Meet an MVP: Donn Dimond

Had a great interview with author, Physical Therapist, and baseball performance specialist Donn Dimond (you'll never guess who he picks to win the World Series).

Donn Dimond is the owner and director of The KOR Physical Therapy in Portland, Oregon. Donn's worked with a variety of high school, collegiate and professional baseball players. He's authored two books; The Bare Minimum: Baseball - Essential Training for the Baseball Athlete and The Bare Minimum: Donatelli Shoulder Method. Donn lectures nationally to Physical Therapists on how to assess and treat patients with shoulder injuries and on baseball performance and rehabilitation.

Enjoy the read!

1. You've developed a real expertise in baseball training. Yet, in younger days you played football. What prompted you to focus professionally on baseball?

Well, I have always been interested in sports from an injury reduction and rehabilitation standpoint and was lucky enough to mentor under Dr. Bob Donatelli, who taught me a lot in regards to working with the overhead athlete. Once I had the clinical foundation, I started to realize that there was a HUGE need in baseball for the right kind of interventions and rehabilitation. I continued to seek out information in regards to working with the baseball athlete and truly understanding the biomechanics of pitching. This led to trust from the baseball community which led to more information and it has just kind of snowballed from there. 

2. How do you work with baseball players at The KOR?

When a baseball player comes here to The KOR, they first undergo a very comprehensive evaluation. The evaluation includes a look at mobility of their strength and mobility of their upper body, trunk, and hip as well as their neurodynamics and balance. Secondly, we take high speed video of their mechanics and analyze it for any red flags. After the inital evaluation, we have a pretty comprehensive analysis as to why they are having pain and most importantly what the true causes are that need to be addressed.Some common things we work on with our baseball players is glenohumeral and scapular rotator strength, moblization of the shoulder and hips, dynamic balance training for the lower extremities (the Shuttle Balance is very helpful for this), and working with their coaches to help reduce any red flags. 

Shameless Shuttle Balance plug
(but it's Donn's fault, not ours)

3. Baseball being a "non-contact" sport - how does that change the training?

It doesn't really. The baseball athlete still needs the appropriate strength, mobility, and control as a "contact" athlete. In fact, with a pitcher, sometimes there is more force that is placed through the pitchers body than a "contact" athlete. 

4. There's an on-going debate about static stretching vs. dynamic warm-ups. What stretching recommendations do you have for baseball players? 

I tend to be more of a fan of the focused dynamic stretching or warm-up. I haven't come across any research that shows static stretching decreases the risk of injury. In  fact, if done too aggressively it may increase the risk of injury. The only static stretch that I recommend is for the posterior capsule of their throwing shoulder. I usually tell my baseball athletes to jog first, do some dynamic warm up, do a little sprinting, some band work to warm up the upper body, some single leg balance activities, a posterior capsule stretch, a neurodynamic mobilization, and finally some position specific drills

Photo by: peasap

5. What prompted you to write your book Bare Minimum Baseball? 

I saw a need for a concise and evidence based book for baseball conditioning that is geared towards increasing performance AND decreasing the risk of injury. 

6. In the book's introduction, you prescribe Bare Minimum and Secondary exercises. You state that the reason you differentiate those is you've found that "the more exercises an athlete is asked to do, the more likely he won't do any of them." A tad cynical or just being realistic?  

I guess a little of both. Over the course of the last 13 years, I have noticed that the more exercises I give a patient or client the less chance I have of them actually doing it. Some of my pro baseball players come back each off season with a binder filled with all the workouts that they need to do. Usually they don't do any of them, it just gets to be overwhelming. I figured that if I could give them a program that really just focused on "The Bare Minimum" that they may actually do it and get a postive result. 

7. You separate your Bare Minimum exercises into three categories: 1) Hip strengthening; 2) Trunk strengthening; and 3) Upper Body strengthening. Why those three and how do you differentiate between Hip and Trunk?

The hip, trunk, and upper body are the bare essentials that need to be worked on. The hips are where the force is generated, the trunk links the forces from the hips to the upper body, and the upper body needs to be strong enough to transfer the force to the ball without allowing an injury to the shoulder or elbow. I actually didn't truly understand the difference between the hip and trunk until working with Bob. 

8. Who are some of the players you are working with at The KOR right now?

Most of my players are with their teams now, but let me share a story of a baseball player that has had right elbow issues on and off for the last couple of years. This particular client pitches for a Midwest MLB baseball organization and he has had pain in his elbow after throwing for the last 3 years. When I saw him intially, 3 years ago, we worked mainly on his shoudler mobility and strength. This helped but not completely. After having access to my high video system, I noticed that his dynamic balance was off and his trunk rotation was kicking in too early in the pitching cycle. His hips were also very, very tight. So I mobilized his hips and worked on his dynamic balance and after three weeks his mechanics looked almost perfect. He has been pitching for the last month and has had no pain and his ball speed has jumped 3-4 MPH. 

9. Who do you admire most in baseball?

The pitchers who keep their heads down and just keep working it, all the way from the minors up to the bigs. Most people think it is all glamour playing professional baseball, but for most it isn't. It is a long road for a pitcher and you just have to admire those that keep following their passion day in and day out.  

Photo by: allygirl520

10. And finally, who do you pick to win the World Series?

I'm from the Chicago area orginally, so I gotta go with the Cubs. But if they don't do it, then I'm picking the Phillies. You gotta love great pitching. 

The Chicago Cubs have owned a Shuttle since 1992 and the Phillies since 2001. Donn, we like your choice either way - thanks for spending some time with us!

Hey, baseball and Facebook fans - we're giving away Donn's book The Bare Minimum: Baseball.
Check back with our Facebook Fan page in the next few days to find out how you can win!