Explosiveness

Yes and no? What I mean you can't teach bat speed but with proper training and technique you can maximize the bat speed you have. there may be a few guys with such off the chart tools they don't have to work real hard but it is a very very short list - did I mention it is a very short list.

Cressey trained Tim Collins to be explosive.

http://www.ericcressey.com/tim...n-at-least-for-a-day

 

Most you see are likely born with it, because few are willing to put in the time and effort needed to create & enhance it.

Yes and no.  My view is everyone has a certain amount genetically in them But their ceilings are all different.  I believe training can help you reach your ceiling.  I also believe that most people never reach their ceiling.

Read Ted Williams "Science of Hitting" to understand how almost any hitter can drive the ball explosively.  Ted Williams was 6'-3" and under 200 lbs in his prime and could consistently drive the ball over 400 ft. 

Nolan Ryans "Pitching Bible" gives some insight on how he was able to generate his fast ball.  I thinking having the right physical frame helps. 

This is so true. I have seen very few athletes REALLY putting the time and effort into this. Some are genetically gifted in this area, but it is possible to make huge changes for those really willing. 

 

Couple of other resources:

 

http://www.gymjones.com/

 

http://www.p3.md/

Agree with the group here.  No arguements!  Some are born with it but all can improve it but of course there is a speed limit which is different for different people.  While I admit I have nothing to support my opinion (which is why it is an opinion of course) I believe any good athletic baseball player can generate enough bat speed through working their core to at least play some level of college.  When it comes to mlb I am not so confident.  At some level you need a lot of god given ability.

Good topic jp.  I'll throw one in for "it can be developed".  College son also played basketball in HS.  He is a short player who, at home, is always doing standing and running jumps in a vaulted entryway to see "how high" in an effort to "touch the rim".  He's been doing this for years, never with particularly impressive results.  This fall, the baseball program went heavy on box jumps.  When he came home for the holidays, his standing jump really caught my attention.  It was, for the first time, noticeably explosive.

I know the word explosive is often used in athletics.  For some reason I've never liked the word and have always used other words to describe this action. Explosive is not precise enough to maintain control of any action.  I do understand why people use the word and what they mean.

Count me in for genetics playing a part.  Although my baseball days ended early, due to a ucl tear when I was 14 (late 1970's), I did continue with a couple of other sports.  I eventually settled with golf as the primary one of those sports, when I was in my 20's. My tee drives were typically 350-385', well into my 30's.  My son has inherited my power and hand speed, but his continued hard work has allowed him to pick up several MPH additional exit velocity over the last year.

You know, I've come across the same thing. When I was in high school and wanted to take one deep, there was this movement in my upper body that just clicked in. It was like turning on a light switch that provided a little extra oomph. I could actually feel it happen. But to this day I can't explain it or teach it.

Speed = top speed or distance covered over time

Power = weight x acceleration

Explosive = Rate of change of Power (in engineering terms it is called jerk) 

(maybe a better term is effective application of power) 

 

To PG's point it all equals to (in baseball)

40 time

60 time

(actually I prefer 15's for this)

Bat speed

Exit velocity

Steal times

Ball Velo

POP times

 

However there are a few very gifted athletes like Mike Trout who are truly Explosive IMO.

 

Now I will say that any athlete can make a significant improvement in this aspect of their capabilities, but few really put in the extra work to achieve it. My son has been working out with some guys from gymjones, and while they push their athletes physically, the real limitations are actually mental.   

 

I am likely out of my league here talking hitting....  Whether you call it explosiveness or sometimes I term it "violent intent", it is a combination of "intent", developed mechanics, but for the few where you can actually hear the ball different coming off the bat in batting practice, or standing next to a bullpen and hear the spin of plus fastball...I tend to think in those cases the difference is genetics.  When JP barrels one up, it just sounds different...that my friend is called a "freak of nature" or genetically gifted...just the right combination of developed strength, and right combination of fast twitch / slow twitch muscles firing with perfect timing.

 

Now find out where the genes came from! 

Violent intent. I like that, bfs. If I ever find out where you-know-who got his genetic code, I'll display a little violent intent myself.

 

Seriously though, it's interesting to learn that most people here attach training to what I'm calling explosiveness. I went to all the links folks shared, and I get it: With high-level training, athletes can dramatically improve in almost all areas.

 

Maybe it's just semantics, which kinda supports PGStaff's view (and I do see how the word explosive denotes lack of control, too) but my experience has been that the quality I'm talking about cannot be learned.

 

BOF mentions Mike Trout. That's what I'm picturing. Or a Ronnie Lott.

I found some explosive jeans.

 

To be understood. That's all I yearn for.

 

Thank you B.

Tim does not need to get more explosive.

 

 

 

 

If you can find a way to just get better, even if its just a little, every year, you just might have a chance

 

Explosive jeans? 

