A special thanks to performance coach and massage therapist Patrick Ward (OptimumSportsPerformance.com) who took the time to answer my questions about arm care for high school baseball players.

# 1: High school baseball players (particularly pitchers) endure a lot of “wear & tear” on their arm over the course of a season. Without the same access to trainers & therapists as college players and professionals, what are some therapeutic & recovery measures you would recommend during the season?

While it is true that high school athletes may not have the same access to therapy as professional athletes, there are several things that they can do to ensure proper recovery between training and competition.

First, we need to determine why the “wear and tear” is happening. Are the athletes playing to frequently? Are they overtraining? Have they been playing the same sport year round without breaks?

These are all important questions to ask when speaking with an athlete who is complaining of being overworked.

Next, and probably most importantly, as coaches we need to determine what we can TAKE OUT of the training program before adding something back in. To often people want to add in recovery strategies, but in reality, we should be trying to eliminate the stuff that is creating you to get “beat up” in the first place. This really goes back to the first questions I asked above. Does the athlete need a break? Can we eliminate some practices or competitions? Can we make practices shorter and more focused?Can we make training/lifting shorter and more focused? Are we trying to train/lift too much during a period of high competition/practice? You can do all the recovery stuff you want, but if you keep going out there, grinding it out, and overtraining, then the recovery strategies wont make a difference. So take things away first to allow for optimal recovery. Review your training program and make sure you aren’t trying to do too much stuff.

Finally, the best thing the high school athlete can do for recovery is develop some healthy strategies. Not only will these strategies help them with their recovery, but also it will set them up with healthy habits for the rest of their lives. These are very basic things like eating a balanced diet and getting adequate protein, fruits and vegetables, staying hydrated and drinking enough water (drinking water and staying hydrated is highly underrated as a recovery strategy), and getting the appropriate amount of sleep (high school students are notorious for staying up late and not sleeping enough). Additionally, being aware of the other stressors. High school athletes have a tremendous amount of stress placed on them – school stress, social stress, family stress, sports/athletic stress, training/lifting stress, financial stress, etc. Imagine a pot of water on the stove and each stressor causes the temperature of the stovetop to increase. At one point or another, many of these stressors will be firing at the same time (especially around midterm and finals time, when the athletes are taking lots of tests, staying up late studying or writing papers, and generally have a high level of anxiety). The training stress might be that last stressor to push the temperature up just enough to cause the water to boil over and spill out all over the stove. From a coaching standpoint, this comes down to understanding your athletes and getting a feel for where they are on any given training day. You have to call the shots and determine if today’s session is a good day to ramp things up and go for PR’s or pull things back, recover a little bit, and live to train hard another day.

Aside from that, if you can get some good soft tissue therapy every now and then it can be extremely helpful. I think of soft tissue therapy in two ways – corrective or restorative. Corrective soft tissue work would be trying to improve the tissue quality with a specific objective. For example, you may be working on a certain area with the objective of getting the athlete off the table to try and move/function better, or you may be using the soft tissue therapy during a time of injury, when you need to improve tissue quality and decrease ischemia, trigger points, or fascial adhesions. Corrective soft tissue work is another added stressor as it is highly specific and focused work, so keep that in mind when trying to implement this sort of therapy. Restorative on the other hand is just as the name implies. Generally this would be a less stressful massage, not really focused specifically on one area, and the goal is more just focused on getting you to relax.

# 2: Sore elbows are an “all-too-common” ailment for high school baseball players early on in the spring. In lieu of a progressive throwing program (which includes long toss) to condition the arm for the season, what therapeutic techniques would you use on an athlete complaining of a sore elbow?

I think the answer to this question really comes down to how good your assessment is prior to spring practice. Understanding fundamental movements and the dynamics of the sport are critical as this will drive your assessment and help you to understand what to look at. One of the issues with this is that most high school sports coaches know very little about assessing their athletes, so when spring practice roles around, there is no way of telling which kids need to be doing more remedial work before starting their training program, and which kids are able to begin a normal throwing program. This is where having the baseball coach refer out to a qualified strength coach or athletic trainer to perform the appropriate assessments would be beneficial.

