My First Client

When I first came up with the idea of Calgary Pitching HQ, I was hoping to have around 4-6 athletes train with me in the first summer of Calgary Pitching HQ. I had 4 lined up right before we were about to begin, but only ended up with 1 athlete coming up. This was slightly disappointing, but ended up being a blessing in disguise. I was able to focus all my attention on him and his programming, and able to work out kinks quickly and efficiently. He is from Michigan, and is going to be a fifth year senior at an NAIA school in Kentucky. He has aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player, and realized he had some work to do to get to that point. He decided to forego playing in a collegiate league this summer, and instead decided to travel to Calgary and train hard for two months.

We had an initial meeting to discuss his previous season, his goals and how he was going to achieve them. I laid out a throwing program, strength program, and helped him design a nutrition plan. All these programs were designed together for his main goal: to throw harder. With intentions of playing professional baseball, he needed to throw much harder. His initial mound velocity testing had him maxing out at 84.5mph, with an average of 84.0. The average velocity in the MLB is 92.5mph this year, and so we needed to focus on his velocity first and foremost. He still has the fall and spring at school to keep working on his velocity, while also upgrading his offspeed pitches and pitch location.

The throwing program consisted of using Driveline protocols, including weighted baseballs and plyoballs. We had 2 velocity days a week, with the other days being recovery and long toss days. He had previous experience with Driveline, utilizing it for the last 2 years, and so we were able to jump right into it. We measured stress on his arm during initial testing and periodically throughout his training using the Motus Arm Sleeve.

His lifting program consisted of basic strength protocols. He did not have a lot of lifting experience, and between lifting and eating, we knew this is where he would see his biggest gains. His nutrition program consisted of just eating more. We made it simple, with beef and rice for a majority of his calories, allowing him to meal prep for 5 days in advance.

The following are his beginning testing numbers, and his end testing numbers. His initial goals were to hit 92 on a pulldown, and hit 88 off the mound, and we were able to achieve both of these.

I believe that this summer training the 1 athlete actually taught me more about how to prepare for next year than I taught him. We came across a week where he just felt dead, and we were able to add a full deload week and it worked out really well. Next year I want to make sure that we measure stress using the Motus Arm Sleeve every session to make sure we are monitoring all workload.

I am looking forward to next summer, and I will hopefully have 4-6 athletes looking to see some similar results!