This is just too funny. I had to ask Chat GPT this question as Bill Walton is on another planet and one of the most entertaining humans to listen to for a variety of reasons.

If Bill Walton and Dave Pasch were commentating on Ed Wietholder’s workday as a business owner and sports performance coach, it might sound something like this:

Dave Pasch: “Welcome back, folks! Today we’re focusing on Ed Wietholder, a business owner and sports performance coach. This guy wears many hats, Bill.”

Bill Walton: “That’s right, Dave. Ed’s juggling a lot of responsibilities, but he’s up to the task. He’s got the heart of a champion.”

Dave Pasch: “We can see that already, Bill. He’s starting his day off with some meetings with his business partners, discussing the growth and development of their company.”

Bill Walton: “It takes a team to succeed in business, Dave. And Ed’s team is looking strong.”

Dave Pasch: “But he’s not just a businessman. He’s also a sports performance coach. And it looks like he’s got some training sessions lined up for his clients today.”

Bill Walton: “Ed’s passion for sports is evident, Dave. He’s dedicated to helping his clients achieve their goals and reach their full potential.”

Dave Pasch: “And it looks like he’s not just coaching individuals, he’s also leading a team training session. This guy never stops!”

Bill Walton: “That’s the mark of a true leader, Dave. Ed’s got the energy and drive to keep pushing forward, no matter what challenges come his way.”

Dave Pasch: “And it looks like his day isn’t even close to being over. He’s got more meetings and appointments scheduled, and he’s still got to work on his own training.”

Bill Walton: “This guy is a machine, Dave. He’s like a well-oiled engine, firing on all cylinders.”

Dave Pasch: “And that’s the end of the day, folks! Ed Wietholder, business owner, and sports performance coach extraordinaire. What a performance, Bill!”

Bill Walton: “Absolutely, Dave. Ed’s work ethic and dedication are truly inspiring. He’s a shining example of what it takes to be successful in both business and sports.”

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Attention College Bound High School Seniors! We have been prepping our high school athletes for the college ranks for the last many years. Bring us your plan and we will translate it and apply it. If you have not received it yet we will make it for you and get you a head start! We have had the privilege of watching many of our middle school athletes move through high school and into college competition!

A very common excuse for bypassing sports performance training is the “too busy” excuse. Sports going on, too many games, practices, leagues, etc. How about 1 league rather than 3? There comes a point where one has to step back and become a better athlete. There comes a point where skills are maxed out and one needs to become stronger, quicker and/or faster. Or never be able to compete. Find the time.

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http://www.strengthfitnessandspeed.com

Check out this episode!

SOFTBALL STRENGTH/SPEED/POWER

Posted: January 2, 2023 in Uncategorized

Someone asked me what we work on with our softball athletes. Here is a short summary of some things we work on:

1)Action: Dynamic warm Up, Stretch 

Benefit: Proprioception development,  Increased Core Temperature for better training performance 


 2)Action:  Mechanical adjustments, sprint techniques evolving to very specific basepath and positional speed. 

Benefit: Beating out infield hits, stretching singles into doubles, better reaction and getting to infield hits and fly balls. Better mechanics means more EFFICIENT movement.  

3) Action: Overloading the athletic movements with resistance and assistance. 

Benefit: Contrast training provides better neuromuscular recruitment and power in movements. Example:  pre training athletes exhibit much less muscle recruitment than trained athletes. Contrast training and complexing a plyo and a resisted movement enhances recruitment leading to much improved getting out of the box and exploding to a space. 

4)Action: Progressing movements from closed(predictable) to open(random). 

Benefit: Better transference to the field. There is very little ready –set- go in sports and softball. Movement must be reactive, not on your own cue. 


 5) Power development in the body, including lower core education and activation and development of explosive rotational core power using med balls and plyometric drills 

Benefit: All movement originates in the low core. The low core is your anchor. A stronger educated lower abdomen provides an anchor from which an athlete can turn powerfully on a pitch or launch a fast pitch. All movement originates in the lower abdomen. Rotational core power provides greater velocity off of the bat, a stronger throwing arm and a more efficient consistent swing. 

6)Leg strength and stability and ground contact work 

Benefit: Reduced chances of cruciate ligament knee injuries 

7)Upper Body strength and power transfer 

Benefit: Increased bat speed and better power transfer from legs to hands 

 

In this episode, Ed and Jake Wietholder discuss the science of Physical Therapy as it stands alone as well as the implications it has for sports performance. The importance of recovery is also addressed.

