It has been a really long baseball season. I hardly remember the first talk coach had at the beginning of the season. I do remember him writing on the board “8/25 - ??.” Those question marks are a symbol of the end of the season.
The nice thing about the beginning of the season is that most everybody has those questions marks that will end of their season. The beginning of the school year means fall baseball, inter squads that seem to never end, six a.m. workouts that make you want to throw up, and what seems to be the endless amount of drills that make you think that the spring season will never arrive.
You take a deep breath and the spring season has finally begins and everyone has a new life. Multiple outings for the bullpen pitchers, high pitch counts for the starters, catchers beaten and bruised, and position players that have legs that feel like lead.
You have put all the work in to make it to this point. The post season has arrived (and probably gone) for some of you. Those endless hours have got you to this point, because not everyone makes it to this point. Although you still have work to be done, stay in the moment. Use those positive experiences of the past (those workouts and endless scrimmages) to guide you through to a positive ending. You might be experiencing some things in the postseason that you have not been through – that’s ok. Guess what – the baseball is still round and the infield is still going to have the same dimensions. You are still going to tie on the cleats and play the game as hard as you can. So sit back for a minute and enjoy the moment. The game is the easy part - dealing with the external activities is what gets everyone.
Sorry to keep this short. My team has a practice to go to in Omaha . Wish me luck.
Chris Ham, MSA, ATC, CES
Athletic Trainer
Vanderbilt University Baseball
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Energy Balance Equation
As a Performance Enhancement Coach, I am frequently fielding questions from athletes who are trying to gain weight. What kind of workout should I do? What supplements should I buy? How much protein should I take? What kind of protein should I take? All of these questions can and should be addressed. But, there is one question that should be asked before all others…How many calories do I need?
The concept of weight management through Energy Balance is not a difficult one to convey. First, if an athlete’s goal is to maintain his weight, then the amount of energy (calories) that he expends through activity and exercise must equal the amount of energy he consumes (food). If his goal is to lose weight, then he must expend more energy than he consumes. And finally, if the athlete’s goal is to gain weight, then he must consume more energy than he burns. This is the most important issue in weight management – even before I begin discussing protein, carbohydrates, supplements, etc. Gater et al. (1992) demonstrated that athletes who participate in a strength training program and consume more calories than they expend show higher muscle mass gains than athletes with a neutral calorie balance.
(+) Energy Balance = Weight Gain
(-) Energy Balance = Weight Loss
(0) Energy Balance = Weight Maintenance
Even though this is not a difficult concept to convey, it definitely is not as easy to put into practice. For me, the first thing that I ask the player to do when dealing with weight management goals is to keep a weekly diary of what he is eating and drinking, so that I have an idea of how many calories that he is consuming. From there, we discuss the player’s daily calorie expense based on his daily practice, training, and performance activities. The biggest thing that I’ve found over the years is that most players do not have a good grasp on how many calories they need during the day or how many calories they actually take in.
23yo Male / 6ft Tall / 200lbs 3,114 Calories
The average professional baseball player requires 3,114 calories just to fuel his normal bodily functions at rest and maintain his current body weight. The need increases to between 3,600 and 4,100 calories per day to fuel the body for the addition of daily baseball activities. It is important to also understand that a player’s calorie needs will change based on the time of year (off-season, pre-season, or in-season), within a given week (5-day Starting Pitcher Rotation), or according to his role on the team (Starter vs. Reliever, or Everyday Player vs. Bench Player). Consuming up to 100-500 more calories per day than you are expending will provide you with the energy needed to gain strength and increase your lean muscle mass.
How do you gain weight? Above all else, make sure that you have a positive calorie balance.
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
The concept of weight management through Energy Balance is not a difficult one to convey. First, if an athlete’s goal is to maintain his weight, then the amount of energy (calories) that he expends through activity and exercise must equal the amount of energy he consumes (food). If his goal is to lose weight, then he must expend more energy than he consumes. And finally, if the athlete’s goal is to gain weight, then he must consume more energy than he burns. This is the most important issue in weight management – even before I begin discussing protein, carbohydrates, supplements, etc. Gater et al. (1992) demonstrated that athletes who participate in a strength training program and consume more calories than they expend show higher muscle mass gains than athletes with a neutral calorie balance.
(+) Energy Balance = Weight Gain
(-) Energy Balance = Weight Loss
(0) Energy Balance = Weight Maintenance
Even though this is not a difficult concept to convey, it definitely is not as easy to put into practice. For me, the first thing that I ask the player to do when dealing with weight management goals is to keep a weekly diary of what he is eating and drinking, so that I have an idea of how many calories that he is consuming. From there, we discuss the player’s daily calorie expense based on his daily practice, training, and performance activities. The biggest thing that I’ve found over the years is that most players do not have a good grasp on how many calories they need during the day or how many calories they actually take in.