So, therapeutically, the answer should be…WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO DO ANY THERAPY! We want to screen the kids out and make sure we address things before they become a problem and we need to refer them out to a medical professional for a therapeutic intervention.

The elbow takes a beating during a baseball throw. Between throwing a baseball and a tennis serve, the elbow joint moves through an arc between 75-100 degrees in about 20-35msec. When athletes complain of having a sore elbow, typically this is the area that we look at. However, the site and source of the problem may not be the same place. Kibler and Sciascia did a great job of looking at the entire kinetic chain and its implications to elbow dysfunctions. They state that when looking at an athlete with elbow symptoms it is important to look at factors that influence loading of the elbow, such as, the shoulder, trunk, hips, and legs. A common finding that they note is previous ankle sprain in the contralateral (opposite) foot, which is the plant foot (for a right handed pitcher, this would be the left foot). Additionally, they go on to say that painful and/or dysfunctional shoulder movement is present often times before the onset of elbow pain.

These are important points to note as a strength coach because our screening process will allow us to better understand the athletes we are working with and guide us in assessing these areas to determine if the athlete has any special needs that should be addresses prior to jumping into a full throwing program or if the athlete needs to be referred out first to a medical professional for further evaluation.

For my movement assessment I like to use the Functional Movement Screen, as I feel it gives me an adequate snapshot of the athletes’ abilities in 7-basic movements. Besides the movement screen, for a throwing athlete looking at their posture and thoracic spine function is important. While the elbow may be painful, this is often times a result of poor shoulder function which, if we trace that back even further we will see poor scapular control and further back from that decreased thoracic spine function. It has been well documented that scapular stability is necessary for optimal shoulder function as proper scapular mechanics allow the rotator cuff musculature to efficiently contribute to the movement of the shoulder by keeping the head of the humerus centered in the joint (Kibler). Beyond that, the muscles that stabilize the scapula all have attachments onto the spine. If the thoracic spine is not moving properly, you can train scapular stability all day, but those muscles will never be able to adequately contribute to proper movement in a more dynamic situation. So addressing thoracic spine mobility first would be helpful.

Besides the shoulder, scapula and thoracic spine, the assessment should look at hip mobility and core function. The Functional Movement Screen covers a lot of the bases, and adding a few specific tests that look more closely at specific joints of the throwing athlete will be beneficial in giving you a whole picture and helping to understand where to begin with that athletes training and throwing program. This will help alleviate some of the elbow pains that typically come with spring practice.

#3: Recently, I had a long toss session with one of my clients (for the first time in years) and the next morning my back and posterior shoulder were brutally sore, what specifically can an athlete do to speed up his recovery from such a “max-effort” workout?

Before anything else, I think we need to look at the first part of your statement. This was the first time in years that you performed a long toss session. Obviously, there is going to be some soreness from this sort of work. So, properly increasing the volume and intensity of your throwing program is important. Much like training, we can’t just show up to the gym and try and do a max effort workout if we haven’t trained in years. Well, we can…but the results will be similar to what you are currently experiencing.

Throwing programs should be progressive, just like training. You don’t want to go out there and throw everything you have got and then be shot for the next seven days. You need to have a specific program that allows for recovery between throwing sessions and varies between max effort throwing (like a game situation) and recovery throwing (like a light bullpen session).

The key to recovering between workouts is to understand the type of stresses you are placing on your body. Everyday should not be a max effort day. Alternating between days of higher intensity and lower intensity can be very helpful in the overall program design. Giving yourself some rest after a max effort throwing day is very important – there is a reason that major league pitchers get five days off in between starts! People tend to think of lower intensity days as useless because you aren’t working your hardest or setting PR’s. THAT’S OKAY! Not everyday needs to be a PR day. It is more important to be processes oriented and have a training program that leads you down the road to a specific goal. If we have a hard workout, typically the next day will be lower in intensity (and volume) and we will do more tempo runs, body weight circuits, or low intensity medicine ball work. This shouldn’t be so much work or such high intensity that it kills you. The goal is to just get out there and move around and allow the body to recover a little bit and stay “primed”, so that it is ready for the next high intensity session.

