MTB Performance Project

Explore the importance of in-season training for baseball players with Damien Akins and I as we discuss key strategies for transitioning smoothly from off-season to in-season training. Discover how maintaining progress throughout the season not only enhances performance but also prevents injuries, ensuring long-term development. Learn valuable insights on measuring readiness, managing intensity, and utilizing exercises to reduce soreness and nervous system stress during the season. This podcast highlights the necessity of in-season training for injury prevention and ensuring peak performance longevity in athletes.

Key Takeaways :

• In-season training is crucial for athletes to maintain progress and reap the benefits of long-term development. 
• Measuring readiness and managing intensity are key factors in optimizing performance during the season.
• Communication with coaches and utilizing tools like wearables can help athletes make informed decisions about training intensity.
• Choosing exercises that mitigate soreness and nervous system stress can help athletes maintain performance and reduce the risk of injury during the season.

Want to learn nmore about how to work with us in season ? Check out our website : www.annexsportsperformance.com or email us :  info@annexsportsperformance.com

Welcome to another exciting episode of the MTB Performance Project, where high-performance athletes share their stories and insights. In Episode 14, we're treated to an exclusive interview with my friend and former big league pitcher, Rick Porcello. Let's delve into the highlights and revelations from this conversation.

1. Multi-Sport Exposure and Youthful Development: Porcello's journey kicks off with a discussion about his exposure to multiple sports at a young age. The podcast explores how this diverse background shaped his skills and contributed to his development as a youth ball player. For aspiring athletes, Porcello's early experiences provide valuable insights into the importance of a well-rounded foundation.

2. From High School to the MLB Draft: Listeners get an inside look at the critical decision Porcello faced when opting to forgo college and enter the 2007 MLB draft. The episode highlights the factors that influenced this bold move and delves into the mindset that propelled Porcello from high school to professional baseball in just two short years.

3. 12 Years in the Big Leagues - Building Year Over Year: The conversation transitions to Porcello's impressive 12-year career in the Major Leagues. He shares the intricacies of his development, offering a glimpse into both the physical and mental aspects of the game. This section provides a roadmap for athletes aspiring to achieve consistent growth and success over an extended professional career.

4. Teammate and Competitor Insights: Porcello opens up about his role as both a teammate and a competitor. Listeners gain valuable insights into his approach as a starting pitcher and the meticulous mindset he adopted to hone his craft. Aspiring pitchers and baseball enthusiasts will find this segment particularly enlightening, offering a glimpse into the mindset of a professional athlete striving for excellence.

5. Life Beyond the Diamond: Managing Distractions: In a candid discussion, Porcello shares details about his life off the field and the strategies he employed to manage distractions. This segment serves as a valuable resource for anyone seeking tips on focus and discipline in their personal and professional lives.

The MTB Performance Project's Episode 14 featuring Rick Porcello is a must-listen for sports enthusiasts, aspiring athletes, and anyone seeking inspiration from the world of professional baseball. The podcast provides a comprehensive exploration of Porcello's journey – from his early exposure to sports, the pivotal decision to enter the MLB draft, to his sustained success in the Major Leagues. Tune in for a front-row seat to the secrets of MLB success and the mindset that sets elite athletes like Rick Porcello apart.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

Best, 
MTB

In this week’s episode we talk with my friend and co-founder of Resilient Performance Physical Therapy,  Dr Trevor Rappa. 

In today’s talk, we dive deep into his return-to-play approach for ACL injuries, how he utilizes objective and subjective measures to track progress and drive decisions in the rehabilitation process. 

We also get into how important the later part of the return-to-play process is in getting athletes ready for the field. Most importantly creating scenarios where we are adequately stressing our athletes and preparing them for the demands of the sport both in the rehabilitation process and performance and development. 

If you’re a Physical Therapist or a strength coach, you will get a ton out of my discussion with Trevor. 

I hope you enjoy this episode of the MTB Performance Project. 

Best,
MTB

Want to work with Resilient? 

Website: https://www.resilientperformance.com/
Online Learning Course: https://edu.resilientperformance.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resilientppt/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@resilientppt

Super excited  about this week’s episode with Dr Mike T Nelson. 

Mike is a research-fueled fitness and nutrition educator, a Professor, a presenter, creator of the Flex Diet Certification Course and host of the Flex Diet podcast.

We covered a bunch of topics on today's podcast from macronutrient consumption and simplifying nutrition for performance, recommendations for supplements to optimizing sleep schedules for professional athletes who compete at later parts of the day.

Lastly Mike discusses his approach to cold water immersion and give some context behind the how and the why he utilizes these modalities with his athletes. 

So much great information from today’s talk whether you're an athlete or someone looking to create health and longevity into your life.  

I hope you enjoy this episode of the MTB Performance Project. 

Best,
MTB 

If you want to learn more about Dr Mike T Nelson you can visit his website : miketnelson.com

Please consider listening to his podcast : Flex Diet Podcast

Follow Dr. Mike on Instagram : drmiketnelson

In this week’s Episode we have Sean K Jensen. Sean is a former NFL reporter, children’s book author, youth sports coach and host of the “Winning is Not Everything” podcast. 

