How does remote coaching work at Tread? 🤔
A look inside the process that since 2017 has led to:
-150+ MLB Draft picks & Free Agent signs
-1,000+ college commitments
-Over a dozen MLB debuts
-Multiple first-time All Stars
Is the pitch clock good for anyone besides casual fans who can't sit through a full game?
So many subtle aspects of the game are lost as pitchers & hitters rush through their craft to appease the casual fans.
How does Texas A&M RHP Chris Cortez throw 101 mph bowling balls?🎳
A closer look at how he leverages insanely efficient lower half mechanics to touch triple digits at just 6'1".
Spencer Strider: 90 vs 102 mph mechanics🔥
Does he throw hard just because he's a "freak" or is the answer more nuanced than that?
What mechanical changes do you see?🧐
Full breakdown dropping tomorrow.
I went from throwing 73 mph at 16, to a D1 walk-on, to a 15th rounder, to throwing 98 mph.
Here's a letter to my younger self, covering the top 10 lessons I've learned since being a high school pitcher.⬇️
[Thread🧵]
1/
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was up nearly 2 mph in his Yankees start, averaging 97+ mph.
He reportedly made a mechanical tweak prior to this start.
Check the glove arm before/after.
Explanation below on why this can increase velo ⬇️
Last week I interviewed Ben Joyce, and it was full of development gems.
Here are my top 14 takeaways for pitchers after talking to
@benjoyce08
.
[Thread 🧵]
Your pulldown PR doesn’t matter.
Your squat PR doesn’t matter.
Your bullpen velo doesn’t matter.
Your trackman #’s don’t matter.
What matters is what you do with the ball when the lights come on & the game is on the line.
Everything else is secondary.
Performance is the goal.
J-Bands are a great pre-throwing tool to prep the tissues of the arm.
Here are some of our top moves with them.👇️
1. Triceps extension
2. Lat stretch
3. Forward fly
4. Chest press
5. 2-Way Row
6. YTLA Raise
7. 2-Way Shoulder IR/ER
8. Openers
9. Bicep curls
10. 6-Way Forearms
Don't have an Arm Care routine?
This targets everything from the scap to the fingertips.
6-Way Forearms
I-Y-T-A
Scaption Raise
3-Way IR
2-Way ER
Pronator/FCU ISO Hold
Thumbless Farmer's Carry
Bear Crawl Exploration
3-Way Partner Stabilizations
KB Waiter Walks
Your pulldown PR doesn’t matter.
Your squat PR doesn’t matter.
Your bullpen velo doesn’t matter.
Your trackman #’s don’t matter.
What matters is what you do with the ball when the lights come on & the game is on the line.
Everything else is secondary.
Performance is the goal.
Saying "no walks" or punishing walks places failure at the top of a pitcher's mind ("don't walk this guy!").
Saying "let's attack this Mf-er" flips that mindset from defensive to offensive.🤔
1/
Hard throwers don't:
🚫Push off the rubber
🚫Triple extend
🚫Reach with their front hip/leg
Hard throwers do:
✅Hold tension into the back hip
✅Keep a stacked torso + pelvis
✅Maintain back foot connection
✅Hold pelvis closed during linear move
"If you're results driven, if you care about your results, and you're losing sleep over results, you won't perform in this game."
Jonathan India hit .202 in June. But he started July with a grand slam. A good minute with India after today's game.
#Reds
Our dugout in college always got fired up whenever the head coach got tossed.
We could tell he had our backs and was going to bat for us. You could always feel the team’s energy shift right after.
Anyone else have that experience?
So much great stuff happening in this clip of Stroman. The center of mass shift during leg lift, the drive with a vertical shin angle, the rotation down into landing which seamlessly flips the arm up...and of course pitching with emotion. 🔥🔥
Things I love about this clip of Cole.
1) I'm seeing at least a 50-50 weight distribution as he comes set to get things moving forward early.
2) He stays inside the back leg during leg lift, which sets up...
3) A lateral drive as he holds the hip hinge with his rear glute.
Worst pitching culture I've been a part of: we sensed the coach's anxiety and lack of confidence in us. Knew if we failed he'd tear us apart.
Best pitching culture - we were encouraged to hang our nuts on the mound and keep competing until forced to leave the game.
I was drafted in 2014 after being a college walk-on. By 2016, I was released.
Here are my top 7 pieces of advice for recently drafted players.
[Thread 🧵]
Nice guys lose if they don't learn how to flip the switch when they take the mound.
Coaches want the nice guy in the locker room.
But they want a competitive motherf'er on the mound.
Finding your alter ego i.e. "game face" is a powerful tool many young pitchers overlook.
🧵1/
“Drop and drive” and “tall and fall” are both bad descriptors of 100 mph lower half mechanics. A more accurate description: “drift > drive/pulse > then relax into hip rotation/landing.”
