Phillip Miranda, “El Russo”, which translates to the Russian in English is a renowned sports trainer in the Miami area. Miranda specializes in sports fitness training with his r17sp brand.
The native of Cuba trains athletes from many sports, ranging from baseball to football to mixed martial arts. Miranda has more than 20 years of experience in the field and is revered by many athletes in the South Florida area.
I caught up with “El Russo” on location at TBT Baseball Academy in the north of Santo Domingo early last month and we had an in depth conversation about his credentials as a sports trainer, plus his mission at the academy. Below are the excerpts from the interview.
What is your function at this Academy?
I’m here with my friend Yandy Rodriguez and with Julio Estrada, which is a big guy. I’m a performance coach at this facility. I take care of the system or the training when it comes to the kids. These kids are 13, 14 years old so they’re already receiving training similar to that of major league professional baseball player.
Talk about some of the talent that you have here at this academy.
Man, listen, I’m impressed because I just got here Monday and then to see some of these kids. So I think it was seeing kids about 17, 18 years old. This kids are 13 years old or 14 years old. They are 6’1 and 6’2 and already thriw in 90 miles per hour on their fastballs abd 88 miles per hour on their splitter or curveballI. think this facility has some of the best talent in the Dominican Republic. Some of these kids have a future in major league baseball.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background as a sports trainer.
Well I was with (Don) Shula, remember Shula, the Dolphin coach for a while. I was with The Miami Dolphins 2012, 2014, one year as an intern there as a conditioning coach, agility. So I learned a lot and I learned from the best. I trained guys like Jaquan Johnson, (Mike) Pouncey, I also trained Mike Wallace, you know. I have trained seven world champions in boxing as well. I trained soccer players, UFC guys. So you know, it’s performance training. Performance training is good. So when it comes to training, everything is the same. You just gotta adapt to the sport a little bit. I believe I have actually 9 licenses with National Academy of Sport Medicine in the United States. So I can cover from A to Z.
Elaborate on the training plan that you have for these kids. What, what are you focusing on most?
Well remember These kids are 13, 14 years old. So you don’t want to be messing around that much. When it comes to weight training, the type of weight training to do isvery explosive. We work on fast twitch muscles at fast tempo. So for example, I want them to move from A to B in fastest way possible. That’s my philosophy of training. We go from stabilization to strength to endurance. We cover everything when it comes to training from head to toes.
What is the ultimate goal for all these kids?
The ultimate goal is getting them signed with a Major League team. But we all know that that’s first step. What is the second step?Stay at the skill level of Major League Baseball. That’s one of the keys that you have to be mentally ready for, you have to be physically ready as well and you have to commit to the process 100%. When you do that and when you are training them, you’re also trying to develop a personal relationship with them, They need trust you and need to know you are going to get them to the next level.