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Here is a business and coaching axiom I made up several years ago.

“The quality of an organization is inversely proportional to the number of meetings they hold… especially emergency meetings.”

I don’t do meetings.

And here’s why.

When I was in the military, I attended far too many meetings with no direction or purpose. Frequently, I would sit and listen to lower level officers bloviate, posture and grandstand in hopes of impressing the top brass. More times than not I left the meeting with no idea what needed to be done moving forward. It seemed like a hamster wheeling waste of time.

So here at The ARMory and at Sullivan Rehab Services, we have approximately one meeting per year.

It’s called our Annual Christmas Party… but we do it in March or April, because no one really has time for office parties during the holidays, they just go because they have too. Our staff loves it.

There is an exception to my “no meeting” policy. If I have a vision I want to share with my key people, I’ll call them together for 10 minutes to lay it out. I always end by assigning specific expected outcomes and deadlines for achievement, and then I let all the rock stars we have collected over the years do their thing.

Late last April, in the middle of the night I was awakened by an idea for a comprehensive Summer Training Program that would address every aspect of pitcher development imaginable. I scratched out an outline on a yellow legal pad (something I always keep close by), and the next day, I did something I rarely do…

I called a meeting.

I spent 15 minutes (a record for meeting duration around here) laying out my vision of a 9-phase assessment, hyper-individualized corrective throwing drills, corrective physical exercises, velocity enhancement, command training, spin rate awareness, recovery, pitcher specific power building workouts, and nutrition coaching. When the meeting broke, we had an action plan in place.

My job was to get with Dallas Baptist pitching coach, Wes Johnson and write a report on the summer training, and to begin letting people know about it via e-mail and social media.

We thought if we could get 10 guys in the program, it would be a huge success.

The response was amazing.

We were inundated with interest and inquiries.

Within a month we had added two additional staff members, knocked out a wall and expanded our facility to add a gym. Ty Sullivan revamped our throwing protocols and power building workouts, recorded an incredible promotional video, and we started making personal phone calls to anyone who expressed an interest.

Our fitness and nutrition director, Lisa Church came up with the idea of adding Yoga and core strengthening classes, and she developed our world class Rocket Fuel Nutrition Program. Matt Abramson jumped in and created an individualized functional strengthening/weightlifting model, Josh Wagner joined the team and started the “Mental Warfare” Mindset Training, Laura DeNovi stepped up and added her sports massage and soft tissue release specialty, and Director and CFO Amy Marsh, choreographed and orchestrated the entire process.

Our handyman, Pauley on the Spot finished the build out of our gym, media room, and new admin space the day before the summer program began.

When the dust had settled, 33 collegiate and high school pitchers showed up and dug in for world-class elite pitcher training 5 days per week, up to 6 hours per day, for anywhere from 4-9 weeks. As word of mouth spread about the effectiveness of the training, that number rapidly grew to 56 participants that matriculated daily through the process in waves of 8-12 studs like squads of Army Rangers attacking an enemy military stronghold.

Guys came from all over the country. Universities represented included:

Dallas Baptist University, Florida State, North Carolina State, University of Maine, Purdue University, Boston College, University of South Alabama, Bethune-Cookman University, University of North Florida, Wofford College, Florida Gulf Coast University, South Carolina-Upstate, University of Tampa, University of Pittsburgh, The Citadel, Northwest Florida State, Lee University, University of West Virginia, High Point University, Rollins College, Howard College, Mars Hill University, Weatherford College, St. Thomas University, South Carolina-Sumter, Iowa Lakes CC, Bloomington College, Jewell College, Belmont-Abbey, King University, Prince George University, Vol State University, Peru State University, Deglado CC, and probably a few others that I missed (sorry about that).

We were honored to be visited by dozens of college coaches over the summer too.

Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind summer.

Last fall I attended a marketing conference where a leading expert gave this brilliant advice: “If you find something that works, do that s**t again.”

So as we sprint to the finish of this wild ride, we are ramping up for another one.

We are thrilled to announce The ARMory Complete Game Pro Off-Season Training Program.

If you’re ready for an off-season that will change your life, this will be your one stop shop/everything you need hot spot for the most comprehensive and highly effective elite off-season training program ever developed.