Nat Ballenberg
3 min
Updated: Jan 3, 2021
The last 9 months have been...not the best, but being cooped up at home led to lots of incredible content creation. So here are 64 links to the best stuff I've seen since early April.
Ryan Holiday produces tons of work on Stoic thinking. Life Comes At You Fast is short and powerful. In another article, he explains how the feedback you seek changes as you improve.
Tacit knowledge transfer is a new concept to me, and maybe to you. This article explains both what tacit knowledge is and how to transfer it.
A well written, entertaining, and informative piece about human performance, specifically the author’s attempt to run a marathon PR in his 40’s
A few ideas to help raise faster kids
Baseball has always had the ability to make me feel some feels, and this NYT article delivered some good ones when I first read it back in May.
Daniel Bard is a feel-good story.
Taylor Trammell with a powerful piece
Ethan Moore writes things I like. This article is on pitch quality and times through the order. This one looks into swing timing. And here's an interesting dive into pitch prediction. (I swear I didn't even know he was interviewing with the Twins when I saved his articles for this post.)
Assessments are everywhere, but I’m still not sold on an ideal way to assess an athlete. This article from Driveline explains a cool and uncommon method of assessment.
Driveline does a cool biomechanical comparison of short vs. tall pitchers.
Harold Mozingo presents a unique perspective on A:C workload ratio.
This Fangraphs article discusses a pitcher’s ability to impact launch angle.
Paul Schwendel from Tread with a great article about strength training for baseball
You’ll probably only like this if you’re lefty...or if you love attractor states.
BDG with an interesting exploration of forearm fatigue and UCL integrity.
Eric Cressey on considering competing demands in your training
Ian Kadish on utilizing different med ball weights to create different adaptations
Connor Harris on using split squat variations to train force production or force absorption
Nick Winkelman on cues and constraints
Stuart McMillan on paradigm shifts
Dean Jackson on improving mechanical efficiency
Ben Brewster on maintaining a beginner’s mindset
Danny Diekroeger on life lessons from baseball
Annie Duke on analyzing your process when things go well
A Dr. I’ve never heard of on how the Covid-19 vaccine works
A Velo Farm trainee works his ass off and gains 10 MPH in 10 months
Pectoralis and Obliques are important to bat speed, but not to jump shooting. At least that’s what sports science said back when MJ was playing baseball 25 years ago. I’m always so amazed how old some of the new things we’re trying to figure out really are. They had bat speed metrics, EMG readings, and biomechanical data back in the mid-’90s!
Maddux pitching in A ball in 1985
A fairly overhead, slow-motion video of deGrom
I’m a big fan of Dean Jackson’s ideas on training. He’s thoughtful, clever, and creative. He made this.
Michael Jordan on leadership
The video kind of stinks, but this pitching machine might be a game-changer.
Ichiro meets Michael Jordan for the first time and is star struck while wearing a Tom and Jerry sweater, as one does.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
I don’t even know how to describe these...a bunch of fun explorations of scale?
Kershaw the GOAT
Rube Goldberg machines are fun.
We’re getting closer to projecting a baseball at the speed of light.
Science is wildly fun.
The OG Tesla predicted the smartphone in 1926.
Looking out the window is fun.
“Bird Law in this country is not governed by reason.”
A fun little weird at home physics demonstration
Hawkeye is the coolest.
Optical illusions are fun.
Wait But Why is always fun. Here he asks, “Why is There Something Instead of Nothing.”
Barton Smith for Commissioner
Driveline looks into Seam Shifted Wake
Barton Smith writes in detail on what he’s figured out so far about Seam Shifted Wake
Barton Smith’s recorded Zoom presentation on SSW
This podcast with author Michael Lewis makes me want to become his friend.
Ryan Faer wrote a free ebook about training at home.
If you’re looking for a Lindy (old) Book, this site has 60,000 of them.
We have more similarities than differences.
We have more similarities than differences.
I can hug you, even if I don’t agree with you. I can listen to you, even if I don’t want to hear you. I can love you, even if I don’t like every piece of you.