Chad Rodgers Archives - Show Me Strength

Student Spotlight : Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is by Hanna Riley

April 1, 2015 by Chad Rodgers Leave a Comment

A note from Chad – “Hanna and I started our training journey a little over 5 months ago now. She frequented one of the gyms I work at, and right away upon seeing her was impressed by her quiet determination to train hard. You just don’t see that very often anymore. She also moved so well through difficult exercises even before I got to her, so I immediately knew she would be a very fun challenge in regards to programming for such a skilled person physically. It’s very rare to get athletes (and I see everyone as an athlete in their own way) who combine their innate physical gifts with sheer determination to get better each day. Those people are special. Hanna is special. She is a great person, wonderfully caring friend, and a very, very strong willed, physically gifted woman who impresses me more and more each day.”

Without further ado, Hanna take take the mic…

There’s an oft-quoted line by Shakespeare that might be one of his most famous of all, “Though she be but little, she is fierce!” Little certainly can pack a punch, and as small as they might seem, the following six letters have left a rather large mark on me: t-h-e g-y-m.

The gym used to just be a place I drove past. That’s all it was, just a pile of bricks with lots of bars and ‘bells and boxes and benches, and weights that just sat there strangely. The only gym I knew was portable in the sense that it came in the form of a hot pink yoga mat, always at the ready to be unrolled to receive my bare feet, my grounded palms, my upside down self. For a solid seven years yoga studio floors were the only thing I felt underneath my body as I bent, folded, twisted and balanced in every direction possible. A decade steeped in yoga has also taught me much beyond bending, including the deep inner practice of contentment, yet what brought me to the doorstep of a bona fide gym was intense inner discontent and a highly honed self-criticism skill worthy of a gold medal. My critical perception of myself makes me squirm, but I credit my propensity toward commitment plus what I had learned of karma, or action (essentially, the sage advice of “put your money where your mouth is”) with armoring me in the bravery and hope it took to venture out of the world I knew into the curious-looking woods of Something New.

Yoga had taught me (among many lessons) to honor and be grateful for my body in a way that I had previously never been exposed to. How I even got there was 19-year-old me stumbling into a gym- after never having been aligned with a physical discipline in any way, no sports, no dancing, no exercise, nothing- bereft in deep heartbreak, thinking, I’ve gotta do something. At that time my body had become the only thing I felt like I could control in a chaotic time and, like a sad statistic and a story you’ve heard too many times, I danced around the edges of anorexia, dropping to 100 pounds and obsessively eating less than 1,000 calories a day. In the newness of the gym I frequented the corner that had the scale in it and I flirted with running and some eight-pound weights for a few months. It was there I found yoga, falling madly in love and dedicating my life (and my eventually no-longer-100-pounds body) to the practice. That practice is still very much my cornerstone, and I have been teaching for the last ten years. But as miraculous as I’d come to view my body as, standing on my head, standing on my hands as solidly as my feet, my body with it’s inconceivably amazing systems, like a universe within, the temple for my soul… All that, yet my mind still struggled with loving my outer form, like wrestling a very cranky alligator. These feelings started long before I earned 19 years of age- I vividly recall wrapping duct tape around my ribcage when I was in elementary school, trying to look, feel, be smaller than I was. What’s most perplexing about that is I’ve never not been averagely-sized, nor had anyone in my life ever taught me to feel physically inferior. It was just some nasty, craggy barnacle I picked up along the way and hadn’t succeeded in scraping off yet. What was different now than 10, 14, 18, 26 was I really, really, really, really wanted to do something about it. At 27 I spent a year committed to five days a week of cardio. I learned, as I’ve learned before, as I keep learning most every day, that I am a hard worker. You can call me many things, intense being one of them, but committed another. At 28 I started getting scientific about the food I chewed up and swallowed. I became a slave to measuring and while that gave me some sense of control and purpose it also stockpiled worry and alienation, toward myself and others. I believe that many people can pull that specificity of diet off with ease and calm, but I haven’t been able to achieve that gracefulness yet.

