Four Years of Cressey Performance: Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Written on July 13, 2011 at 11:14 am, by Eric Cressey

When I woke up this morning, it seemed just like any other Wednesday morning.

I didn’t even realize that it had been four years since July 13, 2007: the day we opened the doors at Cressey Performance.  I would have blown right through today if my business partner, Pete, hadn’t reminded me of July 13′s significance when I came in to the office today.

On our first anniversary in 2008, I was absolutely swamped, as we’d just moved into a larger facility.  I was 100% aware of the significance of the day, but literally didn’t have time to enjoy it.

On the second anniversary, things had settled down a bit, and I wrote up a blog to celebrate the day: The Two Year Mark.

Last year, on the third anniversary, I went “all in” and wrote up this bad boy: Three Years of Cressey Performance: The Right Reasons and the Right Way.

This year, I celebrating by simply forgetting.

Is this my first “over 30″ moment, or is there something to be said for the fact that I forgot?

This has been, unarguably, our best year on a variety of fronts.  Some highlights:

Tim Collins – one of our first pro guys and longest tenured clients – went to the big leagues this year.  The same goes for guys like Cory Gearrin, Steve Cishek, and Trystan Magnuson.  We also saw more professional athletes (and clients overall) than any other year before.

Tyler Beede – also a long-time Cressey Performer – was drafted in the first round of the 2011 MLB Draft…and we celebrated in my living room.

Tyler was one of 12 players with CP ties taken in this year’s draft.

Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School won the Division 1 State Championship, and they epitomize everything that effective strength and conditioning can do to help keep a high school team healthy and performing at high levels.

Over 30 CP athletes in the Class of 2011 signed letters of intent to play Division 1 baseball.

We expanded our staff to include some great people who complemented our existing skill sets and program offerings nicely.

We added about 1,000 square feet more office space and polished up our look with some new paint and more framed/autographed jerseys on the walls.  I even got my own office – which is shared with our new mascot, Tank, of course:

Most importantly, though, we continued to have an absolute blast each and every day we came to “work” – and that, to me, is what it’s all about.  We made new friends and further developed already-existing friendships.  The CP family grew, and we offered a service to people that helped them get to where they wanted to be.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention financial gain – and the reason is pretty simple; I view it as secondary.  It’s the destination, and I’m a lot more concerned about the process.  Cultivate relationships, deliver a quality service, and genuinely care, and the money will take care of itself.  Before the business gurus out there start crapping on me, I’ll add that our business has grown by more than 30% over the past year in spite of the fact that I usually forget that I’m supposed to receive a paycheck at month’s end.  Pete just surprises me with it.

Don’t get me wrong; you need effective business systems to make things work.  If you’re an organizational disaster and can’t make your rent, it’s going to be pretty hard to put on a happy face and make someone’s day with your smile.  However, the overwhelming majority of “savvy business decisions” are actually a combination of common sense, courtesy, and a genuine desire to help someone.

Most of the people that ask us business questions want to know how much we charge, how much our rent is, how we schedule, what our hours are, who painted Tony’s t-shirt on him, what our start-up costs were, and why we don’t use electronic funds transfer (EFT).  What they should be asking us:

1. How do you remember so many people’s names?

2. How can you possibly know everyone’s health history who walks through your door?

3. How do you write individual strength and conditioning programs for everyone?

4. What do you do to build relationships?

5. How do you find time to get to so many baseball games?

6. How do you do to educate and retain staff?

7. How is it that all of your clients seem to be friends with each other? (As a little aside to this point, Tim Collins was at the facility the past two days while home for the all-star break, and he greeted every person who walked through the office door.  He even answered the phone for us twice.  That’s big-league customer service.)

There are some brilliant business consultants out there.  Pat Rigsby and Alwyn Cosgrove, for instance, are super bright guys and great friends who have helped loads of fitness professionals increase their incomes and improve their quality of life.  They are also the first guys to tell you that if you don’t know how to cultivate relationships and treat people right, then you’re studying for the wrong test by looking for the perfect business plan.

Spend more time focusing on the process, and worry less about the destination.  Four years from now, you’ll probably enjoy your “job” a lot more – both psychologically and monetarily – and have a lot more friends and experiences that make you smile each time you think of them.  You’ll probably even forget it’s your business’ anniversary!

Thank you, as always, to everyone for all your support.

As a mini-celebration of this day, I’ll do a little promo: if you purchase a CP hat HERE before Friday (July 15) at midnight, I’ll send along a video of a 37-minute staff in-service I did on shoulder assessment that’s uploaded to the ‘web.

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Cressey Performance Pro Guys’ Locations

Written on April 11, 2011 at 5:47 am, by Eric Cressey

I just wanted to put out this quick note for my readers out there who may be baseball fans located near a professional baseball park. It’s a listing of where the participants in this season’s off-season program will begin the year.  Please comment if you’re located near one of these teams and plan on heading out to support our guys, as it’s awesome to know when our players have a good audience cheering them on.

