From throwing 72 to throwing 97.
Prioritize getting better. Always
From 72 to 97: My Journey of Prioritizing Development
I recently watched a video of myself throwing from 13 years ago. I was the younger brother of a catcher on the High Schools Varsity team and the pitching coach let me join in because my brother was helping him out by catching bullpens. I got to throw 25-30 pitches with the coach videoing from different angles, he gave me some pointers and he posted all of the videos to his youtube channel and every once in a while they pop up in the memories tab on my phone.
The video was posted on October 18th 2011, I was a Freshman in highschool and the pitches in the video were probably around 70-74 miles per hour. I was certainly very good for a freshman at my small highschool, but nothing to write home about on a state or national scale.
I didn’t really know it (as most freshmen don't), but I had a lot of work to do in order to become the player I wanted to be. I had a good freshman year, pitched a solid amount of innings and worked my way onto a travel team for the summer that was very well recognized.
This is my first experience competing at a level bigger than my local area. By this time, I had worked my fastball velocity up to about 77 or 78 mph and I thought I was in a really good spot. I pitched the first game for my travel team, and threw very well. In the second game there was a left-handed pitcher who was up to 90 mph as a freshman. I quickly learned how big the talent pool is, and how good players can be.
We played all around North Carolina that summer, pitching in front of tons of Scouts and playing at some of the biggest colleges in the country. All my teammates were competing for spots and scholarships, and the looks consistently went to a few specific players. It was this summer that I really started to take my development seriously.
At the end of the summer my coaches sent out an honest evaluation to every player and we are we're all given a specific road map. My path was clear, I was a very good pitcher but I lacked the velocity needed to get the looks from colleges that I wanted.
I received that evaluation in July, and following this letter I started doing everything that I could in order to put myself in the best position to get better. I was 6 '4 160 pounds soaking wet, and knew I needed to get stronger.
Since that day in 2012 until today in 2025, there has not been a week in which I did not get 3 strength building workouts in. There were many times in season where I was advised to lift less, and I always chose my long term development over my acute performance.
That fall and winter, my friend Trent and I would walk over to Huntersville Athletic Park and long toss everyday Monday through Friday (I do not recommend this). We would throw with both feet planted as far as we could, and then we would crow hop as far as we could nearly every day. Some days we felt sore or tired and threw less, but we played catch every single day.
After, we would walk right across the street and workout at the local gym. We had no clue what we were doing, and most of the time just pulled random workouts from bodybuilding.com or instagram/twitter. But our consistency was our strength. We really didn't know any better, but we went every single weekday for month on end. I certainly got stronger, and I gained weight.
I went into the following season at 81-83, which was much better, and worked my way up to 83-85 at the end of the season. I pitched a ton, but after every practice I would walk over to the local gym and lift. I kept pushing myself physically, and trying to get stronger and stronger.
I didn't really do any special throwing training at the time, weighted balls were not big yet, but I just kept throwing. I threw a ton and built the skill the old fashioned way. My mechanics certainly had flaws, but if you take ok mechanics and keep maturing physically you will gain velocity.
I entered the summer, and was placed on the B team, (understandably) and still needed more if I wanted to get the looks I wanted from college coaches. So I kept pushing and the big jump finally came. We got invited to a PG world series in Ft Myers Florida, and I was slated to pitch against one of the premier Florida teams in the tournament. Pretty much every single college was going to be in attendance (I had no idea, and wasn't the one they were coming for).
I ended up having a career day, I went 5 innings, struck out 11, and threw only 55 pitches. Before that day I had never thrown a fastball above 86 and I didn't throw one under 87 the entire game. I got a call from my coach that night saying I could go wherever I wanted, and it was the wildest thing I had ever experienced.
I told him where I wanted to go, and the coach agreed to fly across the country to watch me pitch the following week. All because of my coach, Andy Partin. (You should play for the dirtbags, is point blank the only person I know with this level of trust from every coach).
The following week I had another jump, I touched 90 for the first time and got an offer from Ole Miss, the school I had wanted to go to my whole life. Velocity was coming through left and right, and puberty+lifting weights was 90% of the reason.
Past this, I kept going. No matter what happened from a acute performance level I always kept hammering away at getting better. This ultimately got me to 97mph white in college, and pitching in AAA.
So how did this really happen? It all seemed like an overnight success, but in reality It was about 13 months, and looking back it was a really simple strategy.
Slow Cooking Development for Youth Athletes
It's very simple, the biggest Advantage you have as a 14 year old athlete is time. I didn't do anything special, I didn't have any crazy high quality coaching, I simply went to the gym 4 to 5 days a week every single week and kept pushing. I slowly got stronger, and my performance slowly got better and better. Today, youth athletes see crazy transformations all over social media, and get caught up in the mess of comparing their progress to someone else. I did the same, but with all of the new facilities and their social media pages it can be heard for 14-16 year olds to stay focused on the mission.
If you commit to a solid basic lifting program for 12 months, and track every weight you lift every session for a year, I can almost promise you that you will be an entirely different pitcher at the end of it. If you get lucky, and get to work with a coach who really understands throwing and how to get better on the mound your chances are even better.
Example:
Last year, I had the pleasure of working with an athlete named Micheal. Micheal was pretty bad, but really liked baseball and was willing to work hard on his own and during our time together. Micheal bought into a plyoball throwing routine and started lifting consistently. Micheal started as a 8th grader throwing 63, and within 18 months he was a sophomore in High School and throwing 80mph.
Micheal still has work to do, but he did the thing that so many aren't able to do at a young age: commit to a long term development plan.
Parental Must Haves:
As a parent there are a few things you need for your son:
A coach who truly cares about getting players better
A coach who measures your athletes capabilities with objective feedback (mph, Pitch shapes, etc.)
A coach who gives your athlete a clear roadmap with clear cut objectives (A specifically tailored plan, structured to each phase of their year)
A coach who consistently measures and will reassess your athlete, giving them updates to their training every step of the way.
Without these, your son isn't on the path to achieving their highest potential. If you are looking to find someone to do these things for you: Email me at JCreel31@gmail.com I am opening up a few spots for families looking to commit to changing their sons career, and players looking to be the best they can be.
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All the Best,
John
Founder: The Right Spot & Proformance Newsletter