As 28 turned into 29, during my three days a week spent in my neighborhood gym, away from my yoga mat (that’s all it felt like at the time- time away from my yoga mat), I found I was starting to need heavier weight. I needed a squat rack, somehow I just knew this. As much as I loathed the prospect of venturing out of my often-private gym, and I put it off for months, it was those two words that finally made me cave: squat rack. That, and four other words: ten dollars a month. I could swing that, I reasoned, ten bucks for one day a week out there in the wild abyss that was sweating around other people…

Little did I know that squat rack would become my siren call.

I hear it now, calling me, Hanna… Hanna… Grip me, that cold metal barbell says, perched all alluringly on its rack like a beautiful woman. Duck under me. You like that feeling, don’t you? Yes. Place me against you. Look at your own eyes in the mirror. Close them. Exhale. Open them. Tell yourself you’ve got this. Stand on your tip toes. Push me up. Step backward. Take me under your own control. Get set. Sink down. Explode up. Like there’s a great white shark under your ass (a personal favorite from my coach’s mouth). But at that time, ten months ago, the squat rack didn’t talk to me like that. It said, oh look, the rookie’s here. Damn right I’m a rookie, I said, but a yoga teacher I once had taught me, “do not despise the days of small beginnings.”

The point of all this back story (and, God help me, there’s more) is this: when I reached for my first dumbbell, it was out of desperate hope that it might be my salvation. This would later turn into fierce dedication, but that treasure was yet to be discovered. What I want to cry out to you is this: I did not trip and fall into the gym already athletic, I did not skip in carefree. I was strong to a point, honed in a way from the skillful practice of the art of yoga, deeply body aware, but mentally weak (between my ears is still my weakest link). I did not slide in seamlessly amongst the Hammer Press machines and 45 pound plates, the confident girl, the ex-track star, a PR holder at my high school, no. I was the girl who got in a car accident at 17 and felt like she’d won the lottery when she got to, thanks to a note from her chiropractor, sit out of gym class for a marking period. All I had, and I realize this story parallels many people’s stories, was my willingness and my work ethic. Pretty soon my neighborhood gym was a thing of the past. My nerves and neuroses still walked over the threshold and the mud mat with me, but I started to crave the clanging, the people, the energy, the accountability, the inspiration. Enter: my coach. You may all know him here as a showmestrength guru, but all I knew him as was a guy who quite possibly may have had a backwards ball cap surgically attached to his head, but boy did he look like he knew what he was doing. Lone wolf that I am, hermit that I can tend to be, opening my space to him wasn’t exactly easy, but I am so glad he’s on my team now. He uses words like potential and athlete and strong, all in conjunction with my name. He’s taught me that you should never (ever) have hundred dollar shoes and a ten cent squat. He’s asked me to eat like I mean it, sleep like I mean it, treat myself like a Ferrari, feel the weight and commit to it, trust myself, trust him, that the greatest ones know how to turn it off and on like a light switch, and think act breathe dress walk talk like a major league player. I hear him in my head often. Coupled with his faith, intention, and eyes that can see things I can’t, I’ve held 200 pounds on my back and 300 pounds on my hips. I never knew I wanted a coach, I never knew that I needed one, but I did, and I do.

While I still press my kettlebells in hopes of a force-to-be-reckoned-with physique, I know, even more so now, what I knew before, that my greatest muscle lies beneath my hair, under my scalp, below my skull. My mind, your mind, our minds, can be our ally or our foe. Beyond thoughts though, I’ve put my money where my mouth is. I’ve worked toward something I wanted, and I still want. I showed up. A lot. I laced up, suited up, pulled-up, hair-tied-up, hopes up, pushed up, jumped up (one legged and two), woke up, and just basically did that shit up. Anything I have has been earned. I did it, but I didn’t do it alone.

