Vitamins NOT Medicine

It would be great if you could jam an entire off season into a couple of weeks or lessons but unfortunately the game doesn’t work that way.

Vitamins NOT Medicine

After reading an interesting article in The Athletic about spring training (I would normally share it but it’s subscription based-sorry guys), I think they brought up a really valid point about training in which they compared training/coaching to either vitamins or medicine.

We all know what vitamins are…we take them (hopefully) every day in order to keep us healthy. Nothing fancy…same pill, same size, and daily. Consistent and not fancy.

While medicine is really the opposite. It’s taken in large erratic doses, in all shapes and forms, in much more direr circumstances. 

Basically you only take medicine once something is already wrong. And unfortunately, that’s how a lot of us view training or being coached.

We don’t “need” to get our work in until the week before tryouts.

We don’t “have” to fine tune our swing until the month before that big tournament where all the college coaches will be.

We treat training as medicine…used at the very last minute, when really in-need. Rushed and inconsistent.

Well guys, I hate to break it to you but this is an awful strategy for training or being coached.

Meaningful gains and adjustments cannot be made in the last minute. They cannot be rushed or crammed in.

Meaningful gains and adjustments are EARNED by consistent hard work….over months, seasons, and even years. 

It would be great if you could jam an entire off season into a couple of weeks or lessons but unfortunately the game doesn’t work that way. Be consistent with your training. Take your vitamin daily. Be obsessed.

Ken Spangenberg
Director of Baseball
Maplezone Sports Institute