Player development is the holy grail of baseball. Velocity, movement, command, injury prevention: the teams that can develop these traits better and faster than others are the ones that will be, theoretically, hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy more often than any others. This doesn’t just play at t...
Individualization is seen as a must have with training programs. While this is good, it doesn’t come without some misunderstandings. We’ve touched on some of those issues before, but it sometimes seems like people get confused by what individualization means in relation to sports. At times, individu...
This post from our Coaches Series was written by Justin James, Assistant Coach at University of California, San Diego. He took over there in January 2017, having coached the previous seven seasons at Point Loma Nazarene University. In previous posts, I covered implementing Driveline Protocols to a...
In our previous post, we laid the groundwork for understanding how much protein baseball athletes should consume. This time, we will determine the differing needs for macronutrients based on the time of the year and examine how best to consume adequate protein throughout the day. Let’s begin with th...
Before we talk about how much protein players should be consuming, let’s talk about what exactly protein is, why it is essential, and what is does for the body. The word “protein” comes from a Greek word meaning “of prime importance.” Proteins are made up of the following elements: Carbon Hydrogen O...
“Should I eat carbs or should I eat fat?” This question has been a topic of hot debate recently, with very credible arguments on both sides. On one hand, we can consider the “right” answer for the general population, which is to probably take it easy on the sugar. However, when we consid...
What is central nervous system (CNS) fatigue, and how will it affect the performance of my baseball athletes? Most athletes know what central nervous system (CNS) fatigue is because at some point or another they have experienced it. Athletes are constantly subjected to the coaching staff’s great ide...
I’m not sure if it’s the semi-persistent ringing of the age-old mantra, “No pain, no gain!”, or just a belief that always doing less is a bad thing, but the word “deload” tends to be a borderline dirty word to some athletes and coaches. It shouldn’t be. Deloads are a necessary part of training and a...
One of the most common goals I hear from the athletes I work with at Driveline Baseball is the desire to improve their hip mobility. Since proper range of motion in the hips is associated with improved performance and decreased risk of injury, this is a great goal to have (4, 5). In my experience, c...
Velocity Based Training – or VBT – has slowly been gaining popularity as athletes and coaches look for the most cutting edge methods to train their athletes. With VBT, instead of training for maximal strength, athletes train for maximal speed. In theory, this trains more fast-twitch mus...
