Increasing Pitching Velocity: What Stride Length Means and How to Improve It – Part 3
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: Baseball Content, Blog, Core Stability Exercises, Hip Mobility, Improve Stride Length, shoulder mobility, shoulder mobility drills, Strength and Conditioning, strength and conditioning program, strength and conditioning programs, Stride Length, thoracic spine mobility, Tim Collins, Tim Lincecum, Trevor Bauer Comments OffIn part 1 of this series, I touched on some of the mechanical factors one must consider in relation to increasing stride length in pitchers. Then, in part 2, I got discussed physical factors – hip mobility and lower-body strength/power – that govern how far you can stride. In wrapping up today with part 3, we’ll work our way up the kinetic chain to discuss three more physical factors that control stride length.
3. Rotary Stability – As I discussed in my recent article at T-Nation, What I Learned in 2011, hip mobility “sticks” better when you have adequate rotary stability, so we’ve been doing more of our core stability exercises in more “extreme” positions of hip mobility.
If you’re going to push the limits of hip abduction, internal, and external rotation range of motion, you need to be sure that you have adequate rotary stability to be stable in these positions in weight-bearing and not destroy the spine. Anybody can just get into these positions in slow speed, but not everyone can control the body precisely with a combination of isometric and eccentric muscle action at the high velocities we see with pitching.
Additionally, many of the big-time long stride guys rely heavily on controlling lumbar spine hyperextension as they ride the back hip down the mound. This is something you’ll see if you watch the deliveries of smaller, athletic guys like Tim Lincecum, Tim Collins, and Trevor Bauer. If they don’t maintain adequate anterior core function, they’ll wind up with extension-based back pain in no time.
4. Thoracic Mobility – Throwing and hitting (and really any rotational challenge like a hockey slapshot or tennis stroke) present a unique challenge to an athlete: the hips and shoulders are temporarily moving in opposite directions. This creates separation, which allows an athlete to store elastic energy and create velocity via the stretch-shortening cycle.
The first issue to consider is that not all separation is created equal. You can create separation with the hips and lower back – and jack up a lumbar spine over time. The goal is to having adequate thoracic spine mobility to ensure that this separation occurs higher up (and engages the upper extremity well).
The second issue is that the more you push the limits of hip mobility, the more you must push the limits of thoracic mobility. We’ve always heard “equal and opposite” when it comes to the throwing arm and glove arm, but the truth is that it probably apply to the lower half and thoracic spine as well. You simply don’t see guys with terrible thoracic mobility getting way down the mound, as that lack of thoracic mobility would cause them to leak forward with the upper body. I covered this in part 1, but the Cliff’s Notes version is that the head doesn’t stay behind the hips long enough, so throwers lose separation.
The third issue is that poor thoracic mobility will really interfere with getting an adequate scap load, so the arm speed will be slower. Throwing with a poorly positioned scapula is like trying to jump out of sand; you just don’t have a firm platform from which to create force.
A very basic thoracic spine mobility drill that would be a “safe” bet for most throwers would be the quadruped extension-rotation.
This drill doesn’t crank the shoulder into excessive external rotation, which may be a problem for the really “loose” arms in the crowd. Progressions for the really stiff pitchers would be the side-lying windmill and side-lying extension-rotation. I also like the yoga plex, a drill I learned from Nick Tumminello, as a means of syncing everything up with a longer stride.
Note: be sure to read this shoulder mobility blog on why not all thoracic spine mobility drills are created equal for throwers!
5. Quick Arm – When I say that you have to have a quick arm to have a long stride, I really just mean that you need some upper body power to make things work. The longer the stride, the quicker your arm must be to catch up in time to create a downward plane and throw strikes.
You simply don’t see guys with long strides competing at high levels unless they have a quick arm that can catch up to the lower body.
When a guy’s arm isn’t quick enough to catch up to his lower half, you see him miss up and arm side.
This type of thrower would be better off shortening up his stride (at least temporarily) and spending more time on good throwing programs to increase arm speed.
