"Max continues to break old traditions in his search for ways to reach your maximum hitting and pitching capabilties " Max Ratofor, BS, MS, Physiokinetist, Web Pilot and SETPRO consultant gives his "straight from the hip" views and opinions on today's training issues. You can send your questions and comments to maxrfd@ntplx.net |
| How do you measure the effectiveness of your training or
practice program? Do you even have a program or do you just do some of this and
some of that? Ninety percent of what players (all ages/levels) do for practice and
conditioning has little effect on improving your skill level to hit or pitch. You may be
getting into great condition. But improved conditioning does not translate to improved
skills. Conditioning creates the "conditions" for improvement. It does not
necessary result in improvement. Almost every video or book on hitting or pitching uses drills to "improve" the players abilities. Drills can achieve two things. For the beginner, they will condition the body and teach a motor skill (motor skill means teaching the brain how to control the muscles to do perform a motion). For the more advanced athlete they will only condition. Even worse, many of these drills are teaching muscle memory system how to do drill, not hit or pitch. These drills actually compete for your muscle memory resources and confuse it For advanced hitters to repeatedly perform drills such as bottom hand only swings or for pitchers to perform a hand break drill only achieves nothing in the way of improve skill or technique. I see many drills that break up the pitching or hitting motion into parts. Or drills that have you simulate the hitting or pitching motion (called miming). In fact "miming" the pitching motion (simulating the motions without actually performing the event) will teach you to "mime". It will not teach you to pitch. As the player becomes more skilled, "part practice" (breaking the skill into parts and practicing those parts) becomes counter productive. The player learns how to perform the part well, but not the skill. For many years researchers have struggled with the issue of part practice versus whole practice. And many studies were done which only provided help in teaching the specific skills of the research. It wasn’t until 1963 when researchers James Briggs and George Nolan made a real break through. They hypothesized that the organization and complexity of the skill could be used to determine the type of practice strategies. If a skill is higher in complexity and lower in organization, then part practice is more appropriate. Skills low in complexity and high in organization are better learned through whole practice (not practicing the individual parts). Complexity is not the same as difficulty. Throwing and swinging are considered low in complexity and high in organization. These findings have major impact on the type of practice/conditioning/training for the most efficient and effective use of your time and energy. In the next "Max Speaks Out", I’ll have more on this very important topic. Max Back To Max Speaks Out Index |