Sean’s podcast aims to bring sanity back to youth sports by having meaningful conversations around character development, effort and sportsmanship rather than trophies, rankings and all the other negative things that have come with overspecialization in youth sports!

In our discussion we talk about his experiences in youth sports, how it shaped his childhood and help create a career for him as an adult. We also get into what he sees the biggest value coaches can and should bring to their athletes. Along with all the great aspects of youth sports, we get into some of the challenges we are faced with in our current youth sports climate. 

It was a great talk with Sean and I gained some perspective from his years of covering sports at the highest level to his experiences as a coach. 

I hope you enjoy this episode of the MTB Performance Project!

If you want to learn more about Sean and his work, please visit his website : seankjensen.com

You can listen to his podcast on apple podcasts here : Winning is Not Everything Podcast

Best,
MTB

In this week’s episode we talk with Ryan Patrick. Ryan is the owner and founder of Peak Fitness and Sports Training (PeakFAST) in Kentucky. 

In this episode we talk about how he got into the training space and became a coach. We also get into his evolution as a business owner along with some of the influences and mentors he had throughout his early year of owning and operating a gym. 

We talk about sports performance and all things speed, VBT and his overall approach to developing training programs for his athletes. 

We wrap up by talking about his own approach to training himself and why it’s so important to him in order to level up in all aspects of life. As he calls it: “Fitness is the first domino…”

If you want to find out more about Ryan and his facility to can follow them here:

Ryan Patrick Instagram: coachryanpatrick

PeakFAST Instagram: peakfast

I hope you enjoy this episode of the MTB Performance Project!

Best,
MTB

In this week's episode we have a deep dive into proper elements of an effective arm care program. 

The goal of this episode is to create a framework for how to address and implement effective arm care into the overall performance program for overhead throwing athletes. 

Understanding the importance of quality movement strategies and efficient biomechanics and how that carries over into arm health and longevity in the development of pitchers, quarterbacks and other throwing athletes. 

We also get into the implementation of these programs based on the timing of competition and a good arm care program is about understanding the nuances of managing the stress on the arm throughout different parts of the year. 

We hope you enjoyed this podcast and were able to glean positive information from the material which you can implement into your own training program. 

If you have any questions please reach out on instagram at @mickbrueckner

Best,
MTB

In this week’s episode, we talk with former NFL running back, Rashad Jennings. 

We get into his experience as an athlete and his evolution from hs to college and ultimately professional football and the driving force behind his rise as a Running back. 

After his career in the NFL, Rashad won Dancing with the Stars in 2017. We get into how that came to fruition and what his main goal was in pursuing this opportunity. 

Rashad is someone who has always prioritized health and fitness as an athlete, we discuss how he still maintains this focus in his current day to day life. 

I really enjoyed my conversation with Rashaad. His experiences and stories are inspiring and his insights were thought provoking. He empowers people to constantly find the purpose and premise behind how and why they do things both in his words and actions. 

If you want to follow what Rashad is doing, you can visit his website: rashadjennings.com

Follow Rashad on Instagram : @rashadjennings
Follow Rashad on X : @RashadJennings

I hope you enjoy this episode with Rashaad Jennings

-MTB

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT | MAX BURT

In this week’s episode, we speak with Max Burt. Max is an infielder with the New York Yankees organization with his most recent year spent between AA and AAA affiliates. 

Max talks about his story as a young ball player and his evolution to professional baseball. We also speak about how his approach from both the physical and mental side of the game has allowed to continue to develop as his career progresses. 

There is a lot of great value in this for our aspiring amateur athletes who are looking to pursue a career in sports. 

I hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

Best, 
MTB

This week we have Co-Founder of Resilient Performance Physical Therapy, Dr Greg Spatz.

Greg Spatz is a performance-based physical therapist who recognizes the continuum of rehabilitation to sports performance. With a comprehensive approach to optimizing movement he helps address the underlying biomechanical and neurophysiological patterns that contribute to injury or performance goals.

Formerly as a Strength & Conditioning Coach in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, Greg worked to improve athletic performance while minimizing injury risk with professional baseball players.

Greg received his BS in Health & Exercise Science from The College of New Jersey where he was a member of the baseball team. He earned the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Columbia University, is Postural Restoration Certified, and has advanced training in joint and soft tissue manipulation, movement screening, sports medicine, dry needling, and manual therapy.

In our discussion today we discuss elbow injuries in the baseball population. We dive into everything from our holistic approach to reducing injury risk to post-surgical return to play protocols. 

Want to work with Resilient? 

Website: https://www.resilientperformance.com/
Online Learning Course: https://edu.resilientperformance.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resilientppt/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@resilientppt

Thanks so much for your time and tuning into the show!

Best,
MTB

This week on the MTB Performance Project we have my friend and founder of Total Arm Care, Tom Drown.

Tom and I have been working together with several of our athletes for over three years now and has done an awesome job with developing his pitchers.  

We discuss the subjective side of coaching vs the objective, more technology driven side of pitching development and how he blends the two approaches together in his coaching process.