This is one reason Justin Verlander is great. If you watch him, he’s not an insanely long stride. Rather, he’s shorter with it, and much stiffer on his landing leg to create an awesome downward plane. Plus, he actually does have a ridiculously quick arm and outstanding secondary stuff. A lot of pitching coaches would try to lengthen his stride – and while this might work, I don’t know about you, but I think overhauling a Cy Young winner’s mechanics is silly.
The “long stride, slow arm” issue is (in my experience) most common in young, lax players who have the joint range-of-motion and just enough stability to get a long stride, but don’t have adequate arm speed to catch up. This is really common in the 14-17 age ranges, and I think it’s one reason why so many of these kids respond incredibly favorably to long toss; it teaches their arms to go faster and keep up with their strides.
Conversely, as you start to deal with 18-year-olds and older (or kids who have grown quickly), you start to see that preparing everything below the arm is arguably more important than arm speed. You don’t pitch in college or professional baseball unless you have a reasonably quick arm, and getting more aggressive with the lower half to stride longer is often exactly what guys need to make the big velocity jump. Likewise, when guys don’t take care of the lower half, but continue on aggressive throwing programs, they often wind up with velocity drops, injuries, or control issues because they’ve lost the separation that made them successful.
Closing Thoughts
While a long stride can certainly be advantageous in the throwing motion, as I’ve shown in this series, forcing it when you don’t have the right physical preparation or mechanical coaching in place can actually hurt an pitcher’s performance and health. Remember that the best changes are subtle ones; in other words, you might increase a stride by six inches over the course of a year, not in a single session.
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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 2/21/12
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: baseball strength and conditioning, Baseball Workouts, Blog, Mike Robertson, Strength and Conditioning, stretching, Thomas Myers Comments OffI’m back from a fun trip to California, but as you might expect, I’ve got quite a bit on my plate as I play “catch-up.” Luckily, I’ve got some reading ready for you:
Q&A: Is Static Stretching Good? – This is an outstanding, thorough blog post from Mike Robertson; it’s definitely worth a read.
The Fascial Knock on Distance Running for Pitchers – With spring training and the college seasons underway, loads of ignorant coaches are forcing their pitchers to run long distances. In this old post of mine, I review Thomas Myers’ presentation on fascial fitness and apply it to this debated point in pitching development.
Diamondbacks CEO Won’t Let His Cancer Change the Best Workplace in Sports – I think this is a fantastic article at Yahoo Sports for not just any baseball fan, but any business owner. The D-Backs won 94 games last year (sixth most in baseball), but did it with the sixth lowest payroll. It goes to show you that treating people right and building a strong culture in your organization really matters.
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Effective Coach Talk; What To Say To Clients And Why It Matters
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: Blog, Expert Tips, Psychology and Lifestyle, Weekly Newsletters Comments OffHave you ever worked with a client with whom you never really connected?
Perhaps you played the role of the “typical trainer”: You provided nuggets of information, random statistics and boot-camp-style encouragement. The client played the role of “obedient follower”, with stock responses and hyper-active nods.
You both went through the “proper” motions, but had no chemistry and got no lasting results.
Time for a change.
Coaching clients to lasting success depends on saying the right things in the right ways at the right times — and really connecting. In this article, we’ll begin to show you how.
This isn’t a hocus-pocus way of “tricking” your clients into success. (If only it were that easy.) Instead, you collaborate with clients as a partner and a guide, helping them instead of directing or pushing them.
It’s all about change
Can we guarantee that our coaching strategies will always work for you? No. There’s no holy gospel of coaching.
But we’ve reviewed the research on what really works. We’ve consulted the experts who are really getting results. We’ve tried this stuff on ourselves. Most importantly, we’ve helped thousands of men and thousands of women make real, measurable, and lasting change.
We’ll share what we know and how you can benefit.
We’ll cover:
- coaching styles;
- powerful language;
- listening techniques; and
- practical solutions.
