The mental side of baseball is perhaps the most complex part of the game. The season consists of non stop chess matches between one team and the next, one player against another, as well as one player against himself. Whether you are in little league, high school, college, or professional baseball, you will undoubtedly face mental challenges throughout your entire career. For most players, they can pinpoint a stage in their career when things got extremely challenging, and their mental toughness had to be at an all time high. For me, it came when I was an incoming freshman at Middle Tennessee State, when I had no idea what I had gotten myself into...
As a high school senior at Archbishop Wood, I put up good numbers. I was an invited walk-on to Middle Tennessee State, and admittedly, thought I was a little better than I actually was. I was treated to a rude awaking the first week of fall practice/tryouts as soon as I stepped foot on the field in Murfreesboro, TN. As I watched the other pitchers on the staff throw their bullpens, and consistently sit at 86,88, and 90 mph with their fastballs, I was curious to see where I was at...Boy, did that hurt. I was sitting between 78-82 mph as a lanky right-hander, with no movement on my fastball, no breaking ball, and no change-up. About two weeks in, I called my father, and we had a conversation that I'll never forget. "Dad," I said, "I can't do this. These guys are way better than I am, I'm getting demolished every day at practice, I think I need to come home." His response wasn't exactly what I was looking for at the time. He said, "Well son, you decided to go there, and you said this was what you wanted. If you still feel the same at the end of the year, we'll talk about it. For now, you're just going to have to suck it up and figure it out." I don't think he could've given me a better statement than that. At the time, with my confidence in the tanks, I didn't want to hear it, because what did he know? I was 17, and I knew everything about everything. For probably the only time in my teenage years, I followed his advice. I sucked it up, and went to work at a feverish pace with one of my teammates, in the gym, on the field, and off the field.
At that point, I did anything and everything in my power to take control of my mental approach and work ethic. I found a book, literally in our locker room, called "The Mental ABC's of Pitching" by H.A. Dorfman, and read it every day until the end of the season. I went to the book store and purchased a copy for myself, looking to regain my confidence and become the pitcher I knew I had inside of me. To sum up my freshman year...I stunk. I came home with an ERA of 16.11, and still hadn't figured it out from a physical standpoint. With my continued work, guaranteed innings with Northampton Legion, and my frame finally filled out a bit (went from an emaciated 175 lbs. to a solid 195 lbs. over the year), I continued to work and ride the confidence that I had found in The Mental ABC's.
That summer, it FINALLY clicked in my third appearance of the season. My mechanics FINALLY came together, and my fastball was into the mid-upper 80's, with a curveball that I'd never seen come out of my hand. From that point on, I never regressed with my confidence, physically or mentally. After a great fall at MTSU, I decided to transfer to Temple with an amazing opportunity to get my college education for next to nothing, as well as pitch a lot of innings for the Owls.
The point to all of this, is to excel at anything in life, we must be willing to do whatever it takes to attain that goal. Excellence is not due to someone's "genetic code." Excellence comes from a combination of attitude, work ethic, and the will to go further than anyone else in your field. I recently finished reading "Bounce" by Matthew Syed, and not only is it an easy read, it goes in depth to what makes the most successful people in the world, great at what they do. In all the studies done within "Bounce", it came down to one thing: The mental toughness to see everything we do, through to the end; to give every last inch of ourselves to our goals, with an undying self confidence and love for our craft, in order to maximize the end results.
This topic is one that commonly gets over looked during the course of a season, as well as the off season, and being that we're wrapping up the playoffs around the country, I figured it be a good topic of discussion today. Soft tissue quality is extremely important to not only pitchers, but position players as well.
We've all had the soreness after a workout, pitching, or playing baseball in general. Sometimes, the soreness lasts longer than we'd like, and for years, we've been told to just stretch and run long distance in order to alleviate the pain. The soreness is caused by the breaking down of muscle tissue due to athletic competition or strenuous workouts. Over time, repetitive athletic competition and strenuous workouts cause knots, adhesions, and scar tissue, creating poor soft tissue quality throughout the body. By using the foam roller, we are able to get to those knots, adhesions, and scar tissue, and break them up, creating better soft tissue quality, allowing us to compete at the highest and healthiest level of performance our bodies will allow. Here's a great series of foam rolling stretches that you should perform at least during game/workout days.
