This week has been a busy and exciting one, to say the least.

1. There’s no more fitting way to start this list of random thoughts off than with a huge congratulations to CP athlete and Team USA bobsledder Bree Schaaf, who finished 5th at the Olympics on Wednesday night.  I first started working with Bree in July of 2007 when she was working her way up the ranks as a skeleton competitor for the US National Team (she was as high as 12th in the world at one point) after her collegiate volleyball career ended.  A few months later, Bree decided to make the switch to bobsled – and just two years later, wound up in the Olympics.

The whole Cressey Performance “Extended Family” is incredibly proud of her hard work and how far she’s come.

To check out videos of Bree’s four runs, head over to nbcolympics.com.

2. My fiancee and I had an offer accepted on a house this week as well, so between negotiations/offers and making arrangements for mortgage stuff, a home inspection, appraisal, and dates for the P&S and closing, it’s been a hectic week.  It’ll all be worth it, though, as the move will substantially reduce my commute time (by at least 80 minutes per day!) and, obviously, improve my productivity and our quality of life.  Needless to say, we are really excited about how things are developing and love what will be our new house.

3. I’m experimenting with some Underarmour Performance mouthwear right now in my training, thanks to a generous gift from CP client Dr. Jeff Tocci, who fits dozens of these each week for athletes and non-athletes alike.

There is actually quite a bit of research supporting these initiatives, so thanks to Jeff, I get to put it to the test while I’m lifting heavy stuff this week to see how I respond.  So far, so good.

4. Mike Reinold and I are working hard to put the finishing touches on our new DVD set, Optimal Shoulder Performance.  We definitely plan to have it up and running sometime in March.

5. No surprise here, but pitchers who throw harder are more likely to develop elbow issues.  You can look at this transiently in the context of the faster arm speed placing more stress on both the active and passive restraints.  However, more chronically, if you consider that the arm is moving faster, you’ll realize that the deceleration-imposed adaptations (more specifically, the muscle shortening that comes from repeated eccentric exercise exposures) can lead to chronic adaptations (loss of elbow extension and shoulder internal rotation) that can place more stress on the elbow.  Likewise, stud pitchers who throw the crap out of the ball are more likely to get overused – so it’s really a triple whammy working against you if you throw hard.

That said, I’d rather throw 100mph with a higher risk of injury than throw 76mph and get shelled in some beer league.

Have a great weekend!