The 4-Hour Body Part 46

I swam a mile alone in the ocean, pacing parallel to the beach, about 100 feet offsh.o.r.e. Alternating left and right breaths every third stroke, I entered a Zen-like state of almost supernatural confidence. It was odd.

I reached the lifeguard stand and pa.s.sed it, continuing on another 200 yards or so, when I decided to get out of the water. There was no fatigue and no concern; I'd just proven my point. To myself. Walking up the sand, I have never been prouder or felt more alive. I looked around like a 21-year-old Mike Tyson after winning the heavyweight championship of the world. I was, for that moment, king of my universe. One of my deepest-seated lifelong insecurities was gone and would never return.

The elation was indescribable.

I encourage all of you, whether you want to overcome your fears or win the Ironman, to give TI training a test drive. It's the first instruction that's made sense to me and is 100% responsible for the fastest transformative experience I've ever had in the world of sports.

Enjoy.

Think it can't be that easy? Here are just two before-and-after responses from testers who used the above guidelines. Get your goggles ready:

From Rocky:...I tried this in the gym and in 2 days have gone from 2 laps to 25 laps. I was telling friends yesterday, that in my entire adult life if I had to pick 3 things that have held me in awe this would be amongst those three.From Diego:Tim,...I had the biggest fear of water my entire life and finally stepped out of my comfort zone. Last month, just one (1) month ago, I was fighting water, trying to stay afloat. Definitely survival mode...I started learning [Total Immersion], read the TI book (it's literally in pieces now since I'd take it to the pool and leave it at the end of my lane soaking water each time I'd reference it) and watched several videos. I continually practiced...It's been only a month...Last week I did a 1.5 mile swim in the pool nonstop...Today I made it to a 2.5 mile swim and only stopped because the facility was closing. I'm graduating to open water now. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to perform in the Ironman, and my times, a month after learning, are below the cutoff times for the 2.4 mile swim.Thank you so much! I hope to meet you some day.Your friend in Florida,Diego TOOLS AND TRICKS.

Total Immersion, Freestyle Made Easy Freestyle Made Easy, DVD (www.fourhourbody.com/immersion) This DVD was the reason I was able to completely overcome my fear of swimming, and actually learn to love it. In the span of less than 10 days, I went from a 2-length (220 yards/18.39 meters) maximum to swimming more than 40 lengths per workout in sets of 2 and 4. This DVD was the reason I was able to completely overcome my fear of swimming, and actually learn to love it. In the span of less than 10 days, I went from a 2-length (220 yards/18.39 meters) maximum to swimming more than 40 lengths per workout in sets of 2 and 4.

Aqua Sphere Kaiman Goggles (www.fourhourbody.com/kaiman) These leak-proof goggles were the last pair standing after I tested everything under the sun. I have three pairs and swim with nothing else, whether indoor or in open water. My favorites have orange-tinted lenses. These leak-proof goggles were the last pair standing after I tested everything under the sun. I have three pairs and swim with nothing else, whether indoor or in open water. My favorites have orange-tinted lenses.

Total Immersion Swimming Freestyle Demo by Shinji Takeuchi (www.fourhourbody.com/shinji) If you want to see how effortlessly and tirelessly someone can swim, look no further than this video demo. If you want to see how effortlessly and tirelessly someone can swim, look no further than this video demo.

Swimmers Guide (www.swimmersguide.com) Find all the public swimming facilities in your area, or in 167 countries. Never leave home without your goggles. Find all the public swimming facilities in your area, or in 167 countries. Never leave home without your goggles.

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End of Chapter Notes 1. August 13, 2008. August 13, 2008.

2. Tip: once turning to bring your face out of the water, look for your hand. Stop your inhale when it pa.s.ses your goggles and rotate back into your stroke. Tip: once turning to bring your face out of the water, look for your hand. Stop your inhale when it pa.s.ses your goggles and rotate back into your stroke.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF BABE RUTH.

