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.