A Quick Favor to Ask of You

Written on July 7, 2010 at 9:15 pm, by Eric Cressey

Hey Gang,

I’ve got a quick and easy favor to ask of you.

Cressey Performance client and Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis is a finalist (one of five) for the last All-Star spot on the American League roster – and it’s decided by fan voting.  Granted, I’m biased, but his numbers blow those of the other four candidates out of the water.  Youk’s a contender for the AL MVP award each year, and he’s currently on track for career highs in runs, hits, walks, homeruns, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS – all while playing Gold Glove caliber defense to help keep a team riddled with injuries on track.

Numbers aside, on a personal note, Kevin’s become a great friend, and several of our conversations about baseball development and hitting approaches have directed inspired some of the content on this blog.  He’s also a huge presence in the Boston area via all the money his charity raises for some awesome causes in the community.

So, with that said – whether it’s because his numbers warrant it or his contributions warrant it (or both) – I’d ask that you take a second to vote for him (as many times as you want, actually): 2010 All-Star Game Final Vote.

Voting ends Thursday at 4pm EST.  Thanks for your help – and here’s that link again:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2010/fv/ballot.html

Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Development Program in The Boston Globe

Written on April 9, 2010 at 7:56 am, by Eric Cressey

Just a quick heads-up about a great article in The Boston Globe about Cressey Performance’s Elite Baseball Development Program.  It features interviews with Kevin Youkilis, Curt Schilling, Chad Rodgers, Joe Bick, and Adam Ravenelle.

Custom Body Shop: Hudson Personal Trainer Gains a Following Among Elite Athletes

Click here for more information on the Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Development Program.

Have a great weekend!

Make a Donation, Get a Vote

Written on March 25, 2010 at 5:15 am, by Eric Cressey

Help Cressey Performance client Kevin Youkilis out with a great cause: www.YouksKids.org.

Anyone who doesn’t vote for the ‘stache is crazy.

Random Friday Thoughts: 3/12/10

Written on March 12, 2010 at 9:35 am, by Eric Cressey

1.I spent about 2.5 days in Las Vegas earlier this week to present at the NSCA Personal Trainers Conference.  I really enjoyed the event, as it was a chance to interact with a lot of new people (I don’t speak out west very often) and hopefully help some enthusiastic, up-and-coming trainers add to their skill sets.  In my last presentation, Shoulder Assessment and Corrective Exercise, (to about 50 people), when I asked who had heard of scapulohumeral rhythm, not a single hand went up.  I was very surprised that this was something that hadn’t been covered sufficiently in undergraduate curricula or the certification process, as it’s really important, in my eyes.

The good news, however, is that Mike Reinold and I covered this topic (and many others) in great detail in our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.  We’ll be making the final revisions in the next few days, and it should be available within 2-3 weeks.  If you want to be among the first notified of the awesome one-week only pre-sale price, definitely subscribe to my free newsletter HERE.

2. If you’re looking to have some fun and help CP athlete Kevin Youkilis raise some money for a great cause, check out the “Facial Hair Frenzy” fundraiser at Youk’s Hits for Kids.  For each dollar you donate, you get one vote for which facial hair style – Goatee, Mustache, Clean Shaven, or Fu Manchu – Youk rocks on opening day.

Just click on “Mirror Mirror on the Wall” at Youk’s Hits for Kids.

3. All my “guinea pigs” for my new project are completing Phase 1 today/tomorrow, and will be embarking on phase 2 on Monday.  The feedback has been great thus far, and I’m pretty excited for the June/July release of the comprehensive program (which, unfortunately, still remains unnamed).  The beginning of each new phase means that I have to do about 45-50 exercise demonstrations, and that fun 90-minute task was yesterday.

4. In What I Learned in 2009, I alluded to the fact that we’re doing more ground-to-standing transitions in our training, and mentioned that Rollover Get-up and Go Starts were one of those drills.  Unfortunately, the video was accidentally omitted from the article, so I thought I’d feature it here.  Thanks to Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins for the demonstration.