Then, we’ll invite you to follow up with our free, five-day video course for fitness professionals.
The payoff: healthier clients who lead healthier lives.
Let’s start by looking at what’s wrong with fitness coaching.
Awfulness Coaching vs. Awesomeness Coaching
Awfulness Coaching
The nutrition and exercise field is full of scary-looking, arms-crossed disciplinarian-type trainers: men and women who look like they’re more ready to punch you in the face than pick you up when you’re down. They’re not really meanies. They’re just mimicking what they see other trainers/coaches doing. They think it’s somehow required. Perhaps without realizing it, they’re doing Awfulness Coaching.
Awfulness Coaching says the client is broken and has to be fixed. It focuses on what’s wrong with the client — and how to purge it. It identifies “flaws” and obsesses over them.
It views good nutrition, movement, and health habits as something people have to be shamed into. It tells people to get into the gym and work off sins. It tells clients that they deserve to feel bad.
An awfulness coach is a drill sergeant and an unrelenting ass-kicker. With all the yelling-in-the-face and booting-in-the-butt, clients don’t know what direction to run in. They just know they need to get away.
Fear motivates us… but only briefly. Extreme approaches and drill-sergeant-style coaching can produce the most impressive results short-term, but almost never work over the long term.
Something deep inside human beings resists being pressured into new decisions. Coach Hardass may try to use coercion. But along the way, s/he’ll destroy the change process for clients. And no evidence shows that feeling bad creates lasting behaviour changes.
Awesomeness Coaching
Awesomeness Coaching, on the other hand, finds the awesomeness within the client.
We help the client find what’s fun and joyful in their life, and chase it. We view nutritious eating, movement, and health habits as a path to living life with purpose. We talk to clients about getting outside to play. About feeling good in their bodies, not ashamed or exhausted.
An awesomeness-based coach is a guide on the road to total wellness. While clients may be hesitant, we can grab their hand and offer to go in with them rather than shoving them forward alone.
Do you want your clients scared of you? Or do you want your clients to feel like working with you is a celebration of health and fitness while they love every minute of it?
Client-centred coaching
As a coach, you have considerable expertise. But your clients are the experts on their own bodies and lives. They live in their bodies and experiences 24-7. You don’t.
Clients have their own abilities and reasons for change. Your job is to find and develop these. When a client can identify their own limiting factors and then — more excitingly — propose their own solutions, we have a recipe for sustainable, long-term behaviour change.
Another bonus: we tend to believe what we hear ourselves say. If a client generates and describes a solution, they’ll likely embrace it. (More on language in a sec.)
Remember, it’s about making decisions based on what really works best for the client, not based on what you think should work best for them. This is client-centred, rather than coach-centred, coaching.
Language is powerful
You can help clients examine their behaviours and work towards their goals with the following kinds of questions.
Explore
Ask open-ended questions that explore options, values, and possible outcomes, without judgement.
- “What things are most important to you? How does your exercise and eating fit into this?”
- “What sorts of things would you like to accomplish in your life?”
- “What would you like to see change?”
- “If things were better with your eating/exercise, what would be different?”
- “What have you already tried? What worked/didn’t work?”
Imagine
Help clients visualize a new way of living by using their creative imaginations (just like in kindergarten).
- “Imagine you can…”
- “Imagine you are already…”
- “Imagine that you have the body and health you desire. What did it take for you to achieve it?”
Breed success
Be solution-focused and emphasize that often, clients have already succeeded. All you need to do is help them expand the awesome.
- “In the past, when were you successful with this, even just a little bit?”
- “How could we do more of that?”
Sense into problems
Share your observations and intuitions. This is non-confrontational, and helps to make sure you and the client are on the same page with the immediate issue.
- “I get the sense that…”
- “It seems to me like…”
Speculate
Open-ended, speculative statements can get clients thinking and responding to possible choices. These aren’t exactly questions, but act like them.
- “I wonder what it would be like if you…”
- “I wonder if we could try…”
Evoke change talk
Get the client talking about change on their own terms. Examples include:
- “In what ways does this concern you?”
