Weighted bats or bats with a weighted doughnut are typically used to help develop greater strength of the muscles involved in hitting. They are effective for this purpose, but you may have to pay a high price for the strength development. The price you pay is that you may become a worse hitter.
The reason for this is that the strength you gain from using a heavier bat is not proportional to the muscles and joints that are involved in the swing with a regular bat. In other words, you over develop certain muscles and under develop others. In essence, you do not develop strength as it is needed in the usual hitting pattern. Read more… »
Posted on Mar 30, 2009 under Backswing, Downswing, Golf, Hip turn |
Many golfers believe that a long backswing, in which there is much turning of the shoulders and hips, is an indication of good coiling. However in most cases it is not. In true coiling of the upper body, there should be a separation between the different body parts so that the midsection muscles are placed on stretch. You should feel tension not only in the midsection and lower back ,but in the hips as well.
In other words, when you have true coiling, there will be great tension in the muscles ready to be released in the downswing. Merely having a full turn of the body does not insure the tension that is needed in the muscles to produce a powerful downswing. There are several important factors involved here. Read more… »
One of the early signs of fatigue in running is your inability to have sufficient separation between the thighs low low low during the pushoff. This is usually caused by a weaker pushoff ( less powerful ankle joint extension) and a weaker forward knee drive. The weaker knee drive results in less distance that the thigh is brought forward which, in turn, creates a shorter stride length.
Because you cannot raise the thigh in front of the body as needed over the entire distance, your running becomes slower. To correct this, you should do the knee drive exercise for strength endurance. This exercise is extremely important for strengthening the hip flexor muscles that are responsible for driving the thigh forward on each stride. Read more… »
The USA was favored to win the second WBC. However, the team was only capable of making it into the semi finals before bowing to Japan. It should also be noted that Japan and Korea who played in the finals, have lost only to each other.
Because they have beaten all the teams that they played, it can be said that Japan and Korea dominate baseball. This is sad if not ironic since baseball has been considered the American game.
Sports writers present different reasons why the US does so poorly, but none address what is probably the most important factor; what do Japan and Korea do to produce such high-level players and great team play? In contrast, what does the US do to produce high level players, especially in view of the high number of foreign athletes being brought in every year who appear to dominate the teams? Read more… »
A classic tip that keeps getting repeated in golf literature is “swing the club and that will move the body for you.” This myth is perpetuated not only by the everyday golfer but by many pros. Most likely it got started because golfers could see movement in the backswing but not in the downswing.
For example, when you bring the club back in the takeaway, the club leads the way. You move the body in response to the movement of the club. This can be seen very clearly if you have a wide takeaway. As you move the club to the rear and upward, the body rotates and you raise the arms to bring it back up to the top of the backswing. Read more… »
Carpal tunnel syndrome is an overuse type injury. This means that because of constant repetition, the muscles and tendons are not capable of withstanding the repetitive stress. As a result tendonitis and other problems arise.
To prevent such injuries from happening it is necessary to prepare the muscles and tendons so that they can withstand the constant stress that they experience. This means making the muscles and tendons not only stronger but also capable of withstanding high levels of stress for long periods of time. Read more… »
Posted on Mar 23, 2009 under Childhood obesity, Physical fitness |
Childhood obesity and obesity of young people in general has been gaining greater attention in the press. In almost all of the articles the role of sports and the learning of sports skills has for the most part been overlooked in the push for youth physical fitness.
Close examination of many of these programs shows that they have failed in creating the desire in youngsters to want to continue participation or even enabling them to play a sport many years after puberty or when they are adults. For example, it is easy to find hundreds of girls’ soccer teams through age 13. However, there is a 90% drop in participation when the girls reach 14. Read more… »
Explosive plyometrics is now available for Pre-Order at a special price! The book is presently at the printers and should be available for shipping in two to three weeks.
Explosive Plyometrics can give you the speed and power you need for any sport. This is the definitive book on what are real explosive plyometrics. Keep in mind that although explosive plyometrics uses jumps, not all jump exercises are plyometric. This book gives you the true explosive plyometric exercises for you to develop the greatest speed and explosive power possible.
