MILLER STRENGTH TRAINING

"Hitting a baseball is the toughest thing in all sports"- Abraham Lincoln, probably

Yes. It's difficult. We know. Players want to find out exactly why they're struggling. So often, they look to a quick fix. Through this article, I hope to shed light on a plethora of reasons that could cause some struggles with hitting in games and I hope to offer some ways to fix them. Disclaimer: none of them are quick fixes. They take weeks, months, years of work. If you're loo...

Sprints

What’s your magic number?

For a while, I’ve being tracking sprint times amongst myself and athletes I train.

Here are some things I’ve discovered:

1. Improvements come quickly for newer trainees. “Beginner gains” are most definitely a very real thing. Advancements in the CNS have been shown to be the first place in which athletes will make improvements. A sprint relies heavily on CNS activ...

Make your exercises work for what you need!

5 Exercises That Should Be Staples In Every Baseball Player’s Program

Deadlift (in some variety)

A heavy deadlift trains total body strength like no other exercise. It trains the hip hinge- the most basic movement amongst all sports- quite possibly in the best possible fashion. Grip strength and upper back strength through scapular retraction are also addressed. Last but not least, posterior chain development is crucial to b...

"Coach Bill, when can I start a weighted ball program?"

This is a question I'll hear a couple dozen times a month. Kids will see some older athletes making tons of progress on the radar gun, and they want some of the special velo-enhancing dust sprinkled on them. Everyone wants their velocity up. Everyone wants to do the quick-fix exercises that they think will get them to throw harder. There are many areas that a player should excel in first before throwing a ton of differe...

I wrote up my 50th strength training program yesterday as a strength coach.  Though this may not seem like a lot, it was pretty momentus for me, as I am getting a good client base.  That is the footing you need as a coach. I am still learning as much as I can to improve as a coach, but what I do know is that these programs need to be great. They need to catch the eye, be easy to follow along with and, most importantly, flat out work for the athlete. I will list out the 5 tips I have...

Since the moment I first saw someone lifting weights, I’ve heard some sort expertise. “Don’t lift weights, you’re going to get too bulky”, “Why lift heavy weights, you need to use light weights”, “Baseball is a lightweight sport, you don’t need to weight train,” “Don’t do that, you’ll get hurt”.

For some reason, there’s always somebody with an opinion on weight training looking to spread their opin...

We’ve all been there; the deadlift that was going great for three weeks suddenly stops going up. You try and try, but no matter what you do the bar won’t budge. If you lift weights long enough, this is bound to happen to you. Plateaus suck, there are no two ways about it. With enough persistence, you can break through though. However, it may take a little more brain than brawn to make that happen. Here’s 8 ways to help break through those sticking points.

1.Make yourself open and available. When I first started out, I only wanted to work with higher end athletes – the college and pro guys. What I found is that many of those athletes do not want to work with a rookie strength coach, and in order to make enough money to survive I had to open up my clientele base. Overtime I have, and will continue to, narrow my scope, as baseball strength and conditioning is my forte. But the population of players who want to train in the weight roo...

In-season training is a question I get asked about very often this time of year. If you’re a player who is just starting to lift now in February, you have missed the boat. The baseball off-season is not particularly long, but you can certainly make a significant amount of gains in that 3 to 4 month period. Understand that in-season training is not about making gains but more so about maintaining those gains and, most importantly, being healthy. The mindset now switches to performing at ...