With baseball athletes being the largest segment of the Cressey Sports Performance athletic clientele, it seems only fitting to devote a "Best of 2019" feature to the top baseball posts from last year. Check them out:
1. Vertical Shin and the Pitching Delivery - Vertical shin can be a powerful coaching point in the weight room, but it also has applications to putting pitchers in the right position to be successful on the mound. Check out this article to learn more.
2.Baseball Athleticism: It's Probably Not What You Think It Is - Not all "great athletes" make great baseball players, and not all great baseball players are what you'd call "great athletes." I did a little deeper on this topic in this article.
3. Should You Chase Shoulder External Rotation - And If So, How?- I often get questions on how pitchers can increase shoulder external rotation for throwing. The answer really depends on a few things, so here's a video to walk you through them.
4. Pitchers vs. Swimmers - I evaluated a baseball pitcher and swimmer on the same day in August. The markedly different assessment findings served as a great reminder that not all overhead athletes are created equal – both in terms of the demands of their sports and the way they adapt to those demands.
5. Coil in the Pitching Delivery: Friend or Foe? - Recently, I came across a picture of Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin at the top of the leg lift in his delivery, and it got me to thinking about how the transverse plane can be your biggest ally or enemy in the pitching delivery.
We've got one last "Best of 2019" list running tomorrow, so stay tuned for the closer!
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We're excited to welcome Washington Nationals relief pitcher Aaron Barrett to this week's podcast. Aaron is one of the most impressive comeback stories you'll ever hear. A special thanks to this show's sponsor, Athletic Greens. Head to http://www.athleticgreens.com/cressey and you'll receive a free 20-pack of Athletic Greens travel packets with your first order.
Show Outline
What major injuries and setbacks Aaron experienced that removed him from competitive baseball from 2014 to 2018
What the medical priorities and overall rehab process were for recovering from this freak injury
How Aaron managed his psychology as he endured a major setback
How he incorporated and began to increase his hand speed as he progressed throw his rehab throwing program
When in Aaron’s rehab protocols he felt more consistent and confident as he began throwing in professional baseball games once again
What recovery modalities Aaron utilizes to help his arm bounce back
How Aaron modified his routine after enduring these setbacks
How Aaron remained process oriented and focused on his goals for the long haul of a four-year rehab period
What lessons has Aaron learned after experiencing the workload of being a reliever in a major league bullpen
How Aaron manages his throwing volume and intensity in-season
What Aaron’s gameday routine is
What the characteristics of coaches and rehab professionals that have been the most impactful on his career
What Aaron’s next step is for his career as he transitions from this incredible recovery from injury to being a consistent performer for the Washington Nationals
This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. It’s an all-in-one superfood supplement with 75 whole-food sourced ingredients designed to support your body’s nutrition needs across 5 critical areas of health: 1) energy, 2) immunity, 3) gut health, 4) hormonal support, and 5) healthy aging. Head to www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey and claim my special offer today - 20 FREE travel packs (valued at $79) - with your first purchase. I use this product daily myself and highly recommend it to our athletes as well. I'd encourage you to give it a shot, too - especially with this great offer.
Podcast Feedback
If you like what you hear, we'd be thrilled if you'd consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.
And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
I hope you're hadving a great week. Here's a little recommended reading and listening to keep it rolling.
Complete Coach Certification - Mike Robertson launched this excellent continuing education resource for trainers last week. I just finished working my way through it and it was outstanding.
Shoulder Assessment and Treatment with Eric Cressey - Speaking of podcasts, I was a guest on the Squat University Podcast recently. I talked a lot of shoulders with the host, physical therapist Aaron Horschig.
An Alternate Approach to Summer Ball: The Rise of Private Facility Training - This article from Aaron Fitt at D1Baseball.com highlights how many athletes are taking non-traditional approaches to summer development for baseball. Aaron shadowed a training session with Duke pitcher Bryce Jarvis at Cressey Sports Performance.
The overhead view in a pitching delivery can enable you to see certain things that can’t be appreciated from other perspectives. Foremost among these is the ability to differentiate between thoracic rotation (upper back motion) and horizontal abduction (shoulder motion).
