2013 HR Derby Champion

For reasons that go well beyond this blog, Yoenis Cespedes couldn't be more deserving for his recent accomplishment of winning the 2013 MLB All-Star Game HR Derby.


Our off-season strength & conditioning program had been designed with a few goals in mind:
1) Evaluate & enhance previous strength training and power  
    development to improve transfer from gym to field
2) Enhance on-field performance
3) Reduce the incidence of injury
4) Extra curriculum - ASG, maybe HR Derby, and hopefully post season (better to be prepared than not)

The entire world now knows Yoenis Cespedes. There were some serious sluggers in this years HR Derby. Everyone competing in the HR Derby wanted to win. After all, they are competitors. They want bragging rights and in the process they want to win/raise money for a host of charities. However, we cant ignore how taxing the first half of the season has been on them. Trips to the DL, HBP's, fights, hard slides, etc, etc. Then to go out and swing out of their shoes with such intensity and such power over and over and over again. The amount of trunk stability (core stiffness) necessary, not only for the pre-, in-, and post-season games but also for the multitude and magnitude of swings during HR Derby competitions, should not be overlooked; and needs to be greatly appreciated and embraced. So it goes without saying that they need to be in shape. Being baseball-ready, being in baseball-shapre doesn't happen mid-season and definitely not during spring training. It happens in the off-season; off-season strength & conditioning programs are vital and they better more than a pat on the back. They are vital not so much for unanticipated events such as HR Derby, but vital inorder for you to provide, the end user (the athlete himself, the coaches, the Front Office, etc), the best product  possible for 162 plus games. From a strength & conditioning perspective, baseball players should be in baseball strength and their conditioning should be game-ready when arriving to camp. In other words, out train the the game because In-season performance happens in the off-season.

Yoenis Cespedes, Oakland A's
2013 HR Derby Champion

Out Train the Game...Yoenis does and now Yo knows HR Derby

Adam

Athletically Skilled or Performance Enhanced

Lazy But Talented. Really?  I just can't get behind such a message.

I don't give a crap how talented or skilled you THINK you are or how many of baseball's Five Tools you have.  If lazy is in any way shape or form is part of your DNA (in life or in baseball) then keep walking. I'd rather have an athlete that only possesses 2 or 3 of the Five Tools but understands the value of hard work, to enhance the performance skills/tools that he does have; this athlete is the first in the gym (and on the field) and last to leave. This athlete understands that it's one thing to have skill, it's another to enhance those skills thru proper integrated baseball performance/strength training.  This athlete also has what the "lazy but talented" athlete doesn't have...mental fortitude. This is the mental strength to work hard towards his goals; to work when 'lazy' is sleeping; to work when 'lazy' takes their skill-set for granted; to make grilled chicken for dinner when 'lazy' goes thru the drive-thru for fried chicken. Get the point point - It's easy to be lazy and it's easy to see. Again, it doesn't matter how good you are or how good you think you are, laziness will erode your skills.

Be committed, dedicated and responsible to your talents.

All in all, our motto is OUT TRAIN THE GAME. and leave your Lazy at home

Adam