This article is going to be a fun piece to create. why? Because it hits so so close to home for me. Having gone through so many mechanical adjustments throughout my career some of which almost ended it early while others prolonged my career. If you want a deeper back story on my journey I’d encourage you to checkout the article titled My Arm Path Overhaul – From 85 to 95 MPH. I elaborate a bit more into the back story of my journey in that article whereas this article will be more targeted towards your personal development.

Below you’ll find some videos as well as recommendations for you moving forward in your development. If you have yet to register to my website I’d highly encourage you to do so. You will gain access to all my free content as well as emails of my latest news so you don’t miss a beat. No charge to you for being a member! Register Here.

If you’re someone interested in developing efficient throwing velocity I’d encourage you to explore my newest ebook option Velocity Development that includes how to best go about optimizing your pitching mechanics to achieve your pitching goals.

If you want personalized 1 on 1 feedback of your pitching mechanics like you will see in the video below I’d encourage you to explore the option of signing up for a Mechanical Analysis.

HOW

The trickiest part of it all right? How do I find my ideal mechanics? As much as I wish there was a simplistic answer to give you guys unfortunately there’s not. This is a self discovering process that does take time. Now I want to reassure the notion that my goal is not to over complicate this dynamic and overwhelm you. It’s to simply give you the tools and insight in hopes to better equip you in your journey.

The biggest factor that was in play during my self discovery was I needed to regain athleticism. During my early stages of Professional Baseball I was always trying to perfect my “mechanics” which led to me essentially moving like a dang robot. What made me good in the first place was my ability to simplify the mechanics and just throw. I was drafted 88th overall in 2010 just by doing what I knew best at the time.. throwing. Here’s a clip of me in High School just slinging it.

Again, not trying to make this a highlight reel for me but there’s a lot to learn when looking at my journey.

My ability to discover the “how” behind this dynamic was found in going back to the drawing board of simplicity with some added nuances I learned along the way without consuming my thought process entirely. I discovered to retain athleticism by first n foremost being an athlete again. I got trapped in the PO (pitcher only) lifestyle for too long and it was affected my performance. As soon as I was released in 2014 I did everything in my power to get back to what I already knew worked for me. What was it?

As I mentioned before I also added some nuances of things that I could implement now knowing not to be too mentally consumed with such concepts. Also the fact that I now understood that my foundation as a pitcher must be athleticism. Such nuances I implemented contained the following.

All of these concepts are great to understand and implement but you first n foremost identify your mental capacity. Meaning don’t fall down the rabbit hole of thinking so much about mechanics when you simply can’t be athletic while doing so. This was the case for me in my journey having to identify that I could learn about these concepts and apply these concepts but I wasn’t going to lose sight on the simple fact that I needed to be athletic and if thinking about these things took away athleticism then they became less important to me.

FINE LINE

Anytime we talk about the pitching delivery there’s so many fine lines that we walk. Obviously we want to obtain mechanical efficiency to not only perform at the highest level that we’re capable of but to also stay healthy. We must identify that health will be the biggest indicator in approaching mechanics. If your arm is constantly in pain after throwing then there’s something that needs to be adjusted. The flip side to that is if you’re doing all the right things in the weight room and training room but not seeing velocity gains translate to the mound then again, we need to potentially make adjustments.

Having gone through what I’ve gone through in my journey equips me to approach my Remote Clients all the better. Having been on the other end and knowing how much it sucks to want something so bad but the harder you try the worse it gets. That’s why my Services are always tailored to meet the individual on a personal level and simplify rather complex concepts.

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

The process of identifying your ideal mechanics will look different for everyone. I think it’s about truly identifying who you are rather than who you want to be. I would absolutely love to be able to really dive into mechanical concepts and apply them into my mechanics but realistically that’s not me. I’ve tried to be that guy and it left me without a job.

I hope you took something from this article and I’d encourage you to share it with someone you know who maybe is going through something similar. The mental grind of baseball can break you very easily. It almost broke me that’s for sure. I’ll include links to my services below if you want to work with me remotely! Here’s another clip from ’09 of me at the area code games lol.