#4: You use A.R.T. in your practice – what is it and how can it help pitchers recover between “max-effort” throwing sessions?

Active Release Techniques (ART) is a type of soft tissue therapy that is centered on dealing with fascial restrictions/adhesions or nerve entrapment. This is one of the techniques we employ at our facility, but in reality, no one technique is more important or more “magical” than another. I’d rather go to a therapist that is skilled in dealing with soft tissue rather than someone who is ART-certified but has poor touch.

I have a few different soft tissue therapy tools in my toolbox and knowing when to use one technique over another is what will ultimately make the session more effective. As I stated in an earlier response, I think of soft tissue therapy in two ways – corrective or restorative. In between max effort throwing sessions (games), I’ll use different techniques depending on the needs of the athlete, with the main goal being to improve overall tissue quality and movement/function. Helping them decreased perceived levels of soreness is one benefit that many athletes enjoy from massage therapy and having more a relaxing/restorative massage may be helpful following a day of high intensity work, but to me the real goal is what we can do when they get off the table. If we limit the work to just table work and then the athlete leaves, we may be missing out on some excellent improvements in movement. So, I use the manual therapy as a way to improve tissue quality, decrease ischemia/trigger points/fascial adhesions, and improve range of motion. Then, we get the athlete up off the table and have them go through some exercise/movements to have them really own the new range of motion that we have developed on the table in a real world and more dynamic role.

#5: In your opinion, is bench pressing “bad” for pitchers? Are there any specific upper body exercises or protocols you’d recommend for pitchers?

This is a heavily debated topic amongst strength coaches, and the complaint about barbell bench pressing is that scapulo-humeral rhythm is not optimal.

For my overhead athletes, I don’t have them bench press with the barbell but sometimes they may do some bench pressing with dumbbells, as this allows for a freer movement. We do a lot of push up variations for the overhead athletes as this allows the scapula to move freely and helps them create stability with their own body, where as in a bench press stability is gained from the bench itself as well as you driving your feet into the ground.

Other than that, we do a lot of pulling/rowing movements as well.

Patrick Ward holds a Masters Degree in Exercise Science and is the founder of Optimum Sports Performance. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) through National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), and a USA Weightlifting-Certified Club Coach. In addition, Patrick holds a diploma in massage therapy and is currently licensed in the state of Arizona (LMT #12232). He specializes in clinical, therapeutic and sports massage, is certified In Neuromuscular Therapy, and has taken courses in Active Release Technique. Patrick’s professional experience working with a diverse clientele ranges from training for general health, to rehabilitation, to athletes who want to take their abilities to the next level.

We first met Zak when he came to DeLuca’s as a gangly eleven year old who wanted speed training. What struck us right away was his intensity during workouts and desire to win. His commitment to throwing, training, and game preparation rivals that of big leaguer Roy Halladay. Always on time for his strength & conditioning workouts, Zak is passionate about becoming a big league pitcher someday.

Links

The following interview and case study is an awesome overview of what Zak and his dad Kendall have done to develop his arm strength while simultaneously making sure not to overextend his body too much before high school.

Model Zak’s success — click here to download his pre-season throwing & conditioning program

If you’re sick and tired of walking onto the field and playing in a body that gets squashed like a Ford Pinto, change your habits and eat big to get your Abrams Tank armor upgrade.

Listen, training is only half the battle. If you don’t supply your body with the best “construction material” (i.e. food) you’ll never get the armor upgrade you desire. If you show up to workouts with zero nutritional habits, you might as well stay at home and pick a different activity. Eating to add size is a job!

