When looking at the way baseball players train or workout in a strength aspect, have you ever thought about why we do train so differently? While the rest of the world might be bench pressing and curling a lot of weight, baseball players are training with exercises like a Turkish get-up. This is because being a baseball player requires us to train in a much more functional aspect than the average person or even another sport. It takes the strength of a football player and the athleticism of a basketball player to make a baseball player throw the ball over a certain threshold. Although there are benefits to both types of training; why is being functionally strong arguably better for a baseball player than conventionally strong? - Being functionally strong strengthens not only the big muscle groups but also all of the little muscles, ligaments, and tendons surrounding those big muscle groups. - It also enables players to move freely through multiple planes of motion versus moving in possibly just one plane of motion like most conventional exercises. - Lastly, and arguably most importantly, it helps maintain an athlete's durability, meaning that they will feel good for a longer period of time and stay healthy. The baseball world is ever changing and the way baseball players train is constantly changing as well. Adapting to the new ways of training might be tough but taking a deep dive into the way that you WANT to train versus NEED to train is where you might start. You may WANT to train to look good, but you NEED to train to stay healthy and throw the ball hard! If you have any questions on how to do this let us know and we can help you out!

When you look at some of the greatest athletes who have ever played their sport, they have a lot of things in common. A lot of them have great genetics, natural talent, work ethic, good coaches, etc... I want to talk about one thing that all the greats do that is something you can implement today in your life. The greats train every single day, just like you are supposed to be doing, but that doesn't mean that they walk into every day with the same 100% passion and drive to get better. There are always going to be days where they don't feel like getting up, or doing their workout, or stretching, or eating right, but they still do it. They experience the same emotions that we experience when we are trying to do something hard, consistently. What separates the good from the great in that sense is a choice; a choice to put in the work even when you don't "feel" like it. They put in the work every single day and they allow those days to compound. You don't grow the most from the days that you crush a workout because you feel great, but from the days where you CHOOSE to show up and do the work, even if you don't want to. Here is my encouragement to you. You have a choice every single day. Are you going to choose actions that push you to be the person you want to be or are you going to choose actions that hold you back from your goals and dreams? There is no in between. Choose to be great everyday this week and go dominate!!

What is up fellas?!? Some of the other coaches and I jumped on a call with one of our athletes the other day and we got on the topic of mental freedom in bullpens and games when you know you have to throw a lot of strikes. Here is what we talked to him about: - At the professional level, a lot of pitchers are not "aiming" to hit the corners of the zone. They are having the catcher set up in the middle of the plate and they are trying to throw the best pitch as aggressively as possible right down the middle - If they miss their spot, middle-middle, they still end up throwing a strike most of the time which is good. - Even if they execute and throw the pitch right down the middle, it is thrown with such intent that it often has good spin, velo, and movement so the chances of it getting hit are still low. - If it gets hit, so what. Move on to the next pitch and do the same thing - If professional pitchers are not trying to aim their pitches to very specific quadrants, why are we trying to do it as amateurs??? Challenge: Next catch play, bullpen, or game. Forget about trying to paint the corners and throw aggressively towards the middle of the zone and try and overwhelm and dominate the pitcher.