With Marcus Elliott, the Seattle Mariners are Ahead of the Game

By Mike Takeuchi
Reprinted Article

Despite currently residing at the bottom of the American League West standings, the Seattle Mariners may just be ahead of the game.

Just like sabermetrics has revolutionized the sport in terms of analyzing baseball statistics and turning them into plausible outcomes, modern physiological science is replacing long-held and often incorrect tenets in how ballplayers are trained. And Mariners General Manager Jack Zduriencik is counting on local resident Dr. Marcus Elliott to be at the forefront of this movement in the sport.

After years of research and practical training while working with elite athletes individually as well as the NFL's New England Patriots and the NBA's Utah Jazz, the Harvard trained-Elliott is now the Director of Sport Science and Performance for MLB's Seattle franchise. Hired at the start of spring training this year, the owner of Santa Barbara's Peak Performance Project or P3 is currently working with the organization's entire minor league roster while making plans to work with the Big League club next year.

"We are just trying to do things that work for us, things that are necessary as you look at ways to improve players' performance by embracing sabermetrics and helping them achieve their maximum physical potential," Zduriencik said. "And Marcus' cutting-edge approach is what we were looking for."

In addition to his long resume', that included doing research with South African running guru Tim Noakes (his "The Lore of Running" is the definitive book on the sport), the 44-year-old has worked extensively with baseball players for several years-including local Major Leaguers Ryan Spillborghs and Virgil Vasquez, as well as the White Sox Carlos Quentin, Twins outfielder Delmon Young, and Detroit Tigers and American League Rookie of the Year candidate Brennan Boesch.

While working in other sports, the amiable sports scientist has long held a fascination with baseball players. While watching their moments, he believed that the first key was recognizing the need for different training programs for athletes of different sports, knowing the tools the athlete possesses, and then bringing to them a sophisticated, higher level of training.

"Some trainers insist there are no differences in training athletes in different sports," Elliott said on Wednesday. "That couldn't be farther from the truth. In basketball, players like (Jazz guard) Deron Williams work on their athleticism. In baseball, the main thing is hip rotation-something that trainers who have been around for 20 years still haven't grasped."

The Santa Barbaran cringes when discussing other training techniques such as "three sets of ten reps" weight training and flush runs", three to five-mile training runs pitchers are bound to do the day after they throw to "flush out" lactic acid supposedly incurred while on the mound [In several online publications, such as the Harvard Medical Review and Scientific American, lactic acid buildup is caused by anaerobic glycolisis, or the breaking down of energy that is caused by anaerobic activity (such as sprinting) for a period of around one to three minutes without rest or recovery. It takes a pitcher about three seconds to throw a pitch that is followed by a 30 second recovery].

"A pitcher would have to sprint down from the top of the stadium to the mound, throw the pitch, and do it again without complete recovery to build lactic acid," Elliott said. "When I was up in Seattle, I asked (former Seattle and current Rangers pitcher) Cliff Lee if he still ran after starts, and he admitted that he hadn't in years."

Elliott added that players in the same sports who even play the same position can have completely different needs and points to left fielders Young and Boesch as the perfect examples. While Boesch is in his first year in the Majors, the fifth-year veteran Young is coming off a sub-par year by his standards.

"I saw a strong kid, who hadn't been exposed to the intricacies of how his body worked," Elliot said on April 5. "In addition to flexibility and core strengthening, we worked on his right ankle mobility. Being a right-handed batter, Delmon generates all his power from that leg. Also, it would definitely help in his speed on the bases and in the outfield."

"Coming in, my body was naturally tight," Young said on. "Once I started getting into the routine, it began to open up and I was able to increase my strength and improve my speed while having better form. I haven't felt this good since 2005."

It seems to be working-the 24-year-old is currently batting .308, 24 points higher than in 2009, has already exceeded his RBI totals, and is one home run shy of the previous year.

Elliot said that Boesch's situation was much different in that he only needed a refinement in his training.

"Brennan had all the intangibles that make up a decent ball player, good eye-hand coordination, heart, and the ability to deal with failure over and over-plus he was just a beast," Elliott said. "But the one thing he was lacking was the rotational power from his hips that prevented him from hitting home runs."

Boesch, who began coming to Santa Barbara three winters ago and now makes his off-season home here, began to notice the difference in 2008 while in the minor leagues.

