Coaches Corner
Featured Article: "Real Bat Speed "
College Ball
Advanced Baseball is proud to announce our latest group of athletes who have committed to play at the next level. All of these athletes are extremely hard working and their dedication and passion for baseball combined with the countless hours spent at Advanced Baseball has allowed them to continue their playing career after high school.
Matt Rhodes (St.Johns) – Christopher Newport University
Tom Russell (PVI) – Navy
Ben Wilson (T.C. Williams) – Rhodes College
Jackson Russell (Robinson) – Washington & Jefferson College
Brett Kelly (Bishop Ireton) – Marymount University
Ryan Johnson (John Paul the Great) – Washington College
Ethan Rothstein (Robinson) – James Madison University
Jackson Mayo (Riverdale Baptist) – Stevenson College
From the Desk of Steve Johnson
Be Careful
As the competition for scholarships or spots on elite travel teams has increased significantly in the last few years, so to has the amount of misinformation on what is good, better or best for pitchers and hitters progress. The biggest example of this is in strength training and conditioning. Everyone is searching for methods and ways to increase a pitchers strength, velocity, and endurance. The problem is very few know how to actually achieve this in the safest and most correct method. Olympic style lifts, Kettle bells and even long distance running is not the answer and can impede performance and health in many negative ways. Functional or useable strength should be the goal for all pitchers, not understanding this seems to be a wide spread problem with in baseball.
" Be very careful there are a lot of so-called experts who claim they have the correct information but in my experience they do not, it can really be a big problem" --- Steve Johnson
Remembering Josh
I first met Josh Morrison when he was 13 or 14 years old. Having heard good things about my training center from one of his coaches, his father decided to sign Josh up for our hitting program. My first impression of Josh was that of a pretty good ball player but also a really nice young man. As Josh got older and his training continued I realized what a special talent and athlete he was. I knew then he possessed the tools to play the game at a high level. I remember telling Josh that if we could comingle his natural talents with the right information and he could develop a passion for the work, then he would have many choices when it came time to choose a college to play for. By the time he was in high school I soon realized that his “baseball” ceiling was even higher then I originally thought and that professional baseball would soon take interest. As Josh reached the end of his high school career, many of the things we had discussed and worked on for his baseball future were starting to become reality. His ability to combine his natural talent with his hard work and dedication to correct information made him one of the best all around players in the D.C. metro area, a real 5 tool guy.
Unfortunately, Josh never had the chance to reach his full potential in the game of baseball a car accident took him early and I’ll never truly know how far in this game he could have made it. What I do know is that Josh Morrison was a remarkable young man who not only possessed great athletic talent but a humble and humorous personality that you couldn’t help being affected by. The training center shined a little brighter and we all laughed a little harder around Josh and we are extremely proud to have Josh’s’ name on a plaque on our college wall, forever memorializing what only would have been his first big accomplishment in baseball. As the years have continued on and the number of athletes trained has gone up, Josh Morrison remains to this day, not only one of my all-time favorite baseball players but more importantly one of my all-time favorite people. RIP Josh
