I threw 95mph

This is going to be a longer, more in depth email.

If you’d rather watch than read, you can do so here:

Pitching velocity is the number one metric that all schools and teams look for. Without it, no matter how good of a pitcher you are, you're just not going to get a shot at playing at the highest levels.

And I understand this.

And so, this is one of the biggest focuses that I have in my training to make a comeback in professional baseball.

Today I'm going to walk you through my exact plan of how I intend to increase pitching velocity and throw in the upper 90s.

So, I know with pitching velocity, it can be really confusing on what exactly to work on. Everyone online is saying to do this drill, to do this lift, to do their special method to increase pitching velocity.

But how we view it is very simple.

The first is to build the engine, your physical capabilities of being able to produce enough force to throw harder.

This is everything to do with your physical body.

The second part is the throwing side and the mechanics part.

How well can you get all that force that your physical body can produce into the back of the ball at release?

So, we see it as a two-part problem.

Physically, if you can produce enough force to throw 95 mph, then engine wise, you're probably good. But if you have the mechanics and the throwing side is leaking to where you can't actually transfer all that force, then you have a transfer problem.

For myself, my engine and my transfer are probably pretty equal. Maybe my engine is a little bit higher and my transfer is a little bit lower because I know I have a bunch of mechanical things that I can work on. Right now in bullpens I've touched 95, so for me to get to 97 or 98 mph, I need to be working on both.

On the engine side, this is basically your strength, your power, your force production, even your mobility. Everything to do with your body being able to produce enough force to throw high. If you're weak and skinny, then even with perfect mechanics, you might not be able to throw 95 miles an hour. There are always outliers, but for the people who are not as genetically gifted, we need to work towards that.

For myself, when I threw my hardest, I was extremely strong with my lower body. I had 350 on my back with the back squat and I would just be able to jump squat that. Once I lost some of that power and strength because of a lower back injury, my velocity plummeted. So now I'm focused on peak power.

I'm not trying to squat 500 or 600 pounds. I'm trying to teach my body to go from a relaxed position into a max intent position as quickly as possible. One of my favorite exercises is lifting from a dead stop as hard as possible. For me, I use the Bulgarian pin belt squat. The weight is resting, there is no tension, and then I explode.

I'm not trying to build strength in a traditional way. I just care about being able to turn on my muscles and central nervous system as quickly as possible. When I can turn everything on quickly, that's when I throw my hardest. When everything turns on slower, my velocity suffers.

Another thing I'm working on is concentric impulse, or twitchiness. It's your ability to fire as quickly as possible. If you can go from relaxed to max intent quickly, you're twitchy. I train this through fast, consecutive movements like trap bar split stance jumps, where the goal is to rebound as quickly as possible.

This trains not just the muscles, but the brain and central nervous system. Pitching is full of stretch shortening cycles and rebounds, so this directly transfers.

The third thing is spinal mobility. Not just to get mobile, but to get into positions I need in my delivery. I had guarding in my spine due to past injuries, so I needed to train my brain to feel safe in those positions. I use loaded side bends and holds to build both mobility and strength in those ranges.

Mobility must be intentional. Just getting flexible without purpose can actually hurt performance. I learned this the hard way when I focused only on mobility and lost explosiveness.

The last part of the engine is shoulder and elbow strength. The idea is that even if you produce a lot of force in the lower body, you can lose it if your upper body can't accept it. So I work on arm care, tubing, and strengthening to help transfer more energy up the chain.

The second major piece is throwing and mechanics.

I'm going back to a high CNS throwing program, which means throwing hard consistently. I’ll have VO days where I throw at max effort to train my body and nervous system to operate at full speed.

This includes plyo ball work, drills, and pull downs. Pull downs are especially important because they teach intent. They show you what max effort really feels like. This was a huge realization for me when I went from throwing 78 to 96 mph.

Mechanical efficiency is the biggest factor once you reach a certain level. If you're already producing enough force, it becomes about how much of that force you can transfer.

A lot of energy is lost throughout the chain. If you can improve efficiency, you can throw harder without increasing strength.

For myself, one of my biggest leaks is leaning forward too early. Before, I stayed back longer, which gave me more time to apply force. So that's a key focus.

The way we improve mechanics is by focusing on one thing at a time. Not five, not ten. One. If you try to fix everything, you fix nothing.

For me, that one thing is spinal side bend. Previously it was pelvic rotation. We go step by step.

To make changes, I focus on three things:

• Instant feedback through video

• Overemphasizing the movement

• Using drills to reinforce it

There’s always a gap between feel and real. What you feel is happening is often not what is actually happening. So I constantly check video and adjust.

Finally, none of this works without guidance. Having coaches who can objectively assess and guide me is invaluable. They see things I might miss due to bias or ego.

That’s the full plan. Engine and mechanics, both trained intentionally and aggressively, with the goal of reaching upper 90s velocity.

If you want any help with gaining pitching velocity, reply back to this and I’ll get back to you.