a threat to their goals, reputation, or career.  However, once trust is established, then the foundation for success in any partnership (i.e. coach/player, strength coach/physical therapist) can be built.

At the center of every great performance team must always be the athlete.  I suggest making this the first criteria you look for when building a great network of performance coaches, medical professionals, and athletic coaches. 

The success of any coach or medical professional is measured by the success of the athletes or teams with whom they work. 

It is important to surround yourself with people that understand and follow this very simple concept.  High level athletes have had people trying to latch onto them from a very young age.  They are very skilled at seeing right through people with egos who don’t have their best interest at hand.  This is the quickest way to lose credibility in our field.

In response to the feedback from our last mentorship, I've outlined five principles (non-clinical) below that you can use to help build a strong network to ensure better results for your athletes. 

1. Communication:  Be clear and concise.  Don’t leave anything to chance or assume that everyone is on the same page.  I have seen countless examples of athletes failing in physical therapy, training, or following a throwing program because any combination of the doctor, PT, strength coach, skill coach, or parent were unclear with their communication.  In addition, it is a simple courtesy to keep referral sources current with the progress of their athletes.  Failure to communicate is a sure way to end a professional relationship.

2. Time:

1. Donate your time:  Show that you care.  Ask and expect nothing in return. Have the best interest of the athlete in mind (always).  Understand that it is not about you.  Show that you can add value and provide a service that is not currently being met.  Along the same lines…
2. Respect other people’s time:  Don’t just “show up” unannounced at someone’s office, gym, or field and expect them to give you time.  Be professional and set up a meeting that works for the person you are trying to work with.  Better yet, ask them a good time that you can come by and observe and then go out of your way to offer your services to one or their athletes on the spot.  This goes a long way to establish selflessness and credibility.

3. Understand and respect each person’s role:  Don’t try to be all things to all people.  Be good at what you do and don’t try or claim to be an “expert” at everything.   Surround yourself with people that challenge you and know more than you in certain areas (but make sure you know more than them about something or you will be phased out!) Understand the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and the people in your immediate network.   Observe often and learn as much as you can about each person’s role.  Eric Cressey and Matt Blake know more about physical therapy and human movement than the vast majority of licensed physical therapists on the planet.  However, they don’t claim to be a PT, they understand ethical boundaries, and they respect scope of practice.

4. Know your role (really well!):  Never stop learning.  Stay open minded on things you have yet to learn.  You owe it to your athletes and your network to be an authority and trusted resource in your field.  However, it’s critical to have the confidence to know when to refer out.  You don’t need to be the hero all the time.  At the end of the day, if the athlete succeeds because you had the humility to refer them to someone that could help them more than you, then you did your job.  Remember, you will gain respect if your athletes get better, regardless of who gets the credit at the end.

5. Swing for the fences:  Once all your hard work and patience finally pays off and you “get your shot” to work together with a particular coach, PT, or athlete, knock it out of the park.  In our fields, we have moments (successes or failures) that allow us to either gain or lose the confidence of the people that we are trying to impress.  Be prepared for the situation and get results.  Remember to always be confident and overdeliver.    

A founding mission of the Elite Baseball Mentorships is to develop a national network of qualified professionals in the baseball community that share a similar philosophy in managing baseball players.  This is pivotal in keeping athletes healthy and allowing them the best opportunity for success in their careers. 

If you would like more information regarding the mentorships, please visit our website, www.EliteBaseballMentorships.com.   The early bird registration deadline for the June 23-25^th Phase 1 Mentorship is: May 23, 2013. Click here to register.

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In today's guest video blog, Cressey Performance Pitching Coordinator Matt Blake talks about stride foot alignment and its effect on the pitching delivery.  Matt is an important contributor on the Elite Baseball Mentorships team, and in this post, he breaks down how Kansas City Royals pitcher Tim Collins' stride foot alignment changed over the course of the past few years as he dramatically improved his K:BB ratio in the big leagues.

Click here to learn more about Elite Baseball Mentorships; we'd love to have you at one of our future events.

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Today's guest post comes from my friend and college, physical therapist Eric Schoenberg.  Eric is an integral part of our Elite Baseball Mentorships, and will be contributing more and more regularly here to outline some of the topics we'll cover in these mentorships.

As this great article from Tom Verducci at Sports Illustrated pointed out a few years ago, injuries cost MLB clubs $500 million dollars (an average of $16+ million/team) in 2011. In addition, over 50% of starting pitchers in MLB will go on the disabled list each year. Although there are many factors that contribute to these staggering numbers, an overwhelming majority of these injuries are due to five simple words:

"You Get What You Train."

