The Road To 90: Growing Into Your Velocity

I’m not genetically gifted. Yet, I was told I would “grow” into my velocity. And here I am, 31 (well almost) and I’m still waiting….

See, some athletes just have a gift: the natural ability to throw the ball hard or swing the bat fast.  They just move differently. They move better, more easily. To some degree, Seth is one of those athletes. If you’ve been around The Lab, you’ve seen it in action. You’ve probably also seen me throwing or working out in some sort of fashion. I’m on the other end of the spectrum. I’m part of the “Try Hards”. The group that works their butt off to gain every ounce of muscle, every mile per hour and celebrate it as if we just won the World Series. 

Being a part of this group, I’ve had to continue to train myself, chase numbers alongside athletes, prep for Men’s League games like no other just to play well enough to have fun. But I’ve come to realize, throwing 90 would be a heck of a lot more fun. However, if you look where I’m at (topped at 82.4 over the summer, but consistently 77-80), you can see I have a long way to go. Taking a “gap year” from Men’s League and going all in is my only option to have the chance to get to 90. Plus it gives me time to make a legit run at it. Besides, I’m not getting any younger, so why shouldn’t this old “Try Hard” go all in for his shot to actually gain velo since waiting to grow into it obviously didn’t work?

Here’s the thing though: I’m not just a “Try Hard”, I’m also a “Never Has Been”

But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I just need to train harder to do something I’ve never physically come close to in my life. Ode to Eric Sim chasing 95 a couple years ago, but he worked himself back to somewhere he’s been before. He’s played at a pretty high level, he’s thrown hard, and it’s always easier to do something you’ve done before. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy. I was there with the free food truck watching him pull down kettlebells. It’s just his body knows what it takes, the muscle recruitment, and the feeling of throwing that hard. Me on the other hand, I’m just an absolute nobody, never has been baby of the “don’t throw too hard, you’ll hurt yourself” generation. Which gave me a poor foundation, making me give up too soon and never come close to what I wanted to accomplish. But you know what, if you believe it, you can achieve it and you bet I believe anyone can get to 90 nowadays if they want to put in the work. So follow along with this series about my road to 90 as I’m doing it for these main reasons:

1. Show that not everyone will just “grow into their velocity” and that it can/needs to be trained 

2. Show the fellow “Try Hards” and everyone else the effort it takes to get to 90

3. Showcase the training gear, technology, techniques, and resources at 802 Baseball Lab

4. Discover and tryout new drills, warmups, med balls, etc for athletes

5. Hold myself accountable and get to throw 90 😉

Let’s lay this out. I’ve been doing some training and weight lifting, but had a recent “reset”. I took 2-3 weeks off of throwing and focused on lifting as heavy as possible. Going into the New Year, I started light throwing (70% RPE) again while tweaking my workouts to take that into account. This times out perfectly since I turn 31 in a couple weeks on Jan 14. I’ll be on-ramped by then so we will get the lay of the land with a b-day mound velo. I’ll then spend the next year of my life trying to touch 90 before I’m 32. Because if I’m being honest, if I don’t do it this year then I’m probably never going to. 

Here’s what you can expect from me over this next year:

• Now until Jan 14 will mainly be blogs about:

  • What’s happened since my last Instagram post about my velo

  • Details about the “reset” and why

  • Changes to the weight lifting program

  • The throwing on-ramp

  • A couple new drills

  • The lead up to the mound velo day

• Post-velo test breakdown blogs (2 parts)

  • Breakdown of the data/reports and what they mean

  • Details on the throwing program build out and goals

• Training videos

  • All velo days posted including Jan 14

  • Breakdown of any new drills

  • Breakdown of things I’m working on

  • Breakdown of drills (how to and why’s)

  • Seth taking me yard or throwing harder than me without trying

• Blog post in the form of my training diary entries for the week

• Once a month bigger Blog and breakdown of training

Click the Twitter and Instagram handles below to follow the journey. Cheer for me. Talk smack to me. Tell me I’m old. Celebrate with me. Whatever. I don’t care because either way:

It’s Time to Throw Things Hard

90 before 32. Let’s Go

Twitter: @makeitmorain

Instagram: @makeit90morain