What’s the quickest route to the Majors?

What’s the quickest route to the Majors?

If you’re Dana Cavalea, it’s through hard work and performance training.

Cavalea, the Director of Strength and Conditioning for the New York Yankees, has always been a baseball guy. He played the game in high school as well as at the University of South Florida, where he also studied the body, and more specifically, how to make athletes stronger and how to prevent injuries. Cavalea, now 25, made the decision to focus on his studies instead of concentrating on baseball, and ironically, he was in the major leagues in three short years, working first for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Pittsburgh Pirates before coming to the Yankees, the team he rooted for as a kid growing up on Long Island. He is also the founder of Major League Strength, where he spreads the gospel of performance training to athletes young and old.

We sat down with Dana so we could find out a little bit about what it likes to work with Major League athletes everyday, and also to get his expertise on what many young baseball and softball players need to be aware of when they are in the weight room.

TAKKLE: We’ll start with pitching. What kind of advice would you give to a young pitcher who is trying to increase their effectiveness?

DANA: I always tell pitcher that from a performance side of things, you can throw 100 miles per hour, but if you’re hurt or if you are feeling any discomfort in your arm, you are basically useless to your team. When you’re doing strengthening exercises as a pitcher, you are basically working on one of three things. You are either strengthening your rotator cuff, increasing the agility around the shoulder joint, or strengthening your scapula, or the muscles around the shoulder blades. And the thing people has to realize is that it takes time for your muscles to develop and get stronger. There is a reason why there is a four-year gap between Olympic Games. People need time to recover and strengthen themselves. These things take time. It’s not about rapid results.

TAKKLE: Say you are a 15-16 year-old baseball player who is just now trying to get into strength training. What is the biggest mistake most kids make when just starting out?

DANA: The biggest mistake they make by far is basically just jumping right in uneducated. You can really get hurt. You can’t accelerate your body’s rate of development. I see a lot of young kids who can’t do push ups or don’t know how to use their body strength, and the first thing they wanna do is just jump right under the bench press. I wanna really stress that kids find a coach or a certified professional that has their best interest at heart and someone that you feel comfortable with that can guide you along the way and really help out not only with the physical side of being an athlete, but also the mental side. Just learn the ropers before you jump in.

TAKKLE: So you are saying, that as far as strength training goes, especially for pitchers, that it is more of a marathon, and not a sprint?

DANA: Exactly. When I talk to lot of kids, the first thing I ask them is how long do you wanna play this game. And they say to me, “at least another 10 years or so.” And I always reply back, so why are you trying to do everything at once? Just take your time.

TAKKLE: What’s it like working with Major League, All-Star athletes every day?

- To be continued. Check back tomorrow for the rest of the our interview with Dana!

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Should I swing a heavy bat for bat speed?

So how many of you use a donut for bat speed? Or perhaps you are swinging a heavier bat? The theory here is good, thinking that by swinging a heavier bat you will train your muscles with greater resistance, and the end result will be greater bat speed. The idea is good, but the end result is usually altered swing mechanics, along with a lot of strike outs. The reality is if you want to increase bat speed to swing fast, then swing fast. But drive this movement from your hips, not from ripping your torso or trying to swing the bat as fast as possible. We teach all our ballplayers to use their glutes to fire the hips, which will fire the torso and will generate hand speed, which leads to bat speed. The formula is simple, pop the hips, then you will pop the ball.

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Improve Your Chops for Bat Speed

As we patrol weight rooms nationwide, ballplayers love to use med balls, and they love to mimic their swing with them, always chopping and rotating. This is great, but in-season it often leads to overuse injuries due to all the swinging that is taking place in conjunction with med ball training. The cure for creating balance in the body, especially around the core, is the Med Ball Lift. The med ball lift is the opposite action of a chop, and helps to balance out the left and right side, while at the same time giving the obliques and muscles between the ribs a great stretch. In addition, those magical hip flexors also get a benefit -- they get loose!

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Bridges - Key to a strong core

Hey Guys. The new cool word on the training block is CORE. What is core? Your core is the bridge between your upper and lower body. Now we must bridge the gap between our training! The core is composed of your abdominal muscles, lower back, shoulder blades, and glutes. Most people think doing crunches gets the core, but this could not be further from the truth. Crunches lead to strong flexion strength, but not the stability we are looking for. When we train the core, we want to make the middle of our body as strong as possible and stable, as we move our arms and legs. So, when we swing, we want our core to engage, to protect our lower back, and help us drive the ball! The best exercise we have found for beginners so far is the Core Bridge. This exercise is simple, can be done anywhere, and really does the job! Give it a try and let us know how you feel!

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Baseball and Hamstrings

So we are going to continue the theme of freeing up your body so you can move. The next phase we are going to look at is to keep the hamstrings loose! The number 1 lower body injury over the years for baseball players has been the hamstrings. If you keep your hip flexors loose, your hamstrings will automatically become looser. With this being said, we loosen our hips first, then the hammys. Often times ballplayers are doing hamstring curls, both seated and laying down, but this just makes the hammy’s tight. If you feel you have to do these, then you must follow each set up with Inverted Hamstrings. Keep your hamstrings loose, as well as your hips, and combine this with good glute activation and core work, and you will be on your way to good health! We will go over the core next!