23yo Male / 6ft Tall / 200lbs 3,114 Calories
The average professional baseball player requires 3,114 calories just to fuel his normal bodily functions at rest and maintain his current body weight. The need increases to between 3,600 and 4,100 calories per day to fuel the body for the addition of daily baseball activities. It is important to also understand that a player’s calorie needs will change based on the time of year (off-season, pre-season, or in-season), within a given week (5-day Starting Pitcher Rotation), or according to his role on the team (Starter vs. Reliever, or Everyday Player vs. Bench Player). Consuming up to 100-500 more calories per day than you are expending will provide you with the energy needed to gain strength and increase your lean muscle mass.
How do you gain weight? Above all else, make sure that you have a positive calorie balance.
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
The power of "Power Talk"
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
-William Shakespeare
As I sit here watching the Olympics this week, I can’t help but think about the countless hours of training and practice that these athletes put in for only a handful of competitions a year and this ultimate event only once every four years. With so much time between competitions, they remain motivated and push on to achieve their dreams of Olympic gold.
Yet, how many of us work with athletes, both young and more mature, each day that it is a chore to motivate them for each practice or training session? The Olympians are at the pinnacle of their sport and still find the will and resolve to perform their necessary day-to-day routines. Most of our athletes still have a long way to go before they reach their elite levels. Even some of those who have cracked the professional ranks, still require a significant amount of our energy to nudge and drag them through their training sessions and put in at least enough effort to get something out of their workouts. Why do athletes often view these activities as a necessary evil? A colleague of mine said it this way, “It’s like some of them just don’t want to work.” I usually put it a different way. They just don’t understand the importance of the “behind the scenes” work and day-to-day grind that can have a huge impact on their on-field performance.
Shakespeare asks, “What’s in a name?” Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings. The words that we use should clearly designate our purpose and direction. The subconscious mind records everything. A person’s experiences provide a context for the emotions and behaviors that result from the words that are expressed. If an athlete has a history of negative experiences related to training or is constantly bombarded with negatives in his environment, then this will ultimately lead to negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors about training and workouts. For example, when a coach uses conditioning as punishment, this serves to frame strength and conditioning as something the athlete should not want to do. Our mission should be to provide an environment both physically and with the language that we use to motivate and encourage our athletes to strive for their best both during competition and during their day-to-day routines.
I read an article several years ago that really got me thinking about the concept of language and positive self-talk. The article described a shipping company that was losing almost a million dollars per year in late, damaged, and wrong shipments. They hired a consultant to analyze their warehouse operations and to recommend changes that they could make in order to maximize their profits. After a couple of months the consultants made only one suggestion…change a word. What the consultants determined was that in the warehouse, the workers were segregated into different roles (packers, loaders, drivers, etc.). These roles isolated the workers and limited their interest in the work they performed. The consultants suggested that the company do away with each of the workers’ designated roles and replace them with a single job description, “craftsmen”. The shipping company took the advice and began referring to each employee as a “craftsman”. They even altered their training and business manuals to refer to “craftsmen”. Over time, the company began noticing big changes. The employees began taking more pride and ownership in their work, warehouse morale improved, and the next year’s analysis showed that the money the company was losing due to poor work and shipping errors was virtually gone.
What are some words that we can change in our business? Since reading the article, I have made the following power changes to my language when I’m communicating with athletes:
Strength and Conditioning >> Performance Enhancement
Practice >> Training Session
Rehabilitation >> Reconditioning
Coaching Staff >> Performance Team
Professional baseball seems to also begun to embrace this concept of “Power Talk”. Many teams shun the negative, second-tier persona of the minor leagues by referring to it as “player development”.
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
-William Shakespeare
As I sit here watching the Olympics this week, I can’t help but think about the countless hours of training and practice that these athletes put in for only a handful of competitions a year and this ultimate event only once every four years. With so much time between competitions, they remain motivated and push on to achieve their dreams of Olympic gold.
Yet, how many of us work with athletes, both young and more mature, each day that it is a chore to motivate them for each practice or training session? The Olympians are at the pinnacle of their sport and still find the will and resolve to perform their necessary day-to-day routines. Most of our athletes still have a long way to go before they reach their elite levels. Even some of those who have cracked the professional ranks, still require a significant amount of our energy to nudge and drag them through their training sessions and put in at least enough effort to get something out of their workouts. Why do athletes often view these activities as a necessary evil? A colleague of mine said it this way, “It’s like some of them just don’t want to work.” I usually put it a different way. They just don’t understand the importance of the “behind the scenes” work and day-to-day grind that can have a huge impact on their on-field performance.
