If your athlete isn't doing this - they should be!!!
- Coach Trout
- Aug 7, 2019
- 9 min read
As I mention in my introduction to this page, I have a son who loves the game of baseball and has developed into a solid player. He was groomed from day one of his life so it's not like he really had a choice. I'll write a post about the insane parents we are when it comes to things like literally putting a baseball in his hand within hours of his birth, but that is not what I want to talk about here today.
What I want to talk about is something that I have come to believe every serious baseball player who is wanting to play at the next level (high school, college, pro) should be doing. That something is "performance training". Working on speed, agility, and strength. I can tell you from personal experience there is no one single thing that has improved my son's skill set on the baseball field than the hours he has spent in the last two years doing performance training.
Let me give you a little background as to where this started and comes from. When we lived in Wylie, Tx we quickly discovered a place called Southfork Sports Complex and befriended the owner Steve Jennings. Shortly after discovering SSC, Steve started a performance training portion to his indoor and outdoor batting cages and his turf field. He partnered with a guy named Chris Stratis who would lead the Champion Sports Performance classes at Southfork. Through some conversations with Steve over the weeks and months about why he was pouring money into the program and trying to grow it as much as he was the baseball side I couldn't help but wonder if it was just about the money or something he truly believed in. Steve told us though that his son, an incoming freshman in high school, had been doing the training himself and it was by far the biggest difference maker in his sons ability on the field. I recall him saying "if I would have known it was going to make such a big difference I would have started it with him at a much earlier age".
Well, that got me thinking. If Steve believed in it so much and it had helped his son, who was just as big into baseball as my son, was this something we should give a try? If you know me, I'm always looking for any advantage, any edge, any way for me to have a leg up on you so I thought 'let's do it and see how it goes'. So here I was, skeptical about putting my 9 yr old son into small group training, but thinking heck it won't kill him.
To be honest, the first year he did the training I don't think it made much of a difference. The classes were twice a week and for the most part I think the biggest problem was that we as parents didn't fully commit to it. We waited until the end of the fall baseball season to start and then we shut it down after January so that we could start the baseball season without "too much on his plate". I did see minor improvements in his coordination and given that he is a single sport athlete it was good to keep him occupied with something a couple of nights a week during the off-season.
Fast forward to the summer and we enrolled him back into the program and committed to it full time. He started in June and was there weekly for a full year until we recently moved. I can't say enough about the direction, coaching, and patience that Coach Chris had with my son and all of the kids. He took him from a kid that sometimes couldn't do even the basic stretching movements to someone that was doing advanced high knee power skips and other movements that I would sometimes see much older but newer kids in the program struggle with as he excelled.
Now at this point you might be saying, coach, that's nice, but what's it go to do with his baseball. Well, I'm here to tell you that I am 100% convinced that it helped him with every single aspect of his game. His range increased, he literally went from one of the slowest runners on our team to one of our fastest, he hit the ball harder and farther (increased exit velo for those junkies), and he threw harder. And I don't mean small gains, I'm talking large noticeable gains.
So, how was this achieved, what should you look for in performance training, and what do you want to avoid. I'll take each of these things and break them into their own paragraph.
How was his performance achieved? I believe that the two biggest components that made his improvement both successful and drastic were the increase in core strength and the focus that was put on balance and being able to hold and maintain that balance along with the ability to understand how and why the body changes direction. I won't, nor can I, get too technical here but almost everything Coach Chris did was wrapped around strengthening the core and making sure the players understood their balance points and making sure their bodies didn't get outside their knees and ankles. These things help with quick change of direction - think about a SS going after a smashed ball up the middle his reaction time and going from basically a set position to quickly running over to field the ball - how important and often that happens in the game of baseball. Additionally, think about balance and controlling your body on those more upper level skills like throwing on the run or off the opposite foot, those things are important and difficult. Of course I'm biased, (anything you read me write about my son will for sure be somewhat biased), but in my opinion my son throws off the run better, more effortlessly, and accurately than just about any 10 year old I've seen. Sometimes I think he's as comfortable or more comfortable making that throw as he is with a regular set throw. There are a couple I have watched and that we have played against that are as good or slightly better, but honestly, most kids at that age don't even seem to have the coordination to even try it. I attribute this ability and high level skill to his performance training. He knows how to control his body, his balance is greatly improved and he can change directions or balance himself on a non-dominant leg so much better since he started the performance training. And of course, increased core strength is pretty logical as most of us already know, the stronger your core the stronger you are overall so it has helped with the exit velo hitting and the faster throwing velo, etc. These things are the key and IMO should be the focus.