This 116-page, no-nonsense, nutrition guide is loaded with research, meal plans, grocery lists, case studies, recipes, and strategies designed to help you add size while simultaneously improving performance through a sound strength & conditioning program. Some of what you’ll find inside is:

• How good food choices and nutritional timing can simulate the benefits of “anabolic steroids”
• Why breakfast is the most important “muscle meal” of the day
• How skipping meals will keep you “scrawny”
• How to employ your “construction” cells to work overnight to build your body as you sleep
• How muscle shakes can “kick start” the growth and repair process during workouts

And way, way, way more…

Let’s be real, high school sports like football are dangerous. You compete against athletes who are “juiced up” and intent on hurting you. We designed this nutrition guide to protect you. As you’ll find out, there are safer and healthier alternatives to drugs that will keep you on the field longer and make you just as strong (if not stronger) than the “cheaters” out there.

Available June 8th

$97.00 (FREE to Summer Clients)

In addition to the “Eat Big and Take Names Later” nutrition guide, you’ll get access to a two-hour jam packed webinar thats delves right into the nuts and bolts of the program.

Register for our email newsletter on the right hand side of the screen to get updates on the eBook, webinar, and other bonuses we’re throwing in the mix. —–>

Playing high school sports is akin to going to war. Every time you step across the lines, you’re in for the fight of your life… why not surprise your opponents next year, and show up in a body built like a tank?

High school coaches commented that I had no idea what I was doing and ridiculed the way we train athletes. Change can be difficult so I don’t blame them. The squat has been one of the core lifts found in almost every successful football training program in America since forever, yet here I was telling athletes to scrap the exercise.

Is the back squat losing favor in strength training programs designed for athletes?

As I watched our athletes train my intuition told me something was wrong.

How often in team sports do we run or jump with two legs? Not often; I can think of at tip-off and the occasional 2 handed dunk in basketball.

From a training perspective, heavy squats didn’t seem to replicate what I was seeing on the field or court.

In January of 2009 I tried an experiment. I took our strongest athlete who could front squat 230 pound for 3 reps, cut his bar weight in half, and told him to do as many reps as possible on one leg.

The result shocked me… he did 14 reps!

That’s when the puzzle started to come together for me…

In the past, when spotting an athlete on a “max effort” back squat, the mechanical point of failure was always at the low back. The legs appeared to still have juice in them, but the back just could not support the weight. What this told me was that the back was the limiting factor, not the legs.

In the past, our philosophy was, “to maximize performance (speed & jumping) squat heavy or go home.” Needless to say, we had a lot of sore backs in the gym for a few years. We bought into the clan mentality and trained athletes like everybody else.

Thinking Outside the Box

Today it’s a lot different around here. It’s no longer about how much weight can you lift, but how to best prepare you to be faster, stronger and more explosive on the field. Since we’ve revamped our performance program to train exclusively on one leg, our athletes have had zero back issues and have improved in almost every performance test we’ve throw at them (vertical jump, 40-yard dash, pro shuttle, etc.).

A recent study in the Journal of Sports Rehabilitation has validated our programming solution:

“the single leg squat variations may be better for performance enhancement while simultaneously reducing risk of injury to the low back when lifting even moderate resistances.” [McCurdy, K. ET al (2010) Comparison of Lower Extremity EMG Between the 2-Leg Squat and Modified Single-Leg Squat in Female Athletes. JSR. 19(1)]

The study also discovered that the rear foot elevated split squat [video below] produced greater EMG activity (i.e. muscular stress) in both the gluteus medius and hamstrings compared to the 2-leg squat; two commonly undertrained muscles and critical for running at top speed.

In the video above, baseball player Wes Piersall performs 10 single leg squats with 160 pounds on his back which equates to a 420 pound back squat… do you think he’s fast? Watch him track down a fly ball in the outfield.

To improve your speed and jumping ability make single-leg training a staple in your strength training program; you’ll keep your back healthy while packing on some serious muscle and maximizing performance.

