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Busting through the training plateau

Bill Mooney Owner and lead instructor at the BioForce Baseball Academy in Beaverton, Oregon, Bill Mooney has authored and developed several books and DVDs on pitching. Here’s what a former major league pitcher and pitching coach has to say about Bill Mooney and BioForce Baseball: “As a former major league pitcher, pitching coach and coordinator of pitching, I am always searching for information and instruction that can help me improve. Most would guess that the best, most informative teachings come out of the professional game, but it has been my experience that the instructors who have dealt with hundreds of kids from all ages really have seen what works and doesn’t work. Such is the case for Bill Mooney and BioForce Baseball Academy. Having watched him interact and teach what we know today to be right, I would not hesitate to allow him to work with our pitchers. To place that trust in someone is the highest compliment I can pay to a fellow pitching coach. Without question, Bill Mooney is an outstanding coach and one worth learning from and training with.” - Brent Strom (Click to close.)

by Coach Bill Mooney, BioForce Baseball

What makes this so interesting is how personal the story is - an instructor working with his own son. We're sure many of you can relate. - Richard Todd, WebBall

I don't know about you, but I can't stand stagnation in life, work, or sports. I get bored when things aren’t changing. Yes, there are some things I don't like to change in my life, but when it comes to baseball performance, things need to change and move, and preferably for the better. Are you like me?

I was recently asked by a couple of students and their parents to help them bust through a performance plateau they are going through right now. I thought talking about stagnation, or plateaus would make a great article. One of our students is a pitcher who needs to be more consistent with his curve; the other is an outfielder who is looking to get a little more pop in his bat. Interesting enough, my younger son, Craig, is working through a pitching velocity plateau this summer.

I help all of them with their challenges the same way.

To give you an idea how I help players improve their performance when they reach a level of stagnation, I'll share with you how I am guiding Craig through his pitching plateau right now. This coming fall, Craig will enter his second season of college ball and would like to pick up a few more miles per hour on his fastball to be one of the main pitchers next spring. His one-year goal is to catch the eye of a bigger university as his community college baseball career will end. He made some big jumps in velocity last fall and this past spring, but he seems to have come down a little in velocity and wants to make another big jump and make it permanent.

We are looking at Craig's challenge from a few different angles...

1 The mechanical side of the equation
We've broken down his mechanics from several different angles on tape. I have a new video evaluation software system that does an amazing job helping me break down a pitching delivery or your hitting mechanics in super slow-motion, and I can measure time, angles, and distance. I can also complete the evaluation for him online, and email him the results to watch over and over. That was our first step, evaluate his pitching mechanical strengths and weaknesses. I will write about how to use video evaluation to your advantage in more depth in future articles.

2 Evaluating his current velocity plateau
For Craig, we have revisited his strength and conditioning routine this time of the year too. Most of the players I've met over the years neglect working on flexibility within their training program. And how many of you spend quality time on your flexibility in season? Craig recently had a session with Wes, our academy massage therapist, to look for areas of tightness and knots in his body. He found a few knots in Craig's back and upper shoulder and worked them out in one session. That certainly tells us Craig has had some muscular limitations because of the knots and tightness, which makes it tough to gain performance. Make sure you spend a good amount of time on your flexibility and evaluate what might be holding you back. Remember, a tight muscle isn't working efficiently. That will limit your ability and performance.

3 Overcoming the mental roadblock
I feel that's an athlete's biggest obstacle when hitting a plateau. Have you ever asked yourself how you might be putting limits on yourself? How are you handling the adversity of a plateau?

Think about it…. How many times have you set a goal and, after a short period of time, you reduce that goal because it looks and feels like you might not reach it very quickly? Some people give up totally when they reach some adversity.

Your initial goal might have been to throw 4 miles per hour faster in eight weeks.

After a couple of frustrating weeks of little or no gains, you bring that target down to 2 miles per hour in eight weeks. The desire to reduce your target, or goal, to make life a little more comfortable for you, or when the goal looks too tough to reach any time soon, is called structural tension.

Simply put, structural tension is the desire to lower the bar on your goals because you don't like the bar that high right now. It's uncomfortable and maybe you don't want to sacrifice hanging out with your buddies instead of doing the workout you need to do, or you feel tired and rather play Call of Duty on your Xbox. Most of us reduce the goal because we soon realize that we may not want to sacrifice something else to get what we think we want.

How Do I Get Past My Plateau?

First step, set some specific and measurable goals, and evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. After making your plan to improve, you need to spend some time becoming aware of the roadblocks you set for yourself.

How do you sabotage your success? My bet is that you are probably not persistent, or you don't practice persistence. Do you lower the bar on your goals because it may be a little uncomfortable to work that hard?

Here's a tip: Keep track every time you are not persistent with something. If you wake up and tell yourself you will throw out the trash by 10 am, and you don't by 10, make note of not being persistence. You might be surprised how many times you don't follow through with a promise to your self. That's the habit you are building, a lack of persistence on what you have set out to do. Becoming more aware of your bad habits is the first step to better habits.

And let's face it, when the going gets tough on your way towards achieving your goals, the persistent people thrive. Those of us who have made not being persistent a habit, usually don't get through those plateaus.

Bill wants you to "train like a champion today" and encourages you to email him if you have any feedback or are looking for help. support@bioforcebaseball.com You can also add comments below.

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