Introduction:
At the beginning of the off-season, I wrote an article detailing the development plan I created for the pitching staff of the Guelph Royals 15u Elite team I have the privilege of being an assistant coach on. If you haven't given that post a read you can follow the link here.
Now that we have entered our regular season, I wanted to look back at this off-season and show the progress guys made and the lessons I have learned as a coach in regards to programming, communication, and much more.
Throughout this post, I will be referencing data collected during bullpens thrown in the last phase of our throwing program - for a full document of that data to view you can click here.
No off-season goes as perfectly as you planned it as a coach. We had some injuries (1 minor, 1 major - spilling over from a longer-term issue), attendance issues, and even had a player rejoin the team after an extended leave due to personal issues - nevertheless, players developed and we are now eager to get into the season and see them compete with new found confidence.
Overall Review:
As we began the off-season I was most focused on providing more individualization from past years while still being able to maintain an organized team practice.
With the help of an assessment done by Baseball Development Group, each player had 2-3 individualized throwing drills built into their routines. From January through March we practiced twice a week. Each practice players would join me for a 30-minute slot as a group of 3-4 and go through their throwing routine before rejoining the rest of the team in hitting or defense activities. This structure worked out really well and provided me time to answer questions and guide players through their routines while not over coaching them the way you can be tempted to in a 1-on-1 setting.
The first month of the off-season was a huge success. Players were eager to be resuming baseball activities and I started to notice improvements (albeit small) to athlete's movements due to their individualized drill work.
As we transitioned away from the first month and first phase (On-Ramping) to begin Mound-Blending we started to run into attendance issues.
Hockey players started getting into their playoff stretch and missed weeks of practice on end, another player took a two-week long vacation, some missed for semester end exams, etc.
Due to this attendance issue, we had to cut the mound-blending phase short (in the sense of sessions not length). I had originally planned for guys to have 8 sessions of mound-blending - 4 of which would include some compression throw testing. Most of the team was only available for one day of compression throw, only 2 players made it to two sessions.
In hindsight, my expectations for this phase of the program were too high and I should have planned better for absences. Regardless, we did accomplish most of what I wanted to, ie. do some constraint drills off the mound with plyo balls and throw mini 10 pitch bullpens.
We then proceeded into our last phase of the program - blending to season - and started to throw some bullpens.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well guys performed during their first bullpens. As a team, we averaged a 4.4mph* gain since the fall after each player's first bullpens. This number would later rise to 5.1mph by the end of the off-season, Athlete 3, 4 and 6 raised their velocities from the start of the blend-to-season phase by 3mph, 1mph, and 2mph respectively.
*- One player gained an astonishing 14mph, which in fairness is simply not accurate because the day of Fall testing he threw with lower intent than he is capable of. It is probably more accurate to assume a 5-6mph gain.
This velocity gain is largely due to the strength and condition program the athletes followed throughout the Fall and Winter ran by the Gryphons Performance Center.
I will always stand by the notion that the best "velocity" program at this age is simply getting into the weight room and throwing around some weight. There is no better time to build strength than in the midst of puberty.
As one Twitter user put it: "Lifting during puberty is like using legal steroids."
Athlete Spotlights:
As we got into bullpen work this is where the fun stuff started happening. I finally had a chance to see the way the new players to the team threw their pitches and offered some suggestions to their grips based on data collected by the Diamond Kinetics PitchTracker ball, and with the help of the Bullpen Chart Program I designed, I was able to communicate this data to them in real-time.
If you are interested in getting your hands on the free Bullpen Chart Program you can click here.
3 of the athletes that stood out throughout the off-season were Athlete 3, Athlete 4, and Athlete 6 - as noted in the Google Sheets document.
Athlete 3:
Athlete 3 began the phase by gaining 2mph from the Fall. In his second bullpen, we used the PitchTracker ball to assess his spin rate and spin direction. What was immediately striking was how 9 times out of 10 his fastball was presenting as Gyro spin, meaning the ball is spinning in an almost perfect circle. Take a look at the pictures below and you'll notice the difference in spin direction and velocity.
