How muscles work. Muscle is made up of fibers (like thin threads). Groups (bundles) of fibers are connected by nerves in the spine to the brain. The combination of bundle, nerves and brain cell is called a motor unit. Muscles are made up of thousands of motor units. When a muscle contracts, only those motor units needed are used.

Two types of muscle fiber, fast and slow. There are two types of muscle fiber, fast and slow. Slow fibers take longer to develop strength (contract) than fast fibers. Each motor unit is made up of either slow or fast fibers. Both exist side by side in all of our muscles. The body always tries to use slow fibers. Slow fibers don’t use a much energy as the fast fibers. Your body is always trying to use the smallest amount of energy. It learned how to do this thousands of years ago to survive. But hitting and throwing require fast fibers. Power is strength and speed together.

Here’s what one professional player has to say about SMART POWER training ..In 1995 I hit 17 home runs. During the off season I lifted weights and swung a heavy bat (64 ounces) trying to get stronger for the 1996 season. In 1996 my home run production dropped to 3 home runs. I was stronger but I was also slower. I saw SETPRO’s ad and bought a SMART POWER SYSTEM. I am training using their 4 step program and equipment during the off season. I have improved my bat speed by 15 mph and now have the best bat speed and quickness ever.. S. L. Cleveland Indians.

SETPRO’s variable overload training system. The body will always fight to use its slow fibers. To get the fast fibers to turn on, you have to overload the body. Lifting weights, swinging and throwing hard all force the body to use its fast fibers. The more fast fibers you can get to contract and use their energy, the more effective your training. You must continuously vary your training loads. If you don’t, the body quickly adapts and your progress stops. Heavy loads or explosive workouts are effective because the body is forced to use many fast fibers contracting at the same time. SMART POWER uses VARIABLE OVERLOAD training to get maximum fast fiber activation. Exercises using light weights that are not explosive and sport specific are conditioning exercises. Conditioning exercises do not build power.

Strength is not POWER. Speed is not POWER. Strength with Speed together is power. Did you know a Little Leaguer hitting a home run develops more power than an NFL lineman? A Little Leaguer swinging a 26 ounce bat at 50 miles per hour develops approximately 5 horse power during the swing. An NFL line man bench pressing 500 pounds a distance of 2 feet develops approximately 2 horsepower. The rate of power generated by the Little Leaguer is 2.5 times that of the NFL line man!!! Hitting a home run requires power (fast strength). But muscles don’t want to cooperate. They want to save their power. The faster a muscle has to move, the less strength it develops. You can be very strong, but if that strength is slow strength your ability to develop power is very limited. SMART POWER training develops fast strength.

Hitting and throwing require Ballistic Training. Swinging and throwing require muscle acceleration through the entire motion. This is why coaches stress following through. Exercises that let the muscle accelerate all the way through range of motion are called "ballistic exercises". Ballistic training requires equipment and exercises specifically designed for hitting and throwing. SETPRO has a complete line of ballistic training equipment.

Specificity, the body only does only what it has to. Remember that the body always tries to protect itself. Whenever you move an arm or leg, only those muscle fibers needed are used. This means that every motion uses different muscle fibers. This is part of what’s called the "specificity principle".

Players do not swing enough! Most hitters are lucky to get 20 batting practice swings 3 times a week. Or they take a lot of swings but not the right kind of swings. The average professional takes 300 swings a day. If you do not take enough swings or the right kind of swings, you do not use all of your muscle fibers. Getting all of your muscle fibers to work exactly when you want them is called NEURAL RECRUITMENT.

NEURAL RECRUITMENT, gain large amounts of power in a short time. Most players have a large number of motor units that are never used. This is especially true in younger players. They are not able to consistently overload the fibers (motor units) used to swing or throw. SMART POWER TRAINING shows you how to overload these muscles on a consistent basis. You do this with swing or throw specific exercises. You use training equipment designed to maximize every swing or throw. This training makes all of your fast muscle fiber available instantly for maximum power. Researchers call this neural recruitment.

TRANSFER, the key to efficient sports training. Using exercises with little or no transfer is a common mistake players and coaches make. Transfer is the amount an exercise helps you to swing or harder. Exercises that have the same or similar motion have more transfer. You always need to ask "how does the exercise relate to hitting"? Maximum power requires exercises that duplicate as closely as possible the hitting motion and speed. Researchers call this "sport specific training". If you do not use the same or similar motion and speed, the muscle fibers needed for the event will not be fully trained. This is called sport specific training. You must do sport specific power training to have full neural recruitment.