What I realize much more clearly now as 29 is on the cusp of 30 is when I wrap myself around something, I sink my claws in. In the gym, those six letters that have become a most hallowed haven, it’s not just my hands that grip the barbell, it’s my heart. My spirit force deadlifts too, not just my glutes and hamstrings. I’m still a rookie, I still squirm sometimes, I occasionally try to wiggle around what’s been programmed, but I am braver, bolder, happier (happier!), more confident, more passionate about the days that mark my life, more unabashedly and unapologetically myself, and I daresay I’m even a little louder too. I have learned that stepping up to my deadlift requires my presence and fortitude just as the first Samasthiti asks me to ready myself and open myself to the coming yoga practice. It’s not such a black-and-white dividing line, it’s not just time in the gym or time on my yoga mat, because how you do anything is how you do everything. I am practicing the skill of being me anywhere and everywhere, whether my bare feet are on a sticky mat or my hands are clinging to the chin-up bar. My foray into the gym has reminded me that life is for creating and adventuring, and curiosity at what the truth really is. If there was once a time I thought I’d never step foot back into a gym with the sole purpose of picking heavy objects up off the ground, moving them around a little, then putting them back down, what else about myself is there to discover? I didn’t think I’d ever exercise for pleasure, not punishment, but here I am finding myself uplifted, mighty, and fulfilled. It’s not all roses and clover, though, believe me. In fact, it’s rarely roses and clover. Training is hard. It kicks me to the curb, it sometimes spits me back out. It reminds me there are higher peaks. Oh, you think you’re good? You think you’re fit? Watch this, it says. Watch her. Watch him. But that’s just the food chain, the trickle down effect, the honest-to-goodness reality that there will always be someone better than me in every category you could dream up. But. They’re not me. And I’m not you. As Carl Sagan says, “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”

Though I be but little, I am fierce. Fierce… Those are six beautiful letters.

_________________________________________________________________________

More about the author :

Hanna Riley is a highly sought after yoga teacher in the southwest Florida area. She has been teaching the goodness of vinyasa yoga for 10 years, and is very passionate about human movement, art, and movement AS art. She loves breathing, sweating, bending, yoga-ing, crafting, creating, writing, cats, laughing so hard her face hurts, handstand, giving gifts, giving (and receiving) hugs, sprinting, lifting heavy objects, really loud music, and rainbow colored anything.

To learn more about more about her teaching, or to just tell her she’s pretty awesome, hit her up at hannarileyyoga@yahoo.com

5 Things Everyone Wants From A Training Program

November 25, 2014 by Chad Rodgers Leave a Comment

As coaches, we can easily fall into a big trap. I’ve seen it before, and I have been guilty of it in the past, but no longer do I let myself fit into this category I’m about to tell you about.

As for me, I’ve been a baseball coach, pitching instructor, and more recently, a personal trainer, and online strength coach. The trap I fell into early one was my own limiting beliefs on how I should design programs, and how I should coach.

The methods I used were no doubt tried and tested through years of training and learning with the best, but in order for a pupil to improve under my guidance and continue in a steady ascent to their goals, I needed to evolve into a “chameleon” coach as I like to call it.

The chameleon coach understands that his or her knowledge is a valuable gift, but at the same time places the equal value in adapting wisely to their student or client’s needs and wants. He or she masters the art of delivering priceless knowledge in a way that is sensitive to the student’s personality, background, goals, and specific needs.

Too soon in my coaching career did I feel so filled with valuable, and life changing knowledge that I neglected opening my heart to the individuals first and foremost. As an instructor, this was an area that could no question make me more well rounded.

I mentioned earlier that I’m now working as a personal trainer (Southwest Florida), and a writer/training program designer here at Show Me Strength. It’s my job to deeply understand everyone I work with so I can stay true to their success in health. Furthermore, I’ve discovered several things while coaching that everyone wants to see and feel if they are to take working out seriously for a long time.

Here they are.

1) We all want to look better in the mirror – No one is more in tune with our naked bodies than ourselves. We see us in the worst of states, the best of conditions, and it’s only natural to feel our mood, confidence, and psyche alter a bit with our physical state. As a strength and conditioning coach, if you don’t stay sensitive to this with each and every person you work with, you’ve no question begun losing sight of their goals. A good program will deliver exceptionally positive physique transformations, so if you have a client who needs to lose 50 lbs and you are doing bicep curls right off the bat, you need to reevaluate what the hell you are doing. “It should be your goal to keep the goal, the goal.” Dan John

2) We all want a program to be tough, rewarding, and attainable all at the same time – I think most coaches get 1 or 2 out of 3 when creating workouts for their clients. The great ones, however, deliver all three on a consistent basis, and therefore get their clients feeling and looking great in a time sensitive manner. It takes no thought and no care to make someone sweat or sore. These side effects can tell us we are doing our job in getting our client a training effect, but it by no means makes you a great coach. You must have a balance of an exciting training stimulus to go along with challenging, but achievable workouts. I make it a point to design our client’s programs with these characteristics in mind. The last thing you want is a frustrated, hurt, and disinterested person because of your lack of concern in program design efforts. If you are looking to start a new workout program, find someone who cares before worrying about how much they know. It’ll be win/win for both sides in the long run.

