Winter Work

-Story time-

Not much of a story to be honest, more just a walk through my winter break.

School ends around December 20th, leaving everyone to head home and begin their month and change home with their friends and families. I head home from Herkimer back to good old Burnt Hills; only an hour 15 minute drive or so, but I don't spend much time there. The day after I get home a 20 minute drive into Schenectady takes me to where I spend most of my time when I'm home. It's a small warehouse looking building behind a motor garage in a shady part of Main street. Dan Sauseville, I've mentioned him before, owns the place and works there just about every day open to close. There he builds baseball players out of mere baseball enthusiasts. His athletes have a pretty regular schedule of when they come in, usually a MWF or T/TH after school along with the weekends.
I started working there the day after I got home (this is technically my first job I've had [never really had time to work anywhere because of how busy baseball keep me]). Dan introduced me to the official Driveline offseason program, and got me familiar with all of the exercises, throws, and more importantly what the specific throws are intended to work on.
I began the workouts on my own, coming in every day and getting my work in for free whenever I wanted. After a week or so I started helping out kids with their programs. Some of the kids had done it in the past, others were just starting out this year. The new kids were led into the Return to Throwing program, which starts out slowly and you won't even touch a baseball for a couple weeks.  It progresses into ramping up your velocity in the Velocity Program, where more intense workouts and throwing is required. The kids who have had experience usually only required reminders on the names of exercises or on the intent of the throws.
I got to meet a bunch of new kids which I thought was a pretty neat experience. Most of the kids knew who I was already though, even though we were only meeting face to face for the first time. It was a fun experience being able to help these athletes progress through the program and develop their arms as well as their minds along the way. Watching the improvements that the program kickstarted was honestly one of the coolest things for me. One of the biggest and most hyped-up parts of the program is the Run 'n Gun throws (or pull-downs) that are completed towards the later weeks of the Velocity program. One of the athletes I worked with every week was Grady, this nerdy looking kid from a high school near mine that blew my mind. His first session of run n gun throws he maxed out at 85 with the baseball. His next session the following week he got up to 90, and the session following that he ramped it up to 95mph setting a facility record. Driveline has mentioned multiple times that the pull down throws tend to be about 7.1 mph faster than throws off the mound, so that means Grady would be throwing 88mph off the mound (which is straight cheddar for a high schooler). Personally I only got up to 92 with the baseball on the pull downs, but I blame that on not being loose enough as I completed the 16 week program in about 1/3 that time. I would expect that on a good day now I could hit around 97 on the pull downs seeing as I can usually top out at 90 on the mound in ideal conditions.
Completing the winter offseason program and being able to spend anywhere from 4-8 hours of every day working/working out with athletes that looked up to me made this past winter so much fun for me. To all the pitchers that I worked with over the winter: keep up the hard work and kick some ass this season.

-Jon

Weighted Balls vs PlyoCare Balls

Kyle Boddy, the owner of Driveline, recently wrote an article about the differences of the leather weighted balls and the PlyoCare balls and I'm here to dumb down what that article said.

PlyoCare Balls

In essence, the soft covered rubbery PlyoCare balls are used for submaximal throwing work along with general arm care. Submaximal throwing meaning the throws you'll be making with these balls in the drills (Roll-ins, Walking Windups, Rocker throws, etc.) are not designed to be thrown at 100%. My concept of this is that they're meant for maximal effort throws, as opposed to max speed throws. The large differences in weights between the balls creates more movement in the constraint throws.

Leather Driveline Weighted Balls

These balls, as opposed to the Plyocare Balls, are meant for max intent throwing. These are used to build velocity by increasing arm strength and rotational speed with 100% intensity throws. The biggest jump in velocity can be seen while going through the Run n Gun throwing program. Run n Gun, as the name implies, is a full intensity sprint into a crow hop and throw to release the balls as hard as you possibly can. These throws are with the weighted leather balls and when charted over weeks of work can show significant changes in velocities. I'm including the Casey Weathers video again because he is demonstrating his amazing fluidity in the Run n Gun throws, which showcase the best use for the leather weighted balls.

The heavier leather weighted balls can also be used as a warm-up method. It is common for pitchers to include the 6oz weighted ball into their program throwing program to assist in warming up their arm. The 9oz and 11oz weighted balls are also commonly used to help, as they promote increased external rotation and will loosen up the arm and shoulder more efficiently. The weighted balls provide good feedback while warming up as well, if you're throwing with the 11oz ball for example and you feel an added stress it is usually because your arm path is off. A quick fix with mechanics will allow for the ball to come out smoother; teaching more efficient and less stressful mechanics in the process.

-Jon

Twitter

Recently got back from our sunny Florida trip last weekend and had an amazing time (even though we didn't play as well as we would have liked to). The week started off pretty good weather-wise; sunny and 85 the first two days but it slowly got colder and cloudier down to around 50 midday the last day. I can't be upset though, we were complaining about having to put on an Under Armor while the northeast was complaining about one of the biggest snowstorms ever hitting them mid March.

This is one of the venues we played at in our tournament: Chain of Lakes Complex

Back to freezing old Herk for us now. Sweatshirts and snow coats replace our bathing suits and sunscreen. This also means back to work, for school and for baseball. I recently created a new Twitter account to follow where I'll be posting some quick thoughts of mine and retweeting other accounts that you guys might find interesting.

Check it out if you'd like and make sure to keep warm.

https://twitter.com/drivelinebsb101

-Jon

Casey Weathers Velocity Work

Hello again to all my baseball fans,



I hope spring break started out good for everyone! I'm down in Florida with the team until Thursday playing in this 80+ degree heat having a real good time.



I finally got my first start yesterday which I've been looking forward to for a long time. After working with Driveline all winter and sticking with it through the spring I've been working hard at getting my velocity up. For my first outing I was decently pleased to hear that I was sitting upper 80's and hitting 90 mph a couple times throughout the game. It's promising to know that because last year's first game I was barely hitting 86, maxing out at 90 in the summer.



As objectively impressive as that might sound, I am completely outshined by many of Driveline's athletes, and definitely one in particular: Casey Weathers. This is a video of one of his "run 'n gun" sessions, which means you basically try and throw these weighted balls as hard as you possibly can. Please take the 2 minutes to watch this video it's literally amazing.



(Keep in mind a normal baseball is 5oz.)

Facebook Page

Hey guys, how’s was everyone’s weekend? I just bought a new pair of cleats for the season so I can't complain about mine.

I just created a Facebook page to go with this blog. Feel free to check it out, the link is posted below.

Hope you all have a nice week. Luckily, later this week I’ll be in sunny Florida with my team for a 10 game tournament.😎

Until next time,
Jon

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