What should you look for in a performance training class? Look for someone that is an expert in the field. This isn't easy though. It's going to take some time and research oh and some money! We were lucky. Steve had done his research on Coach Chris for us and he and we were already at Southfork. When I say an expert here are the types of things Coach Chris brings to the table that you should be looking for: National Sports Performance Association (NSPA): Certified Speed & Agility Coach (CSAC), International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA): Certified Youth Fitness Specialist Level 1, International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA): Certified Athletic Assessment Specialist and that's just to name a few. Some highlights there for me are the National Sports Performance Association speed and agility certificate as those are two key components and the fact that several of his certifications are focused on training youth. As I mentioned, in my about me, one of the things I think I personally bring to the table is the gift - and it is a gift - to be able to connect and communicate effectively with youth. There are TONS of people out there who played the game at a higher level or even coached at the professional level that simply can't simplify or relate to youth and therefore can't get their message across. Coach Chris has that gift and was able to clearly communicate that to his athletes. So, my advice, look for someone that has both the education and the ability to teach and connect with your player. Any legit program or coach will for sure let you try the class at least once for free to make sure it's a good fit.
What should you watch out for? Be on the lookout for two types when it comes to this performance training program. The first type to be on the lookout for, and in general they mean well, is the YouTube coach. What is that you ask? The YouTube coach is the well intentioned coach that believe, like me, in the importance of the performance training and says to himself and the players and parents "you all need to this and we include it with our team". Again, well intentioned, but unfortunately this coach has no clue about how the body moves, potential injury risk, proper form and technique, etc. They mean well, maybe even spend hours on YouTube searching for drills and skills to teach along these lines and then try to recreate them in practice. Again, as well intentioned as they may be they often times cause more harm that good. I have seen coaches who had kids doing insane things that weren't the proper form, were way to heavy or advanced for the age they were coaching etc. They are far more likely to injure your player than improve their performance. The second type of program to avoid is the "get rich quick" program. These are the people out there that see the trend moving to the speed and agility and performance classes and think to themselves "I can do that and I'll just charge $50-$75 less per month to do than others but I'll get more people and I'll make a killing". Again, the same problem exists as with the YouTube coach. They often times don't know what they are doing and don't really care about your athlete as they are just trying to make a quick buck. It's not just your money you have to lose, it's the health of your child that's the most at risk.
As I mentioned earlier, these folks aren't easy to find as it's still relatively new especially in youth sports. When our family recently moved to the Athens, Ga. area one of the biggest concerns I had moving here was the loss of Coach Chris and finding somewhere to continue Ryan's performance training. Thankfully, yesterday we found that place. I'm going to include the links below to the training in both Dallas and the Athens area for those of you that are following me from those areas as I highly recommend either of them. If you aren't in those areas I'd suggest looking in your area. Feel free to reach out to me as I'm happy to help you research and find someone I believe would be a good fit in your area. Be willing to drive, it's worth it for the right coach, I promise!
To wrap this post up, you don't have to take my word for it in regards to where this is heading. You only need to look at the new partnership that the Major League Baseball Players Association has with USSSA Baseball to bring these types of performance, stability, and skills testing to youth. These test have long been used for high level high school, college, and minor league players to help assess areas of strengths and opportunities and to help teams predict future performance, but now they are making their way into the youth ranks. We were able to see this first hand just last week at the USSSA All-American games in Florida. The cool thing for Ryan, he had already done and been trained on almost every single test the MLB Players Association conducted because he had already done them with Coach Chris for the past year. Not one other player in his 25 player group had done even one of the test conducted! Wanna get a jump on the competition? I think a great performance coach is a MUST!
Here is a short video from USSSA about the performance training - and before anyone goes screaming it's a money maker - the cost was only $40 - the cheapest thing we did all week at the All-American games. I truly believe they wanted to educated the players and parents and give them a true test and report on where players could improve.
Link to Southfork Sports Complex - Champions Sports Performance - Parker, Tx
Link to SPARQ - Youth Sports Training - Athens, Ga
I hope this entry was helpful - it's something I'm becoming more and more passionate about as I continue to learn more. Please let me know if you have any question or if I can help you find a great program!
Coach Trout
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