These 61 weeks have been an up and down journey and this past week was no different.
I’ve been gradually ramping back up to max effort pulldowns, and working on improving my throwing pattern while doing so. My low effort pulldown numbers have been improving and I was feeling alright, but not great. My elbow was still bugging me some, but it wasn’t keeping me from throwing so I just tried to stay below the pain threshold and work on what I could at that intensity. It seems like every time I get to a point of trying to get to a higher intensity I have a set back with my elbow. It’s really frustrating because I feel like my training and recovery have been dialed in, and I’m still not a point where I’m pain free. I know it’s one of those things where faster sprinters have more hamstrings injuries, stronger bench pressers have more pec tears, and harder throwers have a greater risk of arm injuries, but it’s driving me nuts.
I’m not going to dwell on this because I know this is something that you have to work through when you’re pushing for an elite level of performance. So anyway, I’ve been using the heavier plyo balls to repattern a bit and I’ve consolidated the cues I use for myself and I think both of these factors are helping. I’ve been gradually ramping up the intensity each week and testing my pull downs up to about 80% effort so far, which has been encouraging because I’ve been up to 91mph without much intent. The main priority right now is just to get healthy and pain free so that I can push intent at a high level and start adding velocity again.
In the weight room I’ve been working on my lateral bounding variations and I’m feeling more explosive through those and when I test those I expect to PR. I’ve also been adding velo to my med ball throw variations. On Friday I PR’d in step-behind shot-puts-I got up to 33mph with the 6lb med ball. The mobility work has also been huge so far. I’ve been spending a lot more time on that than I have in the past and it seems to be slowly helping. All of these things together should lead to better velo on the mound once I can put all of these pieces together with better arm health. I’m still excited and encouraged by my progress so far, and I’m anxious to get the opportunity to throw hard!
I know these last few posts haven’t been super exciting due to the slow process, and in some cases the few steps back, but this is what these journeys look like. It’s not a linear process, there are tons of ups and downs and you have to be willing to learn from the failures and adjust your process as needed.
Thank you for following me on my journey to the show, and check back later this week for more content!