Objective Measurment
“If you want to improve something, you must measure it!”
We dedicate ourselves to finding ways to objectively measure, record and track everything that we believe to be important or vital to a baseball player’s success. Most people falter and ultimately fail because they are far too SUBJECTIVE regarding their improvement. Subjectivity will get you off track. You don’t want to ‘think’ you are improving or assume you are improving, you want the incontrovertible proof. At Anderson Baseball Academy we are constantly trying to find ways to assess and measure our players’ progress. For us, that search will never end.
One Size Does Not Fit All
At Anderson Baseball Academy we will NOT strictly choreograph, clone, or cookie cut players according to one ideal mechanical style. Any program that tries to strictly choreograph, clone, or cookie cut an athlete will ultimately fail the athletes who don’t fit inside the model’s strict constraints – which will mean MOST athletes. Cookie cutting or teaching a particular style is much easier for the coach, but not the player. Every athlete is unique and comes with their own gifts and strengths, as well as, constraints and limitations. Every athlete will be required to adjust or transform their program as they develop. The processes that were great today will need to be altered or modified tomorrow to insure challenge and growth. Therefore ONE size doesn’t even fit ONE, let alone all.
Pitching/Hitting Drills
Many baseball instructors have developed drills that teach positions over space and time that lead to stiff, robotic, and unathletic swings/deliveries. The drills we utilize at Anderson Baseball Academy teach players movement segments over positions. We believe that teaching the baseball athlete movements leads to more explosiveness, athleticism, and efficiency at the plate and/or on the mound. We also understand that every individual is unique and our drills allow them to develop their own personal signature to their swing/delivery. Teaching positions is another way to choreograph baseball players and force them into positions that could potentially be unnatural and awkward for most of the athletes.
Wake Up/Warm Up
You can’t recruit muscles that aren’t awake”
Our athletes will always go through an active feet to fingertip warm up which helps them develop their fundamental and skill specific movement patterns. In order to recruit our fast twitch muscle fibers, we first need to wake up the body properly. This warm up also helps players improve their stability, mobility, structural alignment, and any asymmetries/strength imbalances that may be constraining their performance.
Agility Training
As baseball players, we need to be able to move our body in one direction and immediately take that energy and change directions immediately. The agility training focuses on change of direction movement and skill specific coordination helping players get more explosive, athletic, and stronger in the core/pelvic region of their body.
Arm Care
Arm care is critical in the preparation of our pitchers to maximize their growth and performance. Arm care serves a dual purpose as both a pre-throwing and post-throwing activity. You will see that the arm care done at Anderson Baseball Academy focuses on more than just warming up and strengthening the soft tissue of the shoulder and the elbow. We need to improve our strength and flexibility in a number of other areas in order to protect the ligaments in the shoulder/elbow.
Skill Specific Strength and Conditioning
The movements involved in hitting and pitching are very complex patterns that involve the entire body not just one part of the body. As a result, we shouldn’t be going to the gym attempting to train one or two parts of our body. We should be using full body movements in our training that work on improving our power, speed, strength, stability, and flexibility. Everything we do in our strength and conditioning focuses on the core/pelvis, and nearly all of the exercises we do relate to the movements we use on the mound or at the plate.