Building the Foundation for Long-Term Baseball Success
Middle school is a critical window in an athlete’s development. It’s not about chasing big muscles or lifting the heaviest weight—it’s about building the foundation of strength, speed, and coordination that will serve for years to come.
Some players keep getting faster, stronger, and more explosive every season, while others stall out. The difference isn’t effort—it’s training.
Too often, young athletes fall into “big league” workouts that mimic bodybuilders or powerlifters. These programs prioritize muscle size or weight on the bar, but do little to improve performance on the diamond—and can even increase injury risk.
Our approach is different. We focus on:
Movement Quality
The way you move is more important than the amount of weight you lift.
Clean, efficient movement patterns create durability and allow speed and power to transfer more effectively from the weight room to the field.
Poor movement builds bad habits and increases the risk of injury, no matter how strong you get.
Focusing on movement quality first lays the foundation for long-term performance and development.
Rate of Force Development
Strength is only helpful to the extent that it can be applied in the context of your sport.
Movements like sprinting, throwing, and swinging a bat occur faster than your muscles’ ability to develop maximum force, creating a gap between dynamic and maximal strength, explaining why sports performance isn’t just about who’s the strongest.
Instead, the key is producing more force in less time.
Rotational Power
Every swing, throw, and sprint in baseball depends on rotational power.
Traditional lifts train straight lines, but the game is played through rotation.
Building rotational strength teaches the body to transfer energy from the legs through the core to the arms—fueling harder swings, faster throws, and quicker first steps.
The Good News…
My team has spent decades testing, tweaking, and experimenting with various approaches to developing the versatility and athleticism coaches and scouts want to see.
The results speak for themselves with many of our athletes going on to top-tier programs, like:
Engineering the Off-Season
A scientific approach to building the foundations for baseball performance.
Our step-by-step system combines cutting-edge technology and the latest training techniques to empower you with everything you need to build fluid, dynamic movement and improve speed, arm strength, and explosiveness.
01. Comprehensive Evaluation
We believe a training program should be built around you, not the other way around. Your journey begins with our signature movement screen and athletic testing battery, designed to uncover restrictions or asymmetries and identify areas of strength and weakness.
02. Custom Programming
Stop wasting your time with random tactics. Most training programs fail because they don’t meet you where you are. Our programs take a holistic approach to athlete development based on your unique structure, movement strategies, and current abilities.
03. Expert Coaching
Rocky had Mickey. Luke had Obei-Wan. Daniel had Mr. Miyagi. There are few things in sports or life more powerful than having a coach in your corner—someone you can trust to answer questions, make tweaks and adjustments, and keep you motivated and accountable.
04. Performance Monitoring
Modern technologies like force plates, laser timers, and velocity-based training devices are like having a GPS for your body. Not only do they allow us to quantify improvements, but they also provide objective feedback every workout to ensure we never get off track.
What Our Athletes Say
“I started at PPT when I was 13 and trained there throughout college. They taught me key movement patterns that actually translated to on-field performance.”
Mitch Schroder
Middlebury College
“Pure Performance Training played a crucial role in my training and development as an athlete and helped me fulfill my dream to become a Division I baseball.”
Teo Spadaccini
Yale University
“Without the help of Pure Performance, I wouldn’t have been able to stay healthy while adding the power, mobility, and velocity numbers college coaches want to see.”
Ryan Grundy
College of the Holy Cross
Choose Your Plan
AA Plan
Perfect for 1-2x/week-
10 Sessions ($60)
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Sports-Science Evaluation
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Custom Program
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Weekly Group Sessions
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Email/Text Support
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AAA Plan
Perfect for 2-3x/week-
20 Sessions ($55)
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Sports-Science Evaluation
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Custom Program
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Weekly Group Sessions
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Email/Text Support
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First Session One-on-One
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Major League Plan
Perfect for the Entire Off-Season-
30 Sessions ($50)
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Sports-Science Evaluation
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Custom Program
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Weekly Group Sessions
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Email/Text Support
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First 3 Session One-on-One
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PPT Long Term Athletic Development E-Book
Meet The Team
Adam Vogel
I’m a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and the owner of Pure Performance Training in Needham and Sudbury.
My team and I have enjoyed a close relationship with the New England Ruffnecks baseball organization for over fifteen years.
We’ve helped thousands of athletes improve their performance, overcome injuries, and take their game to the next level.
BJ Baker
He’d NEVER say so himself, but BJ is basically a living legend.
He served as the head ATC for Cornell and Harvard Universities, and the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for a little organization called the Boston Red Sox.
As a Licensed Athletic Trainer (ATC), BJ is the Medical Director for the New England Ruffnecks.
Matt Healy
Matt is a former collegiate baseball player and a seasoned veteran of athletic development.
His deep roots in baseball are evident in his integral role in the Ruffnecks’ fall ball and winter workouts.
So, don’t be a stranger; say hello if you run into him on the sidelines or at practice.