This easy to read and well illustrated book with pictures taken from live digital film, will answer all your questions and give you information never before reported by Verkhoshansky, the creator of plyometrics, and others. Individual chapters are devoted to the latest state-of-the-art leg, arm, midsection and total body explosive training. They guarantee that you will increase your explosive power and sport fitness, to become a better performing athlete.
Author Michael Yessis, Ph.D., was the pioneer in introducing plyometrics to the United States and played a major role in disseminating the information. He explains how you can get the most benefit from the plyometric exercises and the science that will make you a better athlete.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Understanding Explosive Plyometrics
Chapter 2: Explosive Leg Training
Chapter 3: Explosive Arm Training
Chapter 4: Explosive Mid-Section Training
Chapter 5: Total Body Explosive Training
Chapter 6: Integration of Plyometric Training
Chapter 7: Other Factors
The term ‘dynamic correspondence’ is being seen more frequently in the literature. But with every appearance it seems that the authors are using a slightly different interpretation of the term. Rather than examining what others are saying it may be more effective to examine what was meant by this term by the person who coined the term.
Dynamic correspondence was first used by Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky, of the former Soviet Union. He did extensive research with athletes in the area of what was then known as specialized exercises, to improve performance. Specialized exercises were known as exercises that had specific criteria. Read more… »
Many articles have appeared on the care of injuries sustained while doing impact aerobic type activities. This includes jogging, running, aerobic dance, use of steps and sports such as basketball and volleyball in which the legs must withstand landing forces.
In fact, landing forces are the main reason why a majority of athletes who participate in such activities eventually come down with injuries–injuries that can usually be prevented. For example, studies show that the impact of the foot hitting the ground in running can be 1,500 or more pounds!
This is a tremendous amount of force that must be withstood and absorbed by the foot, leg and even the lower back. If your muscles and support structures are not strong enough to withstand these forces for a long distance or period of time, an injury usually occurs. Read more… »
The title sounds like a broken record and in a way it is. If you follow baseball, you can’t help but read about injuries that are happening to players in spring training. Without fail, we read similar stories every year and they don’t stop with the end of spring training. You can read about injuries happening to players throughout the season.
For example, in today’s news Padres pitcher Chris Young was “scratched from start as precaution over tendinitis.” Young said that this injury nagged him every spring training and if it were the regular season he would definitely pitch. To prevent further exacerbating his tendinitis he throws only fastballs and changeups. Read more… »
There was an article in the local papers the other day describing what batting coaches teach to minor leaguers as well as to the pros. They are all in accord with the statement that “you’ve got to hit it … {the ball} … with backspin. That way it skips through the infield.” It was also brought out that a ball hit with backspin carries better.
There’s no questioning the fact that the ball will carry better if it has backspin. But this also means that the ball stays in the air longer before it makes contact with the ground. Yet, at the same time, the coaches tell the players to “hit through the ball”, “smack hard line drives” and “hit hard ground balls with backspin.” Read more… »
Posted on Mar 16, 2009 under Arm action, Downswing, Golf, Golf swing |
Golf pros bring out some excellent points in regard to positioning of the hands if you have an effective turn of the clubface to make square contact with the ball. Turning of the clubface however, has little to do with the hands; this act is accomplished by arm rotation.
Some pros teach that the club rotation is due only to the left forearm. This however, is inaccurate mainly because one arm cannot function by itself when both hands grip the club. It can happen if one arm is completely passive, but this does not occur in the golf swing.
Read more… »
In parts I, II, III and IV I presented the fact that it is impossible to see with your eyes, what occurs in execution of a sport skill, especially in the power phase, which is the most critical for success in skill execution. In addition most coaches do not have the backgrounds needed to understand what takes place, or should take place, during skill execution.
As a result they are not capable of making important adjustments or corrections in technique to improve the players sports performance. In addition, they cannot create specialized exercises, also known as “dynamic correspondence” exercises that unite technique with development of the physical qualities. Correcting these deficiencies can go a long way to improving the performance of athletes on all levels, including the professional level, and enable athletes to achieve their full potential. Read more… »
In the fitness field and in the iron game, major emphasis is placed on flexion and extension movements in the anterior-posterior plane and movements in a side or lateral plane, which includes adduction and abduction in the shoulder and/or hip joints. There is little to no emphasis placed on rotational force.
