Posts Tagged ‘training’

Bear Crawls for Total Body Dynamic Strength, Stability and Coordination By Napoleon Pichardo, CSCS, RSCC While bear crawls have been a favorite of football coaches and military drill instructors for decades, they are also excellent for other sports. When done properly, bear crawls will simultaneously develop...

The Idiot Box By Michael Boyle, MS, CSCS, ATC The top box in the stack is either a 36- or 42-inch plyo box. If you have either one, please put them away. In fact, unless you are training some great athletes, put your 30-inch box away too. I have dubbed the big plyoboxes “Idiot Boxes”. Idiot boxes are jumped on by...

Pyramid Ladder Run / Walk Drill By Gene Coleman, Ed. D., RSCC-E, FACSM This is a good drill for improving both work capacity and speed-endurance (the ability to make repeated max or near-max efforts without slowing down). It uses a positive pyramid for the first half of the run and a negative pyramid for the second...

The Dead-Pull to Build Starting Strength Loren Landow, CSCS, MAT Specialist, USAW The deadlift and power clean are two very popular exercises among athletes for good reason—they are excellent for developing total body strength and power, while simultaneously emphasizing powerful hip extension. The problem is that...

Using the Kettlebell Swing in Baseball By Jose Vazquez, PT, CSCS, Texas Rangers. The kettlebell swing is an explosive lift that forces you to use maximum power in the posterior chain (hips, back and legs) to accelerate the KB with proper technique. As a baseball player, you spend a lot of time with your spine, hips,...

Three Ways to Improve Performance in Baseball and Softball Gene Coleman, Ed. D., RSCC-E, FACSM The off-season is the optimal time to work on things that can improve performance in the coming season. The following is a brief discussion three things that you can do during the off-season to improve your performance in...

Modified Grip for Lat Pulls By Brian Schiff, PT, CSCS It is common to encounter individuals who experience shoulder pain with certain exercises from time to time. Most coaches and trainers are aware that the rotator cuff is a common culprit. In addition, SLAP tears (superior labral tear from anterior to posterior) can...

What’s the Best Way for an Athlete to Initiate Movement? By Loren Landow If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that ‘efficiency’ is a cornerstone of my training philosophy. As coaches, we have all developed a personal foundation to our training approach. This is the tenant on which we focus our energy...

The Problem: Treating a compound fracture conservatively with a Band-Aid instead of just putting him on the operating table and getting to the heart of the matter. The Band-Aid Coach: “Player A can’t squat! I guess we’ll remove squats from his program.” The Surgery Coach: “Player A can’t squat! Let’s...

Speed Facts By Gene Coleman, Ed. D., RSCC*E, FACSM Speed* is one of the five tools that scouts, coaches and management look for when evaluating talent, and the only tool that is used on both offense and defense in game situations. Everyone appreciates the importance of speed, but how much do we actually know about...