Absolute Development Introduction

The modern era of sports performance has seen a substantial rise in the private sector voice, and with it, the the approach to player development. Many independent practices are starting to make their way into professional sports, and in some cases the integration has already occurred.

To summarize, there are three characteristics that indicate a modern approach to player development:

• Movement screening 

• Dynamic capacity (athletic) testing 

• Sports specific assessment 

The three data sets are then used to form a profile and inform a long-term development plan for the athlete.

The practice of said testing, screening and analysis has been steadily evolving since the original sports scientists of the 60’s and 70’s, with mainstream exposure in the USA kicking off in the 80’s and 90’s. Today, you would be hard pressed to come across a sports performance professional who is not implementing data driven methods to develop their athletes and or coaching staffs.

In this series titled, Absolute Development, we will examine the data driven, modern approach as it relates to specific skills, such as hitting, throwing, jumping and so on. The first athlete type we will cover is the baseball hitter, who falls under the broader umbrella of the “rotational athlete”.

Throughout this blog (and most of my writing for that matter), I commonly refer to general and specific conditioning as a sort of “pit stop”. I do so to communicate and emphasize the intent or purpose of training to serve the preparedness of the athlete, and nothing more.

Of course, with the Hyper Stride being a portable 4 wheeled device, how could I not seize the opportunity of unlimited puns?

In Part I. of Absolute Hitting, I discuss the components of optimizing the “pit stop”, drawing from classically practiced methods applied in a strategically organized manner.