Drive Mechanics

[Doug Romrell]

Is closing this thread the only option??

I would like, as JJ suggests, for this thread to be cleaned up, given it is among the most valuable sticky thread. That is, could we get rid of all posts on this thread other than Javasource's and possibly a few others that are directly related to and in harmony with Javasource's material? If someone wants to disagree with these sticky threads, let them start a new thread.

 

[Perfect Circle]

We'll never get rid of this trif....

What I purpose is that we figure out is how to add video of doing each step... (correctly) If I thought DD could do them right, i'd shoot it today. I guess I just got to start, then post for the correction, then re-shoot until we get it right. Kinda like learning to pitch

 

[FrozenRope]

Well if OILF and her mom say the male and female anatomy are identical that is good enough for me. I guess that settles that.......

Yeah...I think her Mama has also been quoted as saying that "Alligators are ornery cause they got so many teeth and no toothbrush"

 

[drc9805]

There is absolutely no need to make males the ideal and females the other. I work with young ladies, many more than you all will ever see. And they perform much better than that sexist crap, which has remained the same since I read stuff my mom had and stuff that was given to me. It is slightly better as they used to tell us we would gain nothing from even PE...

Scientists can be biased like all heck and underestimating the young ladies gets you nowhere. We don't need to be "saved" by this stuff, but you can all go pat yourselves on the back. The baseball players come and watch our ladies and we work out with them, and we ain't buying what you are selling.

You can have an exercise program without quoting all the bias against females an their so called weaknesses.

There was nothing in this article intended to be sexist...just facts...and it's not about boys vs. girls anyway...get over it!

 

[Perfect Circle]

 

[javasource]

That's awesome, L. She's a rockstar. Perfect.

 

[MandM]

For OILF: Maybe you are not reading the correct resources, perhaps you should examine the science that seeks to understand the specific needs of women athletes rather than continue to proclaim that there are no differences (try PubMed).

Br J Sports Med. 2014
Specific exercise effects of preventive neuromuscular training intervention on anterior cruciate ligament injury risk reduction in young females: meta-analysis and subgroup analysis.
Sugimoto D1, Myer GD2, Barber Foss KD3, Hewett TE4.

Clinical trials have demonstrated that preventive neuromuscular training (PNMT) can be effective to reduce ACL injuries in young females. However, the magnitude of the overall effect of PNMT for ACL injury reduction has not reached consensus. In addition, the effects of individual exercises in PNMT that optimise ACL injury reduction are unknown.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this project was to systematically review previously published clinical trials and evaluate types of exercises that best support ACL injury reduction in young females.

DATA SOURCES:The key words 'knee', 'anterior cruciate ligament', 'ACL', 'prospective', 'neuromuscular', 'training', 'female', and 'prevention' were used for studies published from 1995 to May 2012 in PubMed and EBSCO host.

STUDY SELECTION: Inclusion criteria for the current analysis were: (1) documented number of ACL injuries, (2) employed a PNMT intervention that aimed to reduce ACL injuries, (3) had a comparison group, (4) used a prospective controlled study design, (5) recruited female athletes and (6) recorded exercises implemented in the PNMT.

DATA EXTRACTION: The number of ACL injuries and female athletes in each group (control and intervention) were extracted. In addition, exercises were categorised into four types and analysed for each investigation.

DATA SYNTHESIS:A total of 14 clinical trials met the inclusion criteria. The subgroup analyses identified fewer ACL injuries in PNMT that focused on strengthening (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.46, p=0.001), proximal control exercises (OR 0.33, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.47, p=0.001) and multiple exercise interventions (OR 0.32, CI 0.22 to 0.46, p=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS:The current subgroup analyses indicate strengthening, proximal control exercises and multi exercise genres increased efficacy in PNMT intervention designed to reduce ACL injury in young female athletes.

 

[pumpkinbear]

Sluggers and Amy... I hate seeing this thread mucked up by nonsense.

Is it possible to give javasource edit control (ability to prune off-topic posts) over this thread only?

 

[WaSpeed02]

Screwball (I mean OILF):

Java's detailed information exists for the purpose of properly training the female athlete so that they reduce the risk of injury and increase overall athleticism. But I'm sure you know that quite well. Anyway, his labors here are beneficial and much appreciated. Clear thinking DFP'ers know this quite well.

My question to you is a simple one.

Are boys and girls different, or not?

If they are different, then shut your mouth and learn something.

If you don't believe there is any anatomical difference between genders, then document the scientific data proving your case. Or shut your mouth.

Continuing along the same path that you've been treading will only prove that you are married to an agenda that does not have the best interest of female athletes in mind at all. I hope everyone here takes heed of you.

New users: Beware of user "Out in Left Field". She's more committed to misinformation than Hanoi Jane.

 

[javasource]

Performance Training for Softball

Part III – You Down With OSP?! (Yeah… you know me…)

In the science of ‘exercise’… a term that is often tossed around is SAID… an acronym for Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. Too often, people hear of this principle and think: If I do something a thousand times, I’ll get better. Well...not exactly…

What it really means is when the body is placed under some form of stress, it starts to make adaptations that will allow the body to get better at withstanding that specific form of stress in the future.