Only G.o.d can make a great hitter.-Whitey Lockman, 60-year veteran player, manager, and Major League Baseball front-office executiveDiscovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what n.o.body has thought.-Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, n.o.bel Prizewinning physiologist credited with discovering vitamin C "Please tell me you're kidding."

We'd gone to the wrong hotel. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but we were in the middle of a blizzard. Getting a taxi was next to impossible, as all of them were either full, or covered in powder and spinning in place.

"Can't we just grab a taxi from here to the hotel?" Jaime, my coach for the day, had asked earlier. Taxis from Pier 40 on the water in Manhattan? Not on a Sat.u.r.day night with a snowstorm crippling the city.

So we started walking. My date with Everlast would continue. Jogging through Times Square in slush with an 80-pound boxing heavybag across my shoulders it was.

But I didn't mind. For the first time in my life, I felt like Babe Ruth.

Obsessive Batting Disorder Jaime Cevallos isn't normal. Ever since he was a kid, when his cla.s.smates were off to prom or driving to house parties hooting and hollering, he was in his front yard, hitting baseb.a.l.l.s through a tire hung from a tree branch. He took notes, made changes, and took more notes.

Now Major League Baseball players pay him to look at those notes, because Jaime has figured out how to improve some important numbers. One of them is "slugging percentage."

Slugging percentage,3 the bread-and-b.u.t.ter of baseball hitter a.n.a.lysis, is the number of bases run, divided by the total number of appearances at the plate. The higher the percentage, the better. The Rain Man of slugging was Babe Ruth, and his 1921 record stood until Barry Bonds and his 20-inch arms came along in 2001. the bread-and-b.u.t.ter of baseball hitter a.n.a.lysis, is the number of bases run, divided by the total number of appearances at the plate. The higher the percentage, the better. The Rain Man of slugging was Babe Ruth, and his 1921 record stood until Barry Bonds and his 20-inch arms came along in 2001.

Tweaking this number is important.

In 303 plate appearances before working with Jaime, Ben Zobrist had three home runs and a .259 slugging percentage. In the 309 plate appearances after working with Jaime, Zobrist hit 17 home runs with a .520 slugging percentage. In 2009, Zobrist won the team MVP award for the Rays, finishing the season with a .297 batting average and 27 home runs.

Going from three home runs to 27 in approximately the same number of at-bats is astounding. In the majors, it's unheard of.

If only G.o.d can make a great hitter, does that make Jaime G.o.d?

Or was he just seeing something that other people weren't?

From G.o.d to Granularity Ted Williams once famously remarked, "Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports."...Jaime Cevallos has made it his life's mission to conquer the unconquerable.-Fort Worth Star-Telegram This leads us to the snowstorm.

I had invited Jaime to demonstrate his goods on a blank canvas: me. He had flown from Dallas, Texas, to land with a boatload of gear (including the heavybag) on the western edge of New York City.

Armed with a radar gun, video camera, laptop, and a slew of baseball bats coated in pine tar, he then set out to turn me into a home run hitter in one session. The setting would be the subarctic batting cages of Pier 40, and each ball would be hit off a tee that put ball height at 35.25 inches to eliminate the variability of pitches.

Perhaps it was the salsa music that pumped in from an adjacent room, where aspiring Dominican pros were playing cards, but after just 45 minutes of molding and training, here were the ball speed results, measured with the radar gun off the bat: Before instruction (mph): 68, 69, 48, 50, 60, 47, 49, 64, 42, 68, 71, 67, 42Before-training average: 57.307 mph After: 58, 61, 52, 63, 54, 65, 75, 76, 70, 78, 65, 61, 70After-training (first round) average: 65.23 mph After After (after the second round with Mr. Miyagi): 73, 70, 66, 66, 73, 69, 78, 70, 59, 74, 68, 76, 69After-training (second round) average: 70.076 mph I was still no Mark McGwire, but jumping from 57 miles per hour to 70 in off-bat ball speed translates into major distance gains. In terms of home run potential, what does this really mean?