Power is not just strong and fast muscles. Hitting power is a combination of vision, brain and muscles working together. To be most effective, your training must simulates the same stress as hitting a pitched ball. You must train the entire vision-brain-nerve-muscle system.

Power is more than just hitting home runs. Power is the ability to have maximum bat control. This means faster reaction time. Hitters can wait on the ball longer. You have greater command of the strike zone.

Once I have reached full neural recruitment, how do I get better? Swing training for 4-6 weeks will bring you to full neural recruitment. Full recruitment can add 15-20 MPH to your swing and 7-10 MPH to your fast ball (see SMART POWER FOR PITCHERS). If you want to keep improving, you must now increase the size and speed of your muscle fiber.

Resistance training, there’s only one way to get strong. All players require some form of resistance training to reach maximum power. Loss of flexibility is the biggest misconception regarding weight training. You can over do it and gain too much muscle size. But a properly designed strength program for baseball emphasizes low repetitions and high loads (greater than 70% of your one repetition maximum). Fast twitch fibers require heavy loads before they "kick in". Studies show that significant increases in bat speed (and throwing speed) happen after a heavy weight training program. Young players (7 and older) can safely use light weights to increase their strength. The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) did a detailed study on young athletes doing resistance training. They found that almost all injuries could be traced to poor supervision and poor training practices (too heavy of weights, wrong choice of exercises). Young athletes participating in well designed and supervised programs can greatly improve their athletic performance. This strength foundation gives them a significant advantage in later years. SMART POWER shows you the proper exercises and training schedule.

Range of motion is vital to maximum performance. Range of motion (ROM) means exercises that use the greatest number of DIFFERENT muscle groups. ROM exercises develop and maintain flexibility and endurance. ROM exercises develop muscle balance Muscle imbalance is a major cause of injury (rotator cuff, etc.). ROM exercises are performed with dumb bells, resistance tubing and body resistance exercises (push ups, sit-ups, dips, etc.). Not doing these exercises can muscle imbalance and restricted movement (muscle bound effect).

Most players do not do strength to power conversion. After developing strength, you must convert it to power. You use "sport specific" training including plyometrics, medicine ball, and resistance tubing exercises to turn strength into power. "Sport specific" means the exercises should have as close to the same motion and speed (use the same muscle groups) as swinging a bat.

Overload and Overspeed, we learned it from the Russians. Sport specific training was developed by the Russians and East Europeans for their Olympic athletes. They used overload (heavier than normal) and overspeed (lighter than normal) training methods to make tremendous advances in their athletes ability to throw, jump and sprint. SMART POWER uses an improved version of this system call VARIABLE OVERLOAD BALLISTIC TRAINING. This system uses overload (heavy bats, POWER FINS, PROCUTS, BALLISTIC BALLS) and overspeed (SPEED BAT, BALLISTIC BALLS) to produce unbelievable improvements.

FEEDBACK, your greatest teacher, coach and competitor. Feedback (knowing how well you are performing) is the most important part of any training system. You can swing a bat forever, but unless you have some way of measuring your performance, your chances of improving are small. Batters using feedback improve 3-5 times faster than batters without feedback. A 10 to 15 mile per hour improvement in the first week is common (10 MPH equals 55 feet of distance).

Developing hitting power requires physical and MENTAL effort. A number of studies show that the "intent" (wanting) to swing hard is very important to developing muscle speed. We have just completed a study where we took two groups of college baseball players. For 8 weeks, the two groups did identical swing training except group 1 did not have swing by swing feedback (did not see their bat speed after each swing). The group that did have swing feedback averaged 6 MPH faster training results. At college level this is a tremendous difference.

I tried everything to get my son to swing harder:..my son Eric, age 15 and I practice almost every day. He has grown 4" and put on 15 pounds this past year. But his power did not improve. I tried everything I could think of to get him to swing harder. I saw your ad and talked with you about Eric. You said that one he could see what he was doing on each swing he would try to beat him self. It worked! One week after starting your system, his bat speed improved 10 MPH. The SPRT5A REACTION TRAINER is great. He is not only swinging faster but is quicker to the ball (waiting on the ball). Thank you for all of your help...Ray Mazone from Fort Myers, FL.

