I had the opportunity to go to the Cubs vs. Pirates game earlier in the week. I was seated behind home plate in the second row. Awesome seats—best I’ve ever had! One thing I noticed was that the guy on deck would warm up with a donut on his bat, which generally add 16 oz to the bat. Theoretically, warming up with a weighted bat will increase the bat’s speed when the weight is removed. Seeing this made me think of science, of course, and what impact this weighted bat actually has on performance. According to Greg Rose, studies show that “feel and real aren’t always the same thing.”
As Edward De Bono once said, “It is historical continuity that maintains most assumptions, not repeated assessment of their validity.” Coaches and trainers tend to take an external or superficial view of the body and how things function. What the industry deems functional is actually just the opposite. We need to take an internal approach—from the inside out—and realize that exercise is invasive and that modality will have a tremendous affect on the outcome.