From High School to College Baseball: Another Success Story & A RANT!
I received an email yesterday informing us that one of our long-time trainees, Kent, has decided to commit to New Mexico State University’s offer to play baseball.
AWESOME!
Kent, and his younger brother Mitch, both committed to their training at SAPT about 2 years ago and take every repetition as if it might be their last chance to improve. That’s serious focus.
The result to this point? Kent gets to play D1 baseball while going to school and Mitch just made his high school’s varsity baseball team as a freshman… in my experience, that’s a pretty solid indicator of promising things to come.
Warning... I'm about to branch off into the promised rant:
Last week I read an opinion article from the NY Times called The Myth of the Student-Athlete. Feel free to read it… although, if you actually like college sports and understand how things really work, you will probably become angry on some level.
My level = enraged.
Gary Gutting is a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and he attempts to rail the vast majority of college athletes and athletics.
Sadly, he is only really referring to a handful of rogue programs that jump the rails from time-to-time with major NCAA violations. But he is obviously too ignorant and inexperienced – in college athletics – to realize that. Instead, he accuses all college athletics of being, at their essence, worthless.
The truth of the situation?
Those of us who have worked within college athletics for years (it’s 7 years for me) and have taken graduate level classes in understanding how the NCAA works and how violations occur and are dealt with (yes, me again) understand how misguided his “opinion” really is.
There are numerous safety measures put in place in an attempt to keep athletics a positive experience for the student and protect them. Ask any coach how big the NCAA's volumes of rules and regulations have become over the years. In fact, sport coaches have to take and pass regular exams on NCAA regulations or else they can't coach. So, the idea that college athletics is all about money and exploitation is nonsense.
Having the opportunity to play college athletics at any level is a privilege.
College athletics teaches young adults how to balance a packed schedule in an environment where they must succeed (you’ve got to get a certain GPA to maintain the team’s good academic standing and you’ve got to contribute to the team’s successes). Upon graduation, college athletes exit their programs comfortable handling many “balls in the air” this translates well to the professional world.
Returning back to Kent, what has he already gained from athletics?
Extreme discipline as seen in his training and exceptional leadership skills. When he moves on next fall he will begin down a road that will be lined with great experiences, excellent training opportunities, and – the end goal – a higher education degree in whatever he chooses to pursue.
Good luck Kent!!!
3 Tips to Improve Your Bench Press
I'll get straight to the point with this one. Everyone loves to bench press including myself but very few do it right. Why do something unless you're going to do it correctly? Try these simple tips to improve your bench. 1. If you don’t set up correctly your bench will suffer…
I’ll walk you through my set up; keep in mind you don’t have to do it exactly like this but I have had success with it and I feel I get tighter on the bench than most people. Start with your chest under the bar and set your feet, this becomes your first base of support (I choose to leave my heels on the ground). Leave your feet in that position as you slide your body through; while sliding through start to arch your thoracic spine and pull your shoulder blades back and down (retract and depress). Once you are in this position push your upper back and head into the bench while keeping your butt on the bench; these become your other base of support. Congratulations you now have a good set up and if you are doing it correctly you should feel extremely uncomfortable; almost cramping in your upper back it’s so tight. Do this even in your warm-ups, I don’t care if its 115lbs or 315lbs each set up should be the same.
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2. Always have the intent to move the bar FAST!
I feel like this is a no brainer but I guess not. You need to go fast and if you’re not fast then at least try and go fast (that would be me). Having this intent to move fast during the CONCENTRIC portion (upward portion) is going to recruit higher threshold motor units allowing you to accelerate with more force thus getting you stronger. So your press should be nice and controlled on the way down, quick pause on the chest and BOOM! Lastly, if you are grinding out reps then you aren’t moving fast so you should oh I don’t know, DROP THE WEIGHT! I just wanna go fast!
