WHY I CAN TALK ABOUT ROTATION

The year is 2012, my senior year of high school, and the glory and fame of winning Shot Put’s state title are on the line. I’m getting ready to take my last throw, Denis Christenson is first, and I need an all-time PR to get this done. I’m on absolute fire right now, having Pr’d on the last five throws, and you can just guess what happened next... 

Yeah, I overthought the shit out of it and ended up fouling the throw; after measuring the throw, it would have been another PR and given me the State Championship. Instead of winning the State title, I ended up second, still a great accomplishment when I started my journey. At this point, you probably think what an asshole, bragging about this second-place finish a decade ago. 

Jack Scheideman 58'6" Shot Put Throw (Slow-Motion) - WA State Championships (drivelineathletics.com)

Winning the State state title in Washington 4A Track and field in 2012 isn’t something to look back at and devastated. However, I had learned something significant. Strength and Hypertrophy are a game-changer for athletes that require explosive movements. Especially for rotational athletes, where the more force they can apply, the better their results will be. However, this is not how most of these athletes/coaches treat these sports and continues to baffle me, but maybe I’m missing something. 

Before my Senior year, I was around 100th in the state. Throwing around 46 feet and considerably weaker. This improvement was brought on by Lifting for strength and hypertrophy and throwing a shot put nearly every day

What do I mean by Strength and hypertrophy?

Shot Put Training - Bench Press 335 lbs (Jack, drivelineathletics.com)

Here is some more bragging, here I am as a senior in Highschool, Squatting 500 (no video), Bench in the mid 300s, and Deadlifting 500+. I was weighing 250 pounds, under Kyle Boddy’s supervision at the OG Drivelinebaseball (look it up! Grateful to be his second client, fuck you, Eli Mathieu). 

What did Kyle have me do? Pretty much followed Starting strength to a tee for multiple years, with consistency, hard training, GOMAD, and good genetics, I went from 140 to 250 pounds and improved my powerlifting total by 500+ pounds. While you can argue if this is the perfect approach, it did put me in a caloric surplus, and by adding weight to the bar, I was able to overload every week. Supplying a higher and higher Progressive Tension Overload meaning, I grew muscle and generated more force. 

With this improvement, I was able to throw a shot put around 15 feet further, and get a scholarship to the University of Washington (my dream school) and continue my college athletics career. 

More importantly, what I didn’t do is focus on power, speed, flexibility, mobility, or being a technical master (I will get into this part later). 

After a decent college career, which is a generous claim, and with no idea what I wanted to do in life.

 I did what every 21 years old does in college: get hammered at a Mariners game, gotta drink to watch that team, and throw balls at the how hard you can throw. While this story might sound unbelievable as I had not thrown a baseball in 10 years, I decided to let some loose. I figured I could rip some throws at around 80 MPH. I ran/stumbled and threw the first ball at 92 MPH, the next at 95 MPH, and the last throw at 97 MPH. After searing pain in my arm, I decided to drink more and text my old coach; you guessed it, Kyle Boddy. 

He somehow believed me and invited me down to toss at Driveline baseball. I don’t remember exactly, but I ended up doing a running throw at around 94 MPH. 

After that, I decided to train for the next year and work as a strength coach at Driveline Baseball. Below is what a year of training did specifically for throwing baseballs: 94.8 on an indoor mound, which is much different than a running throw. 

Jack Scheideman vs. Tim Tebow - MLB "Workouts" 

With these results, I still didn’t understand why most rotational athletes didn't train for strength and hypertrophy. Not doing endless ab exercises or mobility exercises. There are pockets of strength/hypertrophy training, but it is few and far between. 

I won’t go into too much detail to bore you, but Track and Field training is specifically a lot of throwing, with Hypertrophy, strength, power, and special exercises. 

Were special exercises and Power work, are usually minute in the early part of your training career. The main focuses are lots of throwing, hypertrophy, and strength work early in your athletic career. 

This is where the term “rotation is rotation” comes into play, being able to throw a shot put far and baseball hard is no coincidence. 

My Journey 

I’m currently in my mid 20’s life crisis after leaving the sports world for SaaS sales...oops. Here is my journey back into the space that I love and never stopped learning/reading. 

I’m not selling anything or offering training, just trying to get clicks and reads. Hopefully, you enjoy it, and would love a message if you do!