Many times working on the upper body can do more harm than good! You could be doing the best drills and focusing in the right spot, but if the athlete isn’t in the right developmental place there will likely be diminishing returns. Learn more about when you should lock in on the upper body, and what to do!
The Developmental Complexities Of The Upper Body: What To Teach, And When To Teach It Read More »
In life, in America, and in sports, competition matters. There’s no getting around it—trying your best and winning are important. We want people to learn how to win in a respectful way and lose with dignity. These are crucial life skills that can be taught through sports. In life, things are not simply given to
Winners, Losers, and Popsicles Read More »
The hardest thing about being successful is the choices that people are forced to make. It’s something that I see athletes struggle with all the time. Throughout an athlete’s time working with us I like to ask them “What are your long term goals?” Sometimes I hear I want to play in college, sometimes I
Are You Winning Each Day Like An Elite Athlete? Read More »
It’s true that having a college body is important if you want to play college baseball or softball. If you don’t pass the eye test it will likely be hard to get noticed. The typical way people address this is by eating a lot, sleeping a lot, and getting in the gym and doing standard
Weight Room Strong VS On Field Strong Read More »
One of the things that’s really frustrating for me as someone who guides baseball and softball players is athletes who focus all of their attention on skill work, and none of their attention on their explosiveness. It’s important to understand the distinction between the two. How hard you throw, and hit is a demonstration of
Here’s What Division 1 Coaches Are Actually Looking For Read More »
When it comes to human movement Newton’s laws are undefeated. These are things we don’t think about all that often but they govern every single thing that we do as we walk the face of the earth. Let’s do a brief refresher of newtons three laws of motion. I just pulled this from Google. In
The Oppositional Motion Of The Pelvis And Ribcage Read More »
Being a pitcher is the biggest stage in baseball, you’re out there all alone, and it’s on you to deliver outs for your team. Pitchers often get a lot of things shouted at them, “throw strikes,” “don’t fall off the mound,” “Stay within yourself“ to name a few. With all that unsolicited advice it’s hard
The Challenge Of Developing Aspiring Pitchers Read More »
At Ignite, one of the things that we asked every athlete to do is imagine who they could be, both as an athlete and as a person. Although it is a goal to help athletes compete for as long as they desire, we know that most athletes don’t play past high school or college. However,
Developing Grit at Ignite Read More »
The first team I ever coached was a JV Baseball team in Vermont, I had just finished playing and I thought I was a great hitting mind. In reality, I had literally no idea what I was doing. On my third or 4th day of coaching, I took the best freshman on the team and
Pitch counts are a good step towards attempting to keep athletes healthy. But let’s be real for a second, they’re not effective enough. Pitch counts assume that all pitchers put the same amount of stress on their elbow/shoulder with each throw. This assumption is wrong. Not all throwers stress their arm equally on each pitch.
Are Pitch Counts Effective? Read More »