139. Building Better Catchers with Craig Albernaz

Joining Eric on today's podcast is former college baseball coach turned entrepreneur and business coach, Pat Rigsby. He shares his journey which included becoming the youngest head college baseball coach in the country and how those early coaching days made a massive impact on his business to help him be a successful entrepreneur.

Support Our Sponsor: Athletic Greens

We're excited to welcome Bill Parisi back to the podcast for a second appearance. He speaks to his expanded view on the fascia system, and some practical applications for improving training programs with "fascia aware" training. Bill highlights some excellent takeaways from his new book, "Fascia Training in Application."

Support Our Sponsor: Athletic Greens

We welcome Rockies' pitcher Ryan Feltner to the latest podcast. A Cressey Sports Performance athlete since college, Ryan speaks into his development, from growing up in the Midwest, to attending Ohio State, to being drafted by the Rockies.  He shares the complexities of pitching at altitude and also discusses how the cancelled MiLB 2020 season prepared him to jump from single-A to the MLB in 2021. 

Support Our Sponsor: Athletic Greens

After a brief podcast hiatus to stockpile some content, we are back with a new episode, this time with Cressey Sports Performance – MA co-owner and Director of Performance John O’Neil as my co-host. We dig in on key competencies with developing college pitchers, highlighting the important considerations that have paved the way for success in our summer development programs (you can learn more about them: Massachusetts and Florida). This is an invaluable listen for players, coaches, parents, and support staff alike.  

Support Our Sponsor: Athletic Greens

Joining Eric on this week's podcast is Dan Swinscoe, a physical therapist and strength and conditioning specialist. With over 30 years of experience treating and learning from his patients, and having faced several substantial injuries of his own, Dan brings a unique perspective to solving movement problems. He has been entrusted with the rehabilitation and training of athletes from the NFL, MLB, WNBA, professional golf, as well as many local doctors and their families. Dan is specialty trained and certified by the Titleist Performance Institute and Golf Digest as a Golf Medical and Golf Fitness Professional. Additionally, he holds certifications from NSCA, Functional Movement Screen, SFMA, FRR, FRC, USAW, OnBase University, and many others.

Support Our Sponsor: Athletic Greens

We welcome Astros' pitcher Bennett Sousa to the latest podcast. A CSP athlete since his high school days, Bennett touches on how that experience impacted his development. He speaks to the importance of routine, and also delves into why the big leagues is so much different than pitching at any other level of baseball, yet the adjustment from high school to college is actually the biggest. There are some great pearls of wisdom for players, parents, and coaches who are looking to optimize their long-term development plans. 

Support Our Sponsor: Athletic Greens

It’s time for another listener Q&A, Eric covers three questions from our audience in this week’s podcast:

1. What are your thoughts on high school students playing a winter sport? My son has played basketball and baseball since he was 4. He wants to play college baseball and decided as a sophomore he wants to quit all sports but baseball and focus on that. We think he is too young and should play basketball this winter and still attend his indoor baseball session (pitching). Thoughts?
2. Rotator cuff drills are a key part of rehabilitation and prevention programs, but I’m struggling to see where all the different kinds fit into my program. Do you have any ideas?
3. You previously talked about lessons learned in terms of Tommy John timelines. I know a lot of surgeons and rehab specialists have adjusted their approaches to surgeries and the associated timelines well. What are some of your key takeaways now that there have been some changes to the way elbow surgeries were approached in recent years?

Support Our Sponsor: Hawkin Dynamics

Joining Eric is Oakland Athletics' rising star, Zack Gelof. A Cressey Sports Performance athlete since his teenage years, Zack offers some awesome insights on chasing long-term athletic development; seeking out competition; visualizing goals; adapting training approaches; and improving defensive performance on the diamond. Gelof made his MLB debut last July and put up historic numbers in his first 69 career games, he also earned AL Rookie of the Month honors in August.

Support Our Sponsor: Hawkin Dynamics

In this solo episode, Eric shares key insights into an important – but underappreciated – topic in the worlds of health and human performance: warm-ups. Eric shines some light on the goals of warm-ups, as well as the research on both injury reduction and performance benefits. Most importantly, I make some practical recommendations for how to structure an efficient, effective warm-up for not only baseball athletes, but a variety of other populations as well. A special thanks to this show’s sponsor, AG1.

This week, Eric sits down with Chicago Cubs pitcher Julian Merryweather. A CSP athlete for several years now, he shares insights on his journey to the big leagues, the advantages junior college afforded him; what factors were key to his velocity improvements; and the strategies he employed to have a career year in performance and durability.

Support Our Sponsor: Marc Pro