Seton Hill RHP Luke Deschenes joined us last summer in our Collegiate Summer Throwing Program. The 12-week program is 100% customized to the needs of the individual athlete, whether it be increasing velocity, improving command and control, improving pitch-arsenal, or simply getting better across the board. In general, Luke was looking to become more athletic overall. This included improving his body composition, velocity, command, and pitch repertoire. His initial assessment was done on May 24th, so we had to get to work. By the end of August, his top-end velo had improved from 90 to 93, and he had substantially improved his sinker, change-up, and breaking ball to go along with his 4-seamer and cutter.
How did he do it?
RPP’s 12-week summer program isn’t a very long period of time, therefore focusing on an athlete’s lowest hanging fruit is essential. All summer athletes begin the summer program with a comprehensive physical and mechanical evaluation:
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- Physical Assessment – Covers a number of important topics, including (a) lower and upper half mobility (b) lower and upper half strength (c) lower and upper half power (d) speed – 30-yard dash, (e) lower and upper half elasticity – (f) decel metrics, (g) body fat % and lean mass ratios and finally a force-velocity evaluation profile.
- Mechanical Assessment – Represents a complete analysis and reporting of the athlete’s delivery and broken down into three specific areas kinematically. These include (a) arm and shoulder, (b) trunk movement and (c) the lower half.
- Pitch Arsenal – Represents a thorough analysis of the pitcher’s arsenal, pitch-movement profile for potential improvements in movement or an expansion of the overall repertoire.
By the time an athlete has completed our evaluation, we have an excellent idea of what his strengths are and which weaknesses we should pursue to optimize performance. There is NO better blueprint.
1. Physical Assessment
Body Composition
Below is a summary of Luke’s height, weight, and body fat % in the beginning of the program. Needless to say, at a body weight of 210 lbs. with only 12% body fat, Luke started the program in pretty good physical shape.
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- Height – 74”
- Weight – 210 lbs.
- Ratio – 2.84x (desired rage of 2.5 – 3.0)
- Body Fat – 12%
Over the course of the summer, Luke added 15lbs to his frame while maintaining a body fat percentage of 12%. As we will discuss in a little bit, this is due to the tremendous work Luke did in the weight room this summer.
Upper and Lower Half Mobility
The movement screening portion of the assessment is essential in identifying mobility and / or stability issues that may hinder the athlete’s ability to get into optimal positions throughout the delivery. In most cases, the issues that are presented in this portion of the assessment will be visible when we are evaluating the athlete’s mechanics in the video analysis portion of the assessment.
After completing Luke’s table assessment, we concluded that Luke needed some work on his back hip mobility to allow him to move more freely on the mound, which cleaned up some back leg disconnects. He also presented with sub-optimal shoulder mobility, tight lats and t-spine rotation. Addressing these upper half restrictions we felt was a big part of Luke’s big jump. But overall, these restrictions were prohibiting Luke from getting into the positions he wanted to get into on the mound, creating compensatory patterns that were holding him back.
Upper and Lower Body Strength
After completion of the movement screen, we then moved on to our strength and power testing to help gives us more information about the type of athlete we were dealing with. Higher gains in these two categories help to create not only a higher velocity ceiling, but an overall more athletic body.
The following is the summary of Luke’s 1RM metrics in the weight room. As you can see, except for his single leg squat, Luke generally possesses strength numbers that we consider “strong enough By staying consistent with his programming, Luke improved many of his numbers as the summer went along, specifically his deadlift and Single Leg Squat.
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- Trap Bar Deadlift – 460 lbs. (vs. optimal @2.25x B.W. 472.5 lbs.)
- Single Leg Squat – 80 lbs. (vs. optimal @0.55x B.W. 115.5 lbs.)
- Bench Press – 256 lbs. (vs. optimal @1.25x B.W. 262.5 lbs.)
Lower and Upper Half Power
Power is all about how quickly we can produce Force. In baseball, you need to be both strong and powerful. Power = Force X Velocity
Lower Half – With respect to power, the first test we complete is a Counter Movement Jump (CMJ). This jump is performed to test the athlete’s ability to utilize their Stretch Shortening Cycle and relates to the velocity portion of the power equation and ultimately gives us the athletes Force-Velocity profile.
The second test, Squat Jump, is performed to test the athlete’s ability to use muscular force and relates to the force side of the power equation and Force-Velocity Curve.
Luke’s lower half power testing demonstrated good lower half power, scoring above the 80-grade on both tests. As Luke’s training focus moved from strength to power, we also focused on more “sports-specific” single leg plyometrics with Luke instead of bilateral work.
Upper Half – We test upper half rotational power on a Proteus Motion machine, utilizing two different tests:
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- Trunk Rotation – Similar to the squat jump this involves no “pre-stretch”
- Plyo Trunk Rotation – Same movement with a “pre-stretch”
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Once again, Luke demonstrated a high level of power in the upper half. This only continued to rise as we unlocked some more range as well as strength in his upper half.
Lower and Upper Half Elasticity
Elasticity is the body’s ability to store and release energy from connective tissues, namely the tendons. Building more elastic / spring-ier athletes begins to transition the reliance away from muscular-driven movement and more towards a reliance on the power of the connective tissue. This allows the athlete to generate more force / power with less effort.
From a training standpoint, This involves primarily getting our athletes to better use their stretch-shortening cycle, in turn increasing what we call their “elastic” properties. Developing these qualities involves training with Extensive Plyometrics.
As stated previously, Luke’s tightness in his upper half was prohibiting him from using his SSC to its full potential. So, as his mobility improved, so did his elasticity.
