kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Goals:
-Lift heavier and heavier things and look better. Be fairly unconcerned about scale weight.
-Find repeatable pitching mechanics. Don't worry about velocity since it's the fking winter.
-Find the last bit of power I need to hit home run balls rather than warning track shots.

Plan:
-Eat reasonably. Not too worried about caloric intake (still keeping it semi-low), but I'm going to attempt to follow a high-protein moderate-carb diet. I will allow myself to eat more since it is the winter.
-Lifting: Pushing for heavier and heavier loads in all lifts; will start to take bench press seriously during the winter. Primary lifts will be squat and bench press. Other lifts will be push-ups, hanging leg raises, seated rows, sit-ups, and dumbbell chest press.
-One baseball game per week, one bullpen per week, one batting practice session + long toss per week. Thrower's Ten program done daily, lots of focus on shoulder endurance/integrity.
-Cardio: Run at least 1 mile every other day, ideally running 2 miles five days a week.
-Supplements: Multivitamin with BCAAs, fish oil caps, sometimes ZMA when I don't forget, and Ergopharm's AMP.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Monday, 10/1:

Food:
-Bowl of cold cereal with 2% milk
-Clif Bar
-Cheesesteak with meat + peppers/onions + cheese (no mayo)
-Angus beef cheeseburger with onions, ketchup, salt/pepper, white bun
-Turkey sandwich on honey wheat bread

Exercise:
-Bullpen day (40-50 pitches from 60', plenty of stretching and warmups)
-Hit two rounds of soft toss @ 40 balls per bag
-Side shoulder raises with 5 lb weights, flexibility work on pecs and shoulders.
-20 elevated push-ups
-30 bicycle crunches

Off to a good start.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

And someday I'd like my swing to look like this:

http://photos.imageevent.com/siggy/h...LA_SView01.gif

One can dream, right?

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

I find it very interesting the way the barrel of the bat goes towards his head at the start of his swing. I've done a lot of research on pitching but not so much on hitting. When I played I was always told I had a beautiful swing so I never thought about it at all. I always thought of Ryne Sandberg as the perfect swing. It just seemed so effortless and looked completely natural with nothing goofy or gimmicky. Where did this clip of Miggy come from?

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Not sure - the barrel of the bat going to the head is fairly common amongst hitters in the MLB now. It's called pre-loading and allows the hands to simply hinge down to maintain the correct launch angle and velocity.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/2:

Diet:
-Bowl of cold cereal with 2% milk
-A bottle of Mexican coke
-Plate of pepper chicken + Yakisoba noodles (with very little Teriyaki sauce)
-Black angus cheeseburger with onions, ketchup, and seasoning salt
-Apple slices with natural peanut butter
-One red pepper

Exercise:
-Lifting day
--Warmups: 2x10 side shoulder raises @ 8 lbs, various resistance tubing work, static stretching, 2x10 chest dumbbell press @ 20 lbs/hand, 1x5 squat @ 100 lbs
--2x5 squat @ 200 lbs
--2x7 chest dumbbell press @ 35 lbs/hand
--2x10 one-armed pec fly @ 115 lbs (great core workout)
--1x10 two-armed pec fly @ 115 lbs
--2x25 ab bench sit ups w/ leg raises
--Run 1.1 miles on treadmill @ 0.5 incline / 5.5 mph average speed (0.5 - 1.0 incline is comparable to running on real ground)

Tomorrow long toss and soft toss batting practice with one of my high school kids.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

[ QUOTE ]
10/2:

Diet:
-Bowl of cold cereal with 2% milk
-A bottle of Mexican coke
-Plate of pepper chicken + Yakisoba noodles (with very little Teriyaki sauce)
-Black angus cheeseburger with onions, ketchup, and seasoning salt
-Apple slices with natural peanut butter
-One red pepper


[/ QUOTE ]

It was a lot of teriyaki sauce. And that was A LOT of chicken & noodles.

I'm watching you, kyleb. Don't think you'll get away with this.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

it most certainly was not :|

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/3:

Diet:
-Two bowls of cold cereal
-Cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and jelly
-Chicken sandwich and plain baked potato
-Sweet and sour chicken with white rice
-Mozzarella sticks (booooo kyleb)

Exercise:
-Standard rubber tubing work, side shoulder raises, stretching
-30-35 long toss pitches
-30 soft toss batting practice swings
-20 Med-ball twists

Yep.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

[ QUOTE ]

-Mozzarella sticks (booooo kyleb)


[/ QUOTE ]

I hate you.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/4:

Diet:
-Three bowls of cold cereal (not all at once)
-A bagel with peanut butter and jelly
-Teriyaki pepper chicken and Yakisoba noodles
-Bottle of mexican coke

Hm. I guess that's it.

