Last year as a freshman at the begging of the year(i didnt even touch a ball in the offseason) i threw 77mph

This year i again didnt touch a ball and at the first practice i threw 71 mph,

Where did it go?
Anybody else have this happen to them?
How long does it take to come back if ever?

Ya i had a similar thing happen to me except i threw like usual in the offseason came back my soph year threw 86 then did the same thing my junior year n only threw 81 dont know whats up

Hmm, let me get this straight. You didn't work at your game at all and you're stumped why you didn't improve?

I'm not.

Posts like these almost never say how speed was measured. Same gun? (or is it just the coach's opinion?)How much warmup? Speed varies even on a day to day basis for most youngsters. I'd question too whether you really threw 77 at the beginning of your freshman year. 77 is pretty fast.

Bum is right, of course. Most pitchers gain a lot of speed around age 15/16. What a waste to get lazy during that critical period if your arm is healthy. After age 17, in my opinion, the focus should shift to arm health and fine tuning pitch command, with less emphasis on speed.

Well believe it or not, i "used" to throw "pretty fast"

quote:

Originally posted by joe91:
Well believe it or not, i "used" to throw "pretty fast"

If your velocity actually did drop as much as you say it did, then you may have experienced an injury (perhaps by not easing your way into the season).

Do you have any pain or soreness at rest in your arm or shoulder?

If so, then you should go see a doctor.

No pain but last year in HS, i pitched alot of innings and had good velocity. Then i played in a local league during the summer and my velocity dipped. My arm felt dead at the end of the local league. Now I rested my arm during the offseason but it still feels like its dead. I go to rear back and throw the heat and its not there anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by joe91:
No pain but last year in HS, i pitched alot of innings and had good velocity. Then i played in a local league during the summer and my velocity dipped. My arm felt dead at the end of the local league. Now I rested my arm during the offseason but it still feels like its dead. I go to rear back and throw the heat and its not there anymore.

Dead arm + unexplained velocity drop is a bad sign.

You need to go see a doctor.

I wouldn't be surprised if you damaged your shoulder.

Also, if you were my son (or one of my pitchers), I would shut you down until you have been throoughly examined by a sports medicine doctor.

My son tore his labrum 2 years ago, but leading up to that he had a noticiable decrease in velocity. After the injury was diagnosed and we did some research on the topic, labrum injuries are impossible to detect until it is too late. The one tell-tale sign is a decrease in velocity.

I'm not saying this to scare you, but just to reinforce the other advice on this topic... go see a doctor!

quote:

Originally posted by mdhsbbfan:
My son tore his labrum 2 years ago, but leading up to that he had a noticiable decrease in velocity. After the injury was diagnosed and we did some research on the topic, labrum injuries are impossible to detect until it is too late. The one tell-tale sign is a decrease in velocity.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

I had the same thing happen to me and never did anything about it. 25 years later I'm regretting that decision.

Okay, Joe. We assumed you had just gotten lazy. I'm all in favor of taking a long rest in the off season especially if you have some discomfort and speed decrease.

If your arm is healthy, your speed should quickly return in springtime. At your age you should still be getting faster.

Yes, could be something more serious if two or so months off doesnt help.

You didn't by any chance do a lot of heavy lifting throughout the offseason, did you?

joe91,

Exactly how much did you do during the off season? If you did not throw, you should have done something else to at least strengthen your hips and legs. This is only my freshman year, I throw 82 mph consistantly. There's really not too much that I can say besides that it take months to gain it back. I gained 10 mph in 4 months from a plyometrics program that I had joined over the winter. I'll admit, I'm not a huge guy. I'm 5'7" and 125 lbs and coaches and other teams expect me to be throwing around 65 mph. It just goes to show you that anybody of any size can do it. The harder you throw, the harder it will be to gain speed. If you decide to join a program similar to this, throw long toss every weekend on a football field so that you can measure how far you're throwing. If you can throw 290 feet, you can throw 80 mph. I'm up around 300 feet right now. I'm not saying that you can just get up on the hill and throw 80 mph every pitch, only your leg strength and how you use your legs when you're pitching will determine that. Good luck in getting it all back and have a great season.

The Lefty,
TSP4

"The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur." --- Vince Lombardi