GUEST POST: CAM MARGARIS Cam is a former client and trainer here at Redline, and is currently the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for Centralia Community College. He does a great job with his pitchers and is making a name for himself in the baseball world. Who cares? I read all the time where coaches are complaining about the “new age athlete” and how kids don’t care or aren’t as tough as they used to be. While I don’t necessarily disagree with that, I know that com

https://ryanfaerblog.com/2017/04/25/the-push-up-complex-a-versatile-effective-way-to-progress-the-push-up/ In my previous blog post, Should Baseball Players Bench Press?, I mentioned how push-ups can be a great alternative to the bench press. This article by Ryan Faer explains how to progress the push-up by using push-up complexes. I plan on implementing this with my more advanced athletes who have mastered the standard push-up. http://nancynewell.com/blog/2017/4/20/fastpitch

Walk into any high school weight room and the bench press is most likely going to be a huge staple in their lifting program. The bench is a great way to build upper body strength and power, but that does not mean that it is meant for everyone; especially baseball players. The bench press is not a very shoulder friendly exercise for a couple reasons. The internally rotated grip of the bar increases the likelihood of shoulder impingement. Add that to the fact that we are lockin

1. Too Much Fancy Footwork; Not Enough Strength Training If I had a dime for every time a parent has told me their kid needs to work on their “foot speed”… Here’s the thing: Fast feet does not equal speed, and can often times be a hindrance to speed development. The key to being faster and more agile is putting force into the ground.The more force an athlete can produce the faster they’re going to be. This cannot be achieved with all of the fancy ladder drills you see all ove

Jaeger bands are a great tool for baseball players, and we use them with our athletes almost on a daily basis. The convenience factor of being able to leave them in your bag, and bring them to the field along with the fact that they are a great tool for warm ups, strengthening the rotator cuff, and teaching scapular control make them invaluable for baseball players. That being said, you see a lot of young athletes that do not understand what they are doing with the J-bands o

Most baseball players are taught from a young age to eliminate any “false steps” and use a crossover step when stealing bases. I have always despised the crossover step. Sure, to the naked eye it may look like the right thing to do because we do not lose any ground, but at the same time it puts the base runner in a horribly inefficient position to accelerate. Speed is all about putting force into the ground. To do that the feet should be landing directly underneath the hips,