Pitchers and Catchers Report in 2 Days!

With pitchers and catchers set to report to spring training in 2 days, I thought it would be good to talk about what we can learn by watching the Major Leaguers go about their business. First, let's talk mechanics. When pitchers take the hill in the early weeks of spring training, they're out there trying to get themselves into a comfort zone mechanically, first and foremost. Take a look, during the next couple of weeks, at how pitchers will struggle with their mechanics. Are they balanced throughout their motion? Are they keeping good tempo or are they rushing the ball to home plate? Are they finishing towards home plate or peeling off to first base (Right Handers) or third base (Left Handers)? If you're watching a certain pro's mechanics, think of the mechanical adjustments you're trying to make. Look for guys who are struggling with the same things that you are, because these are the guys that can become a form of video study for you to work with, other than your own.

Second, take a look at how pro pitchers set hitters up. A great way to see exactly what a pitcher is trying to accomplish out there is to keep the book. By keeping the book, you can keep tabs on what pitches a pitcher threw in a certain count, and then reflect on why he was throwing that certain pitch. Was he trying to set up the next 2 pitches? Was he working for a ground ball in a double play situation? Remember, we always have a purpose for EVERY SINGLE PITCH WE THROW. You will never throw a "waste" pitch. If a coach tells you to "waste" a pitch, he's not necessarily a guy you want to be taking pitching advice from. My apologies for digressing from the topic at hand...

Third, and finally, take a look at how a pitcher works both sides of the plate, as well as working up and down in the zone. In order to get hitters out, we need to change eye levels, as well as a hitters balance. If we can get the hitter off balance, even in the slightest bit, we can get him to hit the ball where we want in any situation. Take notice to pitchers during spring training, and how they work each hitter. Here is an example of what I'm talking about...



-At :27, Johnson starts Shinjo off with a 0-0 slider, down and in. Shinjo's weight is on his front foot, which means he was reading fastball, telling us that the spin on the slider is really tight, almost impossible to see.
-At :45, Slider down and in again, Shinjo is still reading fastball on the slider. Johnson now owns both sides of the plate. Shinjo still can't pick up Johnson's spin on the slider, and has yet to see the fastball.
-At 1:05, Johnson throws a fastball away. To me, this is the key pitch in the entire sequence. Go back and watch the first two pitches, and see where Shinjo's stride was on the sliders. Now, watch where his stride goes on the 0-2 fastball away...He strides to third base, which means his weight is on his heels. Johnson should go with the fastball away again, he owns him.
-At 1:20, Johnson throws a slider, down and in, repeating his pitch selection from the Little League days. Johnson gets lucky, as Shinjo hooks the slider foul, down the third base line. Let's see what happens next...
-At 1:47, the catcher (Jake Taylor?) calls for a fastball, down and in, but Johnson misses away with it, as Shinjo swings through it, because his weight is still on his heels.

I hope that example gives you an idea of how to battle hitters as the season approches. Again, you will see pitchers during spring training working on their mechanics, pitch location, and pitch selection. As we just saw in the video, Randy Johnson threw an extra pitch in the Shinjo at-bat because of poor pitch selection. Those extra pitches will add up over the course of a game and a season, so it is important for us to be smart, and more importantly, efficient on the hill when we approach hitters.


On a side note, I want to congratulate Andy Messa, on the upcoming birth of his son. Andy is a 6'2, lefty, and if the genes stay strong, his son will be as well. Here at AE, we're prepping to get the little, soon to be southpaw on the draft and follow list ASAP. Congrats to Andy and his wife!

Eric Cressey Q and A: Part 1

I've been following Eric Cressey for almost a year now. In my opinion, he is the top strength and conditioning coach in the United States right now. I recently sent Eric a 10 part Q and A, to give our pitchers in the Tri State area the benefit of understanding what they should be doing in the weight room, when it comes to prepping for the upcoming season...

Q: One of my favorite (insert generic sarcastic look here) things to watch in the weightroom is my pitchers getting under the rack for bench presses. It’s not the fact that they’re benching that upsets me, but the “Beach Body” mindset that is behind it. What’s the most efficient way for a pitcher to work on his bench, and more importantly, what should he be trying to gain by performing the bench press correctly?

A: Okay, let’s get right to opening this can of worms



With any exercise, we look for carryover to the functional demands of our sport. However, we accept that general strength gains transfer in most cases. As an example, we know that we can improve throwing velocity with a variety of training initiatives, but training specificity like this is stupid:




Now that we’ve all gotten a bit dumber, let’s continue…

As it relates to pitching, the fundamental problem with the conventional barbell bench press (as performed correctly, which it normally isn’t) is that it doesn’t really train scapular movement effectively. When we do push-up variations, the scapulae are free to glide - just as they do when we pitch. When we bench, though, we cue athletes to lock the shoulder blades down and back to create a great foundation from which to press. It’s considerably different, as we essentially take away most (if not all) of scapular protraction.