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Hip Flexors and Rotation: Unleash Your Power

In our last post we discussed tight hip flexors, and a simple stretch to release them! In this post I am going to tell you why this is important. If you think about the hip flexor, which is just above your quad, it is a muscle that connects the upper and lower body, much like what the core does. But this specific muscle, when it gets tight, can really cause problems when a ballplayer goes to hit and throw. The reason is a tight hip flexor will restrict rotation, thus you are a battling yourself in an attempt to get your trunk to rotate. If this is the case, and trunk rotation is slowed down, then this rotation is forced. Forced rotation is not only slower, but it also leads to injuries. If trunk rotation is resisted, and therefore slow, it will place extra stress on the hip flexors/ abdominals and, when throwing, the shoulder! In this video you will see this motion is explosive. If something is holding this motion back, like tight muscles, we are swinging and swinging, but our bat speed isn’t getting any better. The same is true for pitching and throwing in general. It is important to UN-RESTRICT YOUR RESTRICTIONS!

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Day 1 of Training - Hip Flexor Stretch

Hey Guys, back again. Since I have given you a background on the Major League Strength philosophy from the mental perspective and character standpoint, it is now time to start entering the world of training.

I would really like to encourage all of you to ask questions about your particular needs, and also to create debates/discussions on things you have heard that you might question. There are so many myths out there these days on the internet, and from some of the people we come across, so I ask you to tell us your concerns here on Takkle, and we will do our best to answer all your questions and help make you a better baseball player!


In regards to training, the starting point is always assessing the athlete. Each athlete is different, so we must treat each as an individual. In our many assessments of athletes and their movement, we find some common points between baseball /softball players in regards to restrictions. The #1 common theme is that they possess tight hip flexors, which lead to tight hamstrings. This, in conjunction with a weak core, is the starting points of our program, but also the starting point to many injuries ballplayer face. Here you will find a simple hip flexor exercise that you should do each day to loosen up. This will be the starting point for our Takkle community. It’s simple but it works! In our next posting we will breakdown why this was important, and how it relates to our sport, and then give you some other stretches. The key is flexibility first, strength second. This is a sure fire recipe for success.


Ok ... talk to you guys soon!

-Coach Cavalea

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Live the lifestyle

Hey Guys. Just checking in with this week’s blog to address something that is very important to me, as well as the success of all the athletes we work with. That something is a slogan that we reiterate time and time again to our athletes: “ Live the Lifestyle.”

What “Live the Lifestlye” means is if you want to be an athlete, act like it -- in all aspects of the word. What you do off the field is just as important as what you do on the field. Treat your body as if it is a high performance machine, feeding it with only the best food and always giving the machine enough rest. Living the Lifestyle is the first step to obtaining on-field success because it will ensure that your body is prepared for the battles ahead. Those that choose to party and drink have also indirectly chosen to fail on the field as well as choosing to let their teammates down because they are going to be playing short staffed since you have failed to give your best effort.

I understand for some this might sound a little too serious, but the fact is, if you want a college scholarship -- or to go pro with your career -- this is the kind of sacrifice that is needed. Playing at the next level is hard enough, but if you choose to live a lifestyle short of rest, with poor food quality, and continuing to choose hanging out over getting your work in both academically and from a sports training standpoint, you are never going to make it. Many great players never make it because they can’t stay on track and keep their Lifestyle in check.

This is not easy, but it pays huge dividends down the road. I am fortunate enough to work with future Hall of Famers everyday, as well as some great young players through Major League Strength, and the ones that display great character are the ones winning achievement awards such as MVP’s, Collegiate All-Americans, as well as going on to receive great jobs at an early age. What “Living the Lifestyle” does is provide you a foundation for success and this will not go unnoticed. With that being said, analyze your life, and make sure you have yourself in check, and are working towards the goal of “Living the Lifestyle.”
See ya soon!

Coach Cavalea

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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Takkle brings on board the CEO of Major League Strength: Dana Cavalea

My name is Dana Cavalea. I am the Director of Strength and Conditioning of the New York Yankees, as well as the CEO of Major League Strength, a training company designed to enhance the athletic ability and lifestyle of youth baseball and softball players. I am extremely excited to bring you the most cutting-edge information in the field of Performance Training for Baseball and Softball!

Working with some of the best athletes in the game has given me a unique coaching perspective which I wish to deliver to the TAKKLE Community in a fun, easy to understand, yet results driven fashion.

Over the next few months you will learn some great tips on how to enhance your performance using some of the same techniques the pros use. You will also have the opportunity to ask me any performance related questions you might have. This is your chance to better yourself through training, so feel free to ask any questions you might have on nutrition, mental conditioning, and enhancing body composition improvement.

I look forward to hearing from all of you and am extremely excited to be a part of the Takkle community! Throughout the course of the year I will also introduce you to some of Major League Strength’s other coaches so you can get different opinions, and learn different styles of coaching used to enhance performance.

Well that’s it for today. We will be back Friday with some basic background on what we do so you can understand where we get our ideas on training from, and why we do what we do! See ya soon!

- Coach Cavalea

Dana Cavalea is the CEO of Major League Strength (www.mlstrength.com), a sports performance company whose mission is to educate ballplayers, coaches, and parents on all aspects of sports performance training.

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