One of my current clients is a dedicated baseball player. He just graduated from high school in June. I've been working with him consistently for a year now but have actually known him for much longer—he was in my class as a 5th grader when I used to be a classroom teacher. Let me tell you about him.

After a great high school spring season in which he led the state in both batting average and stolen bases, he earned a preferred walk-on spot at an ACC school that finished top-10 in the country last season.

This summer we're working on adding lean muscle mass as he is about 165 pounds (probably too light for high-major D1 baseball) and improving his strength numbers on all basic ATG exercises.

He is FAST. A couple of weeks ago he ran a laser-timed 4.44 40-yard dash and 6.35 60-yard dash. To be clear, he was already very fast before I ever started working with him, but he has improved both of these numbers by more than a tenth of a second in the past six months simply by getting stronger on ATG basics.

My client's most impressive weight room number right now is his full-range back squat with heels elevated. This week he squatted 245, "cheeks to sneaks" for 8 reps, and I think he had another rep or two in the tank if we had wanted to grind it out to failure. This is quite strong, especially for an 18-year-old who hasn't trained a whole lot yet.

His 1-rep max for back squat is about twice his body weight—WAY stronger than me!

Prior to starting ATG-style training last summer, my client did some weight training on his own and with his high school teams, but he never squatted to full depth or with his heels elevated. Instead, he followed conventional wisdom and went down only to parallel.

Now he LOVES how full-depth squats feel and told me that he doesn't want to go back.

This week I was bragging about my client's back squat to Ben (aka @kneesovertoesguy) and some of my other ATG coaching friends. I mentioned how hopeful I am that my client will be allowed to continue to full-range squat when he gets into his college weight training program this fall with his team.

Ben said that based on his experience as a college basketball player, he thinks this is pretty unlikely. When Ben was being recruited as a D1 basketball player, the strength coaches at every college he visited told him that he would not be allowed to squat with full range of motion, even though that's literally how he fixed his knees and got the scholarship in the first place!

And although Ben has now personally trained two of the very top-paid MLB players of all-time (among thousands of others) to great results, most mainstream exercise science academia deny the benefits of using full range of motion.

Of course I very much hope Ben is wrong and my client will be allowed to continue to use the smooth, comfortable, full range of motion that he has grown accustomed to when he goes to college in a few weeks.

But sadly, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he is not. Mostly thanks to kneesovertoesguy's (and the whole ATG crew) tireless work on social media, I do think these beliefs are slowly changing, but we still have a lot of work to do!

I like learning and growing, and I'm curious about things in general. Both drew me to teach, coach, and train with the hope that I can make a difference and help others. From the beginning of my own training and coaching experience, I was drawn to ATG because of its simplicity and openness to freedom of ideas instead of blindly relying upon conventional wisdom.
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School resumes in a few weeks, and my client will transition to college life and college athletics. I'm so grateful that I have had the opportunity to know, support, and work with him—as an athlete and years ago as a young English student! I look forward to following his progress in college. It has been a thrill to see him grow with ATG-style training; I can't wait to see what he accomplishes next.
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