"After my first off-season with Marcus, I felt like I had some more power, but I also noticed that I was able to increase my speed and become more flexible," Boesch said on May 23. "I was pretty greedy in wanting myself to become a better baseball player, and he's helped me satisfy my thirst."

The numbers don't lie, his personal hitting coach Craig Wallenbrock said. While pointing out his Boesch's first season in the Majors (.329 average with 12 home runs, and 50 RBI), the longtime coach, who tutors or has worked with Ryan Braun, Chase Utley, and Travis Ishikawa as well, said that Elliott was the type of specialist he had been looking for in a long while.

"I was skeptical of most of the trainers I've met, because they were into the cookie cutting mode of building strength," Wallenbrock said. "And it wasn't functional for a baseball player. Marcus was the first guy I came across that really understood the movements of the sport. And after working together for a few years, he is someone I could trust anyone with and because of his positive attitude, someone I enjoy working with."

While flattered by the praise, Elliott took great pains in saying that contemporaries Glenn Fleisig and Alan Jaeger as well as a few others were doing equally important work in the evolving science. However, the Harvard Medical School graduate was the first to be hired by the team. After several talks with general managers as well as the Angels Mike Scioscia, someone Elliott greatly admires, after meetings with Zduriencik and Carmen Fusco, the Mariners were the first team to commit to him.

"The Mariners were committed from top to bottom to commit to a program by hiring two full time staffers and agreeing to add one more a year until all levels are staffed," Elliot said. "They recognized that you can't pay a young kid fresh out of college with limited experience $10,000 a year to handle multi-million dollar ballplayers."

Although he has yet to work with the Big League team, Elliott already recognized he is taking on a larger challenge than he was used to. On his first day on the job in February, he met the entire minor league program, a group that more than covered the infield of the team's main spring training practice field in Peoria, Arizona. Since then, he has traveled several times to Seattle to meet with team officials and players on their Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma.

He is high on several players including pitcher Michael Pineda, a right-hander whose velocity jumped from the low 90's to 97 on the gun and infielder Dustin Ackley. While Pineda was in single A, Ackley was drafter out of the University of North Carolina last year. After performing "off the charts" in their first exposure to the program in spring training, both are currently in Triple A-one step from the Major Leagues.

"We are still early in the process, the timing was not ideal, right before spring training," Elliott said. "It will be better in the off season so the players will have time to get a full winter of training and instruction and gives us the opportunity to for us to monitor everyone's progress. It's heartening to hear these kids getting excited about this even though their current season isn't over yet."

At a bumping P3 on Saturday, while his wife Nadine played coach to their very energetic son Keean (31/2), and fed strawberries to the fruit-stained mouth of daughter Kira (10 months), Elliott went over progress graphs on the big screen with Mariners scout Dennis Gonsalves. Gonsalves thought so much of the program, he and his wife Rose drove up from Torrance to have their son Gabriel assessed. With youth, high school, college, and professional athletes working out around them, the message was clear. They knew what Seattle may soon know-that the future is now.

What's next U.S. Soccer and South Africa?

Mike Takeuchi
Reprinted Article.

Now what?

While Spain's victory over the Netherlands in the final brought a mostly satisfying conclusion to the World Cup, questions within these borders and beyond won't be answered until 2014 and possibly even further in the future.

The bleating of vuvuzelas, questionable officiating, and some dastardly deeds (Luis Suarez comes to mind) aside, this was an exciting Cup to watch. It was punctuated by a final that was not exactly one for the ages, but was exciting enough and at the very least provided a winner that was decided before the dreaded penalty kicks.

The Final between Spain and the Netherlands reminded this writer of the battles between the Lakers and the Pistons in the late1980's, not an epic one of historic proportions like Lakers/Celtics, but serviceable and exciting enough to provide good drama. While La Furia Roja provided the flowing passing and stars like Iniesta and David Villa akin to the Magic/Kareem Lakers, Le Oranje had the wonderful talents of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben that paralleled the Isaiah Thomas/Bill Laimbeer teams that were often overshadowed by claims of the team's rough play and thespian acumen that pulled the Lakers then, and to a degree Spain on Sunday, down with them.

And while it gave this writer the excitement of watching his favorite player, Andres Iniesta, score the winning goal in the Final after 32 years of enviously watching others enjoy the same thing, the final goal had me wondering if that hero would ever be wearing the red, white and blue.

While Landon Donovan and company provided American fans with thrills, their round of 16 exit was probably a couple of games too early to make any lasting impact to carry over to Brazil in 2014, and here in 2018, or more likely 2022.

