The internet is becoming more and more popular for baseball athletes in respect to reading and researching new strength and conditioning methods.
Plenty of baseball coaches are able to share their information online, whether it’s right or wrong.
As a reader of my blog, I’m 100% certain you also read other authors as well, and I’m also sure you have across countless different opinions and methods.
Has it got confusing for you yet?
Coaches with really big followings say that you MUST have scientific references to back-up everything that you’re doing. Oftentimes, it’s not getting real results that is the measure of success, but instead, how many references you can add at the end of an article.
Sometimes I let authorities like this get in my head too much, and I momentarily forget that the only thing that matters is getting results for all of the athletes I am training.
I have seen a ton of these coaches create impressive looking programs on paper, but I know damn well that they won’t actually work in the real world.
Why?
They were designed by researchers, not coaches.
They were designed by guys who voluntarily opted out from getting their hands dirty in the real world of in-the-trenches coaching and haven’t put the same amount of hours I have into working hands-on with athletes.
Getting Real About Expertise
Sometimes these researchers social media posts and videos can shake up my thought process and make me feel like I need to be more scientific and sound more scientific in order to gain the respect of “the big dogs” in the industry.
I think to myself:
What are the scientific rules of “optimal” training…
What are the intracellular processes that take place if I do X and Y exercise…
When I was first exposed to this type of charismatic textbook knowledge delivery, I never assumed that these weren’t ever tested in the real world with real athletes. It was all theory, jargon, and hype.
When you overload yourself with information, you become overly concerned and are much more likely to avoid the aggressive training methods that are required to drive real results in advanced trainees.
This is such a big mistake. In coaching, never replace your intuition with jargon. I can promise you that you will get nowhere with that way of thinking.
Jargon does not replace real expertise.
Just because somebody sounds smart doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing.
Growing and Learning The Right Way
When you start reading about the never-ending ways in which you can design programs out there and the never-ending clinical trials you could review, it will become more and more confusing the deeper and deeper you go.
You can do conjugate training, Bulgarian training, German volume training, linear periodization, block periodization, total body only workouts, emphasis mobility no matter what programs, dynamic effort methods, undulating periodization, Russian training…
Which one is best?
You simply don’t know, and getting sucked into the world of research will get you sucked out of the world of real experience.
After an absolute ton of experimentation and study, I have settled in on my style of training.
And let me tell you something, do NOT worry about what others think of you. Earn respect in the baseball strength and conditioning world by getting yourself results and getting the athletes you work with results.
Results are what counts, not other people’s opinions.
Armchair experts will never offer you anything, if you’re hitting harder, running faster, jumping higher, and throwing with a higher velocity…does it really matter when they “out reference you” on a given topic?
No, because nobody cares about that nonsense out on the diamond.
Of course, training is still very much a science, and if you’re an avid reader of my blog you will already know that I have a highly scientific approach, but never at the expense of my experience.
The Perfect Program
Many baseball players out there are looking for “The Perfect Program”, and it just doesn’t exist.
In many cases, you’re looking for a program that has so many formulas and so many strict rules that it “must be optimal!”
Wrong.
Small changes in things as subtle as the day-to-day differences in stress or life events can dramatically alter your recovery and adaptation from any given workout and/or program.
This is a major problem because if your training periodization calls for a week where you “must provide an overload and beat all of your previous records to get more results”… but you’re in a state of stress, how are you expected to perform?
In a rigid program, you have no flexibility, and this is the worst way to train real athletes.
Nutrition, lifestyle, sleep, and personal/family issues are all factors that impact an athletes program design that go way outside the scope of whatever Bulgarian method you’re trying to use right now because it’s “perfectly designed”
Knowing what you know now about human physiology, does it make any sense to try and break previous records in the gym when an athlete is emotionally fatigued and stressed?
No, this is the last thing you would want to do.
Working with athletes in the real world and understanding how to design a training program around their day to day stressors is much different than following a training program from a researcher who doesn’t take real variables into account.
The Real “Rule” Of Program Design
Do you want to know the one constant “rule” that should be present among all training programs?
Training programs are meant to be tweaked. The one rule that remains constant is that there are no rules.
When you view all of the workouts and programs I have provided for you on this website, I want you to always know that you can tweak them accordingly based on your current life circumstances.
When you can, follow it exactly as prescribed because I am using sound techniques that drive major results.
But when you can’t, understand that a little tweakology never hurt anyone, and when done properly, can actually enhance the result.
The workouts and programs are solid, and you will build muscle, add strength, become more powerful, and become a way better baseball player.
But with all this focus online about finding “The Perfect Program”, I find myself being the only one barking the truth about real program design from real coaches (and not researchers).
Getting Tough
Do you want to know another reason why “The Perfect Program” doesn’t exist?
No research can quantify the immense benefit you gain from improving your mental toughness.
All of these methods are so controlled that they become weak and never push athletes to the boundaries of their physical and mental capabilities.
I find it odd how every baseball athlete you talk to would agree with how mentally tough you have to be to endure the long grind of the season, and yet this is never reflected in the preparation of the season.
Mental toughness is something you can and should train.
Sprinting hills, running stairs, pushing sleds, doing farmers walks, and incorporating brutal metabolic circuits are all ways in which you can train the mind and the body in an effective way at the same time.
This mental toughness will give you the slight edge you need on game day, I can promise you that, and the overly science-based approaches veer away from this ideology and it’s something I can/will never agree with.
Athletes need to be tough, and i’ll be happy to give that to them. They will thank me later once they have dominated their games and are moving up to the next level in competition.
Final Thoughts
The end goal of any program is to empower you to become a better baseball player.
Period.
What are your weak points?
What do you need to work on the most?
What is the missing link in your performance?
Focus on these areas and find a REAL coach who makes REAL programs to help you.
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Are you looking for a completely “done for you” baseball-specific program to improve your performance?
Then I have what you’re missing, check out the selection of high-performance baseball training programs and start dominating your league today!
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