This list progresses from East to West, American to National League (by organizational affiliation):

Chad Jenkins – Dunedin, FL (Blue Jays High A)

Matt Abraham – Dunedin, FL (GCL Blue Jays)

Kevin Youkilis – Boston, MA (Boston Red Sox)

Jeremy Hazelbaker – Salem, VA (Red Sox High A)

Jeremiah Bayer – Salem, VA (Red Sox High A)

Matt Kramer – Ft. Myers, FL (GCL Red Sox)

Craig Albernaz – Montgomery, AL (Rays AA)

Kevin Moran – Kannapolis, NC (White Sox Low A)

Phil Negus – Kannapolis, NC (White Sox Low A)

Corey Kluber – Columbus, OH (Indians AAA)

Tim Collins – Kansas City, MO (Kansas City Royals)

Anthony Seratelli – Northwest Arkansas (Royals AA)

Kevin Pucetas – Omaha, NE (Royals AAA)

Crawford Simmons – Kane County, IL (Royals Low A)

Matt Perry – Lakeland, FL (GCL Tigers)

Ryan O’Rourke – Beloit, WI (Twins Low A)

Tim Kiely – Little Rock, AK (Angels AA)

Trystan Magnuson – Sacramento, CA (A’s AAA)

Shawn Haviland – Midland, TX (A’s AA)

Jeff Bercume – Phoenix, AZ (AZL Athletics)

Nick McBride – Hickory, NC (Rangers Low A)

Ryan Rodebaugh – Hickory, NC (Rangers Low A)

Chad Rodgers – Lynchburg, VA (Braves High A)

Cory Gearrin – Gwinnett (Braves AAA)

Tim Gustafson – Pearl, MS (Braves AA)

Steve Cishek – New Orleans, LA (Marlins AAA)

Matt Bouchard – St. Lucie, FL (Mets High A)

Chris McKenzie – Hagerstown, MD (Nationals Low A)

Bryan LaHair – Des Moines, IA (Cubs AAA)

Steffan Wilson – Huntsville, AL (Brewers AA)

Cory Riordan – Tulsa, OK (Rockies AA)

Dan Houston – Modesto, CA (Rockies High A)

Will Inman – Tuscon, AZ (Padres AAA)

Kyle Vazquez – Scottsdale, AZ (AZL Giants)

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In-Season Baseball Strength and Conditioning: Part 4 – Professional Baseball

Written on March 24, 2011 at 5:49 am, by Eric Cressey

This is the fourth installment of a series on in-season strength and conditioning for baseball.  In case you missed them, here are links to check out the first three parts of this series:

Part 1: General Assumptions about In-Season Strength and Conditioning for Baseball
Part 2: In-Season High School Baseball Strength and Conditioning
Part 3: In-Season College Baseball Strength and Conditioning

Today, I’ll be talking about what I believe to be the optimal set-up for professional baseball players.  This might be a minority in the big picture of all the baseball players on the planet, but pro guys’ responses to in-season strength and conditioning programs can really tell us a lot.

Professional baseball players are the ones with the most accumulated wear and tear on their bodies, so effective programming is essential.  Likewise, they play daily games – often upwards of 200 per year when you combine spring training, the regular season, and post-season play – so you really need to be able to manage competing demands and fatigue if you want to keep pro guys healthy and performing at a high level.

We’ll break things down by position.

Position Players

Position players tend to represent the widest range of preferences.  On one hand, you have guys who are completely dragging from having to stand on their feet for hours upon end day-after-day.

On the other hand, I’ve known guys who literally want to do something every single day – whether it’s lifting, med ball, sprinting, or a combination of one or more.  Don’t believe me? Here’s an awesome email I got from a big league middle infielder who trained 5x/week (3-4 lifting sessions and 1-2 movement training sessions):

I want to thank you for all that you’ve done for me, EC.  In this my 18th professional season, I can say, without a doubt, this is the best I’ve felt during any season.  By following your program, I was able to stay strong and explosive the whole season.  This is the best I’ve felt after the season too.  I don’t have any nagging injuries or soreness and I know this is because I followed your programs. I can’t express in words how much you contributed to my success this season.

We’re talking about a guy in his late 30s with a lot of years of service time under his belt – and he felt better by doing more.  Don’t be afraid to make guys work in-season; if you don’t, they’ll eventually break down.

This, of course, is the rarity; most guys will be best off finding the balance between doing nothing and doing what we did in the above example.  I tend to give position players the most wiggle room in terms of time and day of their lifts.  They can either do it earlier in the day, or after games.  We usually shoot for three full-body lifts per week on non-consecutive days – and never with more than 15 sets in a given day.  One of those three lifts is almost exclusively upper body and core work.  They get in, do their work, and get out.

Some guys, however, prefer to split things up into two upper-body and two lower-body sessions per week.  They are shorter sessions, but are good for ensuring that athletes are going through their foam rolling and mobility drills more frequently.

Catchers

In my high school and college examples, I included catchers with position players’ programming needs.  However, when you catch 4-5 games a week, things change – and we take that into account with our programming.

First off, we don’t squat our catchers in-season.  Trust me, they squat enough.  We use more deadlift variations and single-leg exercises during the season.