In this image taken just prior to stride foot contact, Gerrit Cole's pelvis has already rotated counterclockwise toward the plate while his torso is still rotating clockwise. This is the hip-shoulder separation throwers seek for generating big time velocity.
However, when a thrower lacks thoracic rotation - or gives up thoracic rotation too early (usually by chasing arm speed too early in the delivery) - he’ll often resort to creating excessive horizontal abduction (arm back) to find the pre-stretch he wants to generate the velocity he covets. This is not only an ineffective velocity strategy, but it also can increase anterior shoulder and medial elbow stress - all while leading to arm side misses, accidental cutters, and backup breaking balls.
Over the past few years, I’ve heard of a few pitchers being advised to work to increase the horizontal abduction in their deliveries. I don’t think you can make this recommendation without the overhead view, and even then, it’s likely taking a distal (arm) solution to a proximal (trunk and timing) problem.
I covered hip-shoulder separation in the pitching delivery in great detail in a free presentation I gave away earlier this year when we launched our podcast. You can still get it by subscribing below:
We're excited to welcome Ben Hansen, the Vice President of Biomechanics and Innovation at Motus Global, to this week's podcast. Ben shares insights on mechanical stressors and workload monitoring to help us understand how we can best keep pitchers healthy while still developing them.
A special thanks to this show's sponsor, Marc Pro. Head towww.MarcPro.comand enter the coupon code CRESSEY at checkout to receive 10% off on your order.
Show Outline
What led Ben to pursue a career in biomechanics and wearable technology
How Motus Global strives to impact the game of baseball and how their model for developing healthy arms has shifted over the years
What peer reviewed research says about the significance of joint torques and how we should interpret these metrics for predicting the risk of injury in baseball players
What acute and chronic workloads are, and how managing these variables can allow coaches to keep their athletes healthy and high performing
Why pitchers should have individualized throwing programs to account for the diverse variables that impact a player’s health
How truly different catch play, flat ground, bullpen, pre-game, and in-game throws are, and how coaches can more accurately account for the stress they impose on pitchers throughout a season
How rest should be incorporated into a baseball players year and why short breaks during a season of heavy throwing may be doing more harm than good for throwers
What ballplayers should consider when deciding between continuing to throw into the next season or shutting down to rest
What role mechanics plays in the health of a throwing arm and how common mechanical tendencies, like the Tommy John Twist and the Inverted W, influence arm stress
How fatigue is more predictive of injury than mechanics
Why building a durable work capacity is more important for staying healthy than mastering mechanics
How reliable using perceived effort is when creating and executing a throwing program
Why professionals need to rewrite the return to throwing program for common injuries in baseball
Where more research is needed to further understand how to manage baseball arms
If you like what you hear, we'd be thrilled if you'd consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.
And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
We're excited to welcome Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Scott Oberg to the podcast. A special thanks to this show's sponsor, Athletic Greens. Head to http://www.athleticgreens.com/cressey and you'll receive a free 20-pack of Athletic Greens travel packets with your first order.
Show Outline
What Scott’s college recruiting process was like as a late-blooming pitcher from the Northeast and why he chose to attend the University of Connecticut
How Scott persevered to overcome multiple injuries/conditions over his college baseball career
How Scott advanced quickly through the ranks of pro ball
How Scott’s journey through adversity has molded his mindset and what his advice is to young players looking to remain resilient through obstacles in their baseball career
Why Scott favored a two-seam fastball in college and how reintroducing a four-seam fastball back into his repertoire improved his game in pro ball
How becoming more self-aware and instilling confidence improved Scott’s command and transformed him from a fringe big leaguer to a mainstay in a big league bullpen
How controlling the count and competing from 0-0 makes pitching easier and allows pitchers to play the games within the game of baseball
How Scott developed a relationship with Texas Rangers minor league pitcher Tyler Phillips and what lessons Scott passes on to the aspiring big leaguer in their offseason training.
This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. It’s an all-in-one superfood supplement with 75 whole-food sourced ingredients designed to support your body’s nutrition needs across 5 critical areas of health: 1) energy, 2) immunity, 3) gut health, 4) hormonal support, and 5) healthy aging. Head to www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey and claim my special offer today - 20 FREE travel packs (valued at $79) - with your first purchase. I use this product daily myself and highly recommend it to our athletes as well. I'd encourage you to give it a shot, too - especially with this great offer.