3) We want a program that won’t waste time on things we don’t care about – This is a big one for me even in my own training. In fitness, my own workouts have really evolved and taken new shapes in the past decade or so. I’ve gone from following bodybuilding workouts with my dad in my early teens, to receiving the best training programs in the world for my baseball career by Eric Cressey, to now working more with brutal pure strength and aesthetic programs from Jim Wendler. Each has been rewarding and beneficial in their own way, but most of all, with the more experience I’ve achieved, I waste less and less time on pointless bullshit. Whatever my goals are, everything I do in the gym is dedicated to those goals. Take a step back and make sure everything you do in your training truly aligns with how you want to look, feel, and move.

4) We want a proven, tested, and science supported program – Who doesn’t want to hear great feedback from a program or coach before you submit your body to torture and effort? It further increases the investment of time and sacrifice you are willing to make for your health, am I right? I’ve been lucky enough to play a professional sport for almost 10 seasons, and in the meantime, I was blessed by meeting and learning from the best fitness coaches in the world. One of the biggest lessons they taught me was to never stop learning. Always push to be the tip of the spear in the industry with the most relevant, up to date information in all things health, while keeping perspective on what has worked for many years. Learning and improving is something you owe your clients on a daily basis.

5) We want a program that will keep us interested and excited to train – It’s such a great feeling when you design a program that just flows with someone. They show up hungry for more each time, and they stay the course just as you had hoped. This doesn’t just happen by printing some trendy, thoughtless workout off the internet and mindlessly wandering the gym floor. It comes from a coach who has carefully constructed something for your needs and wants. As a coach, I make sure to remain selfless when writing programs. I make sure that I am creating the set, rep, and rest scheme of each exercise with total thought on the person training, not what I feel like coaching. Sure, I’d love to teach some diesel shit, but it might not fall in line with the path of my student.

These are some of the beliefs I create each program around. As you see, I didn’t delve into the physical aspects of my training and coaching yet. I’m only attempting to open the doors for learning and discussion in regards to making educated decisions, ensuring you continue to keep your health the highest priority, without getting discouraged along the way. The next article will cover the physical elements of great training programs.

On a similar note, Andrew and I are thrilled to announce that we have partnered with WeightTraining.Com, which we believe is the web’s leader in user friendly platforms for online training programs. It’s such a cool site. Check it out with the link above or below. Join up and get our programs for a very affordable price.

3 Reasons Your Effort Isn’t Producing Results

August 5, 2014 by Chad Rodgers Leave a Comment

You can catch updates about our training, and learn more on our philosophies on becoming awesome on the field and off at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

I’ve been feeling sorry lately. I really do. I feel terribly sorry. Not sorry in the normal context, like being sorry for a mistake or something, but for my people…My beloved people of the iron…

I have been attending to a local gym the last several months to train and work, far away from the very controlled and elite athletic environments where I’ve been working out since I was in high school. I mean, I’ve been to a million public gyms, but not as a regular. I’ve found it very interesting to see the different styles and methods of exercise now that I am in a new setting. I look around and see people genuinely giving up significant time and effort up in the gym.

I see their minds engaged in a battle against itself. What should I do next? Can I go up in weight? How can I get the most out of this workout? How do I look? Am I losing weight? Am I getting stronger?

I love it, because I’m right there with them now. No longer am I training for professional baseball. I am training to feel good, look good, and because I truly love it. And I get it…not everyone loves it…that’s ok…to me it’s even more admirable to see those people consistently showing up because simply put, getting shape is hard work. So if you don’t enjoy it, but do it consistently anyways?…Well I salute the hell out of you.

What do I feel sorry about then? I feel sorry when I see people waste their time in the gym and beyond it’s walls at home. I feel sorry for the guy or girl who is truly pushing themselves, but frustratingly has the same mediocre body as they did a year ago. It’s not their fault. They have solved half the puzzle by showing up on a consistent basis with high level effort. Most people simply aren’t willing to do that in the first place.