Using a 45% angle incline on each hit, here's the difference: For 57.31 mph (84.05 ft./sec.), distance is 158 ft.For 70.08 mph (102.78 ft./sec.), distance is 214 ft. (a 35.4% increase)4 What follows are the fundamental principles and exercises we focused on in our 45 minutes.

Picking Your Angles THE BIG THREE.

The Cushion The Cushion occurs when the front heel has landed, prior to the forward swing. In the Cushion, it is best to have optimal torque created between the shoulders and hips. Jaime calls this Angle S Angle S. A good Angle S measurement is 25 degrees.

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Increasing Angle S is also one of the ways to "buy" time if the pitch is off-speed ("off-speed" means it's a curveball, changeup, knuckleball, or any pitch that is significantly slower than a fastball). Off-speed pitches are meant to lure the hitter into opening up the front shoulder and losing the torque between his hips and shoulders. The battle between pitcher and hitter is really a fight for the hitter's form. The pitcher's job is to (1) throw strikes and (2) lure the hitter into weak hitting positions.

The Slot [image]

The "Slot" position of Babe Ruth.

Two things define a proper Slot position: (1) the back elbow drops to the player's side, and (2) the spine angle stays vertical. The Slot is the kinetic link in action: the arms deferring to the more powerful legs and hips in order to work as a whip through the strike zone.

See the picture of Ben Zobrist on the first day he filmed with Jaime in the winter of 2007. Next to it is Ben during the All-Star break midseason in 2008. His much-improved Slot position is obvious. Zobrist went on a tear from that point in the season, averaging one home run every 18 at-bats (prior to that, it had been one home run for every 101 at-bats). He later made the 2009 All-Star team and was named Rays' team MVP.

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Ben before, Ben after Impact Position The Impact position is the thumbprint of the swing. In this case, it tells you the ability of a hitter rather than their ident.i.ty. There are two components to the Impact position: the E and W angles. E is the angle between the upper arm and forearm, which we want as small as possible (aim for 80 degrees), and W is the angle between the top wrist and the bat, which needs to be as large as possible (aim for 180 degrees). This one position paints the entire picture of a player's swing. The Impact position correlation to great hitting is extraordinary.

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Good impact (left) and bad impact (right). We want E small and W big.

But Impact position becomes more actionable when we convert it to a number, the 80/20 metric to focus on: CSR.

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Before and after, with CSR overlaid: 265 before vs. 345 after.

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Babe Ruth, the reigning king of CSR.

CSR (Cevallos Swing Rating) = 3 (180 E) + W. The CSR number contains unusual insight involving two simple-to-measure angles at the point of impact: the first at the elbow (E), and the second between the forearm and the bat itself (W). Here are just two benefits of a high CSR swing: 1. A high CSR swing is naturally a tighter swing. Since the swing is closer to the torso, thanks to the elbow-in Slot position, pitches that are too far outside of the strike zone are unreachable. The hitter with the tighter swing is forced into better pitch selection because he can't physically swing at pitches outside of the strike zone. Since the swing is closer to the torso, thanks to the elbow-in Slot position, pitches that are too far outside of the strike zone are unreachable. The hitter with the tighter swing is forced into better pitch selection because he can't physically swing at pitches outside of the strike zone.

It's a.n.a.logous to how novice boxers will sometimes practice proper chin position (down) by holding a wallet between their chin and chest. If the boxer keeps his chin down and makes this position instinctual, it will be hard to knock him out. If a batter doesn't let his elbow leave the Slot position through the strike zone, he can't reach for bad pitches, and it will be harder to strike him out.

2. In a high-CSR swing, contact with the ball is made further back, closer to the catcher. This naturally gives the batter more time to a.s.sess the pitch before initiating the swing. This naturally gives the batter more time to a.s.sess the pitch before initiating the swing.

Jaime elaborates: "A high CSR is not just indicative of power (ma.s.s acceleration). A high CSR is also a sign of consistency, as the back arm remains pa.s.sive, allowing the body to whip the bat into the hitting zone early and keep it there for a long time, creating a long AOI [Area of Impact, covered next]."

