With a laugh, Yavarone quickly interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bowl?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
The bowl.<\/p>\n
For the uninitiated, the \u201cbowl\u201d is essentially a player\u2019s hip\/pelvis\/lower-back area. It is not an official medical term. You won\u2019t find it in any anatomy or biology textbooks. Yavarone can\u2019t even remember exactly when, or how, he first coined the phrase.<\/p>\n
But when it came to working with Kershaw, the idea of the \u201cbowl\u201d helped trigger a profound physical breakthrough.<\/p>\n
For a player long reluctant to changing his old vigorous training routine, it provided a different way to think about maintaining his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bowl is like your hip, this stuff right here,\u201d Kershaw said recently, while circling his hands around his hips and midsection. \u201c[The training staff told me], \u2018Your bowl doesn\u2019t move the way it should.\u2019 And they were like, \u2018Hey, we can fix that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After years of back problems, then surgeries the last two offseasons on his shoulder, foot and knee, Kershaw has produced a resurgent 2025 season \u2014 thanks in no small part to how well his \u201cbowl\u201d is now moving.<\/p>\n
He might not throw as hard as he once did, barely hitting 90 mph with his fastball even on his best days. He doesn\u2019t overpower opponents the way he could in his prime, relying more on consistent command, pitch sequencing and veteran guile to post a 9-2 record and 3.06 ERA in 17 starts this year.<\/p>\n
What is different now, however, is how much better his body feels on a daily basis, and how open he has become to new ways of maintaining it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve changed a lot over the years, and our guys have really helped me see what I need to work on and get better at,\u201d Kershaw said at this year\u2019s All-Star Game<\/a>, when he was the most senior selection to the Midsummer Classic. \u201cMy hips and my back have never felt better \u2026 That\u2019s a credit to our guys. They\u2019ve really helped me with that.\u201d<\/p>\n Once upon a time, Kershaw adhered to a strict routine in the weight room. It revolved around rudimentary weightlifting; first and foremost, sets of back squats the day after he took the mound. It was predicated on high intensity, unwavering regimentation and, above all else, strenuously heavy reps.<\/p>\n \u201cYou always lift heavy,\u201d Kershaw said, recounting his longtime approach to off-the-field training. \u201cYou always put weight on your back. You always move it, no matter how you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n In his prime, that system served Kershaw well. It helped build his internal \u201cengine,\u201d in the words of Brandon McDaniel, the club\u2019s former head strength coach and current major-league development integration coach. It honed the lower body and core strength that drove his powerful delivery \u2014 a behind-the-scenes bedrock in his rise to becoming a three-time Cy Young Award winner<\/a> and generationally dominant left-handed star.<\/p>\n \u201cBack-squatting gives you a certain feel,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cIt makes you feel your butt, it makes you feel your core, it makes you feel like you can push on the ground and do a lot of really good things.\u201d<\/p>\n But as Kershaw got older, his routine also came with increasingly damaging physical side effects.<\/p>\n He admittedly lacked great form at the squat rack, which put his back under constant stress. And when he\u2019d pitch, all the force his internal strength created would be absorbed by the same part of the body. Without knowing it, he was suffering from a bad \u201cbowl\u201d that was compounded by his annually heavy innings workload. Eventually, the toll of it all caught up with him.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of my biggest regrets in life,\u201d Kershaw told author Andy McCullough in his biography, \u201cThe Last of His Kind,\u201d \u201cthat I back-squatted for as long as I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Starting in 2016, Kershaw\u2019s back issues began keeping him off the mound.<\/p>\n That season, he missed more than two months with a herniated disc, one that nearly required a major back surgery. Over the next six years, he endured five more injured list stints for back-related ailments.<\/p>\n Even when he was \u201chealthy\u201d over that span, Kershaw would often wake up in the morning with a stiff back or aching hips. Pushing through the persistent pain only caused him more mental exhaustion.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you don\u2019t feel good, that\u2019s all you think about,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cThat type of mental energy \u2014 like, \u2018Oh gosh, am I gonna feel good?\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s not conducive to pitching well.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, Dodgers trainers had tried to help Kershaw adapt. When he was still strength coach, McDaniel preached the importance of supplementary traits, such as hip mobility and core stabilization.<\/p>\n \u201cKersh has always been open to the next thing or the new thing,\u201d McDaniel said.<\/p>\n Changes, however, came slowly. Alter his routine too much, Kershaw worried, and his pitching might suffer.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just stubborn,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cIt was just the routine of it.\u201d<\/p>\n This is where the \u201cbowl\u201d comes in.<\/p>\n Fans get a glimpse of Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw warming up in the outfield before the game against the Chicago White Sox in which he recorded his 3,000th career strikeout on July 3.