Random Friday Thoughts: 1/30/09

Written on January 30, 2009 at 5:52 am, by Eric Cressey

1. I’m speaking at the Massachusetts High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Annual Clinic this morning, so this week’s random thoughts will be somewhat abbreviated.  I didn’t even have time to pick out this week’s music selection, so you have to settle for this dude getting owned!

2. Speaking of baseball, one thing I’ll be discussing in some detail is hip flexion range-of-motion asymmetries in pitchers.  You’ll almost always see far more hamstrings flexibility on the front leg for obvious reasons, but it’s also important to consider how throwing styles contribute to this issue.  Guys who throw on stiff front legs are ones who will most commonly present with big asymmetries.  Justin Verlander would be a great example:

Guys like Verlander need to pay close attention to maintaining adequate length of the right hamstrings (the opposite would be true of a left-handed pitcher).  Conversely, a guy like Greg Maddux who – at the same point in his throwing motion – is more flexed on the front knee, generally won’t have big issues in this regard (although they should still be assessed and addressed).

Leaving these issues unaddressed can lead to a host of problems, most notably hamstrings strains on the back leg.

3. Manuel Buitrago has put some excellent Olympic lifting demonstrations online to help those of you at home who are trying to pick up these complex lifts on your own.  Here’s a little sample:

For more videos just like this, check out Manuel’s YouTube page and the facility where he trains.

4. While I think it’s awesome that a lot of folks are finally catching on that glute activation is important for both injury prevention and rehabilitation, a lot of folks have lost sight of the fact that you have to be careful about just training the glutes in hip extension.  It’s also very important to pay attention to theirs roles as external rotators and abductors.  Once you’ve mastered bilateral movements in the sagittal plane (e.g., supine bridges), you need to get into single-leg and emphasis movements like bowler squats and lunges with reaches to various positions.  These are great inclusions in the warm-up, and we highlight several options in our Magnificent Mobility DVD.

And, to take it a step further, you’ve got to load up those single-leg movements and challenge frontal plane stability to lay some strength down on top of those newly discovered movement strategies.

5. In light of the flexibility/mobility tone of this series of random thoughts, I thought it might be a good time to remind you that “creep” typically sets in at about 20 minutes.  So, if you’ve been sitting at your desk reading for longer than that, it’d probably be a good idea to stand up for a few minutes, Quasimodo.

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Olympic Lifts and Adolescents

Written on June 5, 2007 at 4:27 pm, by Eric Cressey

Olympic lifts and adolescents… do you use them? Why or why not?

Personally, I generally don’t for several reasons. It’s not because I’m inherently opposed to Olympic lifts from an injury risk standpoint. Sure, I’ve seen cleans ruin some wrists, and there are going to be a ton of people with AC joint and impingement problems who can’t do anything above shoulder level without pain. That’s not to say that the exercises are fundamentally contraindicated for everyone, though; as with most things in life, the answer rests somewhere in the middle. Know your clients, and select your exercises accordingly.

My primary reasons for omitting them tend to be that I don’t always have as much time with athletes as I’d like, and simply because such technical lifts require constant practice – which we all know isn’t always possible with young athletes who don’t train for a living. Equipment limitations may be a factor (bumper plates are a nice luxury). And, to be very honest, I’ve seen athletes make phenomenal progress without using Olympic lifts, so I don’t concern myself too much with the arguing that goes on. If another coach wants to use them and is a good teacher, I’m find with him doing so; it just isn’t for me, with the exception of some high pulls here and there.

Eric Cressey