I wanted to write this for those people who are in the same battle I am in. The ones who show up even when they don’t want to. Those of you who feel like you are putting in the hours in the gym, in the kitchen, I want to offer a few suggestions to maximize your admirable work.

…Here are 3 BIG reasons your effort isn’t pumping out progress, and several ways to start seeing results…

1.) You aren’t learning how to do compound movements properly –

I am a firm believer that everything has a place. I don’t look at people anymore and hate on exercises they might be doing. I used to do that shit. Of course I have my own training philosophies, but the human body is amazing, and it can adapt and grow from all kinds of different stresses. The biggest one’s though, the mulit-joint moves like the squat, deadlift, pushes, pulls, and swings, are performed rather ineffectively as a whole, in the general population as far as I’m concerned. If I were a beginner lifter, I would learn and master optimal form on these big lifts. The book “Starting Strength” by Mark Rippetoe is a tremendous resource as it applies to barbell training. I’d highly recommend it regardless of your goals as a lifter. In summary, here are three things to learn which will go a long way…attached are links to help.

Learn how to hinge the hips

Clean up your front and back squat with the goblet squat

Get more out of your bench press

2.) You’re spending too much time in the gym, and as a result, you start losing muscle –

This is a big one for the skinny-fat guys. I know because I’ve been there, done that…And it sucks because you can feel it happening. You had a something light to eat before your workout, you dabble in a little caffeine, hit the weights hard, feel like doing more, maybe get caught up helping someone else out or talking. Before you know it, you’ve spent 3 hours without eating, and you’ve burned through enough calories for everyone in the gym. It’s not ideal if you are looking to really make gains. Instead, make your workouts hard, heavy, and super efficient. Don’t fuck around. Put your head down and goto work. Here are a couple other suggestions.

– Supplement with plain BCAA’s or even a protein/carb mix during your workout.

-I recommend Biotest’s Surge for those looking to add mass, and True Athlete’s BCAA’s for those looking to maintain size, but get stronger, and definitely avoid loss of muscle. Drink a serving during your workout to help avoid throwing away gains.

– Stick to simple, but challenging programming. I am currently 6 weeks into 5,3,1 by Jim Wendler, and I love it. I’m in and out of the gym in around and hour to an hour and a half, and I leave feeling spent but strong. From a strength standpoint, I’m as strong as I’ve ever been. Lean & Lovely is also a highly recommended resource for the ladies. It was written by a very trustworthy strength coach, Neghar Fonooni. Bottom line here…The more optimally your time is spent exercising, the better your results will be.

-More warmup sets and more progressive overload –

One of the cool things I’ve learned running 5,3,1 is how working on bar speed and form during a solid amount of warmup sets can benefit even an advanced lifter. I used to only do a couple warmup sets on my compound lifts, but now I’m always starting light, and fast, working to heavy and obviously less fast. I’ve noticed myself feeling good no matter how I begin when walking into the gym. Moving fast fires up the nervous system, opens up your mobility, and gives you more confidence with your form when you do 5 or so warmup sets before the working sets. Again, don’t fuck around. Bust through those sets, then get to work.

When it comes to overloading, always…always track your sessions. You must make sure you are constantly in a struggle against the weights to make significant progress. It’s easy to convince yourself that a working set was tough, but the more you keep track and see the raw numbers in front of you, the more your competitive self will shine though. You’ll push yourself more by seeing what kind of weight you’ve done in previous sessions. You’ll also get a better feel and waste less time guessing when warming up and loading up the weight.

3.) You’re nutrition and recovery just aren’t matching your training or goals

I saved this one for last because it has applied to me big time recently. I’ll put it out there bluntly and say while yes I want to be strong as hell, which I think is my asset, I also want to look like a fucking predator. I want it to be obvious that I work my ass off in the gym. I certainly have the training aspect taken care of, but it wasn’t until a discussion came up with a friend about my eating, that it became obvious I wasn’t eating for the way I wanted to look. I may have been eating healthy, but it didn’t match up to my goals. There is no true right or wrong method of eating. It’s more complicated than that, and I will save those posts for Mr. Andrew Ferreira. In the mean time follow these simple rules.

