2011 Combines

14th Annual FCA Combine

· Saturday, April 30, 9am

· On the NEW TURF at North Little Rock High School Stadium

· Current juniors (class of 2012)

· Coaches, we need your nominations!

· Submit by March 18, 2011

An Open Combine for any athlete 9th-11th grade will be held same day, same location at 2pm.

 · 40 yard dash w/10 & 20 split

· Vertical/broad jump

· Pro Agility/L-Drill

· Bench Press

· Video —no other Combine does this!


REGISTER FOR THE OPEN COMBINE (not the FCA one): https://aims.athleticrepublic.com/ASPCCombine2011

Email:  BJ Maack

Phone: 501-539-FAST (3278)

https://aims.athleticrepublic.com/ASPCCombine2011

Weather & Schedule for Monday Jan 10

Due to the roads & the subsequent bad roads, there NO MORNING WORKOUT CLASSES OR APPOINTMENTS for Monday, Jan 10, 2011.   We may be open in the afternoon, but that decision won't be made until we see how things look tomorrow.  Call 501-539-FAST (3278) for more information.  Email us: info@arsportsperformance.com.

Baseball Pre-season Training

BASEBALL PRE-SEASON TRAINING

Now that we have turned the corner from 2010 into 2011, it is a clear sign that players & teams should be entering into a new phase of the off-season baseball training plan.  Intensities and preparation for the upcoming season should be changing gears just a bit to better suit the build-up for the season at hand.   Of course, doing so would mean that there has been a specific year-round training plan in place for either a team of for each individual player, consisting of a cycle resembling something like this: In-Season, Post-Season, Off-Season, and Pre-Season.   True success lies in transitioning from one to the next.  I want to spend some time in this article focusing on the time at hand….this 4-6 week period known  as the Pre-Season.

The main focus of this time of year needs to be building on the off-season strength gains made during the previous 3-4 months.  If you gained some muscle strength recently during the off-season, use the next few weeks to sharpen it specifically for baseball.  What does this look like?  It means backing off the intensity a little, increasing the reps, and doing more sport-specific movements.  Let’s take the hips as an example.   Say you gained a lot of leg & hip strength via the squat or leg press during the off-season, doing heavy weight & something like 4-6 sets of 4-8 reps consistently.  Now, take the weight down a bit, and do the same lift in a 3-4 sets of 10-15 rep intensity.  Also, to make it sport-specific, do some resisted cord work around your hips as you run bases or swing the bat.  The idea is to use the new, raw muscle strength you have gained & sharpen it up with a baseball knife.  Make it fit the movements you need.

Another concept of pre-season training that is uber-important to the baseball player is the throwing routine.  A lot of ball players have different ways of keeping or getting their arm into shape.  I say for the experienced player that he needs to do what is best for him.  For the player with little or no experience in this area, I suggest that the next 4-6 weeks be a progression of long toss that culminates in a position-specific throwing plan.  This is designed to get the arm at peak conditioning for the first week of games.  I don not believe that a player needs to be 100% ready to pitch in a game 4 weeks before the first game.  However, there are a lot of programs that advocate “keeping” the arm in shape year-round.  Hopefully, the arm had a chance to rest from throwing during the off-season stage.  It needs time to rest.  Use the pre-season to slowly build up arm strength over the course of 2-3 weeks, then progress to mound work or outfield throwing.  The best way to build up arm strength for a ballplayer is to just throw, but make sure it’s a smart throwing program.

In summary, make a point to get a training plan….don’t just assume that things are just going to get themselves ready for the first game.  Those who jump into baseball without preparation are the ones who are most likely to get injured. 

BJ Maack, ATC, LAT, CSCS

bj@arsportsperformance.com

Twitter: @bjmaack

Are Some Athletes Just More Injury-Prone?

So the news broke yesterday that Greg Oden, the heralded former No. 1 draft pick of the Portland Trailblazers, will miss yet another season. Three years, three major surgeries. First, it was a cartilage injury that required microfracture surgery on his right knee. Last year, he sustained a fractured patella on his left knee. Now, unrelated to the patella, is a new injury to his left knee, also requiring microfracture surgery. This guy was supposed to be the next Kevin Durant, right? Wait, my bad….same draft. That's right…the Blazers PASSED on Durant to get Oden. That's another story. Anyway, Oden was to be a star, and now folks are calling him a bust.

Flip to football, and the same story seems to be playing out for the Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford. On Sunday, he just sustained his third shoulder injury in just 2 years. When he has played, he has shown signs of being a great NFL quarterback. But injuries seem to just get him.

Locally, the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team has its own "injury star." Michael Sanchez, a 6'8" power forward suffered yet another injury to his feet, this time another stress fracture.

We've seen this before. Looking through the past few years, names like Mark Prior, Sam Bowie, Eric Lindros, Yankees can't miss prospect from the 90's Brien Taylor, jump out----stars who have all of the potential but just can't seem to shake the injury bug. Just when you thought they were in the clear, something else comes up. Frustrating.

Then you have the list of folks who had their career cut short by major injuries (Bo Jackson & Gayle Sayers come to mind). These, while tragic and make you also want to ask the "what it coulda been" questions, are not what I want to talk about here. I am curious to know what makes some athletes more injury-prone than others. Let's go through a few reasons:

1. TOUGHNESS: great starting point. Are some athletes just not tough enough to handle it? Yes & no. There is a mental aspect of toughness that needs to be addressed. Some folks can grit it out, while others think the most minor ouchie is cause to sit out. If you did a major MRI, x-ray, & bone scan of every professional athlete, not one of them would come back 100% normal. Sports cause wear & tear on the body, and damage will be done. Sometimes you can push through it; sometimes you simply can't go on any longer & have to stop. But there is the physical side of it as well.
   
