I’ll share a story about something that helped me recently. I hadn’t been able to long toss much this summer because of the rigors of the starting rotation. When we had nearly a whole month without a day off, 4 days in between starts was too little rest to drain my arm with long toss. But in late July I had to take time off when I got a massive blister that left my middle finger with a dime-sized piece of skin missing. It took much longer to heal than I had anticipated, but it gave my arm some rest. So, I got to long toss when the skin toughened up a bit.

And having not long tossed in over two months, I had forgotten how it felt. We threw at a bandbox field, GCS Ballpark, that had a 301 foot fence extending straight out to center field, parallel to the left field line. So, even at the power alleys, the fence was 342 feet from home plate and just 301 feet from the other foul line, making it a great long toss goal. 300 feet should be an easy chuck for anyone with 88+ in his arm, so I wanted to see it go over onto the berm.

GCS Ballpark: The shortest, most poorly designed bandbox ever. Most suitable for little leaguers.

I couldn’t do it. My partner got out to the warning track, and I just couldn’t get it over his head. I felt like my arm was going as fast as it could, but the ball just wouldn’t go any further.

But then something happened, I knew the physics of ball flight and my own arm strength – there was no reason I couldn’t throw it well onto that berm – and soon my throws started to carry a little farther. I saw it going over that fence, and suddenly it started getting closer. It wasn’t that my arm was going faster, but rather that I was reaching to the fence more, getting my arm extended into the blue yonder.

And the more extension I got, the farther it carried. My partner Jason was tossing it over my head easily, which made me mad, and finally I cleared the fence. From there, that extra gear sort of kicked in, and I was able to keep putting it over his head. I couldn’t get it to the second wall, but I was able to almost land it on the path above the grass berm. (Jason was still making me look bad by tossing it over my head…stupid Texans)

The moral of this story is that at the time, I didn’t think I could do that. I felt my arm was maxed out at about 290, as the warning track was a challenge in the earlygoing. But visualizing that ball going farther, and knowing that I had it in me, helped my body get that extra extension and arm speed to add another 40 feet or so onto the throw. And that’s the thing about velocity – you have to really, truly, give it everything you’ve got, both with arm speed (think pulling your arm through the zone) and arm extension (reaching toward the target with your arm and body). When you combine maximal amounts of both, that’s when you reveal your arm’s true potential.

Oh, and by the way…342 feet to a power alley is just ludicrous. 13 year olds can break their bat and get the ball out.