– When trying to shed only a couple of pounds of fat off an already in-shape (10%ish body-fat) physique, limit majority of carbs to post training. On days you don’t train, stick to meat and veggies. Read here for a more in depth look at what we mean.

– Get 6-8 hours of deep sleep. If it takes you awhile to fall asleep, plan for that, and get to bed earlier. Deep sleep is the most overlooked part of body-composition transformation.

– When trying to put on lean mass, read this post about re-structuring your breakfast, and load up on good food after training and at night. Stick to the highly digestible carbs with your meal like sweet potatoes, jasmine or white rice, quinoa, or regular potatoes. Introduce muscle building smoothies after training and before bed as well.

Closing up here, it’s clear there are a ton of you, including us, who really enjoy seeing incredible results from our labor in the gym. The last thing we want is to feel lost or confused as to why we aren’t making progress. These tips aren’t the be all end all, but they are a start, and hopefully you can take one or two of my suggestions and implement them right away.

Also, Andrew & I have been working hard with our online coaching program, and have spots opening up soon. Contact us on the page below if you are interesting in learning more about how we can help change your life for the better.

>>> Show Me Strength’s Coaching Program <<<

20 Lessons Learned in Professional Sports (Part 6)

May 28, 2014 by Chad Rodgers 2 Comments

You can get a glimpse into our life and training on our social media pages –Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram < Click to view.

Also click here to learn how we can coach you into a seriously awesome human being > Show Me Strength’s exclusive online training and lifestyle design programs.

“As it may be—matters. How you feel about your abilities—your academic “self-concept”—in the context of your classroom shapes your willingness to tackle challenges and finish difficult tasks. It’s a crucial element in your motivation and confidence.” Malcolm Gladwell in David & Goliath

Hey guys. Welcome to another edition of “Lessons Learned in Professional Sports.”Here are the links to the other parts of my series. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4, and part 5 are here. As I mentioned in my previous post, I tore a hamstring in spring training with the Minnesota Twins, and have been down here rehabbing it in Ft. Myers at their player development facilities. The training and rehab have been slow and tedious at times, but I’m proud to say I’m back to full health after about 8 weeks.

I’ve pitched in about 6 games at the extended spring level, and done quite well. Although not fully sharp and at full tilt, I feel strongly I can get outs anywhere in baseball. For now, I’ll be waiting on a call to fill in at one of our affiliates. I shall keep you posted.

Until then, here are a couple more lessons I’ve learned in my long, strange journey in professional baseball.

Lesson 14 – Quit giving hitters credit. It’s hard as hell to hit, and many times, even the biggest, baddest hitters are mindf***** when they step to the plate.

I really can’t believe it’s taken me so long to not care who steps in the batters box. For a long time, when a big time prospect or major league hitter would come up to the plate, I would step away from my strengths just to cater to what I “thought” were their weaknesses. Too many times I tried extra hard to throw the nastiest pitch possible instead of driving the ball down their throats like I did every other hitter.

The turning point for me was a few seasons ago with the Braves when I was chatting with a Major League outfielder who was doing some tee work and rehabbing an oblique injury. I simply asked him a question like this…

“Man you must have tore up the minor leagues. How do guys like you get there and manage to stay so long without any overwhelming tools?”

He immediately turned this question into an answer I’ll hopefully get the chance to turn into a big league opportunity. He said..”I realized early on in my career that I wasn’t going to hit home runs, hit for an insanely high average, or do anything that equals an automatic ticket to the show. I realized how overwhelming 90mph can be with a wood bat, but I also saw that I didn’t need to hit .330 like I did in college to get the big leagues. If I can go up and make myself a tough out somehow, someway, hit around .280, then teams will see the value in me. Just go watch B.P. today. Watch how many guys get out from 65 mph fastballs.”

Wow. I mean I was awestruck by his comments. We went on to talk for about an hour, and eventually came to the conclusion that many pitchers fail to get to the majors because they lose their self-worth somewhere along the way. Somewhere, we as pitchers get it in our heads that we have to be somebody different when we face good hitters. This is easy to believe when teams sign the best young amateurs in the world for tons of money every year. But, it just doesn’t mean they are better than you. They still have to square up the baseball, and hit it somewhere where 9 guys aren’t, and make it to first base. It’s hard. Major League hitters aren’t even better than batting practice fastballs sometimes! Take the credit away from them, and give it to yourself.

