In hindsight, a lot of the concepts in both my original article and Mike’s DVD are probably best appreciated by taking a look at some sample programs.  Some stuff we are doing right now with one of my pro pitchers is a perfect example, so I thought I’d turn it into a feature for today’s blog.

First off, we’re talking about one of the most gifted natural athletes I’ve ever seen.  He has some incredible reactive ability, and just as significant to this discussion, he doesn’t hold back…ever.  We are talking an incredible motivation to train and a complete willingness to do everything put in his program to a “T.”  He is every coach’s dream, but it can certainly pose more of a challenge with respect to program design.  Here’s what his October training schedule looked like:

Monday: Medicine Ball Work (88 total throws), Low-Volume, Less Intense Plyos (24 total landings), Lower Body Lift
Tuesday: Upper Body Lift
Wednesday: Medicine Ball Work (80 total throws), Plyos and Movement Training
Thursday: Full-Body Lift
Friday: Easy Flexibility Circuits (recovery-oriented)
Saturday: Medicine Ball Work (88 total throws), Low Volume Sprint Work, Full-Body Lift
Sunday: Off

Looking at this schedule, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday are really the CNS-intensive days - and a schedule like this had worked well for him in two previous off-seasons when he wasn’t quite as highly trained.  Each year, he dropped body fat, gained a ton of strength, increased his power numbers, and directly transferred those gains to increased velocity on the mound and zero injury issues.

Last month, though, our guy was feeling a little banged up two Thursdays in a row.  The challenging sprint work on Wednesday was taking too much out of him prior to Thursday’s lift.  So, we simply decided to consolidate things a bit more, and drop our sprinting volume a bit.  Here’s what this month’s schedule looks like:

Monday: Movement Training, Lower Body Lift
Tuesday: Medicine Ball (68 total throws), Upper Body Lift
Wednesday: Easy Flexibility Circuits (recovery-oriented)
Thursday: Movement Training, Full-Body Lift
Friday: Rotational Medicine Ball Work (66 total throws), Easy Flexibility Circuits (recovery-oriented)
Saturday: Overhead Medicine Ball Work (12 total throws), Less Intense Plyos (24 total landings), Full-Body Lift
Sunday: Off

In this set-up, our CNS-intensive days are Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.  In other words, he’s got one less training session per week that’s really challenging - and he’s seeing great progress without any of the little issues that he noticed last month.

This off-season, we will have over 30 professional baseball players.  Some are big leaguers, some are on the cusp of making the big show, and others have a few years of work ahead of them to reach that dream.  No two of them are identical.  Every evaluation is unique.  There are different health histories, different positions on the field, different ages, and different training experience levels.  Every program needs to reflect these differences.

This is a great opportunity to talk about the interaction of programming for athletes and training athletes.  Early on in an athlete’s career, it’s all about training them: teaching techniques, educating them on when to push and when to hold back, and how to progress.  As they get more advanced, they know a lot about this stuff - so the programming gets more challenging as they get more individualized.

This is the main tenet upon which we have built our Elite Baseball Development Program at Cressey Performance. While many facilities will just put a program on the board and train a group of individuals off of it, we firmly believe that the real work to make athletes successful goes on behind the scenes when we’re reviewing their evaluations, watching videos of them throwing/hitting/sprinting, and compiling a program that’s right for them.

It’s also an observation that led Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson, and I to create Assess and Correct: Breaking Barriers to Unlock Performance.  If you aren’t assessing, you’re just assuming - and that’s a recipe for mediocrity at best.

A Semi-Related Note

While we’re on the topic of baseball, I wanted to send out a quick congratulations to my buddy Dana Cavalea, the strength coach for the NY Yankees, on his first world championship.  Admittedly, I’m not a Yankees fan, but Dana’s a great dude who does an excellent job, so you have to give him some love for an outstanding season.

That said, Dana and some colleagues are putting on the 2nd Annual Major League Strength Coaches Clinic at St. John’s University in New York on November 21, 2009.  I won’t be able to present with my schedule, unfortunately, but I did present last year and can assure you that it’s a top-notch event.  I’d strongly recommend you check it out HERE.

These guys wouldn’t have released an updated version if they didn’t have some new tricks up their sleeves, and from what I’ve seen thus far, this version definitely kicks things up a notch.  I’d encourage you to check it out HERE.