Second, I encourage catchers to lift post-game, if they have the opportunity and energy to do so.  Training before a game might be okay for a pitcher or position player, but crushing a lower body lift right before getting in the bottom of a squat for three hours isn’t particularly appealing.  If you can get in the work the night before, you’ve got a better chance of being fresh.

Third, I think that 2-3 strength training sessions per week is sufficient – and only two of those days have lower body work in them.  It takes far less volume than you can possibly imagine to maintain strength, so a couple sets each of a bilateral and unilateral exercise usually does the trick for catchers in-season.

Also of note, I don’t like the idea of guys lifting much on their off-days from catching.  If you’re only getting 1-2 days off from catching per week, you might as well use them for full recovery.  In other words, try to consolidate training stress and earn 24-hour “recovery windows” where you can.

Starting Pitchers

Professional baseball starting pitchers might have the coolest job and schedule in professional sports.  It’s very predictable – and they should be able to get in a good 12 lifts per month on the following schedule:

Day 0: pitch
Day 1: challenging lower body lift, light upper body work
Day 2: movement training only
Day 3: challenging upper body lift, easier lower body work
Day 4: low-intensity dynamic flexibility circuits only, or off altogether
Day 5: next pitching outing

If they wind up with five days between starts, they can split the day 3 training session up into upper body (Day 3) and lower body (Day 4), then take a day off on Day 5.

Life is tough, huh?

Relief Pitchers

Describing what I do with my relief pitchers is a mouthful, but I’ll give it a shot.

Every reliever has three strength training “options” and one movement training day in each program that I send them:

Long Option (Full-Body Strength Training: 15-17 sets)
Movement Training
Short Option 1 (Full-Body, but Lower Emphasis: 8-12 sets)
Short Option 2 (Full-Body, but Upper Emphasis: 8-12 sets)

Here’s exactly how I describe it to them:

“If you go over 20 pitches in an outing, perform the regular Day 1 and then Day 2 in the subsequent two days, as you can assume you won’t throw for 48 hours.  Then, progress to Short Option 1, day off, Short Option 2.

“If you make less than 20 pitches, go right to Short Option 1, then Day 2, then Short Option 2, then day off.  This is good for when you think you may be going on back to back days.  You can do the Short option lifts earlier in the day even if you think you may be throwing a bit that night; the volume will be so low that you’ll still be fresh.

“If you are going to be a long/middle reliever, most of your work will be the Day 1, Day 2, Short Option 1, Day off, Short Option 2, etc. option.  Listen to your body and take days off when you need to, but at the very least, make sure you’re getting in the gym 2-3 times a week.

“If you’re going to be a ‘face-one-guy’ reliever or a closer, you’ll be doing more of the short option work.”

Hopefully, that makes sense – because our guys have loved it and I know of a few smart pitching coaches “in the know” who have implemented it in their programs with excellent success.

That wraps up this series on in-season strength and conditioning.  It’s taken a long time to test-drive these programs and tinker with them to make sure that they work.  At the same time, though, no two athletes are the same, so be sure to individualize your recommendations whenever possible.

Please help me spread these articles around via Facebook, Twitter, and emailed links, as we need to get the word out that in-season training is a must for baseball players at all levels!

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Off-Season Baseball Training at Cressey Performance

Written on March 10, 2011 at 5:47 pm, by Eric Cressey

It’s been a few months in the making, but we just finished up a promo video about how we attack off-season baseball training at Cressey Performance for our professional, collegiate, and high school baseball players.

We’d love to hear what you think – and hopefully you’ll like it enough to help spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!

A big shoutout goes out to Jamie and Matt at Lasting Memories Videotaping; these guys do an awesome job, and we can’t recommend them highly enough!

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Cressey Performance Pro Guys Across the Nation

Written on April 8, 2010 at 5:39 pm, by Eric Cressey

Just a quick heads-up on where some of the Cressey Performance minor league guys are winding up to start the season.  If you’re in their neck of the woods, get out and show ‘em some love at your local ballpark.

Tim Kiely – (Little Rock) Arkansas (Angels AA) – Opening Day Starter Tonight

Jim Fuller – Savannah (Mets Low A)

Chad Rodgers – Myrtle Beach (Braves High A)

Will Inman – Portland (Oregon – Padres AAA)

Tim Collins – (Manchester) New Hampshire (Blue Jays AA)

Steffan Wilson – Huntsville (Alabama – Brewers AA)

Steve Cishek – Jupiter (Florida – Marlins High A)

Cory Riordan – Tulsa (Rockies AA)

Anthony Seratelli – Northwest Arkansas (Royals AA)

Kevin Pucetas – Fresno (Giants AAA) – Opening Day Starter Tonight

Shawn Haviland – Stockton (California – A’s High A) – Opening Day Starter Tonight

Benji Johnson – Mississippi Braves (AA)

Craig Albernaz – Durham Bulls (Rays AAA)

Chad Jenkins – Lansing Lugnuts (Blue Jays Low A)

Kevin Nolan – Lansing Lugnuts (Blue Jays Low A)

We also have quite a few younger guys in extended spring training who will be assigned to short-season teams in a few months – or (hopefully) play their way up to A-ball teams.

Good luck, guys!

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.

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