<\/p>\n (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n After re-signing with the Dodgers following MLB\u2019s 2022 lockout, Kershaw reported to Dodgers camp as an \u201copen book\u201d to training staff, current major league strength coach Travis Smith recalled.<\/p>\n Yavarone remembered one conversation with Kershaw specifically.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have told me to do this before,\u201d the pitcher told him. \u201cSo I probably need to.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus, the Dodgers staff brainstormed ways to get their message across, and have the steadfast Kershaw to buy-in to their suggested changes.<\/p>\n From that process, Yavarone came up with the \u201cbowl\u201d as an analogy \u2014 providing Kershaw a more tangible way to understand how all the smaller muscles in his midsection interacted, and how a more holistic training program could pay dividends to his health and his pitching.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was giving him more of the \u2018why,\u2019 showing him the anatomy part of it,\u201d Yavarone said. \u201cI think with him, if he feels you believe in what you want him to do, if you\u2019re convicted when you tell him what you got for him, I think he likes that.\u201d<\/p>\n The first modifications were small, right down to new breathing patterns for Kershaw to try during his core work.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would get a little frustrated in the beginning, trying to figure out how to do it,\u201d Yavarone said with a laugh. \u201cBut even if he gets frustrated, or can\u2019t figure it out at first, he\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s all right. Let\u2019s come back the next day and do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As the days started stacking up, so did the new techniques that the Dodgers\u2019 staff introduced.<\/p>\n Kershaw would still lift heavy, and push the intensity in his gym work. But now, it was paired with other tactics too: Isometric holds in the middle of reps, as a more static way to build muscle strength. Mobility drills between his most strenuous exercises, which increased his core stability and the range of motion in his hips. They even incorporated alternative training equipment into his workouts, using water-bags and 3D straps as less taxing complements for barbells and heavy weights.<\/p>\n \u201cI think with injury comes wisdom,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe\u2019s able to see, \u2018Man, I continue to get injured. What is it that I can do differently?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Slowly but surely, Kershaw\u2019s back started feeling looser. His hips started feeling freer. And his \u201cbowl,\u201d Yavarone now proudly declares, is moving the way they long envisioned.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to go in [the weight room] and kill yourself, but you gotta go in there and reposition your body in a way that you feel good the next day,\u201d Kershaw explained. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the answer is, but our guys do. And I just listen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n It took a while for Kershaw to reap the benefits of such changes.<\/p>\n Just as his back began to improve, he suffered a shoulder injury in the second half of the 2023 season that led to his first-ever surgery that winter<\/a>. After spending the first half of 2024 rehabbing from that, he returned for seven starts last year before again being shelved by a long bothersome toe injury<\/a>, leading to another offseason procedure<\/a>.<\/p>\n At either point, he could have called it a career, and not subjected himself to the long road of getting back in pitching shape.<\/p>\n But all along, he felt he still had something in the tank. Which is why, as soon as he could this winter, he was back in the gym at a training center near his home in Dallas, doubling down on the workout alterations that, like the Dodgers, his personal offseason trainers had also been urging him to make.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s done a great job of allowing us to, not forcefully push him into that, but say, \u2018Dude, you don\u2019t have to squat. You don\u2019t have to deadlift all this weight. You don\u2019t have to do these things,\u2019\u201d said Jason Kharman, who has worked with Kershaw since 2017 as the co-founder of Corpus Performance in Dallas. \u201cAs he got older, he just realized, \u2018Yeah, I don\u2019t need to do this heavy stuff anymore. I know how to pitch. I know how to handle everything on the mound. I just need to be healthy.\u2019 And you see that this year.\u201d<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean the quality of Kershaw\u2019s stuff on the bump is back where he wants it. In the wake of his shoulder, foot and knee surgeries, syncing up his mechanics has been more of a challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to be able to just throw a ball perfectly every time, and not even think about it. Just perfect backspin. Just roll out of bed and do that,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cNow, I\u2019m kind of searching for that a little bit. I can still do it. It\u2019s just not as consistent. So it takes a lot more focus to throw a baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n But now, that focus isn\u2019t being sidetracked by worries about his body, or limitations to his \u201cbowl.\u201d<\/p>\n On multiple occasions this season, he has noted how fresh he physically feels.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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