I talked about this in detail in one of my more recent posts on Pitch Design. But basically, he was throwing semi-legitimate sliders for fastballs and clearly cutting a couple of mph or two of his pitch in doing so. This was an issue I observed last year in coaching him, but without the help of technology, I wasn't able to pinpoint exactly what I was looking at.
With the help of some grip adjustments and a clearer idea of what to feel when releasing a fastball, he jumped up another 2mph. And later, in one of his last bullpens, he hit 69mph for another 1mph gain - that is 5mph in total since the Fall.
Athlete 4:
Athlete 4 was able to gain a mph after his first bullpen, raising his personal best to 71mph. A quick aside before we dive more into this athletes development over the off-season. Taking a look at the graph below you can start to see a look at just how tedious a process of gaining just one mph can be. Lots of peaks and valleys in terms of his average velocity, the day he PRed, in fact, was not one of his highest average velocities recorded.
Fastball velocity aside though, his development this past off-season was fantastic. Early in the off-season, he missed sessions due to hockey and he quickly caught up to the rest of the group with his competitive nature and high-intent. The aspect I am most proud to have been able to help him with and watch him flourish at was developing a legit curveball.
Coming to us from a different program and being the first year working with him, his curveball was not nearly where it could be - mainly in terms of "feel". In his first pen using the PitchTracker ball he averaged 29.4 Bauer Units on his curveball; however, threw maybe one competitive pitch with it. The ball was clearly slipping out of his hand and his thumb positioning was causing him to release like his fastball and not supinated enough to create vertical break.
For the rest of the off-season, we went through constant grip adjustments and trying different internal and external cues to help him develop better feel with the pitch. Finally, in his 3rd last pen of the off-season (4/24/19), we tried a knuckle style grip. Immediately, his command was better and we finally started seeing a truer shape to the break. We can see this increased feel from the data collected. Using the new knuckle grip his CU strike percentage was 60%, in the three prior bullpens he averaged a strike percentage of just 24.2%.
Now, the tradeoff to this grip adjustment is a reduction in spin rate and Bauer Units - which makes perfect sense when you think of the spin rate of knuckleballs. The graph above showcases this relationship. I am not overly concerned by this considering he is having much more success with the pitch now than at the start of the off-season and with a new found comfort to the grip his average velocity with the curveball has started to rise - averaging 62.4mph in his last Live-Ab outing of the off-season, prior to the grip change he averaged 58.7mph.
Athlete 6:
Athlete 6 was an interesting case. In his first four bullpens, he was exclusively throwing 2-seam fastballs. But after getting him on the PitchTracker ball it was clear that his 2-seam was not doing much for him and he was throwing it just out of comfort. The spin direction on his 2-seam was averaging around 12:40, whereas most 2-seams would be closer to 1:30 if not 2:00 to get arm side run.
I had him throw a couple of 4-seams one day to test out the difference. Interestingly, the spin direction between the two was basically identical but the 4-seam had over 100+ rpm's on average compared to his 2-seam. From this I concluded that although he is more comfortable with the 2-seam grip the 4-seam projects better long-term, especially considering that there is no added arm-side movement with the 2-seam or velocity.
The graph below showcases the comparison between all his pitches and namely the difference between his two fastballs.
After having a conversation about that data it was easy to convince the athlete to switch over to the 4-seam grip for the time being and see if he can get the same comfort with that grip as his 2-seam.
Athlete 6 would end up setting a new personal record off the mound towards the end of the off-season at the start of a live-ab session - throwing 75mph up two from his previous best of 73mph. This extra velocity came as no surprise considering how consistent he had been throughout the off-season with his velocity, regularly sitting at around an average fastball velocity of 70.5. As we transitioned him into live-abs his average started to climb up over 71 - during this time his curveball started to morph into more of a slider (slurve would be the most technical term), especially since he has a 3/4 arm slot and presented with a 7:20ish spin direction on his curveball earlier in the off-season.