Tom Dooley has been winning high school baseball games for a long time. More importantly, he’s made a huge difference in the lives of countless student-athletes; many of whom have gone off to play college and professional sports. A quiet and humble man, Dooley embodies the spirit of coaching and prepares his student-athletes to be successful on and off the field. For those of you who don’t know him yet, we think you’ll find his wisdom timeless, insightful, and a breath of fresh air.

We talk about:

• Why character (not talent) is your key to success at the next level
• Coach Dooley’s coaches and how developing trust is the “glue” for any organization
• Where athletes should focus more time and energy
• Overcoming adversity and getting 1% better everyday
• How to stand out from your competition
• Why the sum of today + today + today = your career
• How waiting your turn, staying patient, getting your reps and discovering your role will “pay off”
• Why communication is central to being successful
• Coach Dooley’s definition of success

Click the audio buttons to hear the interview, or you can download the MP3 from the link below.

From the Neck Up: A Coaches Perspective on Succeeding in the Game of Life (MP3)

Links

MCC Baseball Camp June 7th – June 11th

Scouts and coaches have always said that the fastest athletes are determined at birth. Yeah maybe some, however genetics alone will not help you achieve your highest speed potential.

In team sports, the best athletes are not necessarily the ones who can outrun a cheetah on a straightaway, but the athlete who can accelerate to a “hole” or ball the fastest. The problem is, most athletes don’t train for this all-important ability.

Through training and drills you can learn to start and accelerate better while increasing your sprint speed. The following bullet points are seven things you’re (probably) not doing that can have a dramatic effect on your speed development:

#1 – Train for Function Not Muscle Size

Training for speed should have everything to do with performance and nothing to do with “how big can I get?” If you’re training to add muscle bulk then you’re probably doing it at the expense of your speed. Train to develop better balance, coordination, and neuromuscular control. Train to develop better single leg strength and core stability. Functional training is no longer a “buzzword” in strength & conditioning, it’s the standard. If your strength coach can’t explain to you why you’re doing a particular exercise (as it relates to performance) then run the other way.

#2 – Perform Carefully Executed Explosive Lifts & Plyometrics

Explosive lifts and Plyometrics trains your body overcome inertia “with authority” and become more explosive. Both, however, require surgical precision to detail and good coaching. Explosive lifts have a greater degree of risk associated with them because you’re dealing with an external load, whereas Plyometrics are safer but often “over-trained” with most athletes. Both forms of training can have a huge impact on your speed development and are an important component to helping you develop better acceleration.

#3 – Lift for Maximal Force Production

Every opportunity you get, lift a weight with as much force as possible – you’ll get stronger. Obviously, anything too light will become a projectile (ballistic training), but if you properly select a heavy enough load [even at a moderate level] you can recruit more motor units/muscle fibers by moving the weight with as much speed as possible. Newton’s Second Law of Motion states that the “force applied to a body produces proportional acceleration.” The basic equation F=ma demonstrates that. For speed development, the more force you exert with your body into the ground, the more the ground exerts against you to propel and push you forward. Lifting for maximal force production will get your legs stronger and allow you to run faster.

#4 – Cycle Your Exercises Every 3 to 4 Weeks

Your body is an adaptive organism. Fitness entrepreneurs have raked in millions coining new terms like “muscle confusion” (P90X) to explain the need to cycle your exercises. Often times, changing the rep ranges, load parameters, and rest intervals can be enough, or to get really creative you can introduce some instability or the way you position yourself for the exercise. Your body will respond by engaging new muscle fibers and developing more strength.

#5 – Condition With the Goal to Sprint Faster Not Win the Boston Marathon

Trainers who send their athletes off on a 15-minute run to “get faster” do not understand the principles behind speed development. Doing long, slow, and steady state running does not develop explosiveness or greater speed. To train your Energy System as it relates to helping you sprint faster, perform short & explosive intervals in a competitive environment with your peers. Next time your coach sends you off on a 5-mile run politely remark that “you’re killing my wheels coach.”