To wrap things up...By creating healthier soft tissue, we allow ourselves to get the most out of our bodies when competing on the baseball field, as well as working out in the gym. As Kevin Erminio (Pitching Coach Clemson, MTSU, Miami OH, now at Kennesaw St.) once said when I was a baby faced freshman at Middle Tennessee State University, "Kurtzy, a flexible pitcher is a better pitcher, write that down, Erminio 2001." Well, I listened, and that little bit of advice has helped me throughout my years in baseball, and will help you too if you make it a part of your gameplan.
As the baseball season begins to hit full stride, let's take a look at the success rate in percentages of strikes thrown by a pitcher during a game, and it's correlation to his teams success that day. As we worked our way through the wonderful winter months, our pitchers heard the same general thing from me every night at indoor workouts: Attack the strike zone. Your fastball percentage for strikes should be between 65%-75%. Your breaking ball needs to be between 60%-65%, as well as your change-up/split finger. Now, let's combine that with the approach we are trying to take on the bump, and what we teach at HH. I'm constantly preaching to our pitching staff 2 things(albeit they probably hate hearing it on a daily basis): 1) That we have to get to 0-1 counts on hitters, versus 1-0 counts, and 2) Get the hitter to put the ball in play in 3 pitches or less.
By getting to 0-1, we dictate that the hitter expand his strike zone, allowing us to make him hit a pitch that we want him to swing at. If we fall behind to 1-0, now the hitter is in the "drivers seat," in that he can look for a pitch that he likes, in order to drive the baseball. Obviously, these are not the only two counts you see in baseball. With that said, by putting a hitter in a situation where he is expanding the strike zone, and possibly chasing a pitch that we want him to swing at, we put our defense in the best possible position to be successful.
The other part to our approach is getting the hitter to put the ball in play in 3 pitches or less. By attacking the strike zone, we become the aggressor, by throwing quality strikes, but also allow our defense to work in the field. Ask any position player, and they'll tell you how much they hate being behind a guy that strikes out 10+ batters in a game. To that point, they hate it even more if a guy has walked 10+ batters, and if this is the case, the pitching coach should make his way to the parking lot with the player, and neither should come back.
My personal feelings aside, if we can keep our fielders in the game, we dramatically decrease the occurrence of errors because our fielders have to be on their toes at all times. When you see high strike out/high walk games, you're bound to see errors committed in the field. As the late, great Crash Davis once said to a young fireballer named Nook LaLoosh, "Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls, it's more democratic."
Any questions or comments, you can reach Chris Kurtz at aceselite@gmail.com
Q: I run into a TON of Fathers who want their son to gain velocity. What are your keys to gaining velocity? A: To be blunt, Step 1 is getting away from your crazy overbearing father and realizing that if you’re going to throw the ball hard, it’s because YOU want to do it, and are willing to put in the hard work. There are millions of American fathers who want their sons to throw 95+mph, but only about eight guys in the big leagues who consistently throw that hard.
Taking it a step further, the average fastball velocity is actually higher in A-ball than it is in professional baseball, so while throwing hard is important, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. I’d love to hear more fathers talking about learning to command the fastball and master a change-up. And, most importantly, I’d like to see more fathers who are interested first and foremost in keeping their kids healthy so that they can have the continuity necessary to realize their potential.
Next, you have to consider what kind of velocity we’re actually discussing. Is it what the radar gun reads: actual velocity? That’s really just one of three kinds of velocity.
You also have perceived velocity - which is higher in a pitcher who gets down the mound further than his counterparts and therefore gives the hitter less time to react. Chris Young (at 6-11) gets the benefit of perceived velocity in spite of the fact that his average fastball velocity doesn’t even approach 90mph.
Perceived velocity also explains the success of many pitchers with deceptive deliveries where the ball seems to just jump up on hitters. Often, these pitchers stay closed and throw across their bodies. While it may not be healthy, correcting it could take away their effectiveness.
