Last week was the final week of the throwing block I was in and I had velocity benchmarks I wanted to hit before moving on to the next block. So, let’s see how I did.
I was working on two drills to isolate my upper body pattern and arm action. Those were a wide stance ten toe drill and a drill I created that I call the split stance drill. It’s basically a stationary roll-in, and it’s just another way I was trying to isolate my upper body pattern with a slightly more sport specific lower body position.
My velocity goals for the two drills were 77 mph in the wide stance ten toe drill and 85 mph in the split stance drill.
I made it to 76 mph in the wide stance ten toe drill, and I felt pretty good about that because it didn’t feel especially smooth on Friday.
And I made it to 85 mph in the split stance drill! I even hit it twice out of the 5-8 throws I made.
From here I’ll be looking to add some more dynamic pieces to my delivery through a slightly less stationary drill. I’ll be adding in some lower body movement during the next 3-4 weeks and building velocity in these drills.
I’m excited to continue building and experimenting with different positions and figuring out my best movement solutions and better ways to train these patterns. One of the things I’ve found to be very helpful is experimenting with a variety of positions through some dry work on my off days. Dry work for me does not mean going through my whole pitching delivery, as I think that’s ineffective. But I use it to isolate specific portions of the pattern to feel out more effective ways of creating velocity and smooth movement. Basically, whatever part of the pattern needs work, I’ll isolate and go through some reps with different starting positions and cues.
My mobility is improving as well since I’ve pared down my mobility sessions to increase my focus on specific movements and focused my soft tissue work as well. My pec minor and traps have always been problem areas, so increased focus there seems to be paying dividends. My horizontal abduction is improving and my arm action feels more fluid, so I think I’m on the right track with my mobility and soft tissue work.
In the weight room I’ve gone to a more unilateral approach while staying with the power focus. Bilateral movements are still very important and still involved in my program, just to a smaller degree. I’m experimenting with some different PAP combinations than I’ve used in the past and I’ll be putting out an article with my findings in the near future. But, my med ball velocity numbers and single leg jump distances have been improving, so I’m excited to see what happens as I piece together my delivery.
Anyway, thank you for following me on my journey to the show and check back later this week for new content!