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Historical CSRs: Contrasted with CSR, SLG is essentially a measurement of a player's power and OPS is a measurement of both a player's power and and consistency. consistency.

AREA OF IMPACT (AOI).

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Big AOI-good.

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Small AOI-bad.

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It is possible to achieve a high CSR while doing something that reduces power, such as having your front arm away from your chest (a la Derek Jeter). Much more ma.s.s, and therefore force, can be transferred to the ball if the front arm is tight to the chest, because the ma.s.s of the torso is transferred through the arm directly into the bat. It should be one unit.

Advanced Concepts (Important for live pitches) See the ill.u.s.trations of good and bad Areas of Impact (AOI) Areas of Impact (AOI) on the previous pages. AOI is an indication of a hitter's level of consistency. It indicates how long the bat is square enough to the pitch to supply adequate force to the oncoming ball. You will notice that the Slot position and good CSR produce a long AOI. The longer the AOI, the higher the likelihood of hitting the ball, even if the hitter misjudges pitch speed. on the previous pages. AOI is an indication of a hitter's level of consistency. It indicates how long the bat is square enough to the pitch to supply adequate force to the oncoming ball. You will notice that the Slot position and good CSR produce a long AOI. The longer the AOI, the higher the likelihood of hitting the ball, even if the hitter misjudges pitch speed.

Angle L measures bat-lag: how late your bat comes through the strike zone. Lag is achieved with a slight wrist "twitch" of the top of the bat toward your spine while the bat is still well behind you. The smaller the angle L, the more bat speed will ultimately be generated. The key is to achieve a small angle L early in the Slot position. If you achieve bat-lag too late in the swing, as the bat is traveling through the hitting zone, it will shrink your AOI. measures bat-lag: how late your bat comes through the strike zone. Lag is achieved with a slight wrist "twitch" of the top of the bat toward your spine while the bat is still well behind you. The smaller the angle L, the more bat speed will ultimately be generated. The key is to achieve a small angle L early in the Slot position. If you achieve bat-lag too late in the swing, as the bat is traveling through the hitting zone, it will shrink your AOI.

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Angle L Practicing Your Angles The best drill for honing a new Impact position is. .h.i.tting the impact bag (usually a heavybag), pausing at impact, and checking your position. Do this for 10 minutes, then practice hitting b.a.l.l.s off of a tee, duplicating the same movement.

This was the single exercise I performed while with Jaime. It works like gangbusters.

Hacking CSR and related biomechanics is a force multiplier (figuratively and literally) that can be used to transform mediocre hitters into MVP hitters.

G.o.d might create great hitters, but science also gives you the tools to build them.

The Exercise That Increased My Distance 35% [image]

Note that the toes and knees aim forward when the front leg steps forward. For a right-handed batter, the toes are now pointed at approximately 10 A.M. if 12:00 noon is where they were pointing in the second picture. This opens up the hips and allows greater torque.

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On the left: To prevent backward lean and ensure that my spine was perpendicular to the ground, I focused on keeping my left shoulder away from my left ear.

On the right: For the final impact, the largest speed increases (and sound increases) were achieved when I focused on driving the right hip forward by forcefully extending the front left leg. If you drill this forceful extension, expect better speeds-and intense soreness the next day-to follow.

TOOLS AND TRICKS.

Impact Bag Drill in Motion (www.fourhourbody.com/impact) This is the actual training video of the Impact bag drill Jaime and I did together. The progress is clearly visible from start to finish, and Jaime's coaching is audible. This is the actual training video of the Impact bag drill Jaime and I did together. The progress is clearly visible from start to finish, and Jaime's coaching is audible.

Jaime Cevallos Business Case (www.fourhourbody.com/cevallos) How did Jaime go from making $7 an hour to coaching MLB MVPs? He used How did Jaime go from making $7 an hour to coaching MLB MVPs? He used The 4-Hour Workweek The 4-Hour Workweek as a step-by-step manual. This blog post explains how he got access to the majors and landed in major media, including as a step-by-step manual. This blog post explains how he got access to the majors and landed in major media, including ESPN: The Magazine ESPN: The Magazine, among others.