SAID: The bones in a tennis players arm actually get thicker.
Not SAID: I workout, I’m going to pitch faster.

Exercise is stress, no doubt. By exercising, you expose your body to increased workloads… and your body will adapt. However, this ‘stress’ must be sufficiently specific to the activity of the sport you are training… and it must be the right amount.

What is OSP? An acronym for Overload, Specificity, and Progression.

Overload

The concept is pretty straight forward… in order to improve our strength, fitness, or endurance… we need to increase our work load accordingly. If you want a muscle to increase its strength, it must be gradually stressed by working against a load greater than it is used to.

You must remember WHAT you’re training for… and in our case, it is speed gains in pitching. More specifically… our goal is to train our nervous system to better recruit multiple motor units at the same time… for performance output gains. Read that again.

We are not training to do the activity longer.

We are training to pitch the ball faster.

Without overload, there is no adaptation.

Specificity

Simply put, exercising certain body parts, muscles, or systems will develop those parts, muscles and systems.

Far too often, people use this concept in this fashion: To become better at a particular exercise or skill, you must perform that exercise or skill. This is true… practice riding a bike and you’ll get better. Practice the piano and you’ll get better. So… why not just practice pitching a ton… and you’ll get faster, right? No. You will get better at performing whatever movements you associate with pitching… that’s all. This said, there’s something to be said for ‘all out’ or ballistic pitching… but that’s not what these posts are about… more on that later.

I had a plan when I started putting all this information out there… and Specificity was a large part of that plan. Specificity requires that you know what muscles/systems you should train, and perform exercises that actually improve the efficiency, stability, and work that those areas perform. If you’ve followed (read) this thread, you already know a great deal more than the average ‘Joe’ about these areas of the core.

Pitching requires that your entire body (the system) works together and chains the energy the body is creating AND receiving into the ball. Remember this gif?

The quality of work performed by our extremities is entirely contingent on our ability to stabilize our proximal base. Most people call this our core… and that’s fine for discussion… but application is a whole different story.

As noted before, training programs that only focuses on proximal stability will not create increases in speed consistently. However, I have found that programs that do not address these four corners of proximal stability will also come up short on delivering… as the system that is ‘doing work’, does so inefficiently.

These four corners of our core are the major focus of the routine I will offer up… making them one major aspect of this programs ‘Specificity’. Not only will we be training the larger muscles that work through these attachment points, but we will also be working ALL of the smaller muscles, too. In general, larger muscles move… and smaller muscles stabilize. I like this program better than most… because the scope of Specificity is broader than “just one big muscle”.

Remember, softball is NOT an endurance sport. We need quick bursts of powerful movements… and those movements need to be optimized. As mentioned before… a 2-hour game can require only 3 minutes of pitching. As such, we will specifically train at LOW repetitions and MAXIMUM weights, too.

Specificity confuses a good many of people and really makes creating some routines quite the chore. Since I’d like you all to understand how best to apply it to a routine, I speak of it… but don’t worry – I’ll provide the routine, too.

Progression

Progression isn’t rocket science. However, it is the backbone of improvements in all routines. Without it… you’re not overloading, you’re missing out on your specificity gains, and the Performance Training quickly becomes Endurance Training. Oh, yeah… you won’t gain speed either.

Progression means that as your strength improves; you will need to make adjustments to your exercises. It is in this concept that many, many limitations on equipment and programs really start to show their face… in that they cannot easily (or at times, practically) be made more difficult. This point is so important… that I even have a little rule that helps me screen speed building programs:

If there aren’t multiple levels of difficulty in EVERY exercise, the program is garbage.

I know… garbage is a harsh word, but remember…. This is about PERFORMANCE TRAINING to increase pitching speed. So, I don’t mean that the entire system is garbage… but I do mean that its application to our goal is pointless… so move on. Got it?

The last variable of Progression is the most important… and ALWAYS the reason for varying levels of success:

Public Enemy #1: The Athlete in Training.

This is the person that determines what Overload really is… and this is the person that determines what Progression really is. If the athlete is not entirely honest in their approach to PROGRESSING through the workouts… no system will work. Remember that. The 'system' is only as good as the person using it.

Take a Break, Will Ya?!

Overloading is a concept of wellness and gains... so don't make it a negative. Performance training can be a strange concept for many that are already pretty athletic... as they feel they need to CONSTANTLY do more to get more. This is NOT the case. When you performance train, you do so with high weight and low repetitions... and these low reps can have many wanting to perform the routine 5 days a week. Do not be this person.

A good performance program:

... is done TWICE in one week.
... has a minimum of 24 hours between sessions.
... has a maximum of 48 hours between sessions.
... is done over a period of 6-8 weeks.

In other words... do it on a Monday and then a Wednesday, or a Tuesday and then a Thursday, or a Wednesday and a Friday, etc... This will satisfy the workout for that week.

Why so infrequent? The body needs time to rest and recover. No exceptions.