San Diego State pitcher Strasburg had been unbeaten in 14 starts and was virtually unhittable. He had up to three digit velocity and precision placement. He had struck at 150 hitters while allowing just 57 hits. He is touted as being the number one overall pick in next month’s amateur draft.
But, in the first game of the NCAA playoffs, he lost. Virginia, the winning team, did their homework and prepared well for their first game against SDSU. They did this by simulating Strasburg in their practices in anticipation of meeting him in the first game. Read more… »
In a previous blog I brought out how some players spend hours working on their swing to “find” their swing. In most cases they are unsuccessful mainly because they do not have the swing perfected to such an exent that it can be reproduced at any time.
In sports that require hitting a ball, we all too often focus on where the ball goes after the hit rather than on what a good (or bad) shot feels like or even what an effective swing feels like. Developing a feel for an action is nothing new and has been talked about for many years. However, very little attention has been focused on how to develop a feel for the swing, especially in tennis, baseball, softball and golf. Read more… »
Many bodybuilders and athletes believe that the concentration or preacher curl) produce the best muscle contraction and growth. In addition there are those who believe that a biceps exercise, in which the upper arm is held alongside or slightly in front of the body produces the best muscle contraction and resultant strength.
However, exercises done in which the elbow is in front (flexion in the shoulder joint) have greater slack in the upper tendons so that when you contract the biceps, it doesn’t fully kick in until you have gone through the first 20 or so degrees of motion. This allows you to handle more weight, since the full contraction of the muscle occurs at a more mechanically efficient angle. Read more… »
It is not uncommon to hear experts give advice as to the type of shoe that you should buy. In addition to the usual standard recommendations of having a good fit with plenty of room for the toes, etc., they also give recommendations in regard to your foot arch and type of runner that you are.
For example, according to the American Council on Exercise, “if you have high arches, you probably need more shock absorption . . . and if you have low arches (sometimes called flat feet), you need a shoe with a sturdy heel counter. . . to keep your heel from moving around.” However, they give no substantiation to these statements. Read more… »
I typically ignore most articles in newspapers that deal with exercises and exercise execution. Main reason for this is that they are usually full of errors. This is a trend that began with the tremendous increase in the number of personal trainers and certification organizations. The object at this time was to increase the numbers and make more money, not to give the trainers a deep understanding of exercise.
However, there was an exercise described in the papers recently that I could not ignore. It was the pigeon stretch with the headline, “good for the glutes”. The accompanying photos made me cringe and as a result, I had to read it. Read more… »
Most people seem to think that plyometrics is only jump exercises that involve the legs. This is far from the total picture since plyometrics can take various forms. You can do plyometrics for the arms, midsection and/or total body. The choice depends upon which actions are in need of improvement and which limbs or body parts are involved.
In addition, plyometrics, especially explosive plyometrics, does not always have to be in the form of jump exercises. You can do plyometrics with medicine balls, weighted implements which include barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells, Active Cords and specially constructed devices. Read more… »
According to various golf pros, the most important part of the swing is the first few feet from address to about halfway back. They state that by stopping at this position, you can check to see if your hands are swinging the club back properly, i.e., with the toe of the clubhead pointing at the sky.
This of course is effective movement of the club on the take-away as it allows for the wrist cocking action and continuation of the backswing. Without the arm rotation to get the toe of the club pointing upward, a full backswing is not possible. Thus it can be said that the first part of the backswing is most important for taking a full backswing, but is this the key to an effective swing or hit? Read more… »
A recent article in USA Today related the story of many baseball home run hitters, who, after having productive careers, seem unable to hit any more home runs when they hit the mid-30s. According to some baseball hitting coaches this seems to be a natural consequence. “It happens to the best of them.” But does it really?
For example David Ortiz, 33, has yet to hit a home run this year. Bobby Abreu and Magglio Ordanez, both 35 years of age and coming off seasons of at least 20 home runs, have zero and one homer respectively. George Forster went from 52 homers homers in one year to 13 in a five-year span. Jim Rice hit 39 homers when 30 and never more than 15 after reaching 34. Cecil Fielder hit 95 homers from 1990 to 1991 but had only 13 when he was 33 years old. Read more… »
In a popular fitness magazine, it was stated that “it’s impossible to sprint as fast as possible without ‘digging in’ with your quad muscles”. According to the article, “as your foot strikes the ground squeeze your quads and use them to pull forward through each stride.”
Not spelled out however, was how it is possible to do this since EMG studies show that the quads do not play a role in moving your body forward. It is impossible for them to pull you forward since the main role of the quads is to support your body during the ground contact phase. Read more… »
I keep running across more articles dealing with the need for - or no need for - stretching either before or after undertaking a sports activity. However, in all of these articles there is rarely any definition or distinction made between the different types of stretching.
Even within the commonly accepted differences between static and dynamic, (active) stretching, there are very important distinctions within each category. In other words, there are different ways of executing stretches within a particular category. Read more… »
I always thought that athletes played the sport that they loved the most. However in reading about some of the great high school and collegiate players I now see that many cannot follow their passion.
For example Chase Budinger, who will probably be a first round pick in the NBA draft, stated that volleyball is his first love. According to him, “… if I’m as good in basketball as people say, I have to choose basketball because the money can set me up for life”. But yet he was an outstanding volleyball player. Read more… »
In looking at many of the articles that appear in Running World and Running Times it becomes obvious that one of the main objectives of these magazines is to present different types of training programs. In essence, these programs tell you how far and how fast you should run, what your heart rate should be, anaerobic threshold running and so on.
