Kluber's used weighted balls for 8 yrs. Scherzer's never thrown one. That's 5 Cy Youngs respectfully at odds on a hot topic in the baseball world - & they're different in other ways, too. There's no one way to become the best pitcher on the planet; find what works best for YOU. pic.twitter.com/B0iwjQ1qjz
With holiday travels and product sales, I skipped our recommended reading last week. Here is some good stuff to make up for it!
What awaits in negotiations for Major League Baseball's next labor deal? - Jayson Stark wrote up this great piece about the various items that will be discussed by MLB owners and players in anticipation of the new collective bargaining agreement. If you train baseball players, a number of these issues - from roster size, to potentially shortening the season, to the outrageous travel scheduling - all can have a significant impact on how you prepare players and educate them on taking care of themselves during the season. And, this doesn't even speak to how it might change the draft for amateur athletes with whom you interact. In short, if you want to understand the training of professional baseball players, you better understand the business of baseball!
6 Healthy Habits You're Already Doing (and Don't Even Know It) - The crew at Precision Nutrition wrote up this article on how many people who think they're struggling with their fitness goals actually already have some great habits working on their side.
Poor Business Advice from Training and Business "Gurus" - David Allen wrote up a great article for EliteFTS on the bad business advice that's out there in the strength and conditioning and personal training world. I absolutely loved the quote, "Try not to take too much business advice from people whose only business has been giving business advice."
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I hope everyone had a great weekend. For some reason, there was a ton of great content around the 'Net in the past week, so I actually had my work cut out for me in paring this down to my top three choices. Check them out:
When You Know it's Time to Get Out - This was an absolutely fantastic post from Dave Tate that appealed to me on multiple levels: small business success rates, retirement from strength sports, and the need for experienced coaches to "give back" to the strength and conditioning community.
Happy New Year, everyone!
I thought I'd use this first post of 2010 as a way of looking forward to what's on tap at EricCressey.com for the year. In true "Random Thoughts" fashion, here we go:
1. Nate Green just interviewed me for what I think will be a great feature at T-Muscle in the next week or two. It will be similar in structure to this piece Nate did with Dave Tate, which definitely turned out to be an entertaining read. Keep an eye out for it!
2. Speaking of interviews, I'll be doing one with Brian Grasso for the IYCA on Tuesday. Brian's a very forward-thinking guy and I'm excited to catch up with him.
3. Speaking of T-Muscle, I'm finishing up my "What I Learned in 2009" article this weekend. It follows the articles I wrote for 2006, 2007, and 2008.
4. Also coming up in the next month or so will be the release of the DVDs of Mike Reinold and my seminar from November: Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder: From Rehabilitation to High Performance. It's being edited as I type this.
5. This January 24, Cressey Performance will be hosting Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks for his seminar, . You can register HERE, or for more information on Neil's background, click HERE. If you'd like to see a seminar agenda, please just email me at ec@ericcressey.com.
6. I'll be presenting in Tampa, FL (Jan); Winchester, MA (Jan); Las Vegas, NV (March); and Vancouver, BC (March); and Boston, MA (May) in this first part of 2010. Check out my schedule page for more information on these events.
7. I'm very anxious to hear more of the feedback on Assess and Correct, which has already sold in more than two dozen countries. This is a product I truly believe will help a lot of people, and the short-term feedback we've received since its release in October has been tremendous.
8. At Cressey Performance, our staff has started up what (for lack of a more masculine term) we're calling the Staff Book Club. Each staff member will present on what he learns in a different book each week. I think it'll be a great way to cover more material and keep us all accountable to each other on getting our continuing education done.
9.I'm pumped for more content from Matt Blake in 2010. He's been a fantastic resource for all our athletes and I'm excited to share with you all how Matt and I collaborate to make our pitchers better. I think it'll make for some great content.
10. I'd really like to continue to grow both the newsletter and blog. You can sign up for notifications on both fronts to the right of the screen, if you haven't already.
11. I'm really pumped for all our guys who have found great college choices; it's an exciting time for both the 2010 and 2011 guys. Most recently, CP athlete Adam Ravenelle committed to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship. Adam's been with us since before his freshman year, and we're all really proud of him. He actually joins another CP pitcher, Tyler Beede, who committed to Vanderbilt just a few weeks ago. Both guys are in the class of 2011, and join Barrett O'Neill (University of Virginia) and Joe Napolitano (Boston College) as our early committees from that class.