Equally as important, we stress the importance of developing a year-long plan and managing load and throwing volume over the course of the year. 

If you are interested in finding more about Tom and his training at Total Arm Care, you can find him on instgram: @totalarmcare or his website: https://www.totalarmcare.com/

Thanks so much for your time and tuning into the show!

Best, 
MTB

Episode time stamps:

1:10 - I talk about how Tom and I got started working together

2:26 - Tom goes into his background and how he got into his role as a pitching coach

8:07 - Optimal pitching mechanics and the delivery 

11:58 - Tom’s assessment process for his pitcher

17:55 - How technology is influencing coaching decisions

27:23 - The art of coaching and blending coaching and technology 

32:27 - Integrating 3D Motion Capture into the development process

37:23 - Managing workloads and throwing volume throughout the year

42:14 - Thoughts on velocity development vs your typical “Velocity program”

45:47 - Holistic approach to development and playing the long game

This week on the MTB Performance Project we have my friend James Cerbie. 

James is the founder of Rebel Performance and is the creator of The Silverback project. I have worked with James since 2019 and respect him as a coach and how he runs his business. Along with being a super smart and analytical coach, he’s an overall solid guy in the training world and I am happy to call him a friend. 

After a decade of helping people through his company Rebel Performance, he is reinventing his business to serve entrepreneur dads and other men in the pursuit of health, fitness, vitality and a life they can be proud of. The result of years of work and training has now resulted into what James calls: Total Man OS. 

If you are interested in finding more about James and his training, you can find him on instgram: @thejamescerbie or his website: https://www.jamescerbie.com/

Thanks so much for your time and tuning into the show!

Best, 
MTB

Episode time stamps:

7:05 - James’ big rocks and how he breaks down how he addresses fitness in his coaching

15:40 - Leveraging lifestyle management outside of the gym and how much of a profound impact it has on performance and longevity

18:34 - James’ minimum threshold for weekly training 

18:58 - Importance of nutrition  

19:50 - Importance of sleep  

20:55 - Importance of community and support network 

21:50 - Meditation, journaling and mindfulness practice

22:50  - Purpose 

26:10 - Why coaches matter

29:00 - How James transitioned from Rebel Performance to Total Man OS

34:27 - “Standing on the shoulders of giants.” James talks about all the mentors who have played a big role in his development

43:03 - Total Man OS

This week I am joined by QB Country founder, David Morris. 

I met David through my work with former NY Giants quarterback, Eli Manning in 2019 and have since built a solid partnership. Along with my business the ANNEX, I also run the QB Country New Jersey location for on field quarterback development. 

In our conversation we talk about how he started QB Country and its evolution to where it is today.

We also get into how he looks at developing young quarterbacks from a young age and the long term approach he takes with these young, up and coming quarterbacks as they transition into higher levels of football. 

David also gets into the mental aspects of developing quarterbacks in order to handle the challenges that come along with being the leader on the football field. 

I truly enjoyed my conversation with David, I hope you do, as well. 

Best,
MTB

Episode time stamps:

2:10 Background of David Morris and QB Country

5:40 - David on building the culture of QB Country: "Coaching football not because you love it, but because you can't live without it."

8:05 - How culture plays out on the field when it comes to coaching athletes on the field

11:50 - Developing skills in the young quarterback

18:10 - Progressing skills from the basic to more advanced training methodologies

22: 48 - Developing the mental skills to the Quarterback position

28:20 - David talks about the importance of fitness and performance in his own life 

In this week's episode I am joined by ANNEX Sports' Director of Performance, Damien Akins. 

As we approach yet another off season for our baseball players, Damien and I discuss what early off-season training looks like for our athletes at The ANNEX, how we go about assessing athletes post their season, and what we focus on early in the off season for our ball players. 

These are efforts we utilize with both our amateur through professional level athletes. 

Below are time stamps for specific topics throughout the episode:

2:05 - Context of what we are talking about today

2:50 - Post-season Assessment process

7:50 - Professional athlete considerations in the assessment process and needs analysis

15:09 - "Big Rocks" of Early Off Season training for our ball players

20:35 - Breaking down Early Off Season for High School ball players

22:50 - Constraints-based approach to managing sprint velocities

26:40 - Athletes "earn the right to run fast."

30:00 - Approach to Early Off Season Conditioning and aerobic capacity work

38:40 - Workload management outside of the weight room and how to mix in skill work throughout the off season

46:11 - The importance of leveraging lifestyle management (sleep & nutrition) in order to maximize your efforts in the training and development process

If you wish to follow Damien on social media he can be found on instagram at @sterlingstrength and @annexsports 

Thank you for listening and supporting the show!

Best,
MTB

Episode 1 of the MTB Performance Project

I am excited for our first guest, my wife, Perrin Brueckner. When discussing how I wanted to launch this podcast, we both thought it would be fun for us to sit down and talk about the WHY behind this project. We look back on the evolution of how I ended up in this position and who better than her, as she has seen it all first hand every step of the way. 

I hope you enjoy the episode. 

Episodes will be released every Wednesday. 

If you want to follow more of my content, you can follow me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickbrueckner/

Best, 

MTB