3. Do upper back work….. All the time
I don’t care if it’s an upper body day or a lower body day, you should be doing some kind of upper back work every day. A strong back will help your bench press. It’s going to allow you to get tighter on the bench, control the eccentric better, and utilize your lats more. Right now my upper body days consist of two horizontal pulls (any type of row variation) ranging from 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps and my lower body days consist of a vertical pull (lat pull down, pull-ups, neutral grip pull-ups) and scapular retraction work (banded W’s or band pull-a-parts) usually in the 30-50 rep range and I break it up however I want depending on how I’m feeling that day.
How to Train for a Military Physical Fitness Test: A SAPT Testimonial
One thing many of you may not realize is that, while SAPT does work primarily with athletes and general fitness clientele, we also have a special "niche" in preparing those seeking to join the military and/or pass a Military Physical Fitness Test. As many of you know (or, at least, can probably guess...), the selection and assessment process for the Special Operations is far from easy, and certainly won't allow for the faint-of-heart to make it very far.
We recently received an awesome (and humbling) testimonial from Jason, who trained with SAPT - via our Distance Coaching program - in preparation for his selection and assessment process for the Special Forces.
Needless to say, he worked his butt off in training, and we were honored to help him reach this milestone.
Take it away, Jason!
"Recently, I successfully participated in a Special Operations Selection and Assessment (S/A), and I can unequivocally say that the distance coaching program with SAPT was a huge asset!
To back up the story a bit, I came to SAPT with the goal of being able to max the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), do 20 pullups, run 6 miles in 45 minutes, and total over 1500 pounds. To say that this is a tall order would be a HUGE understatement. My training background consisted mainly of strength training with some General Physical Preparedness (GPP). I had a total that was in the 1200 range and could score about a 270 on the APFT. However, let’s not discuss my distance running…
Needless to say, I walked into SAPT pretty confident in my skills. Boy, was I about to be humbled! That first day, Steve broke down my form on all my major lifts and immediately saw where I had room to improve. At the end of that session, he made an effort to truly understand my needs, and develop a unique program to ensure that I met them. This was especially difficult due to the fact that I still had a 9-5 job, an upcoming wedding/honeymoon, and two rambunctious American Bulldogs all vying for my time. With that in mind, we planned on me working out at SAPT once a week, with all other workouts on my own. Over the next three months (while I stubbornly resisted scaling back the weight on the bar and doing “silly” mobility work) I put in the tough work. It was all worth it.
By the time that I attended my S/A, I felt entirely prepared. My APFT score had improved to well over 300, running for longer than 30 minutes no longer felt like I was breathing lava, knocking out 18 clean pullups seemed natural, and believe it or not, my strength is continuing to improve! SAPT had performed the seemingly impossible. Beyond that, at the conclusion of the S/A I was nowhere near as sore or immobile as I had anticipated being. Maybe those crazy crawls and band work actually paid off!
In conclusion, SAPT did a great job working with me in the gym and at home. They provided me with the tools to continue with my success, and for that I’m extremely thankful. They are in a unique position to help anyone achieve their goals. Whether that goal is in competitive athletics, aesthetics, health, or LEO/Military work they have to tools to help. Working within the Special Operations community has been a huge dream for me. And with SAPT’s assistance, that dream is finally coming true!"
~Jason
Click HERE to join SAPT today, no matter where you live!
Thanks To All Our Athletes
The best part of being a strength coach is watching our young athletes come in and train hard. It takes little to no motivating from us coaches to get them to come in and smash weight; they have an awesome desire to get better. It’s the best part of our day to see them come train and grow. With that said I wanted to do something cool for the athletes so I decided to put together a video. However, I lack the software and technological talent to do such things so I enlisted the help of my friend Binh. He did an awesome job and captured exactly what I was looking for, so thanks man I appreciate the help. And to the athletes I hope you guys like the video. Thanks for coming in and TRAINING HARD!
A "New" Way of Assisting Pullups
The other day, one of our interns, Tadashi, was messing around with the bands and came up with quite a useful way to assist chinups. As soon as I saw it, I had one of those Why didn't I think of that?! moments.