It brings me back to that awesome quote from Malcolm Gladwell above. If we continue to keep our outlook of ourself high, and always higher than whomever steps in the box, we can conquer the most intimidating hitters and situations with a higher success rate.

This means for all you pitchers out there, challenge everyone with your strengths. If you can throw a curve over for a strike at will, do it…alot. If you don’t throw hard, but can spot up, don’t go and try to blow it by Miguel Cabrera. Do what you do best, know that you are in charge, and you will get outs. Period.

Lesson 15 – Slow the game down when you get in trouble, but keep the pace when you are rolling.

This is one of those lessons that feels like stating the obvious, but until you’re actually out there competing your ass off trying and failing to get outs, it seems so easy to want and get the ball and get a strike as quick as possible so you can get back to the bench.

It’s inevitable that we will get our ass kicked every once in a while, but the difference between mediocre seasons, and really good ones, is the ability to limit the damage and stop the bleeding. As a great pitching coach of mine once told me in a jam when he came out for a mound visit…

“Remember, just as you pitched your way into this, you can pitch your way out of it, but you have to be a snail right now. Each pitch, make it count as one pitch closer to getting us back up to bat. Slow the game down.”

It’s so damn difficult to do, but that comment gave me ease, and I got out of it. I thought of each pitch as a chess match, where each move I made had to be and could be the right one to get me out of the jam. I did it so slow that I think the hitters got uncomfortable. When they are hitting a pitcher hard, they are like a pack of dogs, running up to the plate, getting their bone. When you keep that bone from them, they get anxious if they are going to get it or not.

Here are a few things I use to slow it down when I’m in trouble.

1.) I remind myself through positive self talk, that I am just as capable of getting out of this jam, as I was getting into it. It has to be one methodical pitch at a time though.

2.) I take 3 deep belly breaths in through my nose, and exhale long and smoothly. I try my best to get my heart rate under control. I remember there is no shot clock. I am in control of the game.

3.) I take one big, long scan of the field or stadium above the playing surface, getting my mind and vision off the task at hand for a few seconds. This relaxes me and sometime humors me, as I’ll see people who are having a good time, not caring about the game. So I think why not me. I can have a good time out here too!

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you know anyone of your friends who might enjoy this, can you share it with them? I’d like to make a positive impact on whomever I can with the things I’ve learned in my career thus far. Thank you very much!

C.R.

Oh ya! Almost forgot…We have the most badass T-Shirts on the planet now, so email us at showmestrength@gmail.com if you’d like to get your hands on one!

Sick, Right???

Embrace. Fight. Prevail.

20 Lessons Learned In Professional Sports (Part One)

November 22, 2013 by Chad Rodgers 10 Comments

Show Me Strength on Facebook! Instagram! Twitter!

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.” Bob Feller

June 6, 2006 was a date that would change the course of my early adult life forever. After a very successful season for our top 5 nationally ranked high school baseball team, Walsh Jesuit, we won an Ohio State Championship title for the 2nd time in my four year career there. It was already such a special moment to spend with all of my closest friends and family, and it had surely topped the list for best day of my life in the 18 years I had spent on planet earth.

Leading into this day, I was also a highly scouted pitcher whom many thought would be selected in the first few rounds of the Major League Baseball amateur draft. I had finished my high school career with a perfect 18-0 record, and was lucky enough to finish as the player of the year in Ohio. As a skinny, but athletic left-hander who could touch the low 90s with a “projectable” 6’3″ 170lb frame and clean delivery, scouts felt like I had done everything in my power to warrant a high pick, as did I. The feeling of winning it all had consumed all my energy that afternoon though. My mind was not on the draft at all. It was just trying to savor every second of the last high school game I’d ever play. Jumping in that dog pile in the middle of the diamond was sure to be the last moment I’d play the game as a boy whether I decided to play in college (signed with Kent State University) or not. In the very near future, I’d be trying to live out every kid’s biggest dream by playing at a level most will unfortunately never achieve.

Soon after celebrating on the field, our whole team, family, and friends, would gather at a local restaurant to continue the party. The buzz was starting to shift from the memory of winning the state title, to now, when would Chad get drafted. As I glanced up on the tv screen, I watched the first round names go by on Sportscenter’s bottom line. Many of today’s household names were on that list. Hochevar, Lincecum, Scherzer, Kershaw..The list goes on. These names meant nothing at the time to me except for numbers to pass until I was hopefully selected.

