Josh Gessner

In 2017 I was a 16 yr old throwing 78mph. Fast forward 2 years, I’m consistently hitting 95mph. Here's how I increased my pitching velocity (step by step):

You need to decelerate rotation effectively and not 'rotate through the target'. This leads to a decrease in velocity and command. The aim is to direct all energy through the target. A simple fix that took one of our athletes to 95, and win national pitcher of the year.

I threw 95+mph without any drift at all. But it required immense lower body power and effort. Now I’m using more ‘free energy’ from the drift and relaxing into the back leg. Starting to get what ‘easy velo’ should feel like.

Knee throws are quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to clean up the upper half. The key is to feel a car crash effect with your glove side propelling arm forward… Not to rotate as hard as you can.

An interesting conversation I had today was about the drift. The drift doesn’t always have to be an aggressive move forward. You can come to a balance point, and still shift your weight and get that ‘drift’.

The glove side is the front leg block of the upper half. Don’t get caught up in rotate, rotate, rotate. That rotational energy has to be converted to energy toward the plate. Sasaki: glove side start inside the front leg, rather than pulling off to the side:

Cross training might be the most underrated way to improve throwing mechanics. When you stop thinking and just move, a lot of things clean up. My favorite: volley ball

My last year of pro ball I threw the slowest I ever had in my career. Part of the reason was my back foot was turned so far out, and I was throwing cross body as a result of it. When I adjusted my foot to be neutral, my direction and velo instantly improved.

The drift isn’t as simple as the more the better. For me, aggressively falling down the mound makes it difficult to get the most impulse out of my back leg. I like to think ‘gather’ rather than ‘drift’. (Video of ‘gather’ feel):