What is Black Diamond Training?
Black Diamond Training is a combination of our Explosive Strength/Speed/Power Training
combined with our throwing program which is most known for
velocity enhancement but it is much more.
Each Session Consist Of -
Wake Up and Full Body Warm Up
Explosive strength/quickness/power training
Arm Health/Arm Care Emphasis
Throwing Program (will depend on the individual and the time of year)
(For example, in the early fall we have a greater emphasis on arm health
with very little to no throwing. As we progress into the late fall and early
winter we slowly ramp up our players to continue to build towards the season).
Each player is slightly different in terms of ramping up, so we alter the system
to each player as needed)
Black Diamond is...
For pitchers and position players looking to develop a healthier stronger
more powerful arm. Baseball/Softball. Even position players need arm strength and arm health.
How does it work?
We will post the schedule and you get access to all days it says
Explosive Hitting or Black Belt Training.
How long are the classes ?
Black Diamond Classes are 1.5 hours minimum up to 2.5 hours
How often are classes available?
This will depend on the time of year.
Most of the year it is available 3x-5x Per week
Limited training available in June - August based on travel ball schedules
School Year Times -
Weeknights and Weekends
Our School year schedule begins the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Summer Times -
Mornings most Monday through Thursdays
8:30am - 11:30am.
Are Hitting and Black Diamond held on different days?
Classes are almost always held back to back.
Explosive Hitting & Black Diamond Training run back
to back for convenience of each athlete.
Do I have to attend both classes each time?
No. Sometimes players might have more homework
on a given night and they can't stay for both classes.
Although we encourage it, attending both classes each
night is not mandatory.
The Secret To Our Students Success?
Work Hard. Work Smart.
No magic here. Our players dedicate themselves and work hard. We practice with purpose.
We practice with focus. We create an environment that is workman like, not coddled.
Objectively Measure Training Performance.
We believe anything that is measured can be improved. We are constantly measuring our training
to provide instant and immediate feedback to our athletes. Players document and record training.
The more the athlete is aware of his or her current results makes it easier to adjust the results.
In the general baseball world the coaches opinion often get's in the way of development.
Saratoga Sports Club is different because we let the results lead our way of training with each player.
The Bernstein Principle "The Body will organize itself based on the goal of the activity"
We believe the goal of the athlete during training is absolutely critical into creating results and establishing
mechanics and movement patterns. We refer to this as "Intent Driven Training". The rest of the baseball world,
starts with trying to "fix" mechanics. We begin by emphasizing the important of having a clear and specific intent
while also having the right intent.
We throw hard and hit hard because we "want" to. It's a our goal. So many coaches in the baseball world try to "fix" the athlete first by fixing mechanics. Intent can go a long way to creating a more efficient athlete.
Training The Right Energy System (Explosive) -
We train the body physically far different than 99% of programs across the country. We train almost exclusively inside the ATP-CP system. While other programs put a huge emphasis on cardio, or cross fit type workouts, our training is high energy, ballistic, with short bursts.
Our training is a series of explosions that involve no more than 10-12 seconds of full out intensity. We then provide rest for our athletes in between reps in order to let the body to recover. We believe in moving fast, and therefore you need to train fast. While other programs do 30 seconds or more of activity, we train nearly 100% of the time inside the ATP-CP system. A series of explosions followed by a rest.
The baseball world is still doing long distance running, or cardio circuits. We don't. We understand we have to program the body of the athlete to move fast.
The average play in baseball is done inside of 5 seconds. The average swing takes less than a second. The average pitch is delivered in 2 seconds. So why is the baseball world still training cardio, long distance, long duration?
Simple. They continue to do what everyone else is doing. Studies have clearly shown that this type of cardio is not translated to baseball and softball.
Training Specific To Our Sport (Great Movers/Great Athletes)
Baseball and Softball players must be great movers and great athletes. Our Black Belt Training System emphasizes no only training inside the right energy system, but also training as it relates specifically to the sport of baseball.
Why? Not all strength is created equal. Are you football strong? Wrestling strong? Cross country strong?
Basketball strong? Their is a reason why you don't see offensive lineman throwing a ball 90mph.
There is a reason why the quarterback should be training differently than the offensive line man.
The sport requires high athleticism but also movement related to rotational and linear power. Over head throwing athletes and hitters need the ability to create a lot power through rotational forces. Strength in baseball and softball means a lot of rotational power, along with linear forces driving energy from one leg to the other.
