Archive: Posts

Yesterday, I told you a story about how my brothers and I disappointed my mom every day for an entire summer because we couldn’t focus enough during the day to get our chores done before she got home from work. All she wanted was to come home from a long, hard day and open the door to a clean comfortable house with no extra work required. One day she had reached the end of her rope, and she really let us have it.

I felt terrible about it.
I knew we had screwed up and let her down.

The entire night and from the moment I woke up the next day, I strategized and executed a plan to make it up to her.

We lived in an Air Force base-housing complex and even though the yards were tiny, to encourage routine upkeep the authorities on the base held a “yard of the month” contest. The winner of the competition received a gift certificate for dinner at a local restaurant, and a “Yard of the Month” sign was posted for all to see.

Even though I was only 12, I had astutely noticed that the contest champions typically had pristine Bermuda grass tightly trimmed and edged, flowers blooming, and a few decorative figurines scattered around the lawn.

I knew that around 3:00 pm the next day, the judges would be coming around to inspect every lawn and to name the winner.
I thought if I could really work hard and clean up and decorate our yard, we might win the competition, and Mom would be happy and proud.

There was only one problem.
We had no figurines.
We had no flowers.
In fact, because our yard was home field for the daily tackle football game, we really didn’t even have any grass.

Undeterred by the reality of the situation, I rummaged through the garage and found a giant silver bowl. It was a huge mess-hall mixing pot large enough to hold a small child. We had used it as sled for my little brother the previous winter. I have no idea where it came from or why we had it. I also found a slightly tattered beach umbrella and some spare lava rocks my dad used on our new propane grill.

I turned the bowl upside down and buried it about 2 inches into the dirt in the yard. I used the lava rocks to make a giant circle around the bowl and I stuck the umbrella in the ground just inside the circle of rocks.

Then I swept the driveway and used a pair of scissors to edge the sidewalk. I ran a push mower over the weeds that were sparsely growing throughout the yard.

By noon I was ready for the contest. In my mind, I had built a winner. Clearly the officials would agree. I fantasized about how excited Mom would be when she drove up and saw our very first “Yard of the Month” sign proudly displayed.

The judges arrived early, around 2:00 pm just as I was placing the final touches on my masterpiece – a figurine of Evil Knievel on a motorcycle. I stood beside my creation glowing with pride as they examined our lot.

The judges were not impressed.
One of them asked me if we were getting ready for a yard sale and reminded me that such activity was forbidden. Instead of a gift certificate and a sign, they handed me a citation for having “excess junk and debris”.

When my mother pulled into the driveway around 5 pm, once again my brothers and I hadn’t done any of the chores on our list.

She was not happy.

The life lessons I learned through my yard of the month failure have guided me through my collegiate baseball career and my professional journey as a physical therapist and a coach. You see I had no chance of winning that competition because I hadn’t done the foundational work to earn it.

I’m pretty sure the yard of the month winners didn’t wake up on the day of the contest and grab a few trinkets out of their garage. Instead, they toiled away for days on end nurturing and grooming their lawns. They started by growing a foundation of lush thick grass as the base. They watered it and trimmed it to perfection. Only then were they able to add the flowers and other adornments to put them over the top.

I see it all the time.
Pitchers come into The ARMory — usually a couple of weeks before the spring season begins – and they are looking for a magic grip, a new pitch, or the one secret that will give them the instantaneous jump in velocity that will make them an ace.
But they are always disappointed when I tell them they first need to build their pitcher specific athleticism and then become more efficient throwers. In essence they need to plant, feed, water and grow the foundational grass in their lawns before the worry about adding flamingos and yard gnomes.

Many times they ask me, “Hey coach, when do I get to work on my pitches?” I patiently explain that the off-season is about building their ability, and we’ll get to that stuff after their movement patterns are well established, their velocity has improved, and they find a sound repeatable delivery we can build upon.

The off-season is here.

Now is the time to expand your ability. But you’re going to need the foundation first, and I have a great idea for you.

It’s called The ARMory Rocket Launchers Training Camp.
We are holding 2 of them in the month of November (Nov 2/3, and Nov 16/17). In this two-day boot camp, I will lay out the entire program we have used to help 42 guys achieve the vaunted 90 mph fastball over the past 2 ½ years. We have now seen 3 of our guys get over 95 mph. 33 of our guys have earned college scholarships and 2 studs have been drafted by MLB teams.

Here is a peek at the syllabus:

When you register and attend, you will receive an ARMory 3 phase assessment including a high-speed video analysis. ($60 value)

You’ll get 2 ARMory style workouts showing you all the motor building exercises ARMory students have used to become some of the most prolific and explosive pitchers in the country. ($120 value)

It will be a multimedia extravaganza and will include 6-7 hours of lecture and video presentations on all the fundamentals of our program. ($600-$700 value)

Topics will include:

Start With the Pain (Wolforth concept)
Reject The Freak Theory (Wolforth concept)
Conducting a World Class Evaluation
Training the Correct Energy System
Creating a Fast Twitch Athlete
Dynamic Warmup
The Fab 4 Pillars Of Explosive Pitcher Development
Balancing Accelerators and Decelerators
Weighted Ball Holds
Varying the Nueromuscular Stimulus
Alerting the Reticular Activating System
How We Learn Motor Skills
The Bernstein Principle
Myelination
Deliberate Practice
Chunking/Blending
Periodizing Your Training Plan

We’ll also be covering the parameters of efficient pitching movement patterns such as:
Deceleration: Keeping it natural and safe
Creating Torque and Separation
Lead Leg Connection
Pelvic Engagement (how to use your hips)
Arm Action
Connection (keeping your movement pattern together)
Creating Tempo and Momentum
Direction
And Intent!!

And you’ll receive world-class mindset training throughout the event.

You’ll leave with a written plan to laser focus your training so you can rapidly gain the 5-7mph, the pinpoint command, and the titanium durability you have been searching for your entire life. ($100 value)

In total, that’s nearly $1000 worth of material and training for less than 1/3rd of that cost.

Again, it’s called
The ARMory Rocket Launchers Training Camp

For our out of town guests, we have a block of rooms reserved at the Holiday Inn Express for only $72 per night.

www.hiexpress.com\tampabrandonfl

This camp will provide you with the foundation you’ll need to launch your off-season training plan.

Don’t wait until the judges are standing in front of your yard!
Register now by clicking on the banner on our main page.

Forward this message to your friends and lets expand our stable of power arms in an exciting and dynamic learning environment.

Until next time,

Plant and sow now, reap later.

Randy Sullivan, MPT
CEO, The ARMory Power Pitching Academy

P.S. If you want to get a jump on building your athleticism, check out my book and DVD called Engineering the Superhuman Pitching Machine Volume 1: The Fab Four Pillars of Explosive Pitcher Development.
You’ll find 40 specific motor building exercises and a 12 week workout plan designed to transform you into an explosive ballistic missile rocket launcher!