Subscriber-Only Q&A: Are Rollouts Safe?

Q: I recently purchased your Maximum Strength book and noticed that you include barbell rollouts in the program.  I did this exercise at the end of an aerobics class and was told by the fitness instructor not to do it, as it was a dangerous exercise. Given it’s in your book, I gather you deem it a safe exercise. What is your opinion on this exercise? Do you know why some people say it’s a dangerous exercise?

A: As with just about everything, the devil is in the details.  For many individuals, this is a fantastic exercise.  For others, it may be too advanced.  And, for another group of folks, it just isn’t good because it gets absolutely butchered technique-wise.  Let’s attack this piece by piece with a rationale for its inclusion/exclusion, and then some training options and coaching cues:

(yes, I know I said “A” and then “2.”  Gotta love live TV!)

You can progress this exercise a bit more by either elevating the knees slightly or going to a band-resisted ab wheel rollout.  Just a heads-up: in this video, the athlete should have stopped a bit shorter in the top position to avoid the subtle lumbar rounding that took place; it’s a good demonstration of technique that’s good, but not quite perfect:

For more information on these exercises and where they fit into a comprehensive core stability progression, check out Part 3 of my Lower Back Savers series at T-Nation.

[Cue the annoying, overly excited infomercial salesman voice]

This is the throwing program that you have all been waiting for, it’s the super-duper secret that people haven’t been telling you about 95 mph throwers, and lucky for you, it is now available for F-R-E-E !!(For the first 5 days and then one incredibly low payment of $449 if you do not return the product within those 5 days)…..All you have to do is order the product, follow it for a week and 95mph is a snap of the fingers away, it is just that easy…

Alright, well I can honestly say I just made myself throw up in my mouth a little bit writing that out, and the sad part is that this type of advertising and promotion letters both the baseball and fitness industry. There are two main points that I want to touch on surrounding this type of promotion.

1) Yes, there are some good products out there, I’m not denying that, but I can promise you, anything that is worth having is not free, and does not pretend to be free to lure you in.

2)  There is no single product on the market that is the be-all, end-all in either industry. Eric and I have had this talk many times. Yes, he likes the kettlebell. No, it is not the end of the world. We can keep our squat racks; they still have use. And you know what? Product A may even work better when complemented by Product B.  Whoa, whoa whoa….are you trying to tell me that the kettlebell can be used in a program with dumbbells and barbells? That’s not how this thing was sold to me. Yes, scary thought I know, but let’s think about this for a second. And, I’m going to bring this back to the baseball side of things to avoid really stepping on my tongue.

People ask Eric and me all the time whether or not we like long toss, medicine balls, weighted balls, aggressive velocity drills, lead-up drills, mound work, flat-ground bullpens, etc…and the answer I almost always give is “Yes.”

“Wait, what? I just asked you if you like seven different types of training for pitchers and you gave me one ‘yes.’”

That’s correct, and to take it a step further and really complicate the matters, we even like kettlebells and different squat variations for pitchers among other things.  And we use a ton of different weights of both baseballs and medicine balls.

My perspective on this is that all of these modes of training have an application in building a pitcher capable of throwing the ball 95mph. Obviously, there are some genetic limitations and other factors involved in getting there, but to really optimize the training, I think all of these need to be applied in the right proportions. These proportions would be determined based upon the individual’s current makeup (age, weight, relative strength, mechanical understanding, etc…) and their developmental goals, which should be discussed between player and coach to make sure everyone is on the same page and being realistic.

A great example of this is the throwing program Eric used last winter for Shawn Haviland, a pitcher in the Oakland A’s system that was drafted in the 33rd round in 2008. For Shawn’s particular case, he was a player who pitched in the mid-to-high 80’s with a good feel for pitching. As Eric wrote previously, as good as this is, late round draft picks do not get a lot of leeway to prove themselves and can be released in the blink of an eye. To give Shawn the best chance to succeed, Eric thought it might make sense to be a little more aggressive with his throwing program in an attempt to boost his velocity.

So, aside from the strength training and mobility/flexibility work, throw in some med ball variations, aggressive long toss, a weighted ball program, and some extensive decelerator work and one might think we’re playing with fire here. Well, this season Shawn took his velocity from 87-88 to 90-94.

