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103 Miles
Per Hour!
Incredible velocity!
I experienced 103
miles per hour today. No, I didn't hit against a
pitcher throwing that hard. I didn't see someone
throwing that fast.
I had a boat ride
this morning on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers
in Oregon.
Let me explain.
My brother-in-law,
Scott, brought his high performance boat up to
Portland this weekend for a poker run. Some excuse
for guys to show off their boats and get them in the
water. A great opportunity for some fun.
Today, he took our
family out on the rivers for a spin. Last summer,
our family rented a boat on Lake Shasta to ski and
inner tube. I have to admit, I did not feel
comfortable driving that rental boat 45 miles per
hour. It felt like we were gonna flip any minute.
Candidly, I was a
little nervous when he said the top speed on his
boat is somewhere around 110 mph. I wasn't sure if
he was going to try and set a new Columbia River
speed record. I didn't see any Guiness Book of World
Records people out on the dock....thank God!
About 45 minutes into
the boat ride we had hit speeds of 60....75 once
passing a slug of a boat going about 50 (I can say
that now that I've gone much faster). A few minutes
later, Scott opened it up. I looked over at the GPS
speedometer, and, sure enough, it registered 103!
It was unbelievable
how well that boat handled going that fast. The only
thing that bothered me was losing some hair as it
was being ripped from my head (and I don't have a
lot of extra to lose).
Of course, everything
I do these days I look to relate to training
baseball players, especially the pitching side of
the game.
Why did that rental
boat I drove last summer feel terrible at 40 miles
per hour and this boat started to feel good around
70 miles per hour?
Well, I could spend
all day describing the boat to you, but in a
nutshell, this boat is built for speed. The 880
horse power motor, the catamaran shape, and even the
paint job looks fast.
I've had a few
questions this week from students and parents about
throwing the ball harder.
Taking a lesson from
the boat analogy, you have to be built for speed.
Not only do you have
to have a fast arm, your body needs to be able to
support the explosive action and be able to do it
over a long period of time (endurance).
Bottom line, we all
have our genetic ceiling on how fast we can throw
the ball. Nobody has exceeded their genetic ceiling,
but we all under achieve. Your job as a pitcher is
to push the envelope, to improve your body the
proper way to help you throw harder and maintain the
gains.
When you train for
baseball...and it doesn't matter which position, you
need to train for power (velocity), endurance,
flexibility, balance and stability.
We will be having
several products available in coming months to help
you with all aspects of training.
Late Summer/Fall is a
great time to start that strength training for next
season.
Until next time, keep
playing hard!
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