Lastly, back in 2008, Perry Husband introduced me to the concept of effective velocity, which is a bit more complex. The effective velocity a hitter appreciates is actually impacted by:
1. pitch location (high and inside are faster, and low and away are slower)
2. previous pitch location, type, and velocity (coming up and in with a fastball makes it seem harder if it follows a low and away change-up)
3. the count (when behind in the count, the hitter must cover a larger strikezone, and therefore a larger effective velocity range)
If you need any proof of the value of effective velocity, just watch Jamie Moyer or Tom Glavine. They nibble away over and over again, and then they come back inside on a guy and he looks blown away by the velocity even though it may only be low-80s.
That said, getting down to the nuts and bolts of throwing the ball hard (actual velocity) mandates that you understand that there are tons of factors that contribute to velocity, but they aren’t the same for everyone. Very simply, there isn’t just one mechanical model that allows one to throw harder than others. Some guys have congenital laxity that allows them to contort their bodies all over the place. Others “muscle up” and shotput the ball to the plate. Most pitchers are somewhere in the middle and rely on a balance of elastic energy and mobility to make things happy. With that in mind, having mechanical efficiency and thousands of perfect throwing reps in this efficient model is what every pitcher should strive to achieve - just as a golfer would practice his swing or an Olympic lifter would practice the clean and jerk or snatch.
Second, it’s imperative to prepare young pitchers’ bodies for the rigors of throwing a baseball. I’ve written extensively about the overwhelming extremes the throwing arm faces, and while it’s important to improve arm strength, flexibility, and soft tissue quality, the rest of the body cannot be ignored. Improving function of the scapular stabilizers, core musculature, and lower half is essential for taking stress of the throwing arm. We encourage kids to get started with foam rolling, targeted flexibility work, and resistance training as soon as their attention span allows. As I have written previously, the “stunting growth” argument doesn’t hold water.
Third (and this piggybacks on my last point about resistance training), it’s important to understand how to manage a young pitcher throughout the year. Contrary to popular belief, playing year-round is not a good idea. In fact, it isn’t even good enough to qualify as a “bad” idea; it is an atrocious idea.
If you want my ideal competitive season for a youth baseball player, it’s to pick up a ball and start tossing around Thanksgiving, progressing to bullpen wok in early January after long-tossing distance has been progressed. Then, the athlete throws up through his competitive high school season (late March- early June) and summer ball (through early August). That’s about 8-8.5 months of throwing throughout the course of the year - and it’s plenty.
You’ll see that this competitive year fits quite nicely with participation in a fall sport - whether it’s football, soccer, or something else. And, athletes can still “get away” with playing winter sports as long as they’re willing to commit to a throwing program, even if they have to start playing a bit late. If I had to give my ideal scenario, I’d say play football or soccer, and then play pick-up/intramural basketball in the winter alongside a throwing and lifting program.
Within this year, you have several crucial blocks during which to increase resistance training volume. One, there is the entire winter break, obviously. Two, there is generally a decent break between spring and summer baseball (late May-early June), and another during the month of August. Three, kids can (and should) still train in-season, regardless of the sport.
This, of course, speaks to the high school athletes who have practice/games just about every day. Managing a 10-year-old is a lot easier. His sport practice may only be 2-3 days per week - meaning that he can participate in different activities throughout the week. However, he can’t do that if Dad thinks that playing on four different AAU teams at once is the secret to getting him to the big leagues. He has to play multiple sports at a young age.
So, if I had to give the synopsis of my thoughts on how to get a kid to throw hard, it would go something like this:
1. Appreciate that throwing hard is just one piece of the “being a successful pitcher” puzzle - and that there are different types of velocity (actual, perceived, and effective).
2. Clearly outline his competitive season and stick to that outline. Don’t add showcases, camps, and additional teams.
3. Let him play for two teams: one spring (school) and one summer (AAU, Legion, etc.).
4. Find a skilled pitching instructor to work with him to optimize mechanical efficiency. Before you start working with this instructor, have him explain his approach to managing your son both during a typical lesson and throughout the competitive season. Then, go and observe him as he works with other pitchers. Do they just “show and go,” or do they warm-up before even picking up a ball? Does he ask kids how they feel prior to each session, and does he pace them throughout the session? Or, does he just grunt and spit dip juice all over the place.