Seeing your results is fun and makes you work harder. Lets face it, training of any type can be boring. If its boring we don’t want to do it. Having the results of every swing turns boring into fun. Now there’s a challenge to really get better.

You turned boring into power ...my son (Rick) is fourteen. He’s a good player and loves baseball. He and I both know he should be taking more training swings (tee work, dry swings). If I’m there to push he does them. If I don’t push, he slacks off. I saw your ad and called. Your system sounded good but I wasn’t sure if Rick would follow through with the training. My son was training 30 minutes after opening the box. That was two weeks ago. He loves it. He has not missed a day since. He averages 300 swings every other day. On his reaction training days he takes 100 swings. His bat speed has gone from 55 to 71 miles per hour. Now I know why you call it SMART POWER TRAINING.....Bill Pierce, Oakland, CA.

Another important result of feedback is that players automatically improve their mechanics. You cannot have maximum swing speed unless you have good mechanics. As the player tries to beat each previous swing, the player adjusts mechanics to give maximum speed. Maximum speed is the best mechanics.

His mechanics improved automatically....my son Ryan, age 14, has been to hitting camps since age 11. They have helped but not as much as I had hoped. I called and you told me that seeing the result of each swing would cause him to push himself harder and smarter. He has been using your system for 2 weeks. He has already improved his bat speed by 10 mph. What I find even more important is that his mechanics have improved with no coaching from me or anyone else. I was skeptical when you told me this would happen. You were right when you said "good bat speed is good mechanics". Now I’m a believer. You really have a great system...Bill Edwards from St. Louis.

My softball swing is 100% more consistent....I am 37 years old. I have used your SP-1A and BSTK-3 training system for 2 weeks. I take 250 swings 3 times a week and play 4-5 games a week. My bat speed has gone from 83 to 90 MPH. But I am happiest that my swing is much more consistent. My home run production has doubled. The SP-1A is like having a personal trainer. It tells me when my swing is out of the zone. Thanks for all your help....J. Pfizer, Chicago.

REACTION/STRESS TRAINING is important for ALL hitters. Hitting a baseball is the most difficult event in all of sports. It requires the working together of eyes, brain, nerves, muscles in rapid and powerful combination. An error of .010 seconds (ten thousandths of a second!) Is the difference between success and failure. Hitting a baseball (and slow pitch softball) is also a reaction event. Once the decision is made to swing, everything becomes a reaction event. You do not consciously think about hands, hips, arms, rotation, extension, etc.. This has all been programmed in advance (muscle memory system). The only one way to develop this programming is hours, (months, years) of swinging a bat.

Two kinds of bat speed; practice and game. Most players we talk to think they need more bat speed. They think more bat speed will mean more long drives.The first question we ask is "what’s the farthest you’ve ever hit the ball?" Most tell us they have hit long balls (for their age). If you can hit one long ball, you can hit them all long without increasing your raw bat speed. There’s two kinds of bat speed, practice speed and game speed. Practice speed is your "raw" or maximum bat speed. Its the bat speed you have when you hit off of a tee or take dry cuts.Game bat speed is bat speed under the stress of hitting a pitched ball. The difference between practice and game speed can be as high as 10-15 MPH. That’s 50-70 feet. Hitting off a tee and soft toss does not adequately exercise and develop the eye-brain-muscle connection. Hitting off a pitching machine does not simulate the wind up-pitch timing for a maximum swing. Professional players very rarely use pitching machines because it changes their swing timing.

Hitting a pitched baseball requires tremendous concentration. This concentration puts the vision-brain-muscle system under stress. The most effective training will happen if you can achieve that same type of stress/concentration. SETPRO’s REACTION TRAINING SYSTEM puts you under the same stress conditions as a pitched baseball.

PERIODIZATION; what exercises, how many and when. PERIODIZATION is the least understood and most neglected part of training. PERIODIZATION refers to how much training and when. Too much training and you are over trained and fail to improve. Too little and you will not reach your maximum capabilities. With the smart power program you design the exact program for your physical capabilities. This results in maximum improvement in the shortest time.

Training programs can be as short as 4 weeks and as long as one year. For players who have not performed overload and overspeed training, large gains can happen quickly.