Wrap the band just around your thumbs as shown in the video below and perform as follows (you can use it for any grip choice...pronated, supinated, or neutral):
Why I like this variation:
1. Simply put, it provides a bit less assistance than traditional *BA variations, but it still provides just enough help for those that aren't quite comfortable with chins/pullups yet. It's essentially one more step on the learning curve ladder toward performing a full-range, bodyweight chinup.
2. It completely unloads at the top of the movement, which is perfect for performing isometric holds at the top - for those who are a bit stronger and even closer to getting over that "one-rep hump."
3. With traditional BA chinups, it's fairly difficult to prevent oneself from "swaying" back and forth due to the pull of the band. I find that this variation keeps it much easier to maintain a rigid body alignment.
See the video below for how we have done BA chinups in the past (3 different progressions):
All of those are still awesome, and should be used for those in the beginning phases of conquering the bodyweight chinup. This is simply another tool in the toolbox, if you will.
Complete and Utter Randomness
Just a few random thoughts that have been running around my mind and some training videos for everyone out there. Random Thoughts:
- I’ve been struggling as of late when it comes to high school weight training either as a class or after school for sports. It seems to be very few and far between that you have sport coaches/weight training teachers who know what they’re doing in the weight room (I’m not saying all of them). Just talking to athletes about what they do in there blows my mind such as maxing every three weeks with terrible form, crumpling under the barbell during a squat or rounding their back and hitching a deadlift just to get the weight up. Most of these kids can’t do a bodyweight squat correctly, why are they maxing with a barbell on their back? I’m not trying to make people angry but it just seems ignorant when there is so much good/free information everywhere that would help these coaches and their athletes immensely. I attribute this to one of two things, they are to prideful to admit they don’t know what they are doing or they just don’t care to find out that what they are doing is wrong and harmful. Either way it’s unacceptable.
- The previous thought kind of led into the idea of being average. I’ve heard people for as long as I can remember talk about how they are better than “average” or that they don’t want to be just “average”. I always thought that thinking like that was arrogant, or that they felt they were superior. I used to be of the mindset that in order to be above average you had to be something like an astronaut, sports superstar, movie star, bill gates, you know things along those lines. I’m assuming I thought that way because from the time I was in elementary school to the end of high school that’s what I felt I was, just average. Why? Because I was led to believe that’s what I was by OTHER people. It wasn’t until college when I started taking my physical education and exercise science classes that I started to realize that I wasn’t “average” and that I never want to be “average”. I started becoming more confident in my intelligence and through weight training I became more physically confident, and most importantly I stopped listening to negative people. This all lead to me understanding that it’s OK to NOT want to be average. Nobody should want that. Whatever it is that you are currently doing you shouldn’t be satisfied with being average at it. Whether you are a student, strength coach, teacher, sport coach, attorney, grounds keeper, etc. you should STRIVE to be better so you can look back when it’s all said and done and be able to say you left your mark. Anyways the reason why this all got sparked was because I’ve been hoping this is the message that I am instilling in the athletes I work with. There is enough negativity in the world and I REFUSE to be a negative influence when it comes to working with these kids.
- My last thought as of late is that I want to buy a truck. Really not for any other reason than to buy a Prowler to leave in the bed of the truck just so I can always have it on hand in case the mood strikes to push it. Weird right?
Videos:
And without further delay, here are some videos to take your mind off the incoherent rant you just read….
Here are two of our female high school volleyball athletes. I think they are just realizing that they are really strong. SAPT is really proud of all their progress…
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The next video is of one of my training partners and GMU’s S&C graduate assistant John Delgado. He’s currently doing Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 and he decided to get real squirrely with this 315 deadlift for what I believe is 13 reps…
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The last video is of me getting in some work for my upcoming powerlifting competition. My training is going really well and my squats and pulls feel really fast and smooth (bench is still feeling a bit weird and wild). I’m about 7 weeks out from the Richmond Open and I am getting all sorts of jacked up about it.
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