5. Get him involved in a comprehensive strength and conditioning program that incorporates resistance training, medicine ball work, flexibility training, and movement training that all take into account the unique demands of baseball. The strength and conditioning coach should provide a thorough evaluation that screens for all the flexibility deficits and stability issues we commonly see in throwers.
6. Make sure that the pitching coach and strength and conditioning specialist communicate and collaborate. The CP staff is fortunate to have this kind of productive collaboration with Matt Blake all the time:
Kidding aside, very rarely will a pitching coach know about strength and conditioning, and very rarely will a strength and conditioning coach know about pitching. It’s unfortunate, but true.
7. Have him play multiple sports. The younger the pitcher, the more sports he should play. Specialization shouldn’t come until age 17 at the earliest.
8. Make sure he continues to take care of his resistance training and flexibility work in-season.
I could go on and on about all the subtle details of what we do with pitchers on a daily basis, but the truth is that I envision this blog as something that will be most popular with the Dads in the crowd who really just want to help their kids realize their potential and remain injury-free. So, I’m keeping it more general - and referring you to the Baseball Content page for the more “geeky” stuff.
I do have one more closing thought, though. We deal with a lot of very talented young pitchers who throw the ball very hard. One anecdotal observation has been that their fathers are the ones who “get it.” These are the guys who are concerned about the important things: staying healthy, enjoying baseball, finding the right college, etc. They don’t boast about how many guys their sons struck out in little league. They are genuinely humble and respect the game - and this carries over to their kids, who work hard and carry themselves the right way.
Conversely, the kids who are always told that they’re the best and get raved about by their fathers are the ones who invariably struggle to succeed long-term. It may be because they’re overworked, over-pressured, or just overrated in the first place. It may be because coaches get frustrated with having to deal with an overbearing father, and the kid gets punished for it. It may be that the kid doesn’t think he needs to work as hard because he’s already the best - because Dad told him so. Or, maybe he misses out on crucial development because he spends all his time playing in baseball games when he should be practicing, training, or participating in other sports - or just having fun and being a normal kid. Worst of all, a kid may just flat-out start to dislike the game because all the fun has been taken out of it because of Dad’s hype and excessive pressure.
Is velocity important? Sure. Can it sometimes be the trees that prevent us from seeing the forest? Absolutely.
For many years, pitcher's have been told "go run poles" by their coaches, with no real science behind it. Distance running for pitcher's has always been described as a way to work the lactic acid out of muscles after a start, or to build endurance in the legs to work deeper into games. As the strength and conditioning climate of baseball continues to move in a positive direction, players and coaches are coming to the realization that, as a pitcher, we are built to perform more like "sprinters" than "long distance runners." Take a second to think about the movements a pitcher will perform in a game situation. When we deliver the ball to home plate, it's an explosive movement. When we hop off the mound to field a ground ball, we're moving in short, quick bursts. When we cover first base, we're sprinting up the line to get to the bag. All the movements we perform during a game situation, are performed within a 60-70 foot radius, at a quick, but short, burst.
Therefore, when we are preparing for those game situations, we should prepare in short, quick bursts. Long distance running during practice is a thing of the past, for present pitchers. Sprint work, as well as some pitcher specific plyometric training (side shuffles, box jumps, lunge hops), should be the focus of in season conditioning during practices. If our players want to do some long distance cardio on their own, we won't stop them, but we don't find it necessary in order to maximize performance on the bump.
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!
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.
, and read it every day until the end of the season. I went to the book store and purchased a copy for myself, looking to regain my confidence and become the pitcher I knew I had inside of me. To sum up my freshman year...I stunk. I came home with an ERA of 16.11, and still hadn't figured it out from a physical standpoint. With my continued work, guaranteed innings with Northampton Legion, and my frame finally filled out a bit (went from an emaciated 175 lbs. to a solid 195 lbs. over the year), I continued to work and ride the confidence that I had found in The Mental ABC's.
, and not only is it an easy read, it goes in depth to what makes the most successful people in the world, great at what they do. In all the studies done within "Bounce", it came down to one thing: The mental toughness to see everything we do, through to the end; to give every last inch of ourselves to our goals, with an undying self confidence and love for our craft, in order to maximize the end results.
