You're getting left behind

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

The Power of Going 100% All In

There’s a quote I came across that said:

“if you put in 80% then you get 80% back, but when you put 100% in, you get 1000% back.”

That’s absolutely true for baseball players. It’s also been true for my story.

I was a 16-year-old throwing 78 miles an hour. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d ever play Division 1 baseball, let alone sign a professional contract. But one to two years of going all in—going 100%—led to results I never thought possible.

In just 16 months, I went from 78 to 96 mph, got an offer from my dream school, Stanford, and then signed a contract worth over seven figures with the Philadelphia Phillies.

But here’s the thing: I was where you are. I wasn’t talented enough to just “naturally” throw hard. If I had been, I’d have already been throwing way harder. What changed everything for me was obsession—and the decision to truly go all in.

What Going 100% Actually Means

Going 100% means having a goal and aligning your actions with it every single day.

My goal was Division 1 baseball. To get there, I needed to be scouted. To get scouted, I had to be good enough. And in pitching, “good enough” usually meant throwing really, really hard. The guys throwing the hardest were the ones getting recruited and drafted.

So I set a clear target: 94 mph. That became my north star. My only goal.

To chase it, I made sacrifices. I stopped playing games for a while. Playing is fun, but it doesn’t always help you gain velocity. If I wanted to go all in on development, I had to give up things that didn’t move me closer to my goal. So I took 16 months off and trained with all my energy focused on one thing: throwing harder.

That single decision changed everything.

Why Most Players Never See These Results

Here’s the problem I see all the time: players say they’re all in, but their actions don’t match.

I talk to guys who say velocity is their number one priority, but when I ask if they have a structured program, they say no. When I ask if they’re working with someone to improve velocity, they say no. Then I see them at showcases throwing in the low 80s, chasing exposure before they’re even good enough.

That’s not 100%. That’s 20%.

And players like that are going to get left behind.

Take Wyatt, for example. He came to us at The Pitcher Lab throwing 77 mph. He said his goal was to gain velocity, and he meant it. He went all in—took fall ball off just to train. Four months later, he was throwing 87 mph. His results came because his actions matched his words.

The Harsh Truth About Today’s Game

If your goal is just to have fun, then don’t listen to me. Go play, enjoy baseball.

But if your goal is to reach the next level, you have to face reality: scouts value pitching velocity above everything else. Unless you’re in the 0.001% of players who naturally throw 95, you can’t afford to go halfway.

This is one of the most competitive times in baseball history. Even 90 mph is no longer enough. 95 is the new 90.

So the real question is: what are you doing right now to make sure you’re not left behind by the players who are truly going 100%?

if you need help with going all in on your baseball career, you can talk to us here and we can create a plan for you.