The goals of any youth baseball and softball organization is to have fun, win, and give kids the chance to reach their full potential.

More than ever before, Sluggers Sports Academy is reaching those goals and the partnership with PowerStrength Training Systems has helped to make it possible.

Read PART 1 of the Sluggers-PowerStrength story HERE. 

Five years ago, Sluggers started with just its select teams training at PowerStrength and have now expanded to have all ages benefit from strength and speed training with the expert coaches at PSTS.

“We see it in their hitting velocity, throwing velocity, and just overall athleticism,” Sluggers co-founder David Coble said. “The more athletic you are, the more marketable you are to the next level. We see it in all spaces, the other piece that we see is we just don’t see a lot of injuries. Our kids are physically fit and can handle the grind and conditions of baseball and softball.”

The workouts at PowerStrength are customized to the individuals. Sluggers athletes focus on baseball and softball specific movements in a high energy and fun atmosphere.

“I get a lot more power, effortless power,” Sluggers pitcher and first baseman Hayden Myers said. “Not necessarily tensing power, but natural power that my body is able to generate from it. I get explosiveness from it, I get a lot faster there with the sprint training.”

Their testing results from the winter training program are in, and the results are astounding! Below are the AVERAGE results from participants in the program.

Ages 11-14 testing averages:

30-yard sprint dropped by .13 seconds

Broad jump increased by 8.7 inches

Chin-ups increased by 4 reps

Ages 15 and up testing averages:

30-yard sprint dropped by .086 seconds

Broad jump increased by 5 inches

Chin-ups increased by 5 reps

Body weight up by 14 pounds

Individually:

Alec Campbell dropped .37 seconds off his 30-yard sprint, added 12 inches to his broad jump, and went from 1 to 5 chin-ups

Graham Caveitt dropped .32 seconds from his 30-yard sprint

Aiden Doyle dropped .17 seconds off his 30-yard sprint

Jack Parris added 16 inches to his broad jump

Cameron Quackenbush added 12.5 inches to his broad jump and 7 reps to his chin-ups

Jorge Munoz added 11 inches to his broad jump and 7 reps to his chin-ups

Lucas Stoczynski added 20 pounds

Jameson Beale more than doubled his chin-ups from 9 to 19

Deyvi Gomez dropped .19 seconds off his 30-yard sprint

Michael Dugan added 11 inches to his broad jump

Thomas Papalawsky dropped .2 seconds off his 30-yard sprint

Thomas Poll added 20 pounds and still dropped .2 seconds from his 30-yard sprint

Hunter Roundtree added 20 pounds and increased his broad jump by 13 inches

“My bat speed has been up tremendously,” Roundtree said. “Exit velocity has jumped pretty quickly and a good amount, I’m hitting the ball a lot harder, feel more athletic, stronger, moving more weight.”

Being stronger and faster has translated to the diamond for the Sluggers, but believing that they can win has been a game-changer for the organization.

“We’ve definitely seen more wins, and we are seeing more guys get looks from college coaches,” Sluggers co-owner and lead hitting instructor Rob Hamly said. “The intangible piece is guys are feeling more confident. They are getting bigger, stronger, faster, more flexible. They are seeing those gains and those gains then apply to the ball field. It is just like any sport, any athlete when you feel like a beast in the weight room, you are going to bring that mentality onto the field.”

“We’ve been way more successful,” Coble added. “When we see that athleticism it means stealing more bases, scoring more runs, we see them throwing harder – which means you have a bigger margin of error on the mound where you are not going to get hit hard, and we’re hitting the ball harder.”

There is no shortage of high-level baseball and softball organizations in the West Michigan area and that list now includes Sluggers Sports Academy.

“We continue to see more success. It’s been a huge project for us,” Coble said. “When we came on board 10 years ago nobody knew who we were and now we’ve grown to the point where we are respected and when people start to list off the top organizations in the area, we are in that top 3.”

After a great off-season of preparation both physically and mentally, Sluggers athletes are ready to shine in the spring and summer!

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WANT TO SEE BIG RESULTS?

PowerStrength offers specific partnerships and team training options in all sports to get faster, stronger, and more confident.

5th-12th grade athletes of all sports and ability levels can sign-up at PowerStrength at anytime throughout the year while spots remain.  Multiple sessions are offered after school and into the evening, specific times are varied by location.

PowerStrength has 4 locations in West Michigan – Alpine, Kentwood, Jenison, and Plainfield

Visit https://powerstrengthpro.com/athlete/contact/ to learn more or click below to Get Started.