- “If you decided to make a change, what makes you think you could do it?”
- “How would you like things to be different?”
- “How would things be better if you changed?”
- “What concerns you now about your current exercise and eating patterns?”
Assess readiness
Establish how confident and ready a client is to make a change. No readiness means no change — no matter how great a coach you are.
Once clients identify a behaviour they want to change, follow up with this kind of question:
“If you decided to change, on a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you could change, when 1 represents not at all confident and 10 equals extremely confident?”
If they respond with a 9 or 10, great. If they respond with a lower number, ask them how they can make the selected behaviour less overwhelming.
We like to use the “Coach Roland Rule,” named for our Precision Nutrition colleague Roland Fisher:
“If you suck at something, cut it in half.”
In other words, keep dividing a large problem or challenge into small, manageable steps until you can handle it.
Plan next steps
Instead of directing a client forward, have them generate their own solutions. Examples:
- “So, given all this, what do you think you will do next?”
- “What’s next for you?”
- “If nothing changes, what do you see happening in five years? If you decide to change, what will it be like?”
- “How would you like things to be different?”
Give advice… carefully
Find out if clients want your advice. Some will, some won’t. If you do give advice, keep it general and experiential. For example:
- “In my work with clients like yourself, I’ve found that…”
Bringing it all together: Change scenarios
Now that you have some ideas for powerful coaching language to use, let’s apply them in some specific scenarios to move the change process forward.
Scenario 1: Change Talk Wedge
1. Validate and affirm the opposite of what they should be doing.
Yeah, we know it sounds weird. But you might say something like “Wow, it really sounds like you have a lot on your plate. I can see how it’s tough to schedule gym time.” Or: “I know it can be hard to resist those home-made brownies.”
(Be sincere here. Genuinely empathize, if you can. Sarcasm usually backfires and creates hostility.)
2. Wait.
After validating and affirming the opposite, be quiet. Don’t be afraid to open up the space and let them fall into it. No rush. Be patient, empathetic, and attentive.
3. Listen for “change talk”.
It won’t always come, but many times clients will argue for changing their behaviours. Client: “Yeah, I know I do have a lot going on. But I really should do XYZ. I know I would feel better.” Or: “Honestly, I don’t think I really need three brownies. I’d probably be happy with just one.”
4. Drive the wedge in to that “change talk” opening.
Using their language, reflect and imply (but don’t push) a next action. Focus on concrete to-dos. You: “It sounds like you think you’d feel better if you did XYZ?” Or: “It sounds like maybe 1 brownie would be enough for you?”
5. Wait again.
Listen for further change talk.
6. Repeat as needed.
Keep wiggling the “change wedge” in further and further, slowly. Go at their speed.
Scenario 2: Continuum
Use after listening for change talk. Be sure you understand the situation first.
Have clients imagine a spectrum or continuum of behaviours from worse to better. Then:
1. Help them move a “notch”.
Highlight the benefits of doing so. Coach: “OK, so it sounds like you want to do X but going all the way to Y feels like too much. The good news is that you don’t have to do that all right away! What a relief, eh? What could you do that would be X+1?”
1a. Scale back as needed.
Coach: “X+2 is awesome — we’ll get to that. But what about X+1 instead? That seems even more manageable.”
2. Follow up with strategy for immediate execution.
Coach: “X+1 sounds like a great idea! How are you going to make that happen today? And how can I help?”
3. Once action is assigned, book follow up.
Coach: “OK, mark this on your calendar — I’d like to hear from you tomorrow/by Friday, to tell me how you did with X+1.”
Scenario 3: Crazy Questions
You can also ask some questions that your clients might not expect.
1. Listen, validate, affirm.
Preface with “I know this is wacky but…” Coach: “It sounds like [reiterate what they just said about their understanding of the problem]. OK, I’m going to ask you two crazy questions, and I know this is going to sound really weird, but just humour me…”
2. Ask your questions.
- What is GOOD about X behaviour [where X behaviour is the problem behaviour we want to change]?
