Sunday Shine! Keep Polishing the Rock!!!

When I was in high school, I had a very strict curfew. 11:00 pm. Not 11:10. Not 11:05. Not even 11:01 It was 11:00 pm, and it was non-negotiable. One minute late and there was heck to pay.

At the time, I thought it was unnecessary. I wasn’t a big party guy in high school. In fact most of my nights were spent hanging out at my church with friends in my youth group. But still, my mom was very rigid about that curfew.

One summer night, I was driving home in my 1972 school bus yellow Volkswagen Beetle. It had power steering and power brakes and a revolutionary new transmission system call “automatic stick shift”. It went from zero to 60 in about a month–not exactly a chick magnet.

Anyway, I was coming in hot because I knew I was pushing the limit on my deadline. As I peeled around the last curve and headed for home, I glanced at my watch. I slammed on the brakes and came to an abrupt stop about 100 yards from my house. “Dang it,” I thought. “I’m already 10 minutes late. This is not good.” I looked ahead at my house and noticed that all the lights were off, so I devised what seemed to be a brilliant plan. With my mother apparently asleep, if I could creep in unnoticed, she would have no way of knowing exactly when I had gotten in.

So here’s what I did.

I hit the gas and got up to a good cruising speed. As I turned into the driveway, I deftly killed the headlights, turned the ignition off, and began quietly coasting toward my normal parking place, a concrete expansion just the the right of the carport where my mom kept her Buick.

One thing I didn’t account for came back to bite me…hard.

You see, when I turned off the ignition and pulled the key out, the steering locked up and the power brakes no longer worked. I rolled in fast and out of control, and I slammed the left front fender of my VW into the vertical beam that supported the carport.

The car came to a halt with a loud “boom!” and the entire house shook. Soon, all the lights in the house were on, and my mom and my two brothers came scurrying out to see what had happened.

I was busted…..and grounded for a month. It wasn’t one of my finer moments, and It reminds me of what happened to some of our pitchers last year.

The Spring Season is Here

In the southern states, Jucos and D2s have already had their first games. High schools have concluded their preseason schedules and are ready to go, D1s start next and week and for our minor leaguers, pitchers and catchers report in a week or so. But there is something I need to warn you about–especially those of you who have worked hard with us this off season.

Last year, many of our guys saw their performance with regard to velocity, command, and durability degrade as the season progressed, and I think I know why.

They Took Their Foot off the Accelerator, and Removed the Key from the Ignition.

They stopped doing their drills, refining their movement patterns, and just reverted to throwing in games and mindlessly tossing bullpens between starts. As the season progressed, their command and velocity began to fade, and a few began to experience pain. Don’t let that happen to you.

Listen, in-season is not the time to work on velocity enhancement. Nor is it the time to make mechanical adjustments to your movement patterns. But it is still very, very important to work the process that got you where you are today.

You must continue to work the exercise program presented inEngineer ing the Superhuman Pitching Machine Vol 1 two to three times per week. The Fab Four Pillars program is designed to elicit, improve and refine movement patterns specific to the pitching motion.

You can work on decel drills every day.

If you fixed a major mechanical problem in the off-season, say a forearm flyout, or a glute activation inefficiency, keep doing Coach Ron Wolforth’s “Solve Your Disconnection” program 2 or 3 times

per week between outings. If you haven’t seen this product yet, you must do so. It is, in my opinion, his best work yet. We use it every day at The ARMory, and it is nothing short of a motor learning marvel. Mechanical constraints that used to take us 3 months to carve away are now gone in 3 weeks. And you can use it as a maintenance program throughout the season.

If you had a physical constraint, like a problem with shoulder, hip

tor thoracic mobility, you should continue with the appropriate corrective exercises presented in Engineering The Superhuman Pitching Machine Vol 3 throughout the season to ensure they don’t creep back in and disrupt your performance.

If you find yourself getting knocked around a little, maybe your pitch

sequen

cing is a problem.

How about a refresher course in the implementation of PerryHusband’s Effective Velocity?

Check out this Rocket Science Live Presentation I did calledPitcher’s Kevlar: Bulletproof Pitch Selection

And if recovery is a problem. If you aren’t able to answer the bell with your best stuff every outing, check out our Weighted Ball Holds Program. It’s great tool to use the day after pitching to inject life back into a weary arm.

But the work you did in the off-season will all be for naught if you don’t keep grinding!

Listen closely.

Leaving your physical and mechanical issues unattended for the entire season would be just like turning off your lights and taking the keys out of the ignition while going down the highway at 100 mph!!!!

Announcing “Sunday Shine”

So in the light of this need to” keep on keeping on” during the season, I am announcing a brand new and exciting program. It’s called “Sunday Shine”. Since most of our high school guys here in Tampa Bay pitch on Tuesdays and Fridays, we will conduct class every Sunday at 2 pm. Just a bunch of guys getting together to “get their shine on.” No velocity enhancement or ability building. Just polishing the rock and maintaining our sharpness. Current ARMory students can sign up using our online class registration system.

Look, what I’m saying is that the resources are all here for you. There is no reason to let the season get away from you. Just a little tune up every now and then will do wonders for your results.

Until next time,

Shine on!!