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What does it take to get to the MLB from the State of Michigan?

Mike Schmidt • Apr 08, 2014

By Mike Schmidt,  Advantage Strength Coach and Baseball Coach

Being a division one baseball player and coaching high school varsity for 5 years, the sport of baseball has always intrigued me.  It’s a thinking game.  A technical game.  An individual and team sport and a game about numbers. It’s about finesse.  It’s America’s pastime.  When playing the sport at an adolescent age you are constantly humbled and unsure of outcomes, therefore always reminded to find a way to get better.  It wouldn’t be all that bad if you could continually practice “outside”.  However, where we live, that’s not always the case.

So what do you practice? Hitting? Pitching? Defense? Base Running? Do you strength train?  There are so many aspects to this game that one can work on.  However, looking at the demands of the game one would think defense would be the winner, right? But you have to score to win the game.  Baseball is one of the only sports where the defense has the ball.  Think about it.  Most sports the offense has the ball.

As player and as a coach, my outlooks and philosophies on the game have changed.  I was an offensive juggernaut.  I loved to hit.   I hit and hit and hit.   I could do it inside and feel accomplished and outside it felt even better.  This helped me propel my career to the division one level.  However, and interestingly enough, players are not listed by when they hit in the line-up, yet they are designated and warranted a defensive position, if they hit right or left handed and what arm they throw with ( John Smith, R/R, SS or INF) .  Thats it! However, you may be thinking players carry a batting average.  This is true.  But is it really known at the high school level? Or better yet, is it accurate?  Besides this point, defense has become a main stay in my coaching style.  And more specifically, in my strength and conditioning career, it drives me to understand the health and maintenance of the overhead athlete.  This is a continual grind of sifting through research (Journal of Sport Medicine, Journal of Strength and Conditioning, etc) and trial and error (what works and what doesn’t work) methodology. I say trial and error because everyone is different. Hence, to me it remains a customized mystery for that type of athlete.  And thus, my drive to find what works for you.

Let’s take a closer look at the facts.  In the last 3 years, the MLB first-player draft teams have selected 50 players from the state of Michigan*.  Out of those 50 players, seven have been selected in the first 10 rounds.  One of those players was a high-schooler.  The rest were 4-year college players.  More interesting, two of those seven players played high school baseball in neighboring states before coming to a 4-year school in Michigan.  Why bring this up? Well 1) I like numbers, 2) What does it take to make it? and 3) can you do it from out of high school? The facts say, slim chances. (However, no data has been collected of those Michigan high-schoolers who played at out-of-state colleges.) The percentages of making it to the big leagues, plummets to a dwindling 11% being selected after round 10 and furthermore, 7% after round 20**.  And thats by being drafted by an organization!  Think about it for a second, 11% and 7% percent when your drafted to making it to the league.  Therefore, one my goals working at Advantage Strength includes assisting those (youth, high-school and collegiate players) that aspire to be selected in one of the top 10 rounds of the MLB first-year player draft and turning around these percentages.  This includes working hand-in-hand with our top notch pitching instructors, Tyler Burgoon – former Triple AAA pitcher – and Alan Oaks, still active, and other performance strength and conditioning coaches, Brian Sipotz and Darryl Nelson.