- What is BAD about changing? What would you lose or give up if you got rid of X?”
3. Normalize and empathize.
You can begin by normalizing and empathizing with the unwanted behaviour first, using the seemingly weird technique of first arguing (slightly) in favour _of _ changing.
Coach: “Wow, yeah, it sounds like there’s lots going on there for you. I think we’d all want a few cookies in that situation!” Client: “Yeah, but I really should find a better way to deal with this…”
Hey lookee here! They proposed change, not the coach!
4. Allow space/time to grieve the loss of the status quo.
Coach: “Well, tell you what. There’s no rush to do this. When you’re ready, why don’t you try…”
- …moving one “notch” along the continuum?
- …doing the behaviour you proposed?
- …thinking about how you could more effectively live the values you describe?
5. But don’t let them off the hook.
Follow up in a few days as needed.
Scenario 4: Choose Your Own Adventure
1. Affirm, validate, “hear”, normalize.
Coach: “Yes, I hear you and understand what you’re thinking/feeling/experiencing, and it’s quite normal. Lots of people go through this.”
2. Ask leading, rhetorical questions.
This isn’t a dialogue invitation; it’s a “tell yourself what to do” question.
Coach: “It sounds like you already have a good sense of what some of the key issues are. Knowing this, if you were the coach, what would you recommend?”
In other words: How would you, the client, solve your own problem?
3. Rank confidence.
After they’ve proposed a solution, have the client rank their own confidence in doing the solution.
4. Affirm and book follow up.
Tell them you think they’ve come up with a good solution and then ask them to check back in a few days to share their success.
Next step: free, five-day video course
There’s a lot more to being a great fitness coach than counting reps, intervals, and weights. Without diet change, exercise coaching alone yields as little as half a pound of true fat loss per month.
That’s not good.
Adding nutrition coaching to your practice will triple your effectiveness — at least.
That’s why our coaching team created a free, five-day video course for fitness professionals. Click this link to sign up for the free course:
The good news: if you can influence your client to change their nutrition while also coaching them at the gym, pool, or track, you’ll get exponentially better results.
That means that if — like 90% of all clients — your client is looking for fat loss, they can expect to lose 3-5 times more fat if you help them make changes to their diet, and support them in making these changes.
Yes! Three to five times more effective as a fitness professional, just by helping your clients to change their nutrition habits!
If you can spare 12 minutes a day for the next five days for our free video course the course will teach you:
- How to integrate nutrition coaching in a personal training or strength coaching environment
- How to assess a new client
- How to devise a nutrition plan based on that assessment
- What stats to measure and how
- How to optimize a nutrition plan based on those stats
And we don’t just talk about this stuff. We show you how to do it. In fact, we even give you all the forms and resources you need to go and do it right away.
This course will make you a better professional. Budget about 12 minutes to watch each video and additional time to download and look through all the resources. Keep the emails, and you’ll be able to refer back to the course whenever you like.
Happy — and effective — coaching.
About us
Thanks for reading this far. You’re probably wondering who we are and how we know all this stuff.
Ryan Andrews, MS, RD, CSCS
Ryan is a world-leading educator in the fields of exercise science and nutrition.
He completed his education in exercise and nutrition at the University of Northern Colorado, Kent State University, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Apart from having earned nearly every accreditation available (Registered Dietician, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, two Masters degrees, and more), Ryan was a nationally ranked competitive bodybuilder from 1996-2001.
Ryan is an expert coach who has trained and worked at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, one of the most recognized and awarded research institutions in the world. He currently works as part of the Precision Nutrition team. He played a large role in helping develop the Precision Nutrition Lean Eating Coaching Program, and has personally coached five cohorts of Lean Eating clients.
Krista Scott-Dixon, PhD
A former university researcher and teacher in the field of gender, work, and public health, Dr. Scott-Dixon now serves as the research director for the Healthy Food Bank foundation and the editor-in-chief of Spezzatino magazine – the food magazine that really feeds people.
