You may have read our previous posts about our Arm Authority and Swing Authority Programs where we believe in training speed and velocity. Why? Because it absolutely matters if you want a shot at playing in professional baseball. Just re-watch MLB Futures Game and you will get a look a where baseball is truly heading. This is all the upcoming stars of the game. If you didn’t get a change to read either post, you can click below to read them
Swing Authority | Arm Authority
When it comes down to training our members in our Youth Programs (Ages 9-14), we operate a little bit different. When we say different, we mean we are not putting radar guns on our 12 year old pitchers or matching up exit velocities and launch angles constantly of our hitters who play with fences of 250ft. Although it can be really intriguing especially for parents to see the velocity & exit velocity jump for your 12 year old, your 12 year old probably doesn’t care as much as you do about their velocity. We have seen it before. We have had parents bring in pocket radars to place behind their son’s throwing or hitting. We will go into detail in this post about how important velocity will be for them in the future but due to their age, movement patterns, mindset, competitive nature, accountability, and the overall aspect of loving the game must come first before your son wants to think about making this game into a career.
If you have read our most recent posts, you have noticed we are big in to data & velocity. But wait.. we just said we wont use it on your son if he is not older than 14. Well, we will clarify what exactly we mean. Using data on our youth members in our program is a case by case basis. We get so many people worried about their velocity on the mound and their exit velocity at the plate that they come in looking to gain 6mph in 3 weeks to get ready for the 12U USA trails. I am being serious. While we love getting clients who can buy into the fact that velocity matters rather than just trying to command pitches at 70% or just put balls in play, never actually unlocking their full potential at the plate, there is a progression and protocol for us to use some data on some of our youth members. Here are some of the reasons why,
-The athlete starts to compete against others that are completely of a different skill level than himself. Starts to question his own abilities and losing confidence.
-The athlete cannot focus on the proper movements needed to progress themselves to maintain high velocity numbers while reducing injury.
-Mom & Dad become consumed with data more than the athlete.. driving the athlete to lose interest the fun of the game.
This is just to name a few examples that we constantly see when it comes down to circumstances that we have run across when it comes down to technology and youth athletes and parents. Information is gold, but in the wrong hands can be damaging.
What do we focus on then?
Now, all of our members do receive a baseline test that involves some video & Blast Motion Bat Sensor Metrics. Over time youth athletes work their way up to using our FlightScope machine and Radar Guns once we feel their mindset is able to take in the information and they will to be able to compete to become their best selves.
For most youth athletes, poor Movement Patterns have been ingrained for years. It takes time to reprogram their CNS to get their body to move in the proper patterns. How we go about that is using a constraints, pre programmed drills, proprioception, and using external cues that have all been shown to facilitate a better approach to Motor Learning for athletes.
How do I know if my son is ready for one of your programs?
Truthfully, it will be up to us to decide. There are many factors that play into the acceptance of an athlete into one of our programs. We recommend to submit an evaluation form so we can have you come into the facility for us to take a look at your son.
What if my son is not accepted into a program?
It has happened before, and we always explain our whys as to what we do. There can be many reasons as to why. The first that we will state is age. We do have an age limit do to the fact of our other members and how we operate, and what we teach. There is certain level of cognitive ability that we feel the athlete must possess before entering the program for what we do and how we teach, to be valuable for their careers. Other factors of skill level can play as well too.
We aim to continue to provide more content here in our posts to help those so they can eventually enter into one of our programs. If the athlete isn’t accepted, we still would like to have a role in their development, we just do’t see a fit for them in our facility currently.
Our goal in the next few months as we head into the Winter Development season is to release more content through our site an social media channels of how we are developing our athlete, tips & drills. You can follow any of our social media channels below.
