What is Power + Why is it Important?
Power is cash money... or gold... or whatever you personally value highly, for athletes of all sports.
Why is power output important?
Power correlates strongly to throwing velocity, exit velocity, and sprint speed. All of the things that help a baseball player impact the game. All of the things that make the transition to a full-size diamond easier. All of the things that draw recruiters and scouts attention. Beyond baseball, power is correlated to goal-scoring in soccer, post-season accolades and yards after catch in football, and how hard a volleyball player can hit a ball, among, of course, many other things (probably driving a golf ball further while we’re at it).
How does Slammers measure power output?
Slammers uses the Loden Sports Performance Lab App to measure power output using a jump test in all players multiple times a year. This same app is available on the iOS app store and is as simple as recording a video if you have an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro.
The app also uses power to calculate a readiness score - a good tool to have at your disposal to make sure your athlete isn’t tired or over-doing it.
What factors influence power output?
Simply put, power is a function of strength and speed. Power is all about moving weight fast.
How does an athlete increase power output?
Nature: Athletes will get a natural boost to their power output when they hit their growth spurt. A growth spurt comes for different athletes at different times. For some, it is just before high school, for others, it’s during high school, and for others still, it can come as late as college. Everyone is different.
A good way to build a foundation for power before a developing athlete hits their growth spurt and starts retaining weight is by training with an emphasis on speed.
Nurture: Train strength and train speed. If an athlete is strong and not fast, focus on training speed. If an athlete is fast and not strong, focus on training strength.
“Okay, I understand, what do I do now?”
For youth athletes, Slammers South has introduced the Athletic Foundations Program (Click Here) starting the last week of May. Slammers North has introduced Foundations of Strength (Click Here). These programs lean into the aforementioned emphasis on quality movement and developing speed as most of our youth athletes haven’t hit puberty yet.
Re: power, we’re building the foundation for power in all of our athletes who participate.
These programs are filling up, but space is still available and participation is not limited to Slammers athletes or baseball players only (sign up with a friend).
Slammers will be using Loden Sports at the beginning and end of these programs to track progress and show improvements - like this.