Podcast Feedback
If you like what you hear, we'd be thrilled if you'd consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.
And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
Today, I've got a little recommended reading and listening to wrap up your week! Before I get to it, though, just a quick reminder that the early-bird registration deadline for my June 2 shoulder course in St. Louis is quickly approaching. You can learn more HERE.
Just a Coach in the Strength and Conditioning Profession - Jim Ferris is an accomplished coach whose social media posts are always super entertaining. He's got a great sense of humor and a lot of experience, so it's awesome to see him publishing articles now.
Strength Training for the Softball Athlete - I joined the National Fastpitch Coaches Association podcast to talk about strength and conditioning in the softball world. It covers a wide range of topics, though, ranging from long-term athletic development to specific injury prevention.
How to Show You're Passionate in a Job Interview - On the surface, this has nothing to do with strength and conditioning. However, just about everyone who interviews for a S&C position invariably falls back on leveraging their passion to make their case. If you're going to use that approach, keep these strategies from the Harvard Business Review in mind.
Top Tweet of the Week
Lesson for injured athletes: learn why. I sent @Mike_Soroka28 my Sturdy Shoulders course wks before we met. He watched all 7hrs & showed up w/a list of questions & had already started implementing correctives he’d identified as key for him. Knowledge is power; own your career.💪 https://t.co/WYZZQGH2ba
I hope you had a great week. In case you're looking for some recommended reading while you're sipping coffee this weekend, here's a good collection:
Overcoming the "Best Coach on Staff" Problem - This might be my favorite blog post that my business partner, Pete Dupuis, has ever written. This is a problem that just about every gym faces as they experience growth.
Young athletes need to be given opportunities to fail in training without significant consequences. Beyond the obvious motor learning benefits, it keeps them humble and hungry.
After my recent presentation at Pitchapalooza in Nashville, I received the following question from a college coach who was in attendance:
Q: "My question revolves around pitchers landing with an open foot position. From your experience and from a biomechanical standpoint what have you seen regarding this landing/stride position in regards to why it occurs and how you have gone about correcting it? And, how have you seen it impact knee and back health. My experience has been that there is either some underlying knee or back history, or something is about to occur. In the recruiting process, I've spoken with several coaches and scouts who won’t consider someone who has this issue (open foot strike) regardless of velocity, due to concerns over long term health."
A: This answer can go in a lot of directions, so I decided to film a video:
In terms of a real-world example, take a look at Cressey Sports Performance athlete and Astros pitcher, Josh James. Josh has a slightly more retroverted hips presentation, and you can see that he lands a bit open. This is his normal alignment and he controls his body well, so it works for him (to the tune of consistent 100mph+ velocity).
More often that not, though, the pitchers who are winding up in this open foot position are getting there because of mechanical faults or physical limitations.
[bctt tweet="It's imperative to have a thorough assessment process for pitchers; you never want to try to take a mechanical fix to a movement problem."]
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
With baseball athletes being the largest segment of the Cressey Sports Performance athletic clientele, it seems only fitting to devote a "Best of 2018" feature to the top baseball posts from last year. Check them out:
2. Is It Really Biceps "Tendonitis? - One of my biggest pet peeves is when all anterior shoulder pain is given a "blanket diagnosis" of biceps tendonitis. With that in mind, this webinar excerpt from my Sturdy Shoulder Solutions resource delves into the topic in greater detail.
4. How to Win 99% of High School Baseball Games - I've haven't coached a high school baseball game in my life. I know a lot about adaptation to training in youth athletes, though, and that puts me in a unique position to comment on how to win high school baseball games.
5. Why Injuries are Highest Early in the Baseball Season (Video) - Major League Baseball Injuries are highest during Spring Training and early in the regular season. Surely, some of this has to do with the fact that some players had lingering issues from the previous season that never went away - but it definitely goes further than this.
We've got one last "Best of 2018" list running tomorrow, so stay tuned for the closer!
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!