#6 – Perform Mobility Work Everyday

Your ankles, hips and shoulders need attention everyday. Keeping these joints healthy and mobile is critical in your quest to run faster. All undergo a tremendous amount of stress and develop “tightness” as a means of protection from further trauma. In addition to performing mobility work everyday, invest in getting a good massage from a practitioner who understands the stress you endure.

# 7 – Drill, Drill, Drill Starts & 10 Yard Sprints

Drill the guts out of becoming a better “starter” and 10-yard sprinter. You’ll expend a significant amount of time and energy getting “out of the box” and up to speed. Once you’ve overcome inertia and gained some momentum accelerating becomes easier. Focus on driving the ground away and taking fewer steps. The best sprinters cover the first 10-yards in 5 steps! You can’t take less steps running upright. Be comfortable training in a “controlled fall” when learning how to accelerate.

Now let us preface this tip with “it’s illegal to wager money or anything of value on a bet in the state of Florida” so that you understand the consequences.

The challenge must be carefully introduced with some ground rules. First, designate one of your friends as the timekeeper and rep counter. Second, it’s best that you designate another friend as the “referee” who’s impartial to the whole deal (lest we get into the ramifications of collusion under FL law). Next, demonstrate the perfect technique:

• Hands must be shoulder width apart
• Body needs to be erect from head-to-toe (no butt in the air or sagging)
• Must lower chest as far down as possible without bouncing off the ground
• Must lock the elbows in the top position

From that point, it’s all uphill for your friends. In the 4-minute allotment instruct your friends “take as much rest time as you need HOWEVER the clock keeps ticking.”

Is the challenge impossible? No, in fact almost every spring semester athlete at DeLuca’s has completed the challenge with Cody Dentmon setting the gym record at 3:03 (we’ll upload video proof whenever his chest stops swelling – haha).

If you complete the challenge, send us your video proof (unedited) and we’ll mail you a free ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ DeLuca’s t-shirt for your efforts.

It’s not the words you say aloud, because half the time [around your teammates] it’s gibberish anyway; it’s the words you say in the privacy of your own mind.

“I’m not big enough” or “I’m not strong enough” may sound like petty self-judgments of who you are as an athlete. Actually, they are the instructions that have led you to your current position.

Begin simply by declaring who and what you want to become and soon the words will become facts.

What makes the combine so important for high school football athletes is that NIKE sends off each player’s test scores to every college football program in the country. Athletes have the option to “scratch” their scores if they’re not happy with their result, however our hard-working clients performed very well considering the poor conditions.

Notable performances came from Blaze Richardson, an 8th grade running back who will attend Bayside High School next season – he ran a 4.88 sec 40-yard dash and a 4.56 sec 20-yard pro shuttle. Vinny Smith, a sophomore quarterback from Merritt Island High School, tested well in the power events recording a vertical jump of 32″ and a 35-foot power ball toss.  Austin Mcguire, a junior linebacker at Palm Bay High School,  ran a solid 4.52 sec 20-yard pro shuttle after the field was wet & torn-up, plus he recorded a 31-foot power ball toss. Jake Smith, a junior quarterback from Palm Bay High School, recorded an above average 27.5″ vertical jump, but what makes his stat so incredible is that at 6′4″ he also boasts a 100″ standing reach!

Athletes will now prepare for the Schuman Underclassmen Combine in Orlando, FL on April 9th-10th where they’ll also test the broad jump, 3-cone drill and bench press.

In golf the hip is exposed to a great deal of stress on the downswing. The increased risk of hip injury is greater today because of the greater rotation favoured by the modern golf swing. The hip rotator cuff can be sufficiently warmed-up and activated with the following exercise:

Note: hip activation complex-II is a more advanced version of the exercise and can be performed with athletes demonstrating good core control. In this video, our athlete does not maintain proper core stability to progress to this drill.