This saying was made popular by the great physical therapist Shirley Sahrmann in her work at Washington University in St. Louis. This premise (in baseball terms) covers almost every issue that we encounter in the areas of injury prevention and performance enhancement. Here are some examples to illustrate the point:

• If a pitcher is allowed to throw with bad mechanics (misuse), the result is a kid who is really good at throwing wrong and an increased risk of injury.
• If high pitch counts (overuse) are allowed at a young age, the result is a pitcher throwing with fatigue, mechanical breakdown, and ultimately decreased performance and injury.
• If a pitcher “throws with pain” (poor communication) due to pressure from coaches, parents, and teammates (culture of baseball), the result is compensated movement, decreased performance, and ultimately injury.
• If a “one-size fits all approach” is rolled out in a strength and conditioning program or a pitching academy, then the result will be a program that doesn’t adequately “fit” anyone.
• If performing “arm care programs” and long toss programs incorrectly before a game or practice is the norm, then the result will be athletes that are improperly “tuned” neurologically and fatigued before they even step on the mound for their first pitch.
• If a hypermobile athlete performs a stretching program to “get loose”, then the result will be an athlete that has more instability than he can handle ultimately will get injured.
• If we teach an athlete to get his shoulder blades “down and back” when his throwing shoulder is already depressed and downwardly rotated, then what we get is more strength in a dysfunctional position.
• If we don’t teach proper movement, then we will get exactly what we train. The correct exercise performed incorrectly is a bad exercise.

This point is illustrated in the videos below. In the first video, the only instruction given to the athlete was to hold the top of a pushup on the elevated surface. As you can see, there is clear dyskinesia in the scapulae which if repeated without correction would result in reinforcement of the faulty movement pattern. Without actually seeing the shoulder blades (shirt off) or at the least putting your hands on the athlete, this faulty pattern is missed and the athlete will get worse.

In the next video, the athlete is instructed to get into the same position, however the athlete is cued to “engage the shoulder blade muscles and don’t let the shoulder blades come off your ribcage”. This simple cue can be coupled with some manual correction to activate the proper muscles to achieve a proper movement pattern.

In summary, both of these videos can be called a “pushup hold” or “elevated plank,” but only one achieves the desired movement and activation pattern.

This concept of “you get what you train” becomes a bigger problem when you realize that baseball players rarely play for the same coach or in the same “system” for more than a year or two (different leagues/levels, coaching changes, etc.). In addition, it takes a while before faulty movements and overuse reach the threshold where an athlete becomes symptomatic. As a result, there is no direct cause and effect and no “blame” to assign. A coach that overuses a kid in his 13 year-old season is never identified to be the actual cause of that same kid’s UCL tear in his 16 year-old season. This lack of accountability is a huge factor in the injury epidemic across all levels of baseball.

The goal of the Elite Baseball Mentorships is to bring together leaders in the baseball and medical communities in an effort to be proactive and share ideas to help improve the overall health of the game of baseball and its players.  We'd love it if you'd join us for one of these events; please visit www.EliteBaseballMentorships.com for more information.

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As many of you know, my colleagues Matt Blake, Eric Schoenberg, and I introduced our Elite Baseball Mentorships program back in the fall, and the first phase 1 event in early January was a big success.  Attendees included strength and conditioning coaches, baseball coaches, physical therapists, athletic trainers, massage therapists, and chiropractors - and the feedback was fantastic.

With that in mind, today, I'm excited to announce the debut of our mentorships website, www.EliteBaseballMentorships.com. 

On this page, you'll be able to find information on the agendas and dates for upcoming courses, see testimonials from previous attendees, and register to take part in the fun.  Our next two events will be June 23-25 (Phase 1) and August 18-20 (Phase 2). 

As a participant, you'll attend lectures, review case studies, observe training, and interact with hundreds of high school, college, and professional baseball players. We feel strongly that these events provide the premier baseball education experience in the industry, and we'd love an opportunity to show you why.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be featuring some guest blogs from CP pitching coordinator Matt Blake and physical therapist Eric Schoenberg to complement my own writing so that you can get a feel for how this provides a unique, multi-disciplinary educational opportunity.  In the meantime, be sure to check out www.EliteBaseballMentorships.com to learn more and sign up, as we expect these to sell out quickly.

All the Best,

Eric Cressey

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