So, which piece of the puzzle gave Shawn this huge velocity gain? Was it the med ball throws or was it the weighted ball program? Was it the aggressive long toss or the increased strength? I’d like to believe that it was the individual’s commitment to the program in its entirety. Each piece served to complement the next.  This was a program designed for Shawn Haviland to execute in the winter of 2008-2009; that’s it. This same program may not make sense in the winter of 2009/2010. I’m sure some similar pieces will be involved, but in a different context with different proportions depending on where Shawn is in his developmental path. This same program certainly wouldn’t be prescribed to a 15-year-old just learning about pitching mechanics and strength development, and probably would not be prescribed to a 1st round draft pick with a 92-95mph fastball and a million dollar signing bonus hanging over his head. That’s the reality of the situation.

Each case needs to be looked at in its own regard and after deciding on a strategic vision of where the player wants to be, then a comprehensive program would be built with the appropriate drills and exercises to help the player take his game to the desired level.  The X factor in all of this is how much time and effort a player is willing to commit to becoming a better player, because this ultimately determines where the player will end up.

In the end, this all relates back to the first thought in this blog: there is no one single be-all, end-all answer for pitching development. There are modes of training that should be considered and blended to come up with the right recipe for the particular individual.  Yes, there will be crossovers for players at similar points in their development because we have a finite number of training applications, but they would be applied based on reason.

So, before you jump at the next best gadget that is going to give you the 95mph arm you have been looking to buy, make yourself an informed consumer and do some active research to get multiple viewpoints. Believe me, the same product/program that claims to have given someone 95mph, probably has someone claiming that it ruined their arm. I would go as far as to say that neither of these claims are right in their entirety and that there are a lot of external factors involved, but it is your job to do the homework and decide for yourself.

Matt Blake can be reached at mablak07@gmail.com.

1. Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Roussell just provided a free fat loss training session example using Alwyn’s new 4x Method.  Check it out HERE.  With their updated Warpspeed Fat Loss program almost ready for release, these two give you a good taste of what’s to come.

2. I did the Fitcast with Kevin Larrabee on Friday morning, and the full audio is available (also at no charge) HERE.  We talked about assessment, programming, whether squatting is “safe,” my recent deadlifting specialization program, and our new product (Assess and Correct).  My portion kicks in about halfway through the episode.

3. Speaking of Assess and Correct, today is the last day for the early-bird price.  At midnight tonight, it’ll be gone forever, so if you haven’t taken advantage of this offer yet, now’s the time!  www.AssessAndCorrect.com.

2. There’s some great new research out in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that compares front and back squats with respect to stress on the knees.  Not surprisingly, you actually see higher compressive forces and knee extensor moments with the back squat - which would imply that the front squat is a safer option for most folks.  This actually isn’t a huge surprise to me, as we’ve integrated front squatting well in advance of back squatting in returning folks with lower extremity issues to “normal training.”  However, there is a bit more.

You see, we’ll have people do a box squat variation before going to a front squat.  There is more of a sitting back motion, and a bit less knee flexion, so more of the stress it put back on the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings) than the quads.  It not only takes the stress off the knees, but also allows folks to maintain a great training effect while they’re on the mend.  And, in reality, it probably helps to address some of their inefficiencies, as a good chunk of folks with knee issues tend to have weak posterior chains and be very quad-dominant.  While the majority of these individuals’ training focuses on deadlifting variations and single-leg work, when the time comes to squat, we’ll first use a front box squat:

From there, we’d go to a back-loaded box squat variation (giant cambered bar, safety squat bar, or straight bar), and then on to regular ol’ front squats.  (FYI, I covered front vs. back squats from a different perspective HERE)

3. When it comes to shoulder health, one thing folks miss out on all the time is the important role of the subscapularis, one of the four muscles of the rotator cuff.  This is a huge mistake if you want healthy shoulders.  Why?  As the picture below shows, this sucker has a big cross-sectional area (CSA).  In fact, according to Bassett et al., its CSA is the second largest (behind only the deltoid) of any muscle crossing the glenohumeral joint.