Passionate about women’s fitness since her own body transformation in the mid-1990s, Dr. Scott-Dixon has run the extremely popular women’s weight training and nutrition site Stumptuous.com since 1997.
Dr. Scott-Dixon is an expert coach and specialist in adult education. She currently works as part of the Precision Nutrition team. She’s the curriculum designer for both the men’s and women’s Lean Eating Coaching Program, and has personally coached three cohorts of Lean Eating Clients.
Both Ryan and Krista have collaborated with Dr. John Berardi to develop Precision Nutrition’s coaching and certification programs. And through these programs, Precision Nutrition coaches thousands of clients each year, helping them to change their deepest behaviour patterns and their bodies, using the very techniques discussed in this article.
More About Precision Nutrition
Precision Nutrition is life-changing, research-driven nutrition coaching for everyone. We translate science into real results for real people, and we collect more nutrition coaching data than anyone in the world.
Precision Nutrition also certifies fitness professionals and trainers worldwide through its Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition textbook and online course so they can help their clients lose fat and live healthier, more satisfying lives.
Sources
Much of the content in this article has been gathered over years of reading, learning, discussing and practicing. Some of the books we drew on for this article include:
Ian Ayres, Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done.
Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.
Martin Grunberg, The Habit Factor.
Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness.
William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick, Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change.
Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin, The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems.
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, and Ron McMillan, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.
Kathryn Shultz, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.
PN Certification Program begins Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 — waiting list now open.
If you want to add real nutrition coaching to your arsenal and join the ranks of the elite fitness professionals, the Precision Nutrition Certification Program is perfect for you.
Based on over 10 years of research and statistical data from over 8,000 clients, the certification is a comprehensive nutrition coaching course designed specifically to teach professionals working in a personal training or strength coaching environment how to get clients in the best shape of their lives.
We’ve opened the waiting list for the March 2012 program. I strongly recommend you get your name on the list now because spots are limited and typically sell out within hours each time we run the program.
Click here to join the waiting list.
Increasing Pitching Velocity: What Stride Length Means and How to Improve It – Part 2
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Assess and Correct, Baseball Content, Blog, deadlift, deadlift technique, Deadlifts, Hip Mobility, How to Deadlift, improve pitching velocity, Improve Stride Length, Increase Pitching Velocity, Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Velocity, Postural Restoration Institute, Tim Collins Comments OffIn part 1 of this series, I discussed the fact that – all other factors held constant – increasing stride length will improve pitching velocity. Unfortunately, when you simply tell a pitcher to stride further down the mound, there are usually some unfavorable mechanical consequences that actually hinder pitching velocity. So, be sure to read that piece before continuing on here.
That said, sometimes, physical limitations can make it difficult to acquire a longer stride. To that end, I wanted to use this second installment to begin to outline the top five limiting factors for those looking to get down the mound and throw harder.
1. Hip Mobility
If you’re going to really get down the mound, you need outstanding adductor length on both the lead and trailing legs. That goes without saying. While we outline several options on our Assess and Correct DVD set, the split-stance kneeling adductor mobilization is definitely my favorite, as it improves adductor length in both hip flexion and extension:
Just as important, players need to stop “hanging out” in adduction in sitting and standing. I wrote about this in a bit more detail in my What I Learned in 2010 article (point #3). This is incredibly common in right-handed throwers, in particular. If your resting hip posture looks like this, fix it!
We use a variety of drills from the Postural Restoration Institute to help address the issue, but suffice it to say that you’ll be swimming upstream unless you learn to stop standing/sitting like this!
Additionally, you need adequate length of the trailing leg hip flexors – particularly rectus femoris – to ensure that you don’t cut off hip rotation prematurely. I like the wall hip flexor mobilization for this purpose. Keep in mind that we perform the exercises on both the front and trailing leg, as many pitchers will have substantial knee flexion deficit on the front leg secondary to the stress of landing/deceleration.