Shakespeare asks, “What’s in a name?” Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings. The words that we use should clearly designate our purpose and direction. The subconscious mind records everything. A person’s experiences provide a context for the emotions and behaviors that result from the words that are expressed. If an athlete has a history of negative experiences related to training or is constantly bombarded with negatives in his environment, then this will ultimately lead to negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors about training and workouts. For example, when a coach uses conditioning as punishment, this serves to frame strength and conditioning as something the athlete should not want to do. Our mission should be to provide an environment both physically and with the language that we use to motivate and encourage our athletes to strive for their best both during competition and during their day-to-day routines.
I read an article several years ago that really got me thinking about the concept of language and positive self-talk. The article described a shipping company that was losing almost a million dollars per year in late, damaged, and wrong shipments. They hired a consultant to analyze their warehouse operations and to recommend changes that they could make in order to maximize their profits. After a couple of months the consultants made only one suggestion…change a word. What the consultants determined was that in the warehouse, the workers were segregated into different roles (packers, loaders, drivers, etc.). These roles isolated the workers and limited their interest in the work they performed. The consultants suggested that the company do away with each of the workers’ designated roles and replace them with a single job description, “craftsmen”. The shipping company took the advice and began referring to each employee as a “craftsman”. They even altered their training and business manuals to refer to “craftsmen”. Over time, the company began noticing big changes. The employees began taking more pride and ownership in their work, warehouse morale improved, and the next year’s analysis showed that the money the company was losing due to poor work and shipping errors was virtually gone.
What are some words that we can change in our business? Since reading the article, I have made the following power changes to my language when I’m communicating with athletes:
Strength and Conditioning >> Performance Enhancement
Practice >> Training Session
Rehabilitation >> Reconditioning
Coaching Staff >> Performance Team
Professional baseball seems to also begun to embrace this concept of “Power Talk”. Many teams shun the negative, second-tier persona of the minor leagues by referring to it as “player development”.
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Testing Athleticism
February marks another rite of passage for aspiring athletes. Every year, sports performance “gurus” prepare their athletes for the National Football League’s combine. Professional football prospects and team representatives descend upon Indianapolis, Indiana. There the athletes are put through a battery of physical drills and psychological tests attempting to identify elite players, determine their draft status, and predict eventual success on the field. Yet, according to a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (Kuzmits and Adams, 2008), there is no consistent statistical relationship between combine tests and professional football performance. This is consistent with studies in other sports, such as handball (Lidor et al, 2005), rugby (Gabbett et al, 2007), and ice hockey (Vescovi et al, 2006). These studies noted that only the players’ skills, not their physiological characteristics were predictors of their playing ability. In other words, the only true measurement of an athlete’s performance on the field… is his performance on the field.
This is not to say that testing of athleticism does not have its’ place. Vern Gambetta defines athleticism as the ability to execute athletic movements at optimum speed with precision, style, and grace in the context of the sport or activity. These characteristics are all related to movement efficiency. Therefore, athleticism, by its’ very nature, aids and fine-tunes the performance of sports skills.
Analyzing athletic properties can provide a profile of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. This is particularly true if the results are compared to the player’s performance. For example, let’s say that a right-handed pitcher is tested in the “5-10-5 Agility”. His score is rated as average when compared to other players of his performance level. However, further investigation notes that this pitcher is 0.1 seconds slower when moving to his left compared to the right. In terms of performance, the pitcher’s coach routinely works with him on locating his fastball to the far corner of the plate. One explanation of the pitcher’s poor performance on this task may be a lack of hip mobility when rotating his pelvis and trunk to the left. Decreased hip rotation can disrupt the sequential timing of events needed to place the throwing arm in the correct position to execute the throw. This ultimately results in poor efficiency of the movement and limited precision of the outcome (i.e. the inability to hit the outside corner of the plate).
Although athleticism may not predict future success in sports, it can be a useful tool in the enhancement of the skills needed for successful sports performance.
This is not to say that testing of athleticism does not have its’ place. Vern Gambetta defines athleticism as the ability to execute athletic movements at optimum speed with precision, style, and grace in the context of the sport or activity. These characteristics are all related to movement efficiency. Therefore, athleticism, by its’ very nature, aids and fine-tunes the performance of sports skills.
