It is apparent that speed plays a vital role in successful baseball performance. Because of the short distances involved in the game, players rarely, if ever, achieve maximum speed and in actuality, it is acceleration that plays a much greater role in baseball.
The importance of recognizing a closed-chain activity lies in the fact that the motions of multiple joints are coupled. Weakness at any one joint will consequently limit performance of the entire movement.
Personal trainersCoachesExercise ScienceProgram designkinematic chainkinetic chainstrength and conditioning
Oxygen uptake (or consumption) is a measure of a person’s ability to take in oxygen and deliver it to the working tissues, and the ability of working tissues to use oxygen. During low-intensity exercise with a constant power output, oxygen uptake increases for the first few minutes until a steady state of uptake is reached.
Interest is growing in warm-up procedures that involve dynamic activities and sport-specific movements that maximize active ranges of motion at different movement-specific speeds while preparing the body for the demands of sport training and competition.
CoachesExercise ScienceExercise Techniquewarm-updynamic warm-upstrength and conditioning
Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity, so this phase of sprinting is critical for changing directions as rapidly and efficiently as possible. Optimal technique for linear sprinting in the acceleration phase involves four factors that maximize stride length and frequency.
CoachesExercise ScienceExercise Techniquespeedagilitystrength and conditioning
High knee drills help develop coordinated front-side mechanics and are often used as part of a warm-up. This article details several high knee drills that you can use with your athletes.
Ground-based free weight lifts, especially the explosive Olympic-style lifts, are highly recommended for athletic conditioning for the core muscles. They can provide a moderately unstable stimulus to augment activation of the core and limb muscles, while still providing maximal or near maximal strength, velocity, and power output.
Growth hormone release is affected by the type of resistance training protocol used, including the duration of rest periods. Short rest period types of workouts result in greater serum concentrations compared to long rest protocols of similar total work; however, at present it is not clear how the various molecular forms or types of growth hormones are affected by rest period duration.
Bo Sandoval, Director of Strength and Conditioning for the UFC Performance Institute, walks through weightlifting examples used to elicit changes in the force-velocity curve.
While exercise is safe for most participants, many screening strategies have been implemented to reduce the likelihood of injury, and possibly death, from exercise. This article shares an objective strategy for selecting an appropriate assessment method based on a client’s resistance training status and experience.
Personal trainersExercise ScienceFitness assessmentpersonal trainingnsca-cptassessment method
This article provides a sample six-week lumbo-pelvic hip complex strengthening program with the intended goal of improving vertical jumping ability and landing mechanics without the addition of plyometric or jumping/landing drills.
Personal trainersExercise Sciencelumbo-pelvic hip complexlumbo-pelvic strengtheninginjury riskvertical jump
Developing a truly successful program involves several layers that the personal trainer must address with time, competence, and critical thinking. A thorough and complete initial consultation can ensure that the personal trainer has all the data that they need to design a program that is time-efficient and successful.