Can You Make Gains During The Season?

It was 9:00 AM last Tuesday, and I was on the floor working with a Major League client. We work with scores of Major Leaguers and Minor Leaguers every off-season. We use the same SAVAGE Training process (individualized and scaled for age and experience) on every one of our ARMory students.

Many of those minor leaguers have made it to the big leagues, and four MLB guys have revived their careers and gone on to make all-star teams. After working here for an off-season, one of those guys won a Cy Young and a World Series.

As he began warming up for a bullpen session, this MLB client said something that piqued my interest and made me tilt my head sideways.

“I'm feeling pretty ramped up. I could probably pitch in a game today, but I don't want to peak too early.”

“Hmmm. Peak too early.” I thought.

That would infer that every pitcher can expect to hit a threshold of performance and readiness during the season before starting an inevitable downhill slide.

In that scenario, we pitch well for a while and then hang on and hope we have enough gas in the tank to finish the run. So, where does that peak occur?

Is it at the all-star break or before the playoffs? When do we start fading?

Is that the way it has to be? I can think of no physiologic reason to support that line of thinking. I guess I can see trying to work toward a peak if you're an Olympic athlete and you have four years to prepare for a major event. But baseball is a long season, and every game matters.

Is it possible to maintain or even improve our skills during the season?

I believe it is.

You see, for as long as anyone can remember, a limiting factor in training pitchers and hitters has been that we can't throw or hit enough to get great at throwing and hitting. Until now, the only way to ensure direct transfer of training to performance was to bang out endless repetitions of a skill until you get it right — the old 10,000 hours rule.

The trouble is, no one can throw or hit that much.

SAVAGE Training is different.

Instead of pounding on the “deep practice” of the specific “mechanics,” we zoom out and focus on the nine universal movement attractors — building blocks of athleticism — that govern every high intensity movement in sports.

We work on “Movement not Mechanics.”

When we train these nine movement attractors, the individual expression of “mechanics” emerges spontaneously. It's called self-organization.

For the first time in history, we can now get better at pitching and hitting without actually pitching and hitting. We can learn and refine these movements in the gym, in the outfield, in a garage, or a hotel room.

And here's another cool thing about SAVAGE Training. You're not sore after your workouts.

We have several players at a particular power five university. Last fall, the pitching coach allowed them to do their individual SAVAGE Training plans instead of lifting in the weight room. He called me after a few weeks and said, “I love this stuff. We've had guys who have terrible bullpens in the past because they're sore from doing deadlifts, squats, and bench presses. After SAVAGE Training, when they come to work on their skills in the bullpen, they're not sore.

They are getting better at a much greater rate, and they aren't losing any strength.”

You see, in SAVAGE training, we approach strengthening from a coordination perspective. Instead of loading the athlete's system by adding weight to a bar, we use pretension, time pressure, and unpredictable loads (aqua bags) as the stimulus. The result is the integration of strength and coordination.

SAVAGE athletes become stronger and more skilled simultaneously, and they do it without a post-workout tax.

This paradigm shift has been revolutionary for our athletes. Executing their SAVAGE Training plans between games and practices, ARMory pitchers and hitters can expect not merely to maintain their skill level during the season but to continue improving as the season progresses.

No peaks.

No Valleys.

No hanging on and hoping.

ARMory SAVAGE athletes keep getting better … and better … and better.

If that sounds good to you,  call us at 866-787-4533.

Let us set you up with a training plan to guide you through a season and a career of never-ending improvement.

While everyone else is fading, you'll surge ahead and leave them in the dust.

We have a few spots left in our Feb 19th and 20th SAVAGE Weekend Training Camp.

If you can't make it that weekend, we have room for some 1-on-1 Precision Strike sessions.

Call Now.

Let's Get SAVAGE!