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MLB Using Glorified Physical Therapy Instead of Explosive Strength Training

In my last interview with the legendary guru of Speed and Strength Training, from D1 Sports in Tennessee, Kurt Hester, stated that Major League Baseball is using glorified physical therapy instead of strength and conditioning. This was a shot at the lame approach to training and rehabilitating athletes in the MLB organizations. This is coming from a guy who trains some of NFL’s most explosive athletes and who was label as Gorilla Ball, when he was training the LSU tigers in the 90′s.

Kurt says that fear is a major problem with baseball players. They train the way they do because of the fear that comes from the higher levels of the game. He also says that if young baseball players trained like Major League ball players, they would never get better. The fear is that weight training, especially heavy weight training, will make you bulky and will cause injury. Kurt says the MLB’s athletic trainers are running glorified physical therapy programs and not actually training their athletes to become bigger, stronger and faster.  This is why I believe top draft picks and big salary pitcher’s like Mark Prior leave the league with a career ending injury, after only 3 years in the show, and never make it back. Read more

Baseball Training Manual

So you need a program that is going to make you Bigger, Stronger and Faster so you can kick some ass? Well, congratulations you have found the perfect program for making this happen! The question now is do you really want to do what it takes to turn yourself into an elite athlete?The reason they are called elite athletes is because only a few can put themselves into this category. All the others give up. Will you give up or will you make it to the promise land?

I was in the same position as you in my career. I was an average ball player and wanted to always play at the next level. Eventually my genetics wasn’t getting the job done, so I had to find something that would reconstruct my DNA and turn me into an elite athlete. This is when I met the legendary Coach Gayle Hatch and his protege Kurt Hester. If you want to learn more about them, then you must watch this priceless interview I did with the Godfather of strength and conditioning, Coach Gayle Hatch. Read more

WHY CHANGE? ENHANCE!

By Kurt Hester

Last week the Assistant GM for the New Orleans Hornets called me about implementing a core strength and flexibility program for the team. My reply was not taken well by him because I laughed. After I regained my composure I explained that if you have a well thought out strength and conditioning program, core strength and flexibility components are built in and done on a daily basis. I felt it was a waste of the teams time for me to go in once a week for thirty minutes to train explicitly on core and flexibility work. Needless to say; he was not very happy with my reply. Read more

If Speed Kills Dont Kill Your Speed

By Kurt Hester

Every coach knows that speed is the most dominate factor in sport. Coaches recruit fast athletes and design their offenses and defenses with that speed in mind. If these afore mentioned assumptions are correct, then, why are strength coaches training these same athletes to become slow and un-explosive. Read more

You Go Pro Baseball

I have been in a few heated debates over my pitching career and this website. This is because I had an average to below average baseball career after I tore my rotator cuff at 18 years old in my first college appearance. So I don’t have all of the labels like, All American or Major League Experience which some of my readers want to hear. You need to understand that I spent most of my career focused on just being able to pitch again, first in college and then in professional baseball. My Doctors told me that I would never pitch again because one year after the surgery my arm was still not recovering. At TopVelocity.net I am not calling myself the greatest pitcher of all time. What I am calling myself, is a Velocity expert! This is because I overcame a major rotator cuff tear to not only pitch again but to develop enough velocity that I was able to “Go Pro!” Read more