5. We’re picking out the color schemes for all the rooms in our new house this week, and I have to be honest here.  While I’m unbelievably excited about moving into a new house, I am likely going to jab a hot poker in my eyes if I have to stare at a color sample for another 20 minutes to determine the difference between “nantucket fog” and “james river gray.”  The humor in all of this is that my fiancee is an optometrist and has come right out and said that she believes me to be partially color blind – which means that I shouldn’t even be allowed to have an opinion on the matter in the first place!

Up next, picking out a refrigerator and mailbox.  And here I was thinking that I’d get a mini-vacation now that the baseball season was underway!

Wrapping Up a Great Pro Baseball Off-Season

Written on March 5, 2010 at 10:37 am, by Eric Cressey

Today marks the end of one of the funnest “eras” of my life.

Back on September 9, we officially kicked off the pro baseball off-season with Tim Collins’ arrival at Cressey Performance for his first training session of the off-season.  Coming off a great season that included a promotion to Double-A at age 20 and a Blue Jays organizational pitcher of the year award, Tim was ready to get after it – and that’s exactly what he did.  From that day in September through February 6 (when he was called to Florida for mini-camp), Tim added 21 pounds to his frame while getting leaner – and increased his vertical jump by four inches (to 37.9 inches).

Tim was one of over 30 pro guys we had this winter.  Results were typical.

Chad Rodgers (Atlanta Braves organization) went from 206 to 233 while adding just under three inches to his vertical jump.  And he dominated “No Shave November.”

Jeremiah Bayer (Red Sox organization) packed on muscle mass faster than just about any athlete I’ve ever seen – to the tune of 13 pounds in only two months – while adding an inch to his vertical.  That’s a 5.6% improvement in predicted peak power in a short amount of time – and one that is carrying over to the mound already.

Heck, Pat Bresnehan packed on 14 pounds and jumped 37.5 inches (a 6.3 inch) improvement – and got himself signed by the Mariners – after coming to us in the latter phases of his rehab period!

Craig Albernaz (Rays organization) increased his vertical jump by over five inches while adding seven pounds before heading to big league camp – and this is a guy who has always struggled to put on any weight, let alone good weight!

Cory Riordan (Rockies) and Steve Cishek (Marlins) win the awards for the longest commutes to train.  Cory drove two hours to CP, and two hours home to Connecticut to get in his work with us – and he’s got a new body and a lot more athleticism to show for it.  Cishek wasn’t far behind with his 1 hour, 45 minute commute from Cape Cod four times a week all the way up through January.  I can say without wavering that both of them would tell you that the ride was 100% worth it.

Two other Braves guys – Derick Himpsl and Matt Kramer – also put in some great work that is already carrying over to the field.

Zach Piccola’s headed to White Sox camp with a great few months of training under his belt alongside free agent Nick Asselin.  Jim Fuller (Mets) committed himself to train like he never had before, and looks fantastic now.  Another Mets guy, Tim Stronach, has busted his hump to get better alongside his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery.

Steffan Wilson leaned out and dramatically changed the way he looks and moves – and it helped get him a much-deserved call-up to big-league camp last week.

Kevin Youkilis had a great off-season as well – due in part to his love of pushing the sled.  So far this spring, Youk’s looked good (much better than his strength coach, as is shown below), and we’re excited about the Red Sox season ahead.

Will Inman (Padres), Phil Negus (White Sox), and Kevin Nolan (Blue Jays) put in a great few months in the fall, and Steve Hammond (Giants), Kevin Pucetas (Giants), Nick McBride (Rangers), Benji Johnson (Braves), Matt Morizio (Royals), Justin Edwards (Cardinals), and Howie Clark (Blue Jays) made the most of all their visits to Boston this winter.