Exercise:
-Played a 90 minute soccer game as a midfielder and ran around way too much. No subs on our team. Bleh.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

[ QUOTE ]
10/4:

Diet:
-Three bowls of cold cereal (not all at once)
-A bagel with peanut butter and jelly
-Teriyaki pepper chicken and Yakisoba noodles
-Bottle of mexican coke

Hm. I guess that's it.

Exercise:
-Played a 90 minute soccer game as a midfielder and ran around way too much. No subs on our team. Bleh.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty sure you forgot a few Mexican cokes...

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

he is here and admits that i drank one

what a jerk

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

[ QUOTE ]
he is here and admits that i drank one

what a jerk

[/ QUOTE ]

I think all this mexican coke we've been drinking has been affecting my memory

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

What's a mexican coke?

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Try a simpler goal. Maintain a constant weight for the rest of your life. No yo-yoing up and down.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/5:

Baseball game tomorrow. Probably will throw 2 innings.

Diet:
-Cold bowl of cereal
-Chipotle crispy tacos, steak w/ cheese, tomato salsa, tabasco sauce
-Baked potato (zero cal butter substitute, salt/pepper) and a chicken sandwich
-Probably an angus beef cheeseburger in 30 minutes or so

Exercise:
-20 minutes on elliptical machine with ice sleeve on (shoulder's a bit sore)
-Active stretching, static stretching
-Pitcher mirror work

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Keep up the good work kyleb!

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

[ QUOTE ]
What's a mexican coke?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure you can't figure this one out on your own?

If you're still unsure, see here

Also, Kyle had a mexican coke yesterday that appears unaccounted for.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

why are you trying to hit/play the field and pitch?

one of the things I found most beneficial when playing in highschool (d1- top 50 national team), and when playing in college (d1) is that when I was a sophomore in highschool they made me pick pitching or position.

Unless you were very very good at both (only 2 guys in the 8 years I've been playing upper level baseball) everyone was either pitcher or position. They were "team within teams" and pitchers strictly worked on pitching, distance running, shoulder strength, stretching, and position players worked on fielding, hitting, bunting, etc

on a side note, diet looks pretty [censored], are you trying to put on weight?

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Because I'm 24 and left serious baseball (D1/D3 after injury) behind me. I am enjoying my rehab as a pitcher (I threw in D1) and played a position in D3. There's no reason to specialize in amateur leagues.

Diet's fine. I'm eating less than maintainance.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

I haven't thought to come to H & F in a long time, I forgot how much I love this place!

[ QUOTE ]
I find it very interesting the way the barrel of the bat goes towards his head at the start of his swing. I've done a lot of research on pitching but not so much on hitting. When I played I was always told I had a beautiful swing so I never thought about it at all. I always thought of Ryne Sandberg as the perfect swing. It just seemed so effortless and looked completely natural with nothing goofy or gimmicky. Where did this clip of Miggy come from?

[/ QUOTE ]

We call this "Live and Independent Hands."

"Live"- Hands continue to move, they never stop or become stagnant/stale within the swing.
"Independent"- They work independent of their shoulders/hips. If not they will gate swing b/c the hands will rotate w/ the shoulders.

That is a very standard def for the two terms. Basically what is going on is that for there to be positive motion we need negative motion as well. Hands can't strike the ball from a still position, we can't create power this way--a boxer doesn't punch by just jabbing his arm outward, you will see a negative move first.

The back hand/arm makes the same exact motion as you would if you were to throw. This is much easier to explain/demonstrate in person. Anyway, imagine you are in your batting stance and you have a ball in your right hand (assuming you're a right-handed hitter), the idea is to skip a baseball (throwing sidearm) off the top of the pitcher's mound. Now watch the video again, you can see this motion w/ his back arm--looks like he could skip a rock across a pond or a baseball off the mound. This gets the hands started, creates power. It brings the barrel forward is what you are seeing but the most important thing you want is the hands moving/getting started, which then locks you into that bat lag position which allows you to hit in a big zone (something else to explain).