Analyzing athletic properties can provide a profile of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. This is particularly true if the results are compared to the player’s performance. For example, let’s say that a right-handed pitcher is tested in the “5-10-5 Agility”. His score is rated as average when compared to other players of his performance level. However, further investigation notes that this pitcher is 0.1 seconds slower when moving to his left compared to the right. In terms of performance, the pitcher’s coach routinely works with him on locating his fastball to the far corner of the plate. One explanation of the pitcher’s poor performance on this task may be a lack of hip mobility when rotating his pelvis and trunk to the left. Decreased hip rotation can disrupt the sequential timing of events needed to place the throwing arm in the correct position to execute the throw. This ultimately results in poor efficiency of the movement and limited precision of the outcome (i.e. the inability to hit the outside corner of the plate).
Although athleticism may not predict future success in sports, it can be a useful tool in the enhancement of the skills needed for successful sports performance.
Monday, December 14, 2009
The New and Improved baseballstrengthcoaching.com
Recently, I was training a young pitcher. We were performing some agility drills and during a rest break, I was explaining to him the reasons for the drill and how they apply to his performance on the mound. We continued with our workout and during our strength training session, the pitcher said to me "I wish our coach knew some of this stuff."
That got me thinking. I have always emphasized educating the particular athletes that I was directly involved with training regarding total player development strategies and fine-tuning skill training for performance enhancement. But, I was missing a whole other population of coaches, athletes, and sports performance professionals that are also involved with teaching and training athletes. Baseballstrengthcoaching.com is now going through some construction. No longer is my focus purely on providing on-line training programs for baseball athletes. The "New and Improved" baseballstrengthcoaching.com is dedicated to further advancing sports performance enhancement and the functional training concept within the baseball community. This includes, but is not limited to coaches, athletes, sports medicine and strength professionals, scouts, and parents.
The goals of baseballstrengthcoaching.com will be to facilitate the improvement of athletic performance in the game of baseball, promote the sports medicine and performance enhancement professions, and provide up-to-date education programs to both the professional and general sports communities.
When fully up and running, baseballstrengthcoaching.com will provide the following services: a free online journal / newsletter / blog, professional resources and networking, on-line continuing education programs / courses, sports-specific seminars / presentations / courses, sports performance camps / coaching / training programs, and consulting programs.
The journal contributors and partners will be industry professionals with expertise and experience in all facets of the game of baseball. They will be responsible for producing articles and on-line opinion editorials in the areas of Sports Medicine, Athletic Training, Strength and Conditioning, Physical Therapy, Sports Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Sports Vision, and Coaching.
Baseballstrengthcoaching.com's inaugural edition is scheduled to launch in February 2010! It will feature articles about shoulder injury prevention, throwing programs, in-season performance training, and college recruiting.
Be sure to bookmark baseballstrengthcoaching.com!
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
C0-Founder
baseballstrengthcoaching.com
That got me thinking. I have always emphasized educating the particular athletes that I was directly involved with training regarding total player development strategies and fine-tuning skill training for performance enhancement. But, I was missing a whole other population of coaches, athletes, and sports performance professionals that are also involved with teaching and training athletes. Baseballstrengthcoaching.com is now going through some construction. No longer is my focus purely on providing on-line training programs for baseball athletes. The "New and Improved" baseballstrengthcoaching.com is dedicated to further advancing sports performance enhancement and the functional training concept within the baseball community. This includes, but is not limited to coaches, athletes, sports medicine and strength professionals, scouts, and parents.
The goals of baseballstrengthcoaching.com will be to facilitate the improvement of athletic performance in the game of baseball, promote the sports medicine and performance enhancement professions, and provide up-to-date education programs to both the professional and general sports communities.
When fully up and running, baseballstrengthcoaching.com will provide the following services: a free online journal / newsletter / blog, professional resources and networking, on-line continuing education programs / courses, sports-specific seminars / presentations / courses, sports performance camps / coaching / training programs, and consulting programs.
The journal contributors and partners will be industry professionals with expertise and experience in all facets of the game of baseball. They will be responsible for producing articles and on-line opinion editorials in the areas of Sports Medicine, Athletic Training, Strength and Conditioning, Physical Therapy, Sports Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Sports Vision, and Coaching.
Baseballstrengthcoaching.com's inaugural edition is scheduled to launch in February 2010! It will feature articles about shoulder injury prevention, throwing programs, in-season performance training, and college recruiting.
Be sure to bookmark baseballstrengthcoaching.com!
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
C0-Founder
baseballstrengthcoaching.com
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