In-Season Lifting For Baseball Players: 4 Random Thoughts 1. Consolidate Stress I’m a big fan of having pitchers lift within a 24 hour window after their start. This combines the stress from their outing with the stress from their lift. Hans Selye, referred to as the father of stress, developed the theory of General Adaptation Syndrome (pictured
Just Decide “Just decide what it’s gonna be, who you’re gonna be, and how you are going to do it. Just decide. And from that point, the universe will get out of your way.” – Will Smith Will Smith saved the world in I-Robot, I Am Legend, Armageddon, Men In
Why I Hate Bands as A Warm-Up for Throwers I don’t actually hate the bands themselves – what I do hate is the prescribed high volume of band exercises prior to throwing, as well as the execution of said exercises being performed that you see 99% of the time. Here’s why: Reason #1: RTC Fatigue Can Increase Impingement
4 Biggest Mistakes I've Made as a Strength Coach “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee I’ve been a strength and conditioning coach for nearly six years now. Every six months or so I look back at old programs I had written and I can’t help but shake my head.
Top Reads from 2018 1. Legacy by James Kerr (5/5) I re-read this for the third or fourth time this year. It offers many brilliant insights into building an elite culture. 2. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman (5/5) This book has impacted me in a massive, life-
What I Learned in the Year After Starting My Own Business It’s hard to believe it’s been one year since AHP opened. It’s been a lot of fun, and a great first year in which I exceeded my own goals. Here’s a few lessons I learned along the way. 1. When opportunity strikes – be ready. It probably
Why A Strength and Conditioning Program Can Benefit Goalies “Only a goalie can appreciate what a goalie goes through.” – Jacques Plante Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk 1. Hip Mobility and Stability. Goalies end up in, and subsequently must be able to get into some pretty crazy positions. The work done in the weight room, as well as a proper
Who Did You Need When You Were Younger? If you know me, you know I’m a huge Potterhead. Below is one of my favourite quotes from the entire series. “Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.” – Dumbledore As a coach it’s
My Favourite Full Body Mobility Drills All 4 of the below mobility exercises are great ‘catch all drills’. Incorporate them into warm-ups or use them as pairings with strength exercises, or use multiple as a stand alone mobility session.
6 Lessons Aspiring Baseball Players Can Learn from a 2018 MLB Draft Pick I’ve been lucky enough to know Erik since he was just a kid. I first met him when I helped coach his Bantam AAA team when he was 13 during the summer of 2011 because I was home and recovering from shoulder surgery. I’ve seen him grow up
Anti-Rotation Core Exercises & Why Pitchers Need Them (My 6 Favourite Variations) A staple in a pitcher’s training program needs to be explosive rotational med-ball exercises. I use a ton of different variations with my throwing athletes. It’s a great way of bridging the gap from general strength built in the weight room to the very specific activity of
Letter to My 18 Year Old Self It’s surreal, but just over ten years ago I graduated high school. The summer afterwards was a blast – I was playing baseball for the last time with the group of guys I grew up with, had the freedom of being 18 years old and done school, and was preparing
If You Don't Like it, Pitch Better I’ve been a fan of David Price for a long time, since his Vanderbilt days. I loved watching him throw out of the pen for the Rays in the 2008 playoffs, and so when the Jays got him in 2015 I was fired up (mostly because it meant we
3 Easy Nutrition Strategies to Look & Feel Better Nutrition can be complicated and it’s really easy to be confused about what dietary approach is best. Should you go keto? Is intermittent fasting the best option to lose that stubborn fat? What the fuck is paleo and am I saying it right? This post outlines three simple nutrition
The Difference Between Mobility and Flexibility (And Why It Matters For Throwers) Flexibility is defined as “the ability of a muscle to lengthen”. Mobility is defined as “the ability of a joint to move actively through a range of motion” There are many contributing factors that go into a joint’s mobility: muscle tissue, joint health, motor control, and the fascial system.
3 Exercises You Should Do If You Sit All Day One of the most common postural issues in people is kyphosis, which is just a fancy name for a rounded upper back. This can cause a host of problems and is created by sitting in front of a computer all day, staring down at your phone, and driving long hours.
From The Archive: My Story I wrote this one year ago on Bell Let’s Talk Day. I’ve decided to share it again this year in hopes that it may help someone going through a dark time. It was a late winter night in January of 2013. I sat alone in my car, parked
The 4 Biggest Lessons I Learned in 2017 2017 was a wild rollercoaster of a year, to say the least. I achieved a long held goal of pitching again, I moved back to Canada, entered into a relationship with a truly wonderful person, observed my mother endure literal hell as she battled through six rounds of chemotherapy, lived
Creatine: Everything You Need to Know There are a lot of rumours about creatine that simply aren’t true. I hear them often when I recommend an athlete consider supplementing creatine. This post will dispel some of these rumours and explain why creatine is probably a very beneficial supplement to take. It is in fact the
It's the Road, Not the Inn In Don Quixote, Cervantes states, “it’s the road, not the inn”. This short phrase is something that I have tried to – never mind remind myself consistently, but ingrain into how I live. Have you ever achieved something incredible, something worth striving for? I mean something really worth striving for:
The Power of Gratitude For almost two years now I’ve started my day off the same way. I write down three things I’m grateful for. I’ve found it to be incredibly powerful in shifting my attitude to being positive first thing in the morning and I find I am more likely
Squat to Squat Better Our bodies are meant to move. We were never meant to be sedentary beings, and sitting at a desk and in a car for the vast majority of your day creates a number of different problems. For thousands of years human beings were nomadic; constantly on the move hunting and
You Reap What You Sow; Except You Don't I haven’t written a single word about the year I got to play college baseball again. Quite frankly, I’m still not ready to – I’m too afraid of what I’ll type. As I continue to transition back into ‘reality’ I’ve set and begun the process of