Spencer Strider - Slow Motion (99 mph)
Observations:
✅Pre-sets lead leg closed
✅Drifts without losing back leg
✅Rides a closed pelvis down the slope
✅Creates huge lateral angle off back leg
✅Sticks landing - hip rotation pulls front knee into extension
"Early in my career, I used to think of players as assets...I used to think of teams as portfolios.
The truth...is that a player's character matters
The heartbeat matters
The player's impact on others matters
The tone he sets matters."
A beautiful speech by Theo Epstein
Whether you’re an 8 year old with great mechanics or an MLB pitcher throwing upper 90s in a bullpen, somebody will always find something negative to say.
Nothing you do will ever be good enough.
Eat Arbys.
I went from being a D1 walk-on, to barely pitching for 3 years, to getting drafted as a college senior.
Here's what I learned about how to become an impact player.
[Thread🧵]
1/
Struggling with consistency? You've got to be able to go back to your routines as an anchor. Study any truly elite MLB pitcher & they all have incredibly detailed routines. Kluber. Kershaw. Scherzer. DeGrom. We can learn a lot from how they prepare.
Noah Syndergaard 101 vs 92 mph mechanics🔥
From 2016 (left) to 2022 (right) he went from averaging 99 to 94 on his fastball.
I have my own theories, but what differences do you see between these two pitches?
4 out of the following 5 are true about Ben Joyce.
Can you guess which?
✅He can walk on his hands
✅He can deadlift 635 lbs
✅He benches 345 lbs
✅He can long toss 420 feet
✅He does towel drills.
Stay tuned for the podcast, dropping soon.
Most HS players only want to play for a Power 5 school.
While there's nothing wrong with this if you're good enough, there are drawbacks, especially if your goal is to get drafted.
While I was drafted out of the ACC, here are 3 reasons I wish I'd considered other options.⬇️
1/
Most HS players only want to play for a Power 5 school.
While there's nothing wrong with this if you're good enough, there are drawbacks, especially if your goal is to get drafted.
While I was drafted out of the ACC, here are 3 reasons I wish I'd considered other options.⬇️
1/
I hated 95% of what goes into college/professional baseball. People don't understand why I still chase this dream. David Goggins explains it better than I ever could (video credit: ImpactTheory)
Spencer Strider - Slow Motion (99 mph)
Observations:
✅Pre-sets lead leg closed
✅Drifts without losing back leg
✅Rides a closed pelvis down the slope
✅Creates huge lateral angle off back leg
✅Sticks landing - hip rotation pulls front knee into extension
College baseball is a lot of fun this time of year.
But people don't see the 99.9% of what goes into making these moments happen.
At the top college level and beyond, baseball is a job.
It's 95% suck and 5% payoff - if you're lucky. A lot of HS players don't realize this.
Most pitching coaches: "you have to dot corners, avoid throwing max effort and be afraid of leaving pitches over the plate."
Matt Brash: "I have the catcher set up middle, and I throw my stuff full effort...I'm throwing it as hard as I can every pitch."
📽️
@PitchingNinja
1/
A pitcher having a lightning quick arm isn't a sign of a special "arm" per se, it's a sign of that pitcher having particularly efficient sequencing.
Elite arm speed comes from proper use of the entire kinetic chain.
(Yordano Ventura breakdown coming soon 👀)
College coaches:
"We must spend 2 hours on PFPs and bunt defense because at least 1 game is lost every year by not doing the little things."
Also college coaches:
"Pitchers get 8 minutes to warm up, 6.5 minutes to throw and hurry up with that arm care, PFPs are starting!"
When it comes to throwing harder, we talk a lot about well-timed intensity. One of the most hilariously accurate cues we've come across is "Mozart...Mozart...Metallica."
In celebration of baseball coming back, we put together a video illustrating this cue. Enjoy.
[🔈Sound on]
If you played baseball 10 years ago, you probably tried throwing like Tim Lincecum at some point.
Chances are, it didn’t work. But why not?
A thread on individualizing your mechanics.💡
1/
Your pulldown PR doesn’t matter.
Your squat PR doesn’t matter.
Your bullpen velo doesn’t matter.
Your trackman #’s don’t matter.
What matters is what you do with the ball when the lights come on & the game is on the line.
Everything else is secondary.
Performance is the goal.
World class athletes deal with anxiety/stress too (elevated heart rate, cortisol, etc).
But when asked, they'll say they are “excited.” Low performers say they’re “nervous.”
This is called anxiety reappraisal- how we interpret this stress makes all the difference.
The next time you’re feeling fear or anxiety, say these 3 powerful words to yourself: BRING IT ON. It’s not about not having fear, it’s about having the courage to act in the presence of it.
