I often joke that some of the biggest training successes of my career came about when I was trying to develop one athletic quality, but actually wound up accidentally developing something else that yielded a great return on investment. Medicine ball training might be the absolute best example of this.
Back around 2007, I started implementing high-volume medicine ball training: both rotational and overhead work at least three times per week with our baseball athletes. There was some decent research on how it could positively impact throwing velocity and bad speed, but I found the training protocols in those studies to be really underwhelming. It was just a lot of “three sets of 10 reps” monotony and relatively basic and unathletic drills. by getting more creative with exercise selection, I felt that it would yield bigger returns on power development while keeping athletes more engaged. And, it accomplished both goals.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that it was also simultaneously creating much better movers. You see, all that medicine ball training was chipping away at some important adaptations we needed in the fascial system to prepare athletes for elasticity in more extreme positions of rotation. By manipulating load, the extent to which we pre-loaded, and where we sat on the force-velocity curve, each rep was helping athletes to develop adjustability, something that’s crucial to withstanding the unpredictable nature of many sports.
And, the truth is that what we learned from training with medicine balls, gave rise to open mindedness in similar avenues. The Versapulley allows us to train higher load, lower velocity rotation with more eccentric overload.
Loving rotational rows w/the @VersaPulley. Here, the lower half works as hard as the upper body. Excited to incorporate this more w/baseball guys to train accepting force on the front side. Whatever you put into it concentrically, you have to take on eccentrically - & then some. pic.twitter.com/IsZDLv2uVu
Proteus allows us to train both high and low load rotation with a concentric focus.
Rotational work on traditional functional trainers seems to be a happy medium between the two. I’ll have their place, but you just need to know what to train.
If you're interested in digging in deeper on the topic of rotation, I would strongly encourage you to check out my new Medicine Ball Master Class. I created this new resource in collaboration with Athletes Acceleration and it includes over 50 exercise demonstration videos, as well as my rationale for including them. Just visit www.CresseyMedBall.com to learn more. It's on sale for 30% off the normal price through Sunday at midnight.
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We're excited to welcome a well-respected and accomplished hitting coach, Bobby Tewksbary, to the podcast for Episode #15 for an in-depth discussion on the evolution of hitting. A special thanks goes out to this show's sponsor, VersaPulley. It's an awesome option for challenging deceleration in multiple planes of motion, and has been an excellent addition to our training at Cressey Sports Performance. They've got a great 10% off offer going for our podcast listeners through June 30 at http://www.VersaPulley.com/Cressey10.
Show Outline
How Bobby’s experience as a hitter inspired him to become a knowledgeable coach
What the old school mindset surrounding hitting was and why ballplayers used to be reluctant to discuss their swing
What concepts of hitting are constant and true regardless of the individual
How new trends towards the utilization of technology and data are impacting the next generation of batters
How the collection of data offers measurable and diagnostic feedback to help manage the swing, identify what athletes need, and conceptualize information to allow hitters to make meaningful changes
How the game of baseball is more openminded than ever and how the private sector is taking advantage of this revolution in baseball
What qualities players should look for in their hitting coaches and what common mistakes young hitting coaches should avoid
Why hitters need to be exposed to failure at a young age to avoid developing an ego-centric, highlight-focused mindset
How executing a swing and learning how to hit are very different things – and why this distinction is vital for hitters
Why having confidence in the batter’s box is superior to any mechanical factor in a hitter’s swing
How Bobby expects hitting to change in the years ahead
How Bobby is working to improve his ability to impact hitters with a new project
This episode is brought to you by VersaPulley. The VersaPulley offers flywheel training and one benefit of training with a flywheel is inertia. The faster the flywheel is moving, the more the user must decelerate the inertia that is created - and we know training deceleration is a huge piece of preventing athletic injuries and enhancing performance. While there are a few flywheel training options on the market, the VersaPulley is the only one that that allows you to train at any point along the force/velocity curve, and in multiple planes of movement. If you want to train at any speed, any load, and any direction, the VersaPulley has got you covered. They've set up a great discount of 10% for our listeners; you can learn more at http://www.VersaPulley.com/Cressey10.
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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!
Happy Tuesday! We're a day late with this recommended reading/listening/viewing list, as yesterday was a crazy one in light of the High Performance Handbook sale and a full day of evaluations at Cressey Sports Performance. Then, we wrapped up the day with our annual "Night with the Pros" event.
CSP Fall Seminar Live Tweeting - Frank Duffy was kind enough to live Tweet our annual fall seminar on Sunday, and you can see the "play by play" at this link.
A Roundtable of Rants - This was a compilation of responses from a collection of T-Nation contributors in response to the question, "What's pissing you off right now in the world of fitness or lifting?" As you'll see, my answer was in stark contrast to the rest of panel.