Decel
This test looks at the ability of the athlete’s lead leg to hit the brakes immediately at foot plant and in turn transfer force back up the kinetic chain to use during the throw, or in the case of the test, how quickly they can land on one leg and turn that force the other way with a jump. Jump height and contact time give us what is known as a “Reactive Strength Index” (RSI).
Luke’s Front Leg RSI was awesome, meaning his ability to decelerate and “post-up” with his front leg on the mound is exceptional. Luke began to add weight throughout the summer, so we saw this number dip a little bit as we were focusing on his strength, but when we transitioned to a power phase, we saw this number go even higher than in his initial assessment. He was jumping higher and faster due to the increases in strength.
2. Pitching Mechanics
The pitching mechanics analysis involves analysis of dozens of possible disconnects in the delivery which are then summarized into a summary report. In Luke’s case we also had the benefit of our in-house motion capture report. The following is a summary of the summary.
As pitching mechanics go, the majority of Luke’s disconnects in the Arm / Shoulder. There were six disconnects which we prioritized to address. Below is a summary and description of each:
Arm / Shoulder
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- Pronated / Supinated at Hand Break – Overly pronating or supinating at hand break and into the arm swing can cause tightness in the flexor /pronator mass causing an overly tense arm action and kills the natural momentum building up through the throw. This can also contribute to elbow climb.
- Smooth Arm Path with Momentum – Eliminating stops and “jerking” motions through the entire arm path/swing keeps the arm more relaxed and able to more easily and efficiently get into better layback and also create an arm action with more “whip”.
- Shoulder ER @FP (Early/Late Riser) – Arm at foot plant should be between 40-75 degrees. If the arm flips up and is still visible (from front) at FP it’s usually late. If the arm is visible from the back and “hangs out” it’s usually early.
- Elbow Flexion @FP – Otherwise known as “forearm flyout” causes unnecessary stress on the UCL and anterior shoulder while a high degree of elbow flexion shortens the lever arm too much, negatively affect the shoulder to efficiently lay back. In either case, we need to go back and clean up any arm action issues prior to this point.
Trunk Movement
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- Trunk Forward Tilt @Release – If anterior pelvic tilt, lumbar stability, and thoracic extension are all achieved, increased forward trunk flexion helps ensure that the lat muscles are absorbing much of the braking forces while decelerating. This also cuts the distance between the pitcher and batter, creating higher “perceived” velocity.
Lower Half
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- Excess Back Leg Extension – Back foot comes off the ground prior to release and /or front knee buckles or leaks forward.
Addressing mechanical disconnects is often addressed by work both in the weight room and specific drill sets we assign the athlete to be performed on a daily basis. A lot of Luke’s work was to focus on cleaning up his arm action and upper half mechanics because his tight mobility didn’t allow for him to get into the positions we wanted him in. In addition to his mobility correctives, the following were assigned:
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- Toss-in Drill – Used to take time and tension out of the throw, creating a looser arm action. Allowing for the arm to react from catching the ball on the way down helps with creating a cleaner arm spiral.
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- Figure 8 Rocker – Used to help athletes feel a more relaxed arm and shoulder to eliminate muscling up the arm path. This helps create better momentum and a more whip-like arm action.
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- Step Behind with Leg Lift – Used to drive a linear move down the mound. Helps hold tension in back leg while keeping similar feels with the arm as the prior two drills.
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- Rhythmic Breaks – Focuses on staying connected during the throw and the linear move. Helps drill the pattern of positions wanted to be achieved during the throw prior to making the throw. Improves glove-side position/timing, back foot connection, and a fluid arm path.
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- Step Behind – Helps improve timing of the hips and upper half, allowing for some hip shoulder separation to be created. Also improved lateral trunk tilt and by dropping into the bag leg it improves excess bag leg extension.
3. Pitching Arsenal
A big component of Luke’s summer was refining his arsenal and after the first few weeks of bullpens, we saw a much improved pitch repertoire. Our top priority was building around his 4-Seamer, which was a great pitch to begin with. Initially, Luke struggled a bit with arm-side moving pitches (CH was 11” IVB, 9” HB/SNK was 14” IVB, 14” HB).
We identified Luke was a supinator and we started testing out grips to see what was comfortable for him. This resulted in adding both depth and run to each pitch (Split-CH now: 3” IVB, 17” HB/SNK now: 7” IVB, 20”HB). Luke already had a really good cutter, but lacked a strong breaking ball.
While his curveball was hard and sharp, it had the tendency to pop out of his hand (2.0+ VRA). We felt it was better to find something that can play better off his newly built horizontal pitches and we started testing out sweeper grips. Luke now throws a true sweeper at 0” IVB, 18” HB at a harder velocity than his old CB and overall this blends better for his arsenal.
Luke essentially came in with 2 pitches and left with 5 highly graded pitches.
So far this spring, Luke’s work has shown on the field. He has earned himself more innings this year in the first month than he did all of last year, while sporting a 1.86 ERA across 19.1 innings, punching out 16 while only walking 3. He has been a big part of Seton Hill’s staff to start the year, he will be a guy to watch out for the rest of season. Continue to dominate Luke!
The Summer Throwing Program
The 12-week Summer Throwing Program is specifically designed for graduating seniors and college-level pitchers whose main priority is to improve their velocity and overall command. There is a great deal that goes into a improving your craft and it’s important that a comprehensive program incorporate all aspects of the process. The program can be performed:
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- At RPP (in-house)
- 100% Remote
- Hybrid
The objectives of the summer throwing program are as follows:
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- Increase velocity ceiling
- Improve overall command
- Improve pitch movement through pitch design work
- Build endurance and resilience in your arm
- Improve overall physicality and become more athletic