As a result, the rotational muscles of the midsection are usually underdeveloped and often become a source of injury. This happens when you inadvertently twist or turn in execution of an exercise, especially when the spine is not held in its normal anatomical position. Read more… »
Posted on Mar 13, 2009 under Training effect, training |
In order to get a true training effect, you must adapt to the workout or workout routine that you are using. However, you do not want to fully adapt since this is a detriment to future progress.
At first glance, these statements appear to be contradictory, but they aren’t. You want (and need!) to adapt, but not to fully adapt to the workout. To understand this we must examine what happens in adaptation. Read more… »
An interesting article appeared in Tuesday’s sports section related to Latin talent. The Padres director of international scouting brought 21 of the best young players in Latin America to the organizations sparkling new complex in the Dominican Republic. All the players there with one exception, were between the ages of 14 and 16.
According to Smith, “it’s a chance for us to see players in a controlled setting. We run ‘em, test their arms, run infield drills, look at their skills, then play a 10 inning game.” The statement that really caught my eye was, “We want to see who we want to pursue.” Read more… »
Posted on Mar 08, 2009 under Baseball, Baseball training, WBC |
Once again we see MLB, just as their general managers,players and coaches do, hoping that all will be well. In a newspaper article it was stated that “MLB team officials began holding their breath this week, hoping well-compensated pros such as Derek Jeter, Carlos Zambrano and Ichiro manage to avoid injury while representing their respective countries in the second World Baseball Classic.
Are these players so out of shape? And they are supposed to be elite! ( see my blog on this topic). Are they so babied that playing this time of year will not only interfere with their team training but that it creates a high probability of injury ? It certainly appears to be the case. Read more… »
When you think you’ve heard it all someone comes along to disprove your thoughts. In an article by Ian Murray, head coach of the Los Angeles Tri Club, the well accepted definition of stride frequency is changed to or used to replace stride length. This is truly amazing.
According to the author “one way to check your stride length is to count how many times your feet touched the ground in a 10 second period; the number should be about 30”. Even common sense would tell you that this does not measure stride length. Counting the number of touchdowns is related to stride frequency. Read more… »
Much lip service and print space is given to weight shift and the role it plays in execution of a swing to hit a ball. However little attention is given to this factor when analyzing swings both in golf as well as in baseball. It appears that most teaching pros take this action for granted.
But yet, learning and mastering the golf or baseball swing is relatively easy if you do not rush movement of the hitting implement. In the golf swing, there should be a distinct shifting of weight onto the forward leg before beginning movement of the club. Similar actions occur in baseball and other sports. Read more… »
This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions in the sports training world. That maximum strength training and in many cases muscle-mass training, are very popular, can be attested to by simply looking at the physiques of todays athletes, especially football and baseball players. Their muscle definition and mass is very obvious.
There is no questioning the fact that strength plays an extremely important role in execution of sports skills and gameplay. The most important question however, is whether you need maximum strength or an optimal amount of strength. This has not been carefully examined.
Read more… »
According to a small headline on the sports pages a few days ago, Washington Redskins football player Jason Taylor was released. He was cut by the Redskins for refusing to commit to the team’s off-season workout program.
It appears that the Redskins wanted to add a workout clause to Taylor’s hefty contract. However the 34-year-old defensive end declined. The clause would have required Taylor to take part in 25 days of off-season workouts. Read more… »
Many professional golfers and athletes in other sports are turning to physical fitness to improve their games. This is done in the belief that greater fitness will translate to hitting the ball further and harder, throwing further and harder, running faster and so on. Very few, however, are doing specialized strength and flexibility exercises that duplicate the joint actions seen in execution of the game skills.
Most athletes do general fitness type exercises to get the body stronger and more fit cardiovascularly. This helps improve your game especially when playing in the latter half of the game, but not to the extent that specialized strength exercises can benefit you. Read more… »
In an interview with Jim Lefebvre, new hitting coach for the San Diego Padres, there were a few questions directed to how he was going to improve the team’s offensive power. It was stated that players should “constantly put the ball in play. They focus in on a line drive/down kind of ball flight and if you can do that you’re going to be a productive hitter”
When questioned what was meant by line drive/down ball flight, the response was “Line drives. Hard ground balls.” This was accomplished as follows: “we really focus on staying over the ball and looking for a good ball to hit, early in the count, I don’t care when it is, and when you get it, hit it. Put it in play. Hard…” Read more… »
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