Hard throwers don't:
🚫Push off the rubber
🚫Triple extend
🚫Reach with their front hip/leg
Hard throwers do:
✅Hold tension into the back hip
✅Keep a stacked torso + pelvis
✅Maintain back foot connection
✅Hold pelvis closed during linear move
“Drop and drive” and “tall and fall” are both bad descriptors of elite lower half mechanics. While not as catchy, here's a more accurate description:
“Drift > hinge > rotate > block"
Let's break it down ⬇️
5 More Lower Half Drills for Pitchers🦵🔥
1. Hop Backs
2. Leg Lift Crow Hops
3. Drop-In Drill
4. Half Kneeling Quick Pick
5. Roll Ins
More info on each one below ⬇️
There are a lot of ways to throw 90 mph, but far less ways to throw 102+ mph
A common theme amongst many of the hardest throwers is deep retraction (i.e. "flip up").
Here's why it contributes to velocity and how to train it⬇️
[Thread🧵]
1/
How to Improve Hip to Shoulder Separation?🧐
Here are 7 ideas to better segment the pelvis/torso⬇️
✅Soft Rolling Pattern
✅Quadruped T-Spine Rotation
✅Dissociation trunk twists
✅Swiss Ball Keiser Chops
✅Rhythm Rocker
✅Drop Step
✅Rotational Step Back
Nice guys lose if they don't learn how to flip the switch when they take the mound.
Coaches want the nice guy in the locker room.
But they want a competitive motherf'er on the mound.
Finding your alter ego i.e. "game face" is a powerful tool many young pitchers overlook.
🧵1/
Last year I interviewed Ben Joyce, and it was full of development gems.
Here are my top 14 takeaways for pitchers after talking to
@benjoyce08
[Thread 🧵]
Masyn Winn throws fuel at 5'11" 180 lbs.
How? In large part, elite sequencing.
Watch how LATE he throws the ball.
He closes off the hips, gets sideways, then allows that tornado of energy to work its way up the body, finishing with electricity from the arm.
Sound familiar?
Greg Maddux breaks down his perspective on hitting his spots, getting away with mistakes, and how even he was far from perfect. Photo edit courtesy of
@PitchingNinja
.
Hip Mobility Favorites for Pitchers 🧐
1. Couch Stretch w/ Reach
2. Hip 90-90s (PAILs/RAILS - ER/IR focus)
3. Adductor Rock-Backs w/ rotation
4. Floor Squeezes
This hits hip flexors, hip rotators & groin. Develop a routine for your specific issues.
We are looking for 5+ Performance Coaches!
Tired of making $20/hour or traveling half the year as a pitching coach?🤔
Status: Full-Time
Location: Charlotte, NC
Salary: $54-72k starting, $100k Earning Potential Year 2
Benefits: Healthcare, 401k Match & more
Details ⬇️
Nice guys lose if they don't learn how to flip the switch when they take the mound.
Coaches want the nice guy in the locker room.
But they want a competitive motherf'er on the mound.
Finding your alter ego i.e. "game face" is a powerful tool many young pitchers overlook.
🧵1/
This is an absolute money variation from Bauer to feel the drop into the back hip.
Lots of pitchers try to hinge too soon in the throw. Learn to float through the leg lift and drop into the linear move.
Hop back drills are great for this feel as well.
One of our MiLB pitchers recently went to McDonalds for breakfast (smh) and had his car, phone and wallet stolen at gunpoint.
After filing a report, the cops asked if he needed a ride anywhere.
He said he needed a ride to Tread, he was late for his bullpen slot.
No excuses.
"You have two options."
@tigers
pitcher
@willyvest
on his advice for young players, and the conversation with his Dad that changed his career.
Must watch: ⬇️
I'm interviewing Tennessee RHP Ben Joyce (
@benjoyce08
) tomorrow.
We'll be examining his mechanics together and learning more about his process.
What questions would you like me to ask him?
Such an obvious problem that the US needs to address (and Japan already has).
6 year olds can't properly grip a full sized baseball, so they push it and can build poor throwing habits from a young age.
Don't have an Arm Care routine?
This targets everything from the scap to the fingertips.
6-Way Forearms
I-Y-T-A
Scaption Raise
3-Way IR
2-Way ER
Pronator/FCU ISO Hold
Thumbless Farmer's Carry
Bear Crawl Exploration
3-Way Partner Stabilizations
KB Waiter Walks
Pitcher elbow strengthening 💪🏼
Make sure to target some element of finger flexion, ulnar deviation and pronation to protect the UCL & medial elbow. ISO variations of each are also helpful.
Here are some ideas:
One of the beautiful things about baseball is that throwing hard is a test of how efficiently you can use your body as a whip. Every once in a while, you'll get a young kid who is so efficient in his positions and sequencing, that it deserves a closer look. Stay tuned.
If you're in high school and know you want to play baseball in college, I can think of exactly zero convincing arguments to be playing 2-3 other sports year round.
Can we stop pretending that practicing basketball makes you better at pitching?