However, when it comes to physical and technical preparation of the body these magazines typically ignore these topics. When they are addressed, they are only given cursory attention and many times present poor information. Read more… »
It is amazing what a little physical conditioning can do for baseball pitchers. This season the Texas Rangers had the pitchers do some off-season work that included throwing live practices this spring. Its objective was for pitchers to go deeper into games with less regard for pitch counts.
Nolan Ryan is well known for his work ethnic during his 27 major-league seasons. He emphasized harder off season workouts for the pitchers and they are now seeing the results of this work. Their starting pitchers have averaged about 61/3 innings a game, a full inning more than last season. Overall, their pitching staff is doing much better. Read more… »
Ankle injuries continue to rank high on all levels of sport, including the professional level. You can easily find players on the disabled list in most sports including major league baseball and football.
Even superficial analysis of how the injury occurred will tell you that most of these injuries can be prevented. For example, a baseball player receiving an ankle injury while running the bases. another while swinging a bat and a football player while executing a cutting action. Read more… »
In working with a professional baseball ( minor league) player a few days ago, I learned of a new way to increase resistance in the reverse sit up. Because of the importance of this exercise in overall gameplay and especially in running, the player wanted to find a way to increase resistance. The typical way the excise is done, was too easy for him. Read more… »
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. Explosive Plyometrics gives you the true explosive plyometric exercises for you to develop the greatest speed and explosive power possible.
Many athletes, especially golfers and baseball players, believe that the swing should be instantaneous, i.e., all body actions should occur at the same time. This belief probably stems from the fact that most sport skills are executed in a fraction of a second. Less than half of that time is devoted to the power phase, the phase in which you develop the power required in the hit or throw.
However, from biomechanics and looking at high level athletes perform a throwing or hitting action, we know that for most power there must be a sequence of adjacent joint actions. This means that the best throws or hits are sequential where the actions occur in a step like manner, not simultaneous, in which all the joint actions occur at the same time. Read more… »
To get by your opponent when driving to the basket or simply trying to avoid your defender, you must have a very quick first, and often, second step. Coaches use many drills to enhance getting by one’s opponent, but by themselves, do little to make you quicker or faster. To effectively do this, you must learn the technique of executing a quick first step.
When your technique is perfected, or as you are trying to make changes in your technique, you should also develop your physical abilities to allow you to make the first step as quick as possible. However, before doing explosive type exercises, you should do specialized strength exercises to strengthen the muscles in exactly the same way as they are used when taking a first and/or second step. Read more… »
One of the most common recommendations given to golfers is to rotate the arms on the backswing. There are even many devices now available that teach you to rotate the arms as you take the backswing. These are correct recommendations that also fail to bring out that you cannot take a full backswing without rotating the arms.
If you did not rotate the arms on the backswing you’d only be able to raise the arms to about chest level. And, it would feel very uncomfortable and put you in a more or less cramped position. You can easily verify this by trying to take a full backswing holding your arms in exactly the same position as they are in the stance. Read more… »
When you read the write-ups of what baseball coaches and players say to explain their losses and what they are doing to get back on the winning side, you invariably shake your head finding it hard to believe. The words may be apropos for a T-ball or Little League game but certainly not for a professional team.
For example, Jim Lefebvre, hitting coachof the San Diego Padres, in explaining the lack of hitting in recent losses stated, “Put the blame on me. Don’t put the pressure on the players. These players are busting their butts doing everything we ask of them to do. They just haven’t had that luck, but we’re close, real close. … we’re frustrated yeah, but we’re going to keep battling and it’ll start to come together. Read more… »
Many runners believe that by running more and/or running faster, their legs become stronger. To a limited extent this is true, but if you do not run at a faster speed all the time, or at least at the same speed, the strength that you gained will soon be lost.
Also important to keep in mind that every time you increase your speed of running, if you do not have the strength to withstand the forces that are involved in each touchdown, then you are opening yourself up for injury. Understand that you do not increase strength during the run. Increases in strength occur afterward during recovery but only if there was sufficient overload to bring about super compensation. Read more… »
Static stretching for golfers before beginning to play has been recommended for many years. You have been told to do static stretches to (1) increase your flexibility, (2) prevent injury, and (3) prepare for swinging the club without injury. These are admirable outcomes but practical experience and sound research has shown that static stretches fail in these outcomes.
Static stretches do increase flexibility but increased flexibility before playing a round does not improve the swing. Nor do static stretches prepare the muscles to execute a powerful swing and even lead to poorer performances. Static stretching, if continued over a long period of time, may actually be the cause of injuries. Read more… »
The overhead press strength exercise seems to appear in almost every article that deals with strength training for runners. There is no questioning the fact that the overhead press is a great exercise for strengthening the shoulders, especially the middle deltoid muscle. But will it improve or help your running?
Sadly, the answer is no. It is a great exercise for overall strengthening of the shoulders, but it has little to do with running. As a result, it will not make you run faster, longer and/or further. The reason for this is that the strength developed in the overhead press is not used in running. Read more… »
I’ve been watching closely what the Padres are doing to get Brian Giles back to hitting as well as he has in previous years. His average is over .300 lifetime but only about .160 as of this writing. Note that even though I am talking about a specific player, it can apply to many, if not most MLB players.
Ordinarily this would not be something that I normally do since most hitters will go through a slump and then come out of it without a major disruption in their hitting abilities. However, I was intrigued with this player mainly because of what I read in regard to how he was working “to get his groove back.” Read more… »
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