A USA Today poll shortly after the US was eliminated said that 44 per cent of American fans would stop watching the World Cup-turning their attention to the LeBron reality show, the Major League All Star Game, and even Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France until he fell out of contention on Sunday. This has followed a well-worn pattern of no Americans, no interest. It will be interesting to see in the near future how the governing body will move ahead despite not getting the momentum they were hoping for.

But the above concerns are nitpicky compared to wonder about the future of the host country, South Africa. With the 25 per cent unemployment rate only slightly and temporarily abated by the jobs created by the arrival of the Cup. The $5 billion spent to construct and operate may put the country deep in the red like post 2004 Athens. While Greece's economic downturn wasn't directly attributed to the Olympics, it did have a significant impact while also leaving many former sporting arenas abandoned and neglected, which was later repeated in Beijing following the 2008 Games.

During the matches, there were a lot of things viewers weren't exposed to, including the story about a stadium in the city of Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) that hosted five matches. Here, they relocated several thousands of residents out of what was considered a shanty or slum to an area a few kilometers away outside of ABC or ESPN camera eyes. Of course, stories like these have been relegated to asides on television or to the inner pages of other publications.

But that aside, there were no major problems of crime or other major issues reported and the host country showed its graciousness and exposed South Africa's true beauty to the rest of the world. One day after celebrating a unifying event, residents were hopeful that they could sustain the good will and raise the status of their country and people that merely 16 years ago, was under apartheid rule. Here's hoping they will.

All Whites All Right

By Mike Takeuchi

Reprinted Article.

For Tony Lochhead, home may be where the heart is, but South Africa is where his passion still lies.

Following the most successful World Cup run in New Zealand National Team history, the former UCSB soccer player returned to his home in Wellington, New Zealand, on Monday filled with mixed emotions. After making the World Cup group for the first time since their inaugural trip in 1982, the All Whites exceeded their country's expectations and world media predictions by earning three points in Group F and staying unbeaten. Despite this, the team's third-place finish in the group eliminated them from reaching the knockout round.

"Its a great feeling of pride to go there and be undefeated," the 28-year-old said. "We read a lot of stuff written about our team some saying that we shouldn't even be there. So we were quietly looking to prove all those people wrong"

And they did.

On June 15, the team opened the tournament with a 1-1 draw against Slovakia. On June 20, a Shane Smeltz goal early in the match helped the world's 78th-ranked team finish even with No. 5 and defending Cup champion Italy, to put them in position to get into the 16-team knockout round with a win against Paraguay on June 24.

But Paraguay, which merely needed a tie to advance to the next round, played possession soccer and didn't give New Zealand's offense a chance to score in a 0-0 tie.

"It was a funny game," Lochhead said. "We went into it with the same mind set as the previous two. But I guess with Paraguay really only needing a draw, they weren't really coming as forward as much which made it harder for us to create anything. I felt in the second half we had a few more opportunities but not as many as the previous games."

As the team walked off the pitch, Lochhead felt sadness first, but also satisfaction.

"It was a disappointing feeling," he said. "You get a taste of being close to that next round and you really wanted to be there. But on the other hand, if someone had said that you would be undefeated in the tournament before we started, we would have been happy with that as well."

New Zealand was the fifth team in World Cup history to make it through the group stage without dropping a match, a fact that gives New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert - who has led the team since 2005 and was a member of the only other New Zealand team to qualify for the quadrennial tournament - great satisfaction.

"It's quite emotional for us," Herbert told the Associated Press. "It was our second time at the World Cup and to completely reverse what we've done before is quite amazing. The future looks bright for the team."

Lochhead said he will look back at this World Cup with great joy.

"It was an amazing time away," he said. "It was just overall an awesome experience that I will probably look back on many years from now and still be proud of what our team has done."

During the Cup, all of New Zealand was reveling in the team's success according to UCSB student Nishika Kumble. Kumble, who went to high school in Auckland where her parents Sarita and Anand, and her sister Leyla still reside, was in New Zealand during the team's run.

"The country was going crazy for the team," Kumble said. "You can't even get an All Whites jersey anywhere. (This popularity is good) because I think it gives New Zealand more athletic credibility and recognition on the world stage."

Lochhead hopes that will in turn grow the program even more.

"I just hope that the people in charge of Football NZ are going to build on this and make sure we are in a position to do even better the next time round," he said.