Playing a second sport takes time. Practices, games, travel and recovery all consume hours that could otherwise be spent developing for your primary sport. That doesn’t mean playing multiple sports is bad. It means there is a tradeoff. There are only so many hours available.

The goal isn’t to protect the throwing arm from stress. It’s to prepare it for stress. Long toss isn’t just about building velocity or throwing farther—it’s about making sure the hardest throw your arm has faced in weeks doesn’t happen when the game suddenly demands it.

“My issue isn’t with mechanics themselves. My issue is our obsession with consciously coaching mechanics while an athlete is trying to perform a highly dynamic movement.”

How to Gain the Right Kind of Weight One of the most common things we hear from young athletes—especially baseball players—is: “I need to gain weight.” Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. There are plenty of athletes who already have enough size. They don’t necessarily need to become heavier; they need to become stronger and more explosive with the weight they already have. But there are also a lot of young athletes who are simply undersized for where they eventually nee

“The goal isn’t more throwing. The goal is appropriate preparation for the throwing the athlete will eventually be required to do. Rest and preparation are not the same thing. The solution isn’t avoiding stress. It’s exposing the body to the right amount of stress, at the right intensity, often enough that it remains prepared for what you’re eventually going to ask it to do.”

Because the body doesn’t technically know what sport or activity you will play tomorrow. It only knows what you prepared it for yesterday.

The transfer portal has changed who colleges recruit, and AWRE has changed how they find them. Coaches no longer have to be standing behind the backstop to evaluate a player. Verified data and video can put a player in front of college coaches from anywhere. That doesn’t make showcases worthless—but it should change how parents decide which ones are worth their time and money.

We spent years telling parents that specialization was dangerous and that kids should be multi-sport athletes. Parents listened. But at the same time, every individual sport expanded its calendar. Somehow we’ve arrived at a place where the supposed solution to kids playing one sport 12 months a year is for them to play two or three sports 12 months a year. How exactly is that automatically better?

What Do Parents Really Mean When They Say They Want “Development”? If there is one word I hear ad nauseam this time of year, it’s development. Every parent wants it. Every team talks about it. And for what it’s worth, I believe none of them are lying. I just think it is a very hard thing to deliver while simultaneously trying to help a team be successful. Every single one of us have had visions of Granger until we get in the thick of things and realize we over promised or exp

The transition from travel ball to High School summer ball AKA “Showcase Baseball” “Travel ball” is over once the player turns 15. For most, the travel ball portion of their playing career will end the summer between 8th and 9th grade. QUICK POINT OF CLARIFICATION ON 14-YEAR-OLD 9TH GRADERS THAT MAKE THE HS TEAM A few 9th graders who are still 14 years old in the spring of their 9th-grade year will be eligible to play travel ball as a 9th grader AFTER the HS season is complet

A person that acknowledges the uncomfortableness is a person that will acknowledge their failure on the field.

Michael Richards -Certified Strength Coach -Certified Speed and Agility Coach -Certified in Driveline Baseball Foundations of Pitching...

This is not the easiest story to tell. It embarrasses me. Not the level I played at, but just how stupid I was. I would have addressed...

Michael Richards -ISSA Certified Strength Coach -Certified Speed and Agility coach -Driveline Baseball Foundations of Pitching...

Sports ARE 1RM’s,and no, It’s not for everyone.That’s why we use them, we are trying to get our athletes OUT of that “not for”category.

Michael Richards ISSA Certified Strength Coach Owner Elite Athletic Performance LLC 18 years of experience training athletes Public...

Michael Richards ISSA Certified Strength and Conditiong Coach Owner: Elite Athletic Performance LLC 18 years of experience training...

Michael Richards ISSA Certified Strength Coach Owner Elite Athletic Performance LLC 18 years of experience training athletes Speaker...

I make no bones about the fact that everything our athletes do at EAP starts in the weight room. Not everyone wants to hear that, which...

After more than 15 years of running a private training facility, I’ve made plenty of mistakes—but a handful of decisions have shaped EAP for the better. Here are five of the best, and what they’ve taught me about coaching, culture, and building a program that lasts.