There should be plenty more guys with exciting news along these lines in the months to come as well.
12. I'm really excited to watch Cressey Performance grow in the months ahead. While I was certainly thrilled at the growth we saw (15%) in 2009 and I hope it continues, I am most thrilled at how many clients we've seen change their bodies and their lives since they started up, and how many friendships we've seen cultivated inside CP. If you'd have told me a few years ago that we'd have over 25 people in on Thanksgiving morning, for instance, I would have told you that you were crazy!
In addition to our clients' accomplishments, I'm so proud of our staff. I could never do what I do without such great guys working alongside me, and the best part is that they are insatiable in their desire to get better. We're constantly getting better and it makes every new day fun. The best part is that I feel like it's something that's carried over to our interns, too; there are some really talented people with bright futures coming through here.
13. I'm very excited for the new CP website, which should be done in a matter of a few days. Along those same lines, there is a pretty sweet training and testimonial montage being pulled together about our Elite Baseball Development program. I was actually getting pretty fired up just watching some of the footage that had been gathered thus far.
14. I can't wait to attack all the books and journal articles that are in my stack of "Things to Read" right now. There's too much material to cover, but never enough time!
15. Last, but certainly not least, it'll also be a very busy (but exciting) year for me personally in 2010, as my fiancee Anna and I will be getting married this October. And, even before we get to that, we're planning to buy our first home in the next 4-6 months. Obviously, we're already doing a lot of planning!
Needless to say, I'm looking forward to all of this - and probably a few surprises along the way. Best wishes for 2010, and stay tuned!
A few weeks ago a video of strength coach Mike Boyle presenting at a seminar hit the Internet, and boy did it piss some people off. Why? Just take a look at this quote from Boyle:
"This is going to be the hardest thing for people to accept. The muscle-head crowd, the T-Muscle crowd...they're gonna be like, 'Mike you're saying don't do squats any more.' Yes, I'm saying don't do conventional squats any more." I watched the clip again. No more squatting? But isn't it the king of lower body exercises? Just what the hell was going on?
So I called Boyle to get his thoughts. Then, because I wanted to hear other points of view, I called Dave Tate, Christian Thibaudeau, and Eric Cressey.
Click here to read more...
Let me be clear about one thing: with the possible exception of anything that comes out of Larry King's mouth, there are no unimportant interview questions. Every question or comment serves a purpose, whether it's to get the interviewee to open up, show emotion, unleash new information, or just get back on track. Everything matters.
But I recently learned that sometimes I should just let the guy ramble. If he wants to rant, my job is to shut up and make sure the tape recorder keeps rolling.
Most of the guys I interview are great at going off on tangents. And while the resulting transcript is often a jumbled mess of opinion, applied research, and hard-earned experience, occasionally I get something unexpected: an idea for a completely different article based on the unrelated information or opinion. To paraphrase Rod Stewart, every tangent tells a story.
This is a collection of those tangents and tidbits from Dave Tate, Chris Bathke, Matt McGorry, Eric Cressey, and Craig Weller.
Continue Reading...
Writer Greg McGlone rounded up five of the biggest, baddest, strongest, and best-informed hombres in the iron game, and invited them to share their "secrets" with those of us who also want to get bigger, badder, stronger, and better-informed.
In part 1, the coaches discussed the viability of building size and muscle at the same time, along with a comparison between compound and isolation movements.
In part 2, they tackled the topic of whether you have to look strong to be strong, along with a fascinating discussion of training splits.
Today, the topics include nutrition, supplementation, recovery, and some final thoughts.
Continue Reading
Writer Greg McGlone rounded up five of the biggest, baddest, strongest, and best-informed hombres in the iron game, and invited them to share their "secrets" with those of us who also want to get bigger, badder, stronger, and better-informed.
In part 1, the coaches discussed the viability of building size and muscle at the same time, along with a comparison between compound and isolation movements.
Today, they'll tackle the topic of whether you have to look strong to be strong, along with a fascinating discussion of training splits.
Continue Reading...
Writer Greg McGlone rounded up five of the biggest, baddest, strongest, and best-informed hombres in the iron game, and invited them to share their "secrets" with those of us who also want to get bigger, badder, stronger, and better-informed.
Continue Reading...