Additionally, the closed-chain nature of push-ups is much more shoulder friendly, even if pitching is an open-chain exercise. In fact, most rehabilitation progressions - regardless of the shoulder issue in question - will begin with push-up variations before any open-chain pressing exercises.





With dumbbell benching, we recognize that we get better range-of-motion, freer movement of the humerus (instead of being locked into internal rotation), and increased core activation - particularly if we’re doing alternating DB presses or 1-arm db presses. There is even a bit more scapular movement in these variations (even if we don’t actually coach it).

With a barbell bench press, you don’t really get any of these benefits - and it’s somewhat inferior from a range-of-motion standpoint. While it may allow you to jack up the weight and potentially put on muscle mass a bit more easily, the truth is that muscle mass here - particularly if it leads to restrictions in shoulder and scapular movement - won’t carry over to throwing the way the muscle mass in the lower half and upper back will. I’ve seen a ton of guys with loads of external rotation and horizontal abduction range-of-motion throw the crap out of the baseball, but can’t say that I’ve ever seen any correlation - in the research or my anecdotal experience - between a good bench press and throwing velocity.





That said, I recognize that there are still a lot of “wannabe meatheads” in the pitching world, so we do our best to meet our athletes halfway and please the bench press gods. Most of the time, dumbbell bench pressing and push-up variations will be sufficient, but we will sometimes us the multipurpose bar with our pitchers because it puts them in a more shoulder-friendly neutral grip.





Add some chains to the bar, and you have a great stabilization challenge that works the true function of the rotator cuff.

That said, if you absolutely feel like you need to do traditional benching, keep the volume down, keep the elbows tucked, and keep the shoulder blades pulled back and down. And, be sure to recognize that your ego probably isn’t doing much for your success on the mound - as there are training initiatives with better returns on investment. Remember that pitchers have loads of competing demands - from throwing, to flexibility training, to soft tissue work, to fielding practice, to movement training - so what you do in the weight room has to highly effective to justify its inclusion. I just struggle to consider bench pressing “highly effective” for pitchers.

Check out more from Cressey Performance at ericcressey.com

Commitment to Excellence

"What this is, I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it." -Alexander Graham Bell

Every single one of us have goals in life. The difference between one man to the next, is the road they decide to take to achieve those goals. To be great on the baseball field, as well as any other goal we choose to chase during our lifetime, takes a one hundred percent commitment to being great. Players do not become great by giving a mediocre effort. In today's high school baseball climate, EVERYONE is competing for college scholarships. Competition is tough and college coaches are cut throat about the players they want on their team. That competition only elevates as you rise through the ranks of college ball, to minor league ball, to pro ball. With each step you take, you have to focus on your craft more and more, in order to reach elite status.

As the high school season approaches, make sure you are working not only harder than anyone in your gym, but harder than anyone in the world. To be an elite player, you have to understand that there is some kid, somewhere on this Earth, that wants to be the best player, just as bad as you do. You have to be willing to outwork the guy at the top in order to be the King of the Mountain. If you procrastinate with your off the field work, the game WILL pass you by. Don't be a good player, with great potential, left behind because you were lazy. Those players are a dime a dozen. Be the needle in the haystack...

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of will." -Vince Lombardi

Overtraining

A common mistake of high school pitchers, is overtraining. Many kids I work with tend to believe that more is better, without any scientific back up, when it comes to training. Unfortunately, this is a huge misconception and you need take note if you are a high school pitcher looking to be healthy for the upcoming spring.

At Hatboro Horsham, we have a lot of guys that play other sports, as well as baseball. Generally, they are playing football or basketball, but the football coaches seem to want a year round commitment to the team. When we're getting ready for the season, as a pitching staff, we have a concrete plan that needs to be executed in order for our guys to be ready to go when March comes around. We specifically build up our arms with a combination of long toss, and stretching out pitch counts every week during our bullpens. What I'm seeing, is guys who are strength training for football, strength training for baseball, long tossing twice a week with us, throwing a bullpen once a week with us, training with a pitching coach on the weekend (generally throwing another bullpen), as well as attending summer league practices once a weekend.

Herein lies the problem. When you are constantly putting your body in a position of breaking down (football training, baseball training, bullpens, long toss, etc.), the body needs a period of time to recover. If you don't give your body the proper rest and nutrition, you will be on the DL before the season ever starts. I understand it's tough to go to your football coach and tell him that you need to be with baseball, but think about your future on the baseball field, if that's what you truly want. During football season, we don't expect our guys to be at baseball, because it's exactly that...Football season. The same goes for baseball. When it's baseball season, it's time to focus on the things that are going to make you a better baseball player and keep you healthy throughout the spring. Football workouts should resume in late summer when it's time for football season.

Some of the best advice I ever recieved was "Work smarter, not harder." Understand what time of year it is, from a sport specific stand point, and work your tail off in that ONE area. If you stick to this piece of advice, you will have a successful, healthy season.