2. PHYSICAL STATE: genetically, we are all gifted differently. Some of us have the body composition to endure the rough demands of sport; some of us don't. Factor in things like joint flexibility, heredity, bone structure, muscle tightness and you have a wide range of diversity. Can just anyone
   
3. PREPARATION: the way one trains & prepares can have a significant impact on injury rates. It's important to go through a regimen in anticipation of a season, both to correct imbalances caused by injuries and also to make the body stronger & faster. But I have seen training intended for performance actually cause injury. Could it be that some of the oft-injured folks mentioned above are in this category? Maybe. But the problem is that you almost always only find that out after the fact.
   
4. EXTERNAL FACTORS: shoes, training surfaces, climate are all examples of things that can affect the way an athlete's body responds. Again, you won't know what's causing a problem until a problem presents itself.
   

Today's sport science allows us the use of new diagnostic tools like video analysis, strength & force output measurements, and testing methods. These tools can help us avoid injuries, or in the case of some of the athletes above, help identify things causing the injuries before they get too bad. It's amazing what we can detect nowadays in our training centers. I have been blessed with the opportunity to utilize tools like these to help athletes get over the issues.

I write all of this hopefully to stimulate some discussion. I also write to talk to the critical fan who quickly dismisses an athlete as just an "injury bust." It's not like they are doing this stuff on purpose. Sometimes it's out of their control.

 

Your turn.

Concussions

If you even remotely follow sports, you have at least heard the word concussion mentioned, if not gained a new educational experience about concussions.  The sports & medical worlds are teeming with experts on this and viewpoints on that.  Here is an attempt at summarizing what you need to know:

1. What is a concussion? I will let smarter people than me answer that for you: HeadsUp
2. Concussions are a part of any sport.  Unfortunately this is true.  Anytime you involve contact or collision in a sport or game, there is a risk of a head injury.  Just as true: you can injure your head by slipping & falling on the ice....or in a car accident. The key is to do whatever you can to minimize the risk.  We accomplish this in life by wearing helmets when riding bikes, or enacting rules to discourage helmet contact.
3. Concussion testing for athletes is here to stay.  And it's a good thing. This area has grown by leaps & bounds over the last 10 years.  What is it? In a nutshell, it means establishing a return-to-play criteria for athletes, mostly after an athlete is suspected of sustaining a concussion.  There are cognitive tests, balance tests & a check of physical signs & symptoms.  If an athlete passes these and is cleared by a medical professional (in some states it's the law) then they can return to play.  A relatively new area of testing is establishing baseline tests on an athlete to determine what is "normal" for the athlete so that if a concussion is sustained, the medical professional can go back & compare the "then & now."
4. Focusing on football, aren't today's helmets enough protection? Yes & no.  Today's helmet technology helps to absorb the high-impact forces better than ever. But here's where things get tricky, in my opinion.  I believe that because the helmets are so good, they allow for some sort of "invincibility" mentality for players, resulting in techniques like leading with the head.  Let's be clear here:  I enjoy hard hitting football like a lot of people do.  There is nothing to get a crowd going like a "great hit."  But not when a player actually leads with his head as a weapon.   The other aspect of this is improper helmet fitting.  It's scary to see how easy the helmets are coming off these days, from the NFL all the way down to youth football. Again, my own opinion here, but I believe that there is not a strong enough push to make sure these helmets are on properly.

Which brings me to a point: we have to change the mentality of the game. We have rules that clearly state no "spearing" or leading with the head.  There is a monetary fine system in place in the NFL for helmet-to helmet hits.  BUT there is too much celebrating the cheap shots & deliberate head hits in the game today.  Thankfully, there are no more "Jacked Up" segments of Monday Night Football, but the football culture still thrives on "knocking someone out."    (Side note:  this is NOT some sissified attempt at making the game soft)  Read below:


Taken from USA Today's "The Huddle"
NBC analyst Rodney Harrison, a former NFL safety who was penalized for illegal hits at several points in his career, said on the network's Football Night in America that the NFL has to do more than fine offenders if it really wants to change the big-hitting culture (Harrison speaks more in the video below):

"I've had plenty of hits like this and fining me $5 or $10 grand really didn't affect me. But I got to a point where they suspended me and I knew the effect on my teammates, the disappointment of me not being out there; not the $100,000 that got taken away from me, but the fact that I wasn't out there. That's what they are going to have to do if they want to change the nature of these hits. You have to suspend guys."

Rodney hits the nail on the head (pardon the pun).  These guys can afford to pay fines.  Start by suspending players like James Harrison, not only for his hit on Joshua Cribbs yesterday but also for his comments.
Video of hit


This will take a culture change.  A culture change that encourages good, safe physical play, but also emphasizing that it's not OK to hit with your head.  


Thoughts??

New Video

Check out our new video!!

Running Form

No matter the sport, one key thing I notice when working with athletes is their efficiency of movement.....especially their RUNNING FORM! What you do with your body while trying to move forward is the key to it all. Does your torso rotate too much? Are your arms crossing mid-line? How is your stride? These questions and more are things we address on a daily basis.





Here's the best sprinter in the world exhibiting some great things:  hands going "hip pocket to eye socket," torso straight, head still.  I can hear you---"He's a straight-ahead sprinter; I'm a basketball player...this doesn't apply to me."  I hear it all the time.  Even moving 15 feet from point A to point B requires efficiency of movement.

Every athlete involved in the process of moving can benefit from a better running form.

Here's an example of bad trunk rotation moving up & down the basketball court:

Trunk rotating, arms going to cross mid-line......little things like this will lead to inefficient movement which will, in turn, lead to getting up & down the court slower.

Want to be the fastest possible, even moving 90 feet down the base path?  Get help on your running form.  It's the first step to getting faster.