Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

Two mornings ago it rained in Tampa Bay.

Yeah…

I can hear everyone who’s ever been to Fort Myers or Disney for tournaments during the summer:

“Rain in Tampa Bay? Shocker.”

I agree, but to have a rainstorm in the morning, especially this time of year is unusual. In the summer, I check the forecast every day. In the spring, not so much.

So this time I was totally caught off guard.

I woke up at 7:30 am to the sound of raindrops on the bedroom window and suddenly realized the Swingaway in our back yard was uncovered and exposed. I threw on a pair of shorts, ran shirtless out into the rain, tossed a tarp over it, and headed back inside. As I stood there cold and dripping wet on the living room floor, I was reminded of one thing… I hate rain.

As far back as the 5th grade, I can remember sitting in class during the last period of school, looking out the window, and being panic-stricken when it started raining.

“Oh no! Our game today will be canceled! Uuuugggh!!!”

That’s why I hate rain!

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate and understand the plight of the farmer. They need the rain to help their crops grow.
I get it.
I really do…
But hear me out…
Maybe I’m a little shallow, but every time I go into the grocery store I see lots and lots of stuff on the shelves. So apparently, we’re getting our food from somewhere…

Let it rain there.

We got a game to play.

For me rain means one thing, and one thing only – no baseball today.

I often get really irritable when it’s raining.
In a passive-aggressive protest to God, I refuse to change anything. I never run to the car or into a building. I walk very slowly without even the slightest attempt to cover up.

No umbrellas for this guy! Umbrellas are for girls.

I don’t carry a purse and I don’t carry an umbrella.
To me, an umbrella is just something to forget about and leave somewhere.

Here’s what I know about rain:

1) Wet always dries.

And

2) The difference between a little wet and a lot wet ain’t much.

So why rush around hiding from it?

Rain sucks…
You can’t change that.
Might as well just ride it out.

Whenever it rains, I just walk around in it… slowly, going about my daily activities without any modifications, pouting and vacillating throughout the day between various states of wet and dry.
It strikes me that it’s pretty much the same for a lot of pitchers I see.

For years they have been incessantly rained upon with negativity, misinformation, and pointless tired utterances or clichés: “stay over the rubber”, “get your elbow up”, “you’re flying open”, “find a balance point”, “get more extension”, “change your release point”.

Neuromuscular confusion sets in and they start throwing on metaphorical raincoats and erecting umbrellas in their deliveries, desperately trying to find shelter from the deluge. The added accessories manifest themselves in the form of a river of mechanical inefficiencies and physical constraints that inhibit performance, choke off velocity, and can ultimately cascade into catastrophic injury.

Coaches and parents, can I talk to you for a minute?

Can we please just stop and get out of the way?

Kids usually know how to throw, and when allowed to experiment, their bodies usually organize healthy, efficient movement patterns… until the coaching starts. Many times, that’s when they really get screwed up.I know first hand. I used to be the guy that made it rain. I taught what I knew. and I taught it how I had been taught. But about 10 years ago, I started to realize that the old ways were not working. We needed new ideas.That was the genesis of The ARMory.

It’s not that I, or any other coaches and parents were intentionally teaching kids the wrong stuff in the wrong manner. We were teaching what we knew. But that knowledge was often incomplete, ineffective, or just plain wrong. And it was keeping kids from reaching their full potentials. Many people are still stuck in the same rut, teaching the same ineffective concepts, in the same ineffective ways.

Is the world raining on you?
Are you getting drenched by the same old same old?
Is flame in you being snuffed out?

Do you feel like you’re just not getting everything you can out of your arm and your body?
Are you having arm pain, or do you lack velocity or command?

Listen, greatness is within you!
It’s sitting there glowing like a pilot light, waiting to be ignited.
But you’ll never be able to spark that fire until you stop the rain.

I believe… strike that… I know in my soul that every person regardless of starting point, age, experience, or body type, can learn to throw 90 mph or more! And it’s not all that difficult. It’s hard work, but with the right process, it’s not complicated.

In my experience, most of the 115 guys in our program that have eclipsed the a 90 mph threshold had to remove more than they needed to add. What we did was to help them shed the raincoats, galoshes, and umbrellas, and allow the greatness emerge.

Are you tired of paying a guy a dollar a minute to sit on a bucket and rain on your parade time and time again with little or no noticeable improvement in your ability?

Are you tired of being soaked to the bone with the lie that velocity is a “gift” and that you’ll never be able throw any harder than you do right now?

Are you drowning in the myth that all ballplayers have arm pain and should just learn to throw through it?

Isn’t it time to come in from the rain and try something new?

Call us at 1-866-STRIKE3

Still…
I wonder…
Who’ll stop the rain?