As an interesting little tag-along to that fact, I recall reading that research has demonstrated that subscapularis cross-sectional area was the only factor that predicted powerlifting performance.  While the primary focus of the subscapularis is dynamic stabilization of the humeral head (and, more specifically, creating anterior stability with its posterior pull), it also assists in internally rotating the humerus, so it’s lumped in as a “bad guy” with the other internal rotators: pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, anterior deltoid, and teres major.

In reality, in most folks, some subscapularis activation work during the warm-up should be done in conjunction with lengthening drills for the other internal rotators and posterior rotator cuff in order to establish a good shoulder groove before training.  We go into great detail in Assess and Correct with two of our progressions, but to get the ball rolling, try putting your hand behind your back (as if handcuffed) and then lifting off without extending your elbow or flexing your wrist.

If this isn’t happening easily (both getting the arm back there and lifting off), you need to get to work!

4. Speaking of Assess and Correct,  the feedback thus far has been fantastic - and folks haven’t even received the DVDs yet!  Here’s a little sample from some of the emails I’ve received:

“I ordered a copy last night and have been looking over the e-manual this morning and I’ve got to say, it looks awesome! Can’t wait to put it to use.”

“I got it yesterday. It’s awesome and the DVDs haven’t even arrived yet!”

Needless to say, the DVDs alone will be 100% worth the deal, but the in-depth bonuses take things to the next level.  Remember that the one-week only introductory price of $97 expires on Sunday at midnight, so pick up your copy ASAP!

Have a great weekend!

EC

PS - I’m looking for a good trainer/S&C coach in the State College, PA area.  If you are located there or know someone good nearby, please email me ASAP at ec@ericcressey.com.  Thanks!

PPS - I’m doing the Fitcast with Kevin Larrabee this morning.  I’ll get the link posted as soon as it’s available.

Build Your Balance - This article at Experience Life Magazine is based on a series of interviews with me in light of my research on unstable surface training.  For the more in-depth background and practical applications, you’ll want to check out my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.

Pasteurization: Awesome or Complete Garbage? - This blog post from Brian St. Pierre is very well research and presented.  Let’s just say you won’t ever want to drink warm milk again after reading this.

Assess and Correct - Uh, duh.  We introduced it earlier this week.  What are you waiting for?

Since Eric mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that he would like me to start contributing some articles to his blog, I have been debating about how to introduce myself to the EricCressey.com crowd and what his audience might want to hear.

All sorts of thoughts had run through my head on whether it should be oriented toward pitching mechanics, maybe talking about what Eric and I are doing together that separates us from other Elite Baseball Development programs, or maybe even a tidy little piece about who I am. Lucky for us, though, we have Eric’s business partner Pete around, and he conveniently gave me my first blog topic on Saturday.

As everyone on this blog probably knows, Mike Boyle recently released a new product called Functional Strength Coach 3.0 last week. So, on Friday, Eric loaned me his copy to take home to view. I did my part and watched 6 of the 8 DVDs that night (for those of you counting at home that was about 5-6 hours of material straight to the dome on Friday Night; I promise I’m not that big of a geek normally). Upon return on Saturday morning, and much to Eric’s shock, I gave him back the six DVDs that I had already watched and told him I would only need the other two for the afternoon.

Here is where the crew of pro baseball guys from Pete’s office chimes in. “Why would you spend six hours of your Friday night watching DVDs that have nothing to do with your field?”

At first, I was kind of tongue tied, like, “Yeah, I guess that was pretty foolish, I teach pitching, so why would I want to know how to train people for functional strength?” And, to be honest, I continued to think about this most of Saturday, trying to justify why I just did that.  As I came to my contemplative answer, I realized the very exact same reason I am working with Eric at all, is why I’m watching these DVDs on Friday night.

When it comes down to it, I believe to be the best at anything, you need to understand the inherent depth of complexities for what you’re dealing with and this more often than not may involve pursuing multiple fields of knowledge to truly grasp your own discipline. In some sense, I believe the leaders in any field are polymaths of sort and this is something Eric clearly demonstrates in his own regard.

With that said, for me to provide the most knowledge and best service to an individual, a team, or camp of baseball players, I should understand why we are using foam rolling before we static stretch. Why would SMR of this nature would make sense before stretching and then proceeding into a dynamic warm-up?