29 Mar, 2022
So far I’ve introduced a little about the “non-diet” approach , as well as the Diet Cycle , which many people find themselves stuck in when using a restrictive “diet” approach to food and health. For some of those people, the idea of eating what they love and “giving up” on diet or weight loss doesn’t seem like an option, understandably. We face a LOT of pressure, day after day, to eat “clean” and lose weight. That pressure may come from well-intentioned family, friends, and healthcare professionals who are concerned about our health (more on that later); or from fear-inducing headlines that compare sugar to poison; or from photo-shopped & face-tuned ads on Instagram of celebrities selling their flat tummy tea or shapewear. We are surrounded by Diet Culture, and are forced to engage with it- no matter if it’s coming from our loved ones, acquaintances, coworkers, or even strangers. What exactly is Diet Culture? You might have an idea just from the sound of it... Messaging that promotes diet & weight loss. Right? It’s actually more than that. Here’s a definition from Aubrey Gordon, author of “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat”: Diet Culture: “A system of cultural beliefs and practices that equates thinness not just with health, but with moral virtue, and which advocates for weight loss at any cost. Diet culture isn’t just a matter of being on a diet, but of the social forces that make dieting (or lifestyle changes or wellness) culturally mandatory for so many of us.” The key phrases are “moral virtue” and “weight loss at any cost”. Diet culture doesn’t only convince us that weight loss is necessary (to be beautiful, to demonstrate our worth, or to be healthy); but it creates this pressure that we are MORALLY obligated to do so. In order to be perceived as good, responsible people, Diet Culture urges us to pursue weight loss at any cost- which could mean sacrificing our social life, a significant amount of money on supplements or meal replacements or programs, our emotional wellbeing, and even our physical wellbeing. Maybe diet and weight loss aren’t so healthy after all… And while this may not be everyone’s experience, we have research that demonstrates the following emotional impacts of restrictive dieting: Dieting is associated with higher anxiety levels (Kwasnicka, 2020) Dieting is associated with poorer emotional and mental quality of life (Burns etal, 2001) Dieting is linked with reduced life satisfaction (Esch and Zullig, 2013) Further, restrictive dieting has actually been found to cause weight GAIN. To be clear, weight gain is nothing to be ashamed about (bodies change!); but if the multibillion dollar diet industry is selling a diet plan for weight loss, they’re not exactly being honest about the likely outcomes. 1⁄3 to 2⁄3 regained weight within 1 year, with almost all weight regained within 5 years (1992 NIH Consensus) Most weight is gained back within 2 years and most gained back all the weight by 5 years (2013 Australian Research Council) A team of UCLA researchers reviewed 31 long term studies on the effectiveness of dieting and concluded that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain —up to two-thirds of the people regained more weight than they lost (Mann 2007) This quote from Weight Watchers former Finance Director sums it up pretty well:
07 Mar, 2022
Good morning! Thank you to everyone who came out to Break the Diet Cycle presentation. I hope you’re starting today feeling curious about Intuitive Eating and eager to rediscover your favorite foods in a fresh, positive way. I attached the PDFs of the presentation for you to reference, as well as the “HAES (Health at Every Size) Manifesto”, by Dr. Lindo Bacon, author of Health at Every Size. This provides a snapshot of the science behind the weight neutral approach, Health at Every Size, which Intuitive Eating is aligned with. For those of you who couldn’t attend, you may be wondering- what exactly is Intuitive Eating? As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, Intuitive Eating is a non-diet approach to food and health. The framework consists of 10 principles to help you examine and reevaluate your beliefs & attitudes about your body, your food, physical activity, health, and more. While practicing Intuitive Eating, individuals relearn how to eat in accordance to their natural hunger and fullness cues; food cravings; energy needs, and so on. They begin to trust their body to tell them when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat. The Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating are: 1. Reject the Diet Mentality 2. Honor Your Hunger 3. Make Peace with Food 4. Challenge the Food Police 5. Feel Your Fullness 6. Discover the Satisfaction actor 7. Cope with Your Feelings without Using Food 8. Respect Your Body 9. Exercise to Feel the Difference 10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition Intuitive Eating may seem like a straightforward concept, but in a culture that heavily promotes dieting and weight loss as a path to health, happiness, and even moral virtue, it can be hard to break out of the Diet Cycle (seen below). Also known as the “Restrict-Binge Cycle”, this eating pattern is typically kicked off by some diet thought, like “I need to lose weight” or “I need to start eating better”.
25 Jan, 2022
Snack Break with Mary Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist & Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor at Advantage Strength
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