The front arm just needs to lead w/ the elbow, the worst language I hear is "knob to the ball." Knob to the ball doesn't express the path the barrel needs to take. More that could be expressed some other time. If you were in your stance and with your left arm (assuming you were right-handed again) threw a frisbee correctly this would be the correct motion the left arm would make.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Thanks tdarko. "Drive the knob of the bat to the ball" is a really bad cue, but sometimes it's hard to get kids to understand the concept of a circular hand path around the body. However, I have had success in coaching kids using the concept you introduced to me: Visualizing the body getting out of the way of the swing. It helps them to block the front leg and maintain a better weight shift as they initiate a rotational swing.

"Live and independent hands" is an interesting phrase I will use in the future - I currently use the concept of "preloading" and "separation" for that part of the swing.

What I've been saying to help with the hand path are:
-Stick your rear elbow into your side (helps eliminate bat drag)
-Utilize a "trigger" stride (helps block the front leg and understand rotation while keeping the head still)
-Hands move around the body, not to the ball

Thoughts?

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

[ QUOTE ]
What I've been saying to help with the hand path are:
-Stick your rear elbow into your side (helps eliminate bat drag)
-Utilize a "trigger" stride (helps block the front leg and understand rotation while keeping the head still)
-Hands move around the body, not to the ball

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good. "Getting the body out of the way of the swing" is some of the best advice I ever received years ago--and was told it again later when I was learning how to pitch. Really good stuff.

I love the elbow into the side, that is a power position--every good hitter and big league hitter does this, you have to do this for a ton of reasons. Such a great concept.

You don't want bat drag of course but something that has been a mistake for so many years is bat path to the ball. Everything I have read you do a good job w/ bat path---and those gifs are the best thing ever!

Anyway, all our lives we were always taught to "swing down on the ball." The reason big league hitters are so good is that their hitting zone is so large (what I was talking about when I said "big zone"). What I mean by this is when you swing down on the ball (this is stuff you already know, kind of just rambling) the barrel of the bat is out of the zone for most of the bat path until it strikes the ball--then if you have timed the pitch right it is in the strike zone briefly and then out of the zone again. The reason that isn't good is that you have to time each swing relatively perfect to give yourself a chance to center the baseball, resulting in a ton of foul balls and obv missed pitches.

Take the gif at the beginning of the thread: Using live and independent hands and keeping that elbow "locked" into that side the barrel is now lagging through the zone. Such a weird term b/c it implies slowness, but that is what the term drag implies. We want bat lag, the barrel to sweep behind the plate, through the heart of the plate and then out in front and extended. That is hitting in a big zone like in the gif, watch the barrel of his bat. What this does is reduce the need for timing each pitch. For instance, let's say you mis-time a pitch badly and are way late--hitting in that big zone and with the barrel behind the plate will give you a chance to drive a ball to the opposite field. Big leaguers do this all the time, we watch games and see them do it and it looks like an accident but it isn't...they swing in such a big zone that they are giving themselves the best possible chance to drive the ball. Then let's say you are way early, w/ that barrel staying in the zone for so long--even way out in front of the plate this allows for those balls you are early on to be centered and hit for HR's much of the time.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

Good job kyleb! Keep up the good work!

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/6:

Diet:
-Bowl of cold cereal
-Grilled chicken BBQ sandwich
-Can't really remember what else but it was healthy enough

Exercise:
-Have a tweaked right hamstring; sat the baseball game out

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/7:

Diet:
-Bowl of cold cereal
-Tortilla spring rolls with chicken
-Couple slices of sausage/onion pizza with light cheese (cheat meal for the week!)

Exercise:
-Right hamstring still not feeling well. Going to resume heavy lifting tomorrow.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/8:

Diet:
-Bowl of oatmeal
-Sausage sandwich with french fries (Bleh)
-A short beer

Exercise:
-None, felt like [censored]. Worked all day.

Re: kyle\'s winter diet and exercise log.
 

10/9:

Diet:
-Nutrigrain bar
-Hardshell steak tacos with tomato salsa and cheese
-Bottle of mexican coke
-Chicken sandwich and a baked potato
-PB&J sandwich on wheat berry bread

Exercise:
-Bullpen day. Threw ~50 pitches from the mound, threw some long toss, and worked on the side on mechanics. Ran a little bit, stretched a ton, did ~20 lunges with rotation.
-Going to lift in a bit but wanted to get this log entry in. Going to do 3x5 squats (probably 150/175/225), lunges, cable rotation, flat dumbbell press, and run a mile.