Check out this episode!

Some overtrained athletes wear it like a badge of honor. “Ya I was in the gym for 4 hours today” as they leave with ice on their knees, shoulder and neck.

They could have accomplished more with a 1 hour session and even better recovered from it. Recovery is the limiting factor. Max out your sleep, diet, water intake, mindset and let nature take it’s course.

The right amount of training is the most you can do in a sensible training cycle that you recover 100% fully from. Otherwise what you have is a terrible waste of time where you regress instead of progress. Almost better off doing NOTHING.

A lot of athletes try to follow the latest and greatest that they see online or on media. Problem is some of these authors are let’s say…. chemically enhanced and can recover with the best of them. Some athletes jump on their routine and make great gains. Others gain for a bit then plateau quickly since they can’t recover. Others get instant tendinitis or other problems because they are doing 5 times as much work as their genetics will tolerate. There really truly is no one right way to train for a specific goal. Some generalities exist with rep ranges and rest periods and such like sets of 15-25 will certainly get you more enduring but nor truly stronger.

Does speed and sprint work factor as one of your “leg days” ? If it doesn’t it should. Watch your gains increase.

The simplest most overlooked way to get stronger for most athletes is simple linear periodization. I know many athletes who spend 8 months in the weight room and then tell me they did not get any stronger. Start keeping records now. Work harder, not longer. Try overtraining every 3rd or 4th week of a 4-5 week strength cycle, then backing off the following week. Keep your total work volume low, intensity of effort high, eat well, sleep much and gain. You need to be concerned with when and how much weight you add to the bar, not how long you are in the weight room.

I want to refer you to an article on a topic that says it all. I used to write for a magazine called Hardgainer that Brooks Kubik was an author for. I have learned much through the years from Mr. Kubik’s knowledge. It is more about how he delivers it.

The World’s A Mighty Big Place by Brooks Kubik

The world’s a mighty big place.

There’s an awful lot of people living in the world.

In a place that big, with that many people, sometimes it seems like it doesn’t matter if you slack off a bit in your training. After all, there’s plenty of other days to train, and it won’t matter if you take it easy for once. Heck, it won’t matter if you even miss a day. You can always come in and do it tomorrow.

When you’re running sprints, you don’t always have to go full bore. You can slow down a step. The coach will never even know. And slowing down just a little tiny bit makes it hurt a whole lot less.

When you’re lifting weights, you don’t always have to go for that extra rep, or try to put more weight on the bar. Just make it look good. Throw in an extra grunt or two, and put on one of those big pain faces like the guys in the muscle mags when they do their photo shoots. The coach will never know.

You really don’t have to get up and go running before the sun is out. It’s okay to sleep in. No one will ever know.

You don’t have to do 200 pushups a day like you decided to do last week. You can do 50. Or you can skip ‘em today. No one will know.

You don’t have to watch your diet the way your Coach wants you to do. Going out with your buds for a double-dish pizza with everything on it is fine. Wash it down with a couple of cokes, and then go grab a burger and fries from Burger Heaven. You can always get back on your diet tomorrow. No one will ever be the wiser.

In fact, if you’ve got talent, skill and a little bit of speed, you can probably sleepwalk your way through 90 percent of the conditioning stuff that the Coach keeps talking about. Maybe it’s all for the second-stringers. The guys who don’t have God-given talent that you have. The guys who need to do grass drills because they have slow feet. The guys who need to do pushups because they aren’t very strong. The guys who need to watch what they eat because they don’t have a good metabolism.

You can think like that, and you can act like that, and no one will ever know. After all, the world’s a mighty big place. The Coach can’t be everywhere.

But if that’s how you approach things, think about this.

Somewhere, at another school, in another town, there’s a kid who’s your age and your size, and he plays the sport you do, and he’s got every bit of God-given talent that you have. In fact, we could put the two of you side by side right now, and you’d match up exactly equal.

But here’s something you need to know.

That very same kid is out there running full-bore sprints every single day. He runs them as hard as he can.

He never misses a weight lifting session, and when he lifts, he always goes for that extra rep. Some times he goes for two or even three extra reps. And he always tries to add weight to the bar.

He gets up every morning, rolls out of bed, throws on his sweats, and goes for a long run. He gets home about the time the sun is starting to climb over the horizon.

The Coach wanted him to do 200 pushups every day. He does 300.