Not much long after, I was in a conversation with my friends when I looked over at my father talking to my head baseball coach. It looked as if he had some good news. My stomach wrenched as I clinched my seat hard. My coach said “Can I have your attention everyone. Chad Rodgers has been selected by the Atlanta Braves in the 3rd round (100th overall). Congratulations Chad!” The whole place erupted with cheers. I remember looking over at my dad and grandfather and seeing them both crying and hugging each other. Neither of them had missed a game of mine since I began playing 12 years earlier. My heart was full of joy for them, not me. They were the ones who sacrificed everything for the betterment of myself. I got much more pleasure seeing my friends and family excited. It was one of those surreal moments you can easily draw back on and say that everything went absolutely perfectly. One thing that rarely ever happens in this game.

From that perfect day in June 2006, I began a journey that would bring and take from me many things. Excitement, disappointment, victory, loss, tragedy, anxiety, hopefulness, and strength among many other unique feelings and new experiences. I realize that it is my duty to share these moments as a way to help you up and comers out there. Athough my journey hasn’t brought the fame and fortune many expected, it has instilled in me qualities I wouldn’t otherwise possess. Courage, commitment, work ethic, responsibility, and most of all, perseverance are some of the things I’d like to talk to you about here in this blog series. These are the lessons I’ve learned playing 8 years of professional baseball….

Lesson 1 – Learn something from everyone, but mimic no one – Baseball coaches and instructors tend to be very passionate, and often stick to their guns when it comes to what they believe is the right way to do something. The sport is rich in tradition, but lacks open mindedness for different ways to get better. I can remember being fresh out of high school standing on a set of perfectly manicured mounds in the Orlando heat, getting ready to throw my first bullpen session as a professional. To my right and left were the other pitchers drafted that year, and behind us were a slew of Braves coaches and front office personnel. I was so young, and looked up to these folks with such high admiration, that whatever they would suggest to me, I would try and perfect. Looking back, I see a huge flaw in this mindset. Then, every coach would offer opinions as to how I could get better, improve my mechanics, or hold a pitch differently. Then, I would listen to everything, and execute it all to a T. As a result, my mind and body were filled with contradicting ideas and methods, halting my progress and suppressing my athleticism in their tracks. If I were to go back to that time in my life, I would still keep my mind wide open, but my filter would be refined. I would throw out what didn’t feel right, and keep what clicked. The best athletes do this so well.

“Adapt what is useful. Reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” Bruce Lee

Lesson 2 – There is a big difference between “control” and “command” – Minor league pitchers control the baseball pretty well for the most part. Most of us have a good idea which side of the plate the ball is going, and if we don’t, then we aren’t going to be playing for much longer. In my experience observing some of the best major leaguers of all time up close, including John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Tim Hudson, the differences were not what most of you would expect. They didn’t necessarily throw much harder or throw tighter breaking balls. What they did do, was throw the ball where they wanted to way more often than the minor league pitchers. Much of it was repeating a consistent delivery, something lesser pitchers do not do. I remember watching Tim Hudson in a side session, and I counted 26 out of 32 executed pitches (pitches thrown exactly where he wanted). The other 6 weren’t that bad either. His misses were pitches that could still be outs. I left in awe because of how far I knew I’d have to come, just to have a bullpen as tight as that. When he called for pitches in off the plate, it was off the plate. If he called for a slider in the dirt, it was getting dirty, not crossing the belt. All of the guys in the farm system have the ability to command, they just don’t repeat it with the same consistency as the big boys.

Greg Maddux

“Consistency is something you can always improve on. You can be more consistent with your mental approach, the things you do physically on the mound. Instead of executing 5 good pitches an inning, try to make six. You can always do more of what you are doing well and try to be as consistent as you can be.” Greg Maddux

Im really excited to share more in the coming weeks. This is my introductory article for what I think will be a game changer for many up and coming baseball players and athletes alike. I hope you enjoyed the two lessons, and learned a little more about me from a baseball perspective. Let me know what you think! Be back soon with much, much more..

C.R.