I read a good book called "The Sports Gene" recently. It dealt with the genetic traits that tend to make a person good in a particular sport. Website here: http://thesportsgene.com/

 

Here's part of a review of the book that appeared in the Wall Street Journal:

 

"Or consider the "tale of two high jumpers" that David Epstein presents in "The Sports Gene," his important book on the relative roles of genes and environment—nature and nurture—in the building of a professional athlete. Mr. Epstein spent time with a Swedish high jumper named Stefan Holm, who started jumping at age 6. By the time he won the Olympic gold medal in the 2004 Athens games, he had logged more than 20,000 hours of training. Mr. Holm told the author that, to understand how he became an Olympic champion, Mr. Epstein should read Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," particularly the chapters on the "10,000-hour rule" discovered by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson—that is, the idea that, to become an expert or professional at just about anything, it takes roughly 10,000 hours, or 10 years at 20 hours a week, of "deliberate practice." This is practice that is guided, coached or focused in a way that is beyond just mindless repetition.

But then how do you explain Mr. Epstein's second high jumper? In the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan, the training machine Stefan Holm was beaten by a Bahamas man named Donald Thomas, who had started high jumping only a few months before. Mr. Thomas had boasted to his jock buddies that he could slam-dunk a basketball. Someone challenged him to high-jump a 6-foot-6 bar, which he easily cleared, followed by one at 6-foot-8 and then 7 feet. A successful 7-foot-3 jump in competition landed him in the Commonwealth Games in Australia just two months after he had first heard about high jumping. There he finished fourth in a field of world-class jumpers. At the World Championships—after a total of eight months of high-jump coaching, which included ducking out to shoot baskets, because he found high jumping "kind of boring"—Mr. Thomas defeated not just Mr. Holm but a 6-foot-6 Russian named Yaroslav Rybakov, who had failed to win a single world championship after 18 years of competition.

Today, six years into his high-jumping career and thousands of hours of practice later, Mr. Thomas hasn't improved his performance by even one centimeter."

 

Nature vs. Nurture?  On the one hand, Thomas was an excellent high jumper -- he was explosive -- the first time he tried it. On the other hand, Holm quite literally made himself into a great high jumper.

I appreciate what you've put here.

 

I don't know that I agree with other posters that you can train to be "explosive".  I view "explosive" as a "quick twitch" type of athlete.  I know of many athletes who are "fast", some who have "power", but not necessarily explosive.  I also know of fewer athletes who are truly explosive, but won't time out any better in a straight line 60.

 

Perhaps this is where the extra work and training comes in.  I just don't know that you can train or work yourself into becoming a quick twitch athlete.  I'm no doctor, sport's medicine, or anatomy expert, but I'm thinking that is purely genetic.

 

2019 dad, thanks for the information very interesting and informative.

 

GoHeels, I agree that you can not make a "fast twitch athlete" whatever that is, but you can dramatically change the performance capability of an individual athlete through dedicated training, and very very few really have the work ethic to achieve their real capability. Just one example would be someone like Kobe Bryant, who is clearly a gifted athlete, but without his dedication to his craft would he have ended up one of the top 3 guards of all time in the NBA. I have seen it at my son's level in college baseball also. Borderline kids make a team, average kids become great, all through their work ethic. 

 

Good discussion. 

I'm of the opinion you can truly develop an athlete to be "fast twitch". First compare the definitions of slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, 

1. Fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly, sustaining only short, anaerobic bursts of activity before muscle contraction becomes painful. They contribute most to muscle strength and have greater potential for increase in mass. Sprinters require short but intense bursts of energy and therefore need more fast-twitch muscle fibers.
2. Slow-twitch fibers contract slowly and can be used for longer periods of time. Athletes who run long distances need more slow-twitch fibers in their legs.

Depending on what your specific sport requires, you will use training methods to develop the type of muscle response needed for you to compete at a high level of play. For example in my football training, we do a large amount of Plyometrics to develop our fast twitch muscle response which we need to improve our speed, cutting ability, quickness. I don't need to run long distances to improve my running endurance if I wont replicate that on a field that's limited to 100 yards (120 with the end-zones). But a Cross Country runner should to improve their slow twitch muscle response to allow for those muscle fibers to react and remain active for them to run a long distance. 

If there was no difference between "types" of athletes then every athlete should be doing the same workouts as each other. I don't think my brother who runs cross country is going to benefit at his meets from gaining sub 4.5 40 speed through my training methods that I use such as squatting, box jumps, positions sprints, etc. just as I wouldn't benefit from running 10 miles like him to help me run my routes. Also if there was no difference between athletes in the types of muscle fibers they have, then why don't cross country runners look the same as football players and contain the same amount of explosiveness, speed, strength etc. (Reference the definition of Fast Twitch fibers and the part about mass)? Not hating on Cross Country. I respect all sports for what they are  

I do agree that we mix all these terms up too much. I forget who said it but I think it can be summed up like so: "He's quick but he's going nowhere fast"