May 02, 2007
Fire the New Guy!
The Yankees did fire somebody today:
The Yankees fired first-year strength and conditioning coach Marty Miller on Wednesday, on the heels of yet another hamstring injury to one of their players.
The players didn't like Miller's approach:
Though the rash of similar injuries possibly could be explained by bad luck, Cashman determined that cause and effect could not be ruled out. Sources say Miller's methods were not popular with the Yankees, and the players were in near-revolt over the situation. Miller's approach included a de-emphasis of running as a way to build leg strength.
Does anyone in the training community have any insights into running vs. other leg exercises? I don't know if this is a bad idea that didn't work or incompetence on Cashman's part.
Posted by David Pinto at
06:34 PM
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I'm not a fitness professional, but I know a fair bit about training--while the sort of long, slow running pitchers and players do for "conditioning" really has little importance for a sport like baseball, where there is little to no jogging but lots of short-duration sprints and high-intensity movements (think driving off the mound, or swinging a bat)...I think the issue is less that Miller de-emphasized running (though psychologically, if it makes the players uncomfortable, it's probably a bad idea--these guys have been training for how many years and been successful that way?), and more that his training methods were geared less toward injury prevention and more towards strengthening, etc--the types of things you do in an off-season to deal with imbalances and the like.
Doing that sort of work in-season, especially for creatures of habit like baseball players, and especially when you play every day, there's a sure bet that you're making players do movements they're not comfortable with--and what's the net result? The body is out of whack and you wind up with hamstring pulls (hamstring pulls are a telltale sign of an imbalanced training program).
Somebody with more experience feel free to chip in here, but that's my gist. Too much change for not enough benefit--when you're working with professional athletes, a trainer is often best off prioritizing injury prevention and the comfort of the athletes above all else--and it doesn't seem like Miller did either.
This has nothing to do with the merits or demerits of Marty Miller, or the apparent desperation of the Yankees in making such a move so early in the season... but how in the world, given the atmosphere of suspicion hanging over major league baseball, could a team give someone the title "Director of Performance Enhancement?" I understand the tendency to create new and longer titles for old jobs, but "performance enhancement?" You can almost hear the Jay Leno material: "Miller wasn't the Yankees' first choice for the job, but Victor Conte turned them down." "Kirk Radomski may be in line to replace Miller; he has the performance-enhancing expertise, plus years of experience in big-league clubhouses."
Not to mention the acronym: DOPE. Yeah, that's good for the old image.
