Random Friday Thoughts: 3/19/10

Written on March 19, 2010 at 11:08 am, by Eric Cressey

1. I thought I’d kick this post off with a little technique troubleshooting.  Yesterday, one of the “guinea pigs” for my new project emailed this video to me and asked for some suggestions on bench press technique:

BP from Caleb Chiu on Vimeo.

My suggestions to him were as follows:

a. Your feet are antsy and jumping all over the place.  Get them pulled up a bit more under you so that they can’t move around.  Then, focus on pushing them into the floor the entire set.

b. Get more air in your belly.  Notice how the stomach sinks in?  That’s because you don’t have any air in it!

c. Get a handoff.  The #1 reason guys flair the elbows out is that they lose scapular stability – and you lose that the second you hand off to yourself.

2. I’m headed to a Postural Restoration Institute Myokinematic Restoration Seminar this weekend up in Portland, ME – while my fiancee and my mother work on stuff for the wedding.  It is amazing what lengths guys will go to in order to escape wedding planning, huh?

Just kidding; I’m actually really excited about it.  Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks turned me on to the PRI stuff and it’s really intrigued me from the get-go.

3. It’s been a fun week around here with the start of the high school baseball season.  I got over to help out with some warm-ups and movement training with the Lincoln-Sudbury guys during tryouts on Mon-Tue.  In all, we saw 33 Lincoln-Sudbury high school baseball players – from freshman to seniors – this off-season, so it was pretty easy to pick up where we left off with them in the weight room.  There was great energy, and lots of excitement about the new season.

4. Here’s a great feature on Blue Jays prospect Tim Collins and his training at Cressey Performance.

5. I was interviewed last week for an article about pitch counts.  It’s now featured HERE.

6. Some feedback on Assess & Correct:

“I was pretty excited when I received an e-mail from Eric and Mike saying that I was getting an advanced copy of their new Assess and Correct product.  Mike and Eric have had a history of putting out top notch information and products and when I saw that Bill Hartman was also involved in this new product I knew that this was going to be even more special.

“Since I own a fitness facility, I’m always looking for cutting edge information that I can recommend to my trainers.  After viewing the DVDs and reading through the manuals, my first thought was, ‘Wow, a home run!’

“Finally, a product that I could wholeheartedly recommend to all of my trainers as an excellent go-to reference tool to enhance their abilities in assessing their clients needs; pinpointing their weakness &/or imbalances and then effectively addressing these findings to make sure their clients can achieve their goals safely.”

Joe Dowdell, CSCS – Founder & Co-owner of Peak Performance, NYC
www.peakperformancenyc.com

Click here to pick up a copy of Assess and Correct.

7. Last, but certainly not least, CP athlete Danny O’Connor aims to run his professional boxing record to 11-o tonight with a bout at Twin River Casino in Rhode Island. Good luck, Danny!

Random Friday Thoughts: 4/10/09

Written on April 10, 2009 at 5:02 am, by Eric Cressey

1. On Monday, pretty much every baseball game in the state of Massachusetts was rained out.  To our delight, we had three of our high school baseball player show up at 2:30PM (they had the last period of school free) race in to get in training sessions before they headed to their 4:30PM indoor practice (in lieu of the game).

These guys actually thought that the game was going to be played the next day, so they were planning on having lighter days in the gym.  When I informed them that the game had actually been pushed back to May, one of them looked up at me and said, “So that means I can just go crazy today?”

That, folks, is how you make a strength coach smile.  And, it’s also how you inspire a Random Friday Thoughts blog on “Things You Can Say to Make a Strength Coach Smile.”

a. “I think cottage cheese tastes like poo, but I’m going to eat it anyway, because it’ll make me diesel.”

b. “I know that distance running is destroying my body, so I’m going to stop for real this time – unlike the last three times I promised to give it up forever.” (cough, Steph, cough)

c. “Can you tell Tony to turn this techno crap off?”

2. John Berardi just ran a feature on Howie Clark, from the Toronto Blue Jays system.  I just started to work with Howie about two months ago on his in-season training program, and this interview talks a lot about the interaction of his training and nutrition.  Check it out HERE.

3. On a related note, here’s a cool local article where I got a shout-out recently:

Pitch Count an Inexact Science

4. It wouldn’t be baseball season in Boston without a drunk dude busting a move in the stands at Fenway.  My girlfriend and I watched it live on Wednesday night and knew it was sure-fire blog material:

5. Here’s a little compilation of where Cressey Performance pro baseball guys are starting out this season.  If you live in the neighborhood of their ballparks, go check out our guys!

1. Chad Rodgers (Braves, LHP) – Myrtle Beach, SC
2. Will Inman (Padres, RHP) – San Antonio, TX
3. Tim Collins (Blue Jays, LHP) – Dunedin, FL
4. Shawn Haviland (A’s, RHP) – Kane County, IL
5. Steffan Wilson (Brewers, 1B/3B) – Brevard County (Viera), FL
6. Steve Hammond (Giants, LHP) – Fresno, CA
7. CJ Retherford (White Sox, 2B/3B) – Birmingham, AL
8. Matt Morizio (Royals, C) – Wilmington, DE
9. Howie Clark (Blue Jays, utility) – Las Vegas, NV
10. Andy D’Alessio (Giants, 1B) – Norwich, CT

We’ve got a few more guys in extended spring training and independent ball who should find out their destinations shortly.  If you know one of the guys above, though, get out and show ‘em some love!