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The following is my final post in a series on the Wake Forest Bridge Seminar, which was put on by Wake Forest Dec 17th and 18th 2022.
While nothing matches being there, I wanted to share what I learned for those who missed it, and to set the stage for an ever bigger turnout in 2023.
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“Baseball is a quick sport. Power is of the essence.”
Nunzio Signore, a strength and conditioning coach and owner of Rockland Peak Performance started his master class on velocity based training with his singular KPI- power.
Diagnostics
Nunzio begins by breaking down athletes into two categories: gorillas and cheetahs. Gorillas are those who start out with stronger force, while cheetahs come with greater velocity.
But no matter the athlete, Nunzio is looking to maximize power- which is a combination of force and velocity.
Nunzio stresses the importance of understanding the athlete prior to training. While it is important to improve on weaknesses, trainers need to do so in a way that doesn’t reduce strengths.
For example, if a “cheetah” gets stronger, but does so in a way that reduces their ability to move quickly, we won’t see the increased power gains we are after.
Goals
Once Nunzio understands the athlete, he breaks down their goals to create a plan.
The stronger athletes- the gorillas- look to increase their velocity capabilities via better elasticity in order to get out of low positions faster. On the other hand, faster athletes- or cheetahs- want to increase their force...but need to do so while maintaining the elastic traits they rely on.
The 3 Month Plan
Nunzio spends the second half of his talk walking through a common use case- when an athlete comes to him in November with three months to train before a new season starts in February.
Nunzio breaks down his program into three blocks: tissue prep, force, and power.
In the tissue prep block, the athlete receives volume training and plyometric work to improve elasticity and rigidity, which is crucial to prepare the body for more intense loads in the force and power blocks that follow.
In the force block, strength training is the main focus, while the final stage centers in on power- the thing Nunzio is looking to maximize.
Tissue Prep
The goal of the tissue prep phase is to prepare the body for more dynamic and intense loads in later blocks of the program.
A gorilla's workout program will include plyometric work and aerobic plyometrics to introduce elasticity. A cheetah's program will focus more on introducing rigidity and stiffness through eccentric and isometric lifting.
This phase is not where athletes see gains, but it is important nonetheless as preparation for what comes next.
Force
The middle part of Nunzio’s plan is about adding force. Here, the goal is to get stronger- or produce the highest amount of peak force possible.
There are a lot of commonalities here with traditional strength training. However, one major difference is Nunzio’s use of variable resistance.
Power
Finally, we get to power. Here, Nunzio uses bands to alter an athlete’s movement. For the cheetahs he uses band resistance, while the gorillas get band assistance.
Conclusion
Nunzio’s talk was littered with details of targets, exercises, and measurements that would not be easy to summarize.
However, what is easy is his singular KPI- power. For both pitchers and hitters, more power generally leads to better outcomes.
And, since Power is just force X velocity, focusing on both levers will yield the best results.