I should understand what flexibility deficits are and why they are affecting a player’s performance.  I need to know why mobilizing the hips and thoracic spine while stabilizing the lumbar spine is allowing us to create more torque and whip for a pitcher. All of these things have huge ramifications for both player and coach, and if I want to optimize my players’ talent, then I need to be able to convey to them the importance of our drills and Eric’s exercises.

There is a reason for all of it, we’re not just throwing darts at the wall and hoping it works out for the player.  I’m also not going to claim to have all the answers for this, and that is why I am constantly searching for the next piece to add to my arsenal. It could be a psychological book about focus, or even an Eastern Martial arts book about how Tai Chi helps you find your center. Not any one of these books would have all of the answers on how to be a great pitcher, and they may even have none…but, at the end of the day, if I can take one thing away from Mike Boyle and add it to my knowledge of pitching in any way, then I just made myself better as a “Pitching Coach,” whatever that may be loosely defined as.

So I guess to answer their question: I was really watching Functional Strength Coach 3.0 because I plan on helping Eric turn out a large number of pitchers in Hudson, MA who are capable of throwing a baseball freakishly hard and stay healthy while doing so.

Obviously, there is a lot more to pitching and what we are working on together than that, but I think that should get the ball rolling. Over the next few months, I will be contributing more substantive articles that will cover a lot of the biomechanical aspects of a pitcher’s delivery that Eric and I see daily and how best to activate and optimize awareness for each piece of the puzzle. We’ll talk about what a flexibility deficit looks like in a pitcher and what its ramifications are in a player’s mechanics. We’ll discuss how we attack something of this nature with soft tissue/mobility/strength work and then how we teach the player to incorporate this back into his personal mechanics through progressive drill work.

The end goal is obviously to remove the limitation, and in turn, raising a pitcher’s velocity ceiling and keep him healthy. This could include anything from hip mobility, to thoracic spine mobility, to glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD), to a host of other issues. All of these issues could be holding a player back from optimal performance and maybe even putting a pitcher at a serious risk for injury.

Well, that is more than enough for one blog, and I want apologize for ransacking your daily allowance of blog reading time if you made it this far with me. I tried to get a word count limitation on my post from Eric, but he told me to just let it rip. I guess this was my definition of letting it rip…

Matt Blake can be reached at mablak07@gmail.com.

You see, after months of planning, filming, and editing, our new product, Assess and Correct, is now available at www.AssessAndCorrect.com.  And, for the first week ONLY, we’re making the product available for $30 off what will be the normal retail price.

Assess and Correct is the first resource that empowers you with not only a series of self-assessments to identify your own flexibility and stability limitations, but also exercise progressions to correct those inefficiencies.  In the process, you’ll take your athletic performance to all new levels and prevent injuries from creeping up on you - whether you’re a high-level athlete or someone who sits at a desk too much.

With 27 self-assessments and 78 corresponding exercises, you’ll cover virtually everything you need to feel and perform well. And, you’ll have plenty of variety to use for many years to come!  And, while the DVDs alone are really comprehensive, the bonuses we’ve added to this really sweeten the deal.  Included in this package are:

• DVD #1: Your Comprehensive Guide to Self-Assessment
• DVD #2: Your Individualized Corrective Exercise Progressions
• Bonus #1: The Assess and Correct Assessment E-Manual, which is a guide to which you can refer to in conjunction with DVD #1.
• Bonus #2: The Assess and Correct E-Manual, which includes written cues and photos for each recommended drill in DVD #2 so that you’ll have a resource you can take to the gym with you.
• Bonus #3: “The Great Eight Static Stretches” E-Manual, which shows you eight additional flexibility drills that we use on a regular basis in addition to the drills featured in the DVDs.
• Bonus #4: The “Optimal Self Myofascial Release” E-Manual, which shows you the soft tissue methods and techniques we use with our clients and athletes.
• Bonus #5: “Warm-ups for Every Body” E-Manual, which is a collection of two sample warm-up templates for 19 different sports/scenarios.

Again, this introductory offer will end next Sunday, November 1 at midnight EST.  For now, though, I’d encourage you to head over to www.AssessAndCorrect.com to check out some of the sample videos from the DVDs - including the introduction in which we discuss our rationale for creating the product.