Posts Tagged dr. marcus elliot
Mariners “No-Weight” Training Room – A Nonsensical Lie
It seems as though I hear about the Seattle Mariners lack of weight lifting in their new training program about once a week. This myth is complete garbage, and it’s perpetuated by training facilities in the Pacific Northwest like WBI Sports. They even run a banner that claims that weights have been removed from the Mariners training facility! Don’t believe me? Take a look here:
WBI Sports Banner - Completely False!
No weights in the weight room, you say? Then what’s in the background of the Seattle Mariners’ spring training facility?
Mariner's ST Weight Room
Let me tell you exactly what’s in the background: Weights. Specifically:
- Power Cages
- Olympic Barbells
- Olympic Weight Plates
- Dumbbells (and a large rack to store them on)
- Weight Benches
And this is just what we can see in the shot. There might even be… MORE WEIGHTS!
You can find that shot in this video about Dr. Marcus Elliot’s training program for the Mariners.
Additionally, we have athletes at our facility that have trained under Dr. Marcus Elliot and can confirm that they have done basic barbell lifts in addition to other ballistic activities like medicine ball throws and high-speed cable rotational work.
So, WBI Sports (and many other training facilities with a misguided agenda) are either spreading blatant lies or haven’t done their research. In either case, I’m not sure why you would send someone to train there – the best case scenario is that they haven’t done a full evaluation of what professional players are doing. The worst case scenario is that they are intentionally lying about the Mariners’ program to cover up the fact they haven’t invested money into a solid strength/power/speed training facility like Driveline Baseball has, or they don’t have the trainers to set up such a facility and corresponding program.
Please, Stop Spreading Garbage Rumors
That’s all I ask of places like WBI Sports. It’s very plainly evident that Dr. Marcus Elliot’s programs are well-designed, and this means a program that involves compound lifts to effectively and quickly develop basic levels of strength before moving on to more complex programming. It does not mean you should omit weight lifting from your baseball training program – always double-check your facts, especially when someone has a vested interest in selling you a product or service.
Driveline Baseball trainers actively encourage their clients to ask questions and do their own research to see if the Elite Baseball Training program matches up with their expectations and that it will get them to their end goal: A higher level of baseball. We’ve incorporated a lot of client suggestions into our workouts and programming as a result.
Doug Fister, Velocity, Strikeouts, and Hard Work
Seattle Mariners’ starting pitcher Doug Fister is well-known for being a soft-tossing righty who gets guys out as a control/command pitcher. Except, in 2011, that’s not necessarily true. Fister’s average fastball velocity is up over 1 MPH in 2011 when compared to 2009 and 2010, and this doesn’t even control for the fact that pitchers as a whole have slower fastball velocities in the early months of the season. (Nor does it control for weather, which plays a role – and we’ve had inclement weather this year.)
Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times interviewed Doug Fister briefly, where Fister said:
“I have been putting in a lot of work in the weight room,” Fister said. “I’ve spent a lot of time lifting, conditioning and throwing. So, yeah, I feel a lot stronger this year. I’m in good shape. We’ll see where it takes us.”
On Monday’s start, Doug Fister’s four-seam fastball was around 91-93 MPH and not 88-90 MPH. What’s the difference between those two numbers? A huge jump. Fastball velocity does not follow a linear curve; the difference between an 88 MPH fastball and a 93 MPH fastball is not the difference between an 80 MPH fastball and a 85 MPH fastball. It’s a much larger – and more effective – improvement. Fastball velocity is positively correlated with strikeout rate at the major league level, and so every tick a pitcher can pick up makes a huge difference. It might mean the difference between staying in the big leagues and being demoted to the minors, never to return.
While we don’t know exactly what Doug Fister was doing for his strength, conditioning, and throwing program, we know he’s been doing more of it. And we also know that the Seattle Mariners use Dr. Marcus Elliot’s programs for many of their athletes, which revolves around free weights, medicine balls, and integrating biomechanical analysis concepts into their training methodologies.
Train Hard, Throw Hard
Pretty simple conclusion – if you train hard, you’ll throw hard. Consider that Doug Fister is an elite baseball athlete already flirting with 90 MPH and yet he was able to add velocity by simple training harder. What kind of improvements can the average prep/college pitcher make if he got on a smart training program and worked his butt off?
Link/Video: Mariners Strength Program
The Seattle Mariners have switched from a generic strength and conditioning program to a “high-tech” advanced program by Dr. Marcus Elliot. Many articles on the switch have talked about the lack of weights in the weight room and the emphasis on plyometric/movement training, leading many to believe that weights were completely left out of the program altogether. As the video below shows, this isn’t exactly the case:
As you can see, they have a significant amount of cable pulleys with variable resistance to train hip rotation, a rack of dumbbells, and three power cages with a variety of barbells. While this doesn’t constitute a “lack of weights” by anyone in the know, I’m willing to bet most reporters were used to seeing a bunch of isolation-based machines and equated them as “weight training.”
As Dr. Marcus Elliot so succinctly points out, training hip rotation is extremely important in baseball athletes. He also goes on to say that athletes must train their legs for strength and also mentions the need for improved thoracic extension. Improving tissue quality via self-myofascial release (SMR, also known as foam rolling) and performing postural exercises that address these needs is extremely important in a baseball training program.
I’m glad to see a major-league organization that “gets it” and doesn’t have their guys training on machines like most other organizations do. The attention to thoracic extension, hip rotation, and leg strength (just to name a few things I like about the program) are all very good and necessary if you want to effectively train baseball athletes.
Find Us on the Web!
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Kyle’s Hardball Times Articles- Fastball mechanics: The hardest and softest throwers October 7, 2011
- Jason Vargas, the twist, and the intent to throw hard September 13, 2011
- How baseball failed Steve Delabar September 12, 2011
- A pitcher breaking the mold August 13, 2011
- The science of scouting: A biomechanical look at Gerrit Cole August 11, 2011