Through his first five bullpens, the average velocity of his curveball was 62.9, in his last four pens, he averaged 65.2 and with a peak average of 66 and an all-time peak velocity of 68. Throughout this metamorphosis, his spin direction and break stayed consistent at the 1-7 range (pitcher's perspective & RHP).
Team Takeaways:
Though the three athletes above stuck out most to me when reviewing the data and notes from bullpens, all pitcher's developed in some capacity. With the help of increasing our data collection and utilizing the PitchTracker ball, every pitcher learned more about their pitch repertoire and how to maximize the effectiveness of their "stuff" in game.
A good example of this would be a guy like Athlete 7 who came to us from another team in the Fall. Although he doesn't present with overpowering velocity and he definitely has work to do with raising his intensity we quickly learned that his curveball was a good pitch. But how good?
His average curveball Bauer Units are 35.6 putting him significantly over the MLB average of 31.3. His peak Bauer Units are 37.7. For reference Ryan Pressly the owner of the highest spin rate curveball in the MLB as of 5/10/2019 has an average Bauer Units of 39.6.
Now how does his curveball compare to the rest of our team?
The team average Bauer Units for curveballs is 29.1. Based on this, it is safe to say that his curveball is absolutely elite for this level and age group of players. On top of that, we also learned that his fastball has a naturally low spin rate, meaning it presents with more "sink" than an average spinning fastball of the same velocity. With this in mind, we have started working on attacking the lower portion of the strike zone to induce more groundball outs with his fastball and create a devastating tunneling effect with his curveball as a swing and miss pitch.
The graph below shows both the average and peak Bauer Units of the teams fastball and curveballs vs Major League Baseball. Athlete 7 holds the peak curveball Bauer Units and Athlete 4 hols the peak fastball Bauer Units.
Areas to Improve for 2020:
1): More Emphasis on Mobility
Going forward into the summer season and our next off-season I want to make more of an emphasis on mobility. We introduced CARs (controlled articular rotations) this off-season and I loved how they are able to help athletes squeeze out range of motion, warm up their joints, and increase their body awareness. However, pitching has physical demands that encompass more than just the joints and being able to get athletes to open up and increase the range of motion of their thoracic spine, for example, is necessary to increase velocity and more importantly, stay healthy. This is an area that I can do a better job with.
2): More Carry Over from Weight Room
As our guys continue to develop in the weight room and develop their strength and explosiveness I need to find a way to blend that more into their throwing. My first idea for this would be to introduce medicine ball throws.
PRP Baseball has a very interesting blog post where they performed a case study of the correlation between a medicine ball run and gun type throw to pulldown velocity and then positional velocity. From their study, it appears that medicine ball throwing velocity has a correlation to throwing velocity. So not only is it a great way to train for rotational power and velocity, it can help athletes by taking a ball and glove out of their hands in favor of a different implement. I am excited to introduce the types of drills PRP does next year with our program and track the results.
The other tool I would love to implement would be Lantz Wheeler's Core Velocity Belt. Our athletes have been taught the hip hinge from the weight room and are starting to lift some serious weight in their deadlifts, but, most struggle to get into the same hinge position off the mound - not to mention holding external rotation of the back hip.
The Core Velocity Belt would be a tremendous tool to help the athletes to feel the proper movements off the mound and begin blending that into their motion.
Concluding Thoughts:
There is no doubt our players got better this off-season. Some more than others; however, I am confident that with the help of a data-driven approach and the Bullpen Charting Program I designed players learned more than they ever have about their pitch arsenal and how to most effectively attack hitters specific to their tendencies and pitch profiles.
As always, nothing is a finished product, and I will continue to strive to improve our program and learn better ways to help every athlete I work with in order to chase down their potential.
If you would like to get in touch with me you can reach me at lennon@richardsbaseball.com, if you liked this blog post you may find my content on Instagram (@richardsbaseball) and Twitter (@richardsbsb) to be useful for you as well.
コメント