Steroids? You Better Think Twice

School is tough, no matter how you dice it. There is peer pressure at school, parental pressure at home, and social pressure every time you go out. If you’re a young athlete, the pressure to perform at a high level can be even more intense.

The pressure may be crushing, and some teens look to escape through drugs – and not just the usual drugs. Steroids are included in the list of drugs banned by the United States government. Taking steroids is not only illegal, but they will likely leave you in a worse state than many of the other drugs you may try.

The appeal of taking steroids is high; the increase in muscle mass and improvements on the field are strong draws. But, the fallout is huge and the side effects are immense. Whether taken by needle or as oral supplements, steroids shut off the parts of your brain that tell your body to produce hormones. This means that boys could begin to grow breasts, start balding, or even lose the ability to have children.

Even when you put aside the nasty side effects away for a moment, the drawbacks are still bad. Imagine you have an opportunity to play baseball in college. That drug test is going to show that you have used steroids. Your career will end before it begins.

While you may see an increase in muscle mass and endurance, you, and everyone else will see the negative side effects as you break out with a serious and unavoidable case of acne. You may also see testicular shrinkage. Girls are not immune to side effects either and can develop deepened voices.

Even small amounts can start destroying your organs right away. You’ll notice higher cholesterol and blood pressure levels. You may think you can lengthen your career with steroids, but your heart and liver simply don’t work that way. Long term effects will develop even if the steroid use is short term. These include liver failure, heart attacks, stunted growth and the conversion of muscle into fat. Not to mention the paranoia, anxiety and depression that ultimately took the life of local baseball player Taylor Hooton.

Your dreams of making it to the Major Leagues can be crushed by a decision you make as a teenager. There are many stories about the negative effects of steroids. Don’t take our word for it, do some research of your own about the dangers of steroids. Your findings will haunt you. You have the talent, don’t squander it! If you’re struggling with steroids, or just want more information, ask the Taylor Hooton Foundation. They’re dedicated to steroid awareness and ensuring you have a safe and healthy baseball career.

The Taylor Hooton Foundation

Should We Really Be Trying To “Watch the Ball”?

“Watch the ball!”

It seems like the most basic and fundamental instruction that we, as parents and coaches, tell our young players. It makes sense right? If you don’t watch the ball, you can’t hit the ball. Did you know that the average collegiate hitter only tracks the ball to within 9 feet of contact? Or, that the most skilled hitters at the highest level of the game only track the ball to within 5 feet of contact? The reason…It is physiologically impossible to “watch the ball” all the way to contact.

When tracking objects, the brain / eyes uses several different scanning mechanisms to follow and intercept a moving target. Imagine looking into the sky and seeing an airplane traveling through the clouds. The plane may be travelling at several hundred miles per hour. However, it is also thousands of feet off the ground giving the illusion that it is moving slowly through the air. We are able to clearly and efficiently visually follow the airplane in the sky because we are using our slow pursuit tracking mechanism. Now imagine standing on an interstate overpass and looking down at the cars whipping underneath. In order to follow these faster moving objects, we use what’s called a saccadic eye movement. When these objects move at speeds faster than 90 degrees per second, they get blurred and we can no longer clearly track them.

In baseball, a hitter that faces a 90mph fastball has 0.4 seconds to see the ball, decide to swing, and then initiate the swing. Unfortunately, a baseball pitch travels at approximately 1000 degrees per second. Obviously, this is significantly greater than the eyes can physiologically track a ball using the saccadic tracking method. So, in order to help prevent blurring and attempt to follow objects at these much higher velocities, the brain / eyes use what is called a jump saccade eye movement. During a jump saccade, the picture input literally “turns off” while the eyes move to the next focal point and then “turn on”. The problem with this is that once the eyes “turn back on”, the ball has moved again. So, in theory, you’re not seeing the ball, you’re seeing where the ball used to be. This explains why even elite level hitters cannot track the ball all the way to contact. They are literally “watching behind the ball”.

In my practice and training of athletes over the years, I’ve developed a teaching method to help hitters learn to track “in front” of the ball. By understanding, the role of the visual system in hitting performance, athletes are able to have a clearer, earlier picture of the baseball giving them better pitch recognition, understanding of the strike zone, and more quality contact.

David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Recovery from Baseball Activities

Recovery from a baseball game is easy. Let’s take a look at the facts. How long is the typical baseball game, at the pro level 3 to 3.5 hours, college 3 hours, high school 2 to 2.5 hours, little league 1 to 2 hours. These are just rough estimates but for the most part pretty fair, how much time minus the starting pitcher is there activity? Let’s break that down. Typically a player will get 3 to 4 at bats per game, and let’s say that each player will see on average 7 pitches per at bat. That gives the player 21 pitches to focus, swing and potentially get a hit. If that player gets just one hit in the game they will be batting .333. This player will now only have to run the bases once and the chances the player gets all the way around and scores are slim, considering that most baseball games are in the single digits. The maximum the player will run around the bases is 360 feet or 120 yards, basically the full length of a football field. How about running on defense? In the infield, if the player can cover 5 to 7 yards on either side of the position, the defender is doing good. That means the player covers 40 total feet. In most cases a player will get 7 or fewer balls hit to them per game. So, if they covered the total area just to one side of their position the player may run 140 feet in a game, or about 40 yards. Outfielders, on the other hand, must cover more space so we will go as high as 50 feet either side of the position. Again, if the player makes 7 plays, the player would potentially cover about 350 feet or about 116 yards. Let’s put this in context, on average let’s say the outfielder will be asked to run at 100% 240 yards in a typical game, the infielder will be asked to run 160 yards in a typical game. In most cases not even half of a lap on a track. So is the game really physically grueling, meaning energy expenditure and calories lost from activity high? The truthful answer is no, but why is the game so exhausting.

I’m going to throw something out there that not many coaches that I have been in contact with talk about, mental recovery. What is mental recovery? The ability of the mind to come back to a resting state is the best way I can describe this mechanism. Training a player to calm the mind,rest the thoughts, and allow the body to recover and heal from day to day activities. All the physical recovery is still very, very important. The body needs fuel and hydration and with out them the mind cannot focus. But, there is a lot of information on this type of recovery. I just want to get this concept out in the open and if anyone has been doing any work on this please let me know, we have started to do some work with this concept and so you may be hearing more from us in the future.

Brian Niswender MA, CSCS
Co-Founder
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com

Where are we going?

Look how smart I am.

This industry seems to be out of control. I see more and more people confused, while the need for our services increases every year. Why are we fighting within our own ranks for who knows more, when we should be looking for ways to help each other out? I really enjoy reading about how so and so came up with some new way to train, but in reality it is just a new name. Why are strength coaches and athletic trainers fighting over what is best for the athlete? Can we not all learn from each other, from doctors to the nutritionist?
This might seem like some kind of rant and in many ways it is, but with a purpose. Where are we going as an industry? Are we really in it for the purpose of increasing human performance, or are we in it for the money? In many ways some of these questions helped spark baseballstrengthcoaching.com and still drives us and our purpose, but the question still stands, are we increasing knowledge of baseball performance?

Brian Niswender
Co Founder Baseball Strength Coaching.com