The MP30 Training Bat (http://www.theswingmechanic.com/) Increasingly common in the majors, the MP30 Training Bat trains. .h.i.tters to swing using the ideal Slot position to generate more power. Increasingly common in the majors, the MP30 Training Bat trains. .h.i.tters to swing using the ideal Slot position to generate more power.

Sports Radar Gun (www.fourhourbody.com/radar) This radar gun will measure everything, whether pitches, swings, or cars. This radar gun will measure everything, whether pitches, swings, or cars.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis by Michael Lewis (www.fourhourbody.com/moneyball) In In Moneyball Moneyball, master storyteller Michael Lewis describes how the Oakland Athletics achieved an astonishing winning record in 2002, despite the lowest player payroll of any major league baseball team. A's general manager Billy Beane believed that objective science could beat subjective scouts. He hired PhDs in statistics to help him acquire undervalued players based on neglected numbers, like ground-outs for pitchers. Even if you hate baseball, you will love this book.

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End of Chapter Notes 3. Slugging percentage (SLG) = (1B) + (2B 2) + (3B 3) + (HR 4)/AB. Walks are excluded from this calculation and were long undervalued in baseball, something Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics capitalized on to create an incomprehensibly successful team on almost no budget, as described in Slugging percentage (SLG) = (1B) + (2B 2) + (3B 3) + (HR 4)/AB. Walks are excluded from this calculation and were long undervalued in baseball, something Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics capitalized on to create an incomprehensibly successful team on almost no budget, as described in Moneyball. Moneyball.

4. I'm indebted to Professor Robert Adair, Sterling Professor Emeritus of physics at Yale University and author of the cla.s.sic I'm indebted to Professor Robert Adair, Sterling Professor Emeritus of physics at Yale University and author of the cla.s.sic The Physics of Baseball The Physics of Baseball, for this help with these numbers. His commentary: "The distances vary with the air temperature, wind velocity, and backspin of the ball. Also, we don't have perfect values for the air resistance, which varies a little with the ball axis of rotation.... I took the backspins as 1,030 rpm and 1,260 rpm. The b.a.l.l.s will go a little further at 40 degrees (57.31) and 35 degrees (70.08)." The projected distances varied for almost every PhD Jaime and I consulted, but the before-after differences were always large. Some physicists predicted slightly more significant increases approximating 50%, from roughly 180 feet to roughly 250 feet when accounting for air resistance.

HOW TO HOLD YOUR BREATH LONGER THAN HOUDINI.

I am pushing myself as far as I can humanly push myself...I can only hope for the best and expect the worst.-David BlaineWhenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.-L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz David Blaine first became interested in magic at age four, when his grandmother bought him a deck of Tarot cards.

One year later, at the ripe age of five, he announced to his mom that he wanted to be a showman. Why? There was an older man in the neighborhood who sat on his apartment stoop and never displayed any emotion. David had used one of his card tricks to make him laugh.

By the time Blaine was a teenager, magic and illusion consumed all of his free time. He would later describe it as "like an addiction, an obsessive compulsive disorder."5 His deft close-up card effects caught the eye of billionaire Jeffrey Steiner at a bar mitzvah gig, and Steiner decided to take the then-18-year-old David to Saint-Tropez to impress house guests. In short order, David was performing for Jack Nicholson, and the streets of Brooklyn had been replaced by playgrounds for the rich and famous.

It was just the beginning.

By 2002 he was on top of the world. Literally. Looking for challenges beyond illusion, David stood unharnessed at the top of an 83-foot-tall, 22-inch-wide column in New York's Bryant Park until he hallucinated. It took 35 hours for the buildings behind him to become animal heads. He then jumped off into nothing but cardboard boxes.

David's new label: endurance artist.