Third, you need adequate hip internal and external rotation on both sides. Hip external rotation range-of-motion on the trailing leg is particularly important to allow force to be applied over a longer distance. Additionally, hip internal rotation is key on the front side, as enables a thrower to utilize the lower half more efficiently in deceleration. Those without adequate internal rotation on the front side often cut their arm paths short and miss high with pitches – and put much more stress on their arm because the deceleration “arc” is shorter.
External rotation is best gained through glute activation drills (supine bridges, side-lying clams, x-band walks) in conjunction with simply externally rotating the femur during the split-stance kneeling adductor mobilization I featured earlier. For internal rotation, I like a gentle knee-t0-knee stretch/mobs (assuming no medial knee issues) , and bowler squats as a follow-up to get comfortable with the pattern.
Of course, all these mobility drills must be complemented by quality soft tissue work: foam rolling and, ideally, manual therapy with a qualified practitioner.
So, as you can see, adequate hip mobility for optimizing pitching velocity must take place in a number of planes. Additionally, you need to remember that mobility is always influenced by musculo-tendinous. capsular, ligamentous, and osseous (bony) restrictions, so no two pitchers will be the same in their needs. And, some pitchers simply may not have the bone structures to get into certain positions that are easy for other pitchers to achieve.
2. Lower-Body Strength/Power
You can’t discuss lower-body mobility without appreciating the interaction it has with lower-body strength and power.
You see, mobility is simply your ability to get into a certain position or posture. Flexibility is simply the excursion through which a joint can move. What’s the problem?
Flexibility doesn’t take into account stability. Just because you can get your joints to a certain position in a non-weight-bearing scenario doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to achieve that same position when you’re in a weight-bearing position, trying to throw 95mph as you move downhill. So, I’ll put my point in big, bold letters:
Pitchers need strength to have mobility.
Truth be told, building lower body strength in throwers isn’t tough. You use all the basics – single-leg work, deadlift variations, squat variations (when appropriate), sled work, pull-throughs, glute-ham raise, hip thrusts, glute bridges, etc. – but just work to make sure that they are safe for throwers (e.g., use the front squat grip instead of the back squat grip).
Strength isn’t just a foundation for mobility, though; it’s also a foundation for power. You can’t apply force quickly if you don’t have force! So, once players have an adequate foundation of strength, they can benefit more from rotational medicine ball exercises and plyos in the frontal/transverse planes to learn to better apply force outside the sagittal plane.
Make no mistake about it; having adequate strength/power to push off and rotate aggressively – not to mention decelerate the body on the front leg – is essential to outstanding pitching velocity.
I’ll be back soon with Part 3 of this series. In the meantime, if you’re looking for more hip mobility ideas for baseball players, check out Assess and Correct: Breaking Barriers to Unlock Performance.
Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!
Your PN Certification Questions Answered
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Blog, Special Announcements, Weekly Newsletters Comments OffOn Wednesday March 7th, we’re accepting a small group of students into the PN Certification Program. A brand new edition of our popular textbook, a world-renowned course, a brand new exam, all created from the ground up, with one purpose in mind: to teach elite fitness professionals the art and science of nutrition coaching.
Of course, each time we open the program to new clients, we get tons of questions about how it works, what we teach, what to expect, how to prepare — and especially this one:
“Is it right for me?”
We take great care in personally answering every question we get about the PN Cert program. So this time, we’ve done something really cool.
We’ve created a new forum where you can ask us ANY question about the program and get a detailed answer — and about 90% of them — I answer myself.
How to ask a question:
If you already have a precisionnutrition.com account, just go to the Interested in the PN Cert? Ask Questions Here forum and ask away.
If you don’t, you can create an account for free.
Or you can just browse around and see what questions other people are asking — that’s okay with us too.
We’re here to answer any questions you may have — just as we are for our clients in the PN Cert program. Drop in, post a note about yourself and what you’re looking for, and we’ll give you personal feedback about the program and whether it fits your specific needs.
See you on the forums.
Click here to join the waiting list.