Silver to Gold: 66 mph to 76 mph in 10 weeks

Phase 1: Back bridge

Silver & I’s journey began at the beginning of the new year, January 2025. Our first meeting, as with all of my day 1s, began with his assessment. The assessment includes joint range of motions, a slow motion breakdown of the players biomechanics and of course some radar gun readings! After finishing his assessment, we knew that Silver was already starting behind the 8-ball when it came to mobility. Specifically when it comes to spinal extension as well as spinal rotation & side bend.

Silver’s January Bridge

-66 mph

Inability to achieve thoracic extension & inability to get arms overhead

Silver’s march Bridge

-76 MPH

Greater amount of thoracic extension as well as straighter elbows with greater overhead ROM

As you can see from the before & after above, through different constraints and a whole lot of reps, we were able to help Silver open up his spine and give him much more range of motion to work with when trying to throw a baseball. This allowed his arm to move much more efficiently while throwing as well as actually help him create some amount of pelvic-trunk disassociation.

Below you can see the difference having more thoracic extension range of motion can make when it comes to the arm’s and the torso’s position at foot plant! (Pretty important positions when it comes to trying to throw a baseball hard!)

Silver at foot plant

-66 mph

Torso is completely open at foot plant, almost facing a right handed hitter, arm is also flipping up in line with if not in front of his head

Silver at foot plant

-76 mph

Torso is much more closed, almost facing 3rd base, pelvis and torso are a bit more disassociated, arm is flipping up relatively much more behind his head

Phase 2: thrower’s stretch

Our next mobility checkpoint was his ability to rotate his spine as well as side bend it. A great example of this is how well an athlete can complete whats known as a throwers stretch. Similar to the back bridge, through assisted reps, a few constraints and a whole lot of hard work and time put in by Silver, we were able to make some pretty impressive improvements in a relatively short amount of time.

Silver’s January throwers

-66 mph

Inability to side bend and fully rotate torso in order to touch outside of back foot

Silver’s March Throwers

-76 mph

Able to rotate torso much more as well as side bend spine in order to be able to touch back foot

Below you will see the drastic difference having access to spinal side bend and trunk rotation will have not only in his spine but also how well he is able to get his center of mass (i.e the belly button) going down the mound when hitting 76 mph vs where he was at hitting 66 mph.

Silver moving down the mound

-66 mph

Lack of side bend prevents his ability to move his center of mass down the mound and causes him to get “stuck” over his back hip which will lead to him “pushing” off the mound preventing him any chance of being able to block with his front leg

Silver moving down the mound

-76 mph

Actually side bending his spine and keeping his torso relatively more closed towards 3rd base resulting in him moving his center of mass much further down the mound and putting his body in a position to be able to create some amount of disassociation between his pelvis and his torso

So many positive outcomes come from being able to rotate and side bend your spine! Just a few of the benefits that come from having access to this new range of motion include: his center of mass (i.e belly button) is moving much further and much faster down the mound as well as his torso is starting to counter rotate as he begins to go into horizontal abduction and scapular retraction. These movements combined help him generate 10+ mph while throwing off the mound!

Phase 3: the road to 80 mph

So what’s next you might ask? How do we get from 76 to 80? Well he’s already actually hit 78 which was pretty awesome!

We know that he still has more range of motion that he doesn’t quite have access to yet. That plus his continued efforts in the weight room and in the kitchen will have his body performing to its max potential. Over this period we have seen some pretty drastic improvements in both his 10yd and 60yd dash as well as his vertical jump! Who says pitchers aren’t athletes!

Ultimately, embracing new ideas and trying new things is what has made all the difference in Silver’s development as well as his performance on the field. When you stop caring what people think and do what needs to be done, you will reap the rewards.

He isn’t just a success story—he’s a blueprint for anyone willing to outwork the competition and trust the grind.

The best is still ahead.

Keep chopping wood.