He works as hard on his diet as he does on his training. He never eats anything unless it is going to give him energy to train, protein to grow, or vitamins and minerals to build his body. He doesn’t touch junk food or sweets. He can’t remember the last time he had pizza, French fries, a cookie or a candy bar.

Yes, the world’s a mighty big place.

But it becomes a mighty small place when there are two men running right at each other at top speed on an open field, one running for the winning touchdown and the other man the last defender blocking his path to the goal.

I’m older than you, and I’ve seen it happen over and over, and I know for a fact that this is going to happen.

It’s going to happen to you.

It’s all going to come down to you and him. Just the two of you. Right there in the middle of the field, in front of three thousand screaming fans.

You’re going to hit right there in the middle of the field, full force, one on one, with everything on the line. The whole season. It’s all gonna come down to this split second in time.

And that great big world out there shrinks right down to something small and tiny when two men hit try to occupy the same square foot of turf.

This will happen. I know it, your Coach knows it, and you know it.

So does the kid in the other school in the other town.

You will meet, you will hit, and one of you will knock the other one flat on his back right in front of the entire world.

Right now, I don’t know which of you is gonna end up making the play of the year, and which of you is gonna end up roiling in the dirt with tears in his eyes, crying like a baby because he missed the chance of a lifetime.

No one knows.

We don’t know, because we don’t know which of the two of you is gonna train harder.

It might be him. It might be you.

But it’s your decision…

-Brooks Kubik

There is a large difference between the notion of interest and dedication. Interest occurs when you look into something and get really excited about it. You might say, “I want to lose fat or gain some muscle.” “I want 20 more pounds on my Squat or Bench Press.” Dedication results when the actions are carried out that are required to achieve these goals no matter what.

I can remember having a workout scheduled with my middle school aged son at the basketball courts and he got an offer from his friends to go the high school football game instead. I asked him if he wanted to be a guy in the stands or a guy on the court or arena? He happily chose work. We could actually hear the game being announced from the courts we were at. Asked him if he ever wanted to hear his name mentioned? Dedication. Nothing happens while you are just watching.


Interest is the feeling you have when you start an exercise program and really believe that it is going to work. You sit down, organize a plan, and decide that you are going to start on Monday. Monday rolls around and you get an offer from friends to go to a movie and you opt for that rather than the training session. Dedication is turning down the offer, getting your butt to the gym or field, and getting your time in. Dedication causes you to take a rain check on the movie.


Interest is learning about how to increase your speed, wanting to increase it, and getting set to do so. Interest is also not doing the session because you are tired from some activity earlier in the day and thinking that this extra activity is enough work for your legs in a day. Dedication is getting your session in no matter what. Dedication has you taking pride in the fact that you are the one getting the extra edge.


Interest has you 4 weeks into a training program, getting frustrated, and quitting. Dedication has you sticking it out until 6-8 weeks when you can expect to see some results.


Interest has you stuffing food into your mouth at 10 P.M. and telling yourself that you can burn it off tomorrow. Dedication has you drinking water at 10 P.M. and burning fat the following day, rather than the snack.


Interest has you going to bed at 2 A.M. rather than 11 P.M. when you know you have a heavy leg workout in the morning. You rationalize coffee will take care of it. Dedication has you hitting the sack at 11 P.M. and having a great workout in the morning, rather than just taking care of it.


Whether you are dedicated or interested lies entirely in your mind. You are in the driver’s seat.

As an athlete becomes more advanced, the “whys” of doing a drill become more relevant. In addition athletes that travel a lot need to make their workouts super efficient and address any underlying issues. Time usage becomes more important

Example: With fall travel season approaching I watched an advanced High School middle infielder doing a long duration lateral 2 in(why?) in a ladder at full speed(took 10 seconds burst is now gone) sprinting(can’t go 100% at this point) to a cone diagonal 10 yards away(this is all counterclockwise) cutting at 45 degrees to another cone and another ladder 2 in sprinting diagonal to another cone, to a predetermined site(happen much?) to catch a ball. This is a glorified conditioning drill without any relevance to the sport. Something to do about 1% of your time and definitely not close to a season

Take some time and think about what you are doing or are being told to do by youtube or a bad “trainer”.

1 solution for a middle infielder: Not crossing over into technique of any sort but providing a resisted drill that is very relevant for the athlete that had a season coming up shortly to enhance relevant lateral movement. Bungees each side with medium drag so as not to interfere with already nice movement. Ground balls provided randomly. Simple, effective, efficient.

Lauren Vay EF Softball