Therefore our training reflects this concept. We are very sport specific. Our players train to dominate their body weight while training movement patterns to support swinging a bat, and throwing a ball.
We are training our players to become great movers, along with great athleticism.
Laying on your back doing a bench press is nowhere close to being a great mover as it relates to baseball.
One Ideal Mechanical Model Does NOT exist -
It's amazing how baseball/softball coaches want to crown one swing model or one throwing model as the way that everyone should throw. The reality is when you look at Hall of Famers, you will quickly see they all threw differently and they all hit differently.
Yet, so many coaches are trying to force their favorite style, or favorite philosophy of hitting on everyone.
The reality is one way does not work for everyone, and in fact it doesn't work for most.
At Saratoga Sports Club, we honor each player is built differently, moves differently, thinks differently, and are constantly changing. Can you imagine if we forced Albert Pujols to hit like Ichiro? Made Greg Maddux pitch like Aroldis Chapman?
Why do coaches force one style? The reason is because it's easier for the coach. It's easier for the coach to manage one required style, than to manage multiple styles, multiples was of doing things. This complicates things for the coach, so the coach wants to manage each player and put him or her into their little "box" or belief systems.
Principle over Style (What Great ones do a like) -
The true pioneers of the game understand that great players will do certain things very much a like. We call these principles. Style, and body types, and movements will greatly change, but their are universal principles each player needs to understand.
When we do our video analysis segments we make sure our players undertand the differences between principle and style. They have a check list of things that they can grade as either being more efficient or less efficient.
We don't like to use the word mechanics, because we feel the word points to one certain way of doing things.
We like to talk about movement patterns. Each player moves differently. Some will move more efficiently and some will move less efficiently.
Our goal isn't perfect mechancs. Our goal is more efficiency to help produce better results. The bottom line are the results NOT how everything looks. Roberto Clemente made it to the Hall of Fame hitting off his front foot, and Barry Bonds hit a record setting amount of home runs hitting off his back foot.
Be careful when your coaching start talking about "Mechanics". Mechanics and mechanical often get mixed together.
We dont' want robots. We want great movers. Efficient movers.
Self Coaching-Adjustment Training
As mentioned earlier, we are obsessed with objectively measuring our training performance. We believe players being aware of the results is step 1 to improving the results. Awareness is step 1 to making and adjustment and great players can adjust.
Our training creates an environment in which players learn to self coach, self evaluate, and self adjust. It's start with recording and documenting training results. Identifying red flags in performance, red flags in movement patterns.
Our coaching staff is their to guide the adjustments. We look at it like if a player can become great at adjusting during training and practice, this is step 1 to making an adjustment in a game.
Khaos Training (Levels) "Training Slightly Beyond Current Ability Level"
This system is designed to challenge each athlete slightly beyond their current ability level.
Regardless of the current ability of the athlete, our system creates a new challenge for the athlete regardless
of how good or average the athlete is right now.
The key is pushing slightly beyond. Most programs simply get too easy, stale, or even boring for the athlete.
If the system is not in some type of chaos, the player will find the game is getting harder because the training is too easy.
We want our players to struggle in practice and training. Slight struggle is a sign of growth and development.
Making a player feel good is not helping a player come game time. The struggle of practice makes the game easier.
Our Training Levels, provides an on-going ..... What's Next for the athlete.
Want to train in a challenging environment or an easy environment?
Want to train where everything is counted and everything matters?
Want to train where your put in charge of adjusting and self coaching?
Want to train where you are allowed to use your style, as opposed being robotic and mechanical?
Want to train where you can become a better, faster, stronger mover or train one dimensional?
Our system is very unique, time tested, and proven to take players at all levels and help them improve far beyond their current ability levels.
We are mainly looking for the players and families like this....
Great Work Ethic
Have a burning desire to improve.
Enjoy the practice and training as much as the game.
Parents who are supportive but not intrusive.
Families who value integrity and sportsmanship as much as talent and success.
If your kid has a ton of talent but "thinks" he is all that, we are not interested.
We want students who can contribute to our environment with the right attitude and mindset first.
If that's you I am personally inviting you to attend our training.
You can begin in one of three programs
# 1 Elite Training Program (13 through College)
#2 Major Program (Grades 6-8)
# 3 Rookies Program (Grades 2-5)
Saratoga Sports Club is NOT like the common lesson provider with training as noted above.
Plus, we expect dedication to the program. We believe what you put into something is what you get out of something.