Old School vs. New School: The Application of Data and Technology into Baseball

Foreword by Alan Jaeger

In 2010, I sat in a convention hall in Dallas and had everything I
thought I knew about coaching taken apart. I'd learned the game from
New York legends. I was as old school as old school gets. Then I
started measuring things.

What I found is that the old school guys with feel and experience knew
things — they just couldn't explain why those things worked. And the
new school, armed with more data than anyone can process, often can't
explain what to do with it. This book is nine years of standing in
between those two camps, in the cage and in the lab, trying to find
what's actually true.

WHAT'S IN THE 17 CHAPTERS

The Spinal Engine and Reciprocal Movement (Ch. 5) — the mechanism
behind how the best players in the game actually move, and why it's
almost never coached.

Biomechanics and Fascia (Ch. 6) — why a 165-pound kid out-drives a
220-pound one. It isn't that he's a freak. He's tapping a power source
most programs don't know exists.

Mobility and Hip-Shoulder Separation (Ch. 4) — two of the most
repeated cues in baseball, examined against what's actually happening
to hamstring and arm injury rates.

The Arm (Ch. 9) — arm injuries are up over 250% in ten years while
participation dropped 27%. UCL injuries up 193% (Hodgins, Ahmad et
al., Columbia). What we're doing isn't working, and I'll tell you what
I believe is causing it.

The Recoil (Ch. 11) — every coach has been told that recoiling the arm
means weak decelerators and leads to injury. Nobody had ever tested it
in a lab. We did, with Dr. Emily Ferree at Movement First. Average
elbow torque dropped 38% with a single cue. One athlete went from 134
newton-meters to 45. For reference, above 115 is not if a player gets
hurt, but when.

Motor Learning and Self-Organization (Ch. 7) — why the kid who mashes
in the cage disappears under the lights, and a framework for building
practice that actually transfers.

Arm Mapping and Weighted Balls (Ch. 10) — why some throwers gain,
some feel better, and some get hurt on the same protocol.

Bat Speed (Ch. 12) — everyone wants more of it. Very few people can
tell you what it costs.

THE CASE STUDIES

Chapter 13 reproduces a complete 108 evaluation of a professional
pitcher — the actual report, not a summary of one.

Chapter 14: Jake Marisnick. He'd hit 17 home runs across five seasons
and 1,300 career at-bats. After an offseason rebuilding his posture,
hip timing, and barrel path, he hit 16 in 200 at-bats. What we
changed, why, and what went wrong the following spring when his
separation crept back.

Chapter 15: Brandon Dixon. Came in off a .261 season with a bad
strikeout-to-walk ratio. Roughly 250 hours together that offseason on
posture, tighter turns, and deceleration. He hit .347 in Triple-A with
OPS and slugging both up more than 150 points, and finished the year
in the big leagues.

WHO THIS IS FOR

High school and travel coaches building a program without a budget.
College staffs who bought the tech and need to make it mean something.
Private instructors who want the why underneath the drill. Parents who
would rather understand the process than buy the next gadget.

You should be prepared to question most of what you've been told.

DETAILS

Format: Paperback
Chapters: 17, plus foreword, preface, and full citations
Published: 2019 · ISBN 978-1076892928
Author: Eugene Bleecker, Founder & CEO, 108 Performance