And, some “distance-based” guys of mine – Chad Jenkins (Blue Jays) and Anthony “A-Tan” Seraterelli (Royals) – made some excellent progress by following everything to a “T.”  A-Tan, Howie, and Morizio even made a hilarious video about their experiences (a joke, FYI):

One athlete, though, stepped it up big time on Thursday to set himself apart from all the rest. Tim Kiely (Angels) added 11 pounds and seven inches to his vertical jump, but his biggest claim to fame is that he took home the Gold in the first ever Cressey Performance Elite Baseball Olympics on the last day.  Granted, the “Olympics” were limited to five participants who collectively agreed to not tell the most athletic guys of the bunch about the event ahead of time – but that doesn’t mean that the boys didn’t bring their A games!  The Silver (5-lb) went to CP pitching coach Matt Blake, and the Bronze (2.5-lb) went to free agent Alex Szymanski.  Shawn Haviland (A’s) finished fourth, but he has a Harvard degree, and probably would have won if Sabermetrics trivia and word searches had been part of the contest.  Here’s the much-anticipated medal ceremony:

I am not sure where the championship belt fit in, but the entire day didn’t make much sense, so it seemed right.  Congratulations, Tim.

From these videos, a lot of people might think that we’re all about goofing around – but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Our guys have a good time, for sure, but it always comes after they’ve busted their butts in the gym.  And, frankly, if we didn’t have such great camaraderie and the guys weren’t such good friends, the motivation to train would never approach the level it has.  A good culture and outstanding results absolutely, positively go hand-in-hand.

Most of my writing on this blog is obviously geared toward educating folks on the training, research, nutrition, and other geeky science stuff.  However, I should make it absolutely clear that all the knowledge in the world in these regards won’t matter if you don’t have a good culture established for your athletes and clients.  They need to enjoy training and look forward to each and every session because they enjoy the process as much as the destination.

They need to be willing to come to you to critique the best man’s toast they’ve written (happened this winter).  They need to feel comfortable staying at your place if they’re in town for a few days (happened multiple times this winter).  They need to feel welcome spending Thanksgiving with your family (two of my athletes came home with me this past November).  And, they need to respect you enough as a person to value your opinion as a professional.  As the saying goes, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

That’s why most of our pro guys train six days a week from September/October all the way up until now, whereas many other places pro guys frequent consist of 3x/week “workouts” for the 4-6 weeks before spring training starts.  And, I feel like it is one of many things that differentiates us from our competition (whatever that may be).  We are about making athletes better, not just “working them out.”

I’m proud of all our guys not only for their hard work this off-season, but for taking an ownership stake in Cressey Performance to make it something special now and in the future.

Thanks for an awesome 5+ months, guys.  We can’t wait to do it again.

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive a Copy of the Exact Stretches
used by Cressey Performance Pitchers after they Throw!

Stuff You Should Read: 2/25/10

Written on February 25, 2010 at 7:04 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s some recommended reading for the week…

Effective Abdominal Training – I linked to a Bill Hartman post last week, and I’m going to do it again this week, because he puts out great stuff!  Check out this post, which features a video on core control.

Youk’s Diary: Good, Bad of Spring Training – CP client Kevin Youkilis will be keeping a blog on ESPN.com this season, and he gave us a little shoutout in the first one.  In addition to checking out Youk’s blog, I’d strongly encourage you to visit and donate to Youk’s Hits for Kids, a charity Kevin founded that does some awesome stuff for underprivileged kids.

7 Habits of Highly Defective Benchers – This was one of the most popular articles I’ve ever written, so I figured it’d be worth a “rerun.”

Last, but not least, don’t forget that our spring training sale ends TONIGHT at midnight.  Don’t miss out on your chance to get 30% off!  Click here for more information.

Kevin Youkilis Right at Home in Hub

Written on February 12, 2010 at 7:04 pm, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a good read from yesterday’s Boston Herald that alludes to my work with Kevin Youkilis this off-season.  Steve Buckley interviewed me for it on Wednesday, and the piece came out great.

Kevin Youklis Right at Home in Hub