2023 Summer Velocity Enhancement and Arm Health Camp Announcement

Throwzone Academy is pleased to announce our 17th annual Summer Baseball Training program! 

Our summer camp is a well-established strength, conditioning, and throwing training protocol. It incorporates baseball strength training as well as arm care and velocity enhancement. 

The goal of the summer program is to further aid and improve the explosive nature of throwing through our unique core and leg strength conditioning systems not found anywhere else in Southern California.

For the past several years, there has been a BIG jump in the so-called opportunities for youth and high school players who go to all-star tournaments and play in showcases in Arizona, Florida, or any other warm-weather state in the country. College players go off to play in summer leagues. High school players go to Arizona and other locations to play in “prestigious” tournaments.

In the end, it’s a colossal waste of time. You can find articles from friends of mine, like Kyle Boddy, Randy Sullivan, and Eric Cressey, which all read the same way: Development trumps ALL games played. Training in an environment focused on arm care, health, velocity, and recovery is the key to making long-lasting changes. 

The most important training for a baseball player to do and ready himself for the next season is to train in an environment that prides itself on the total development of the highly skilled pitcher.  

I’ve found that playing in games often just maintains a player’s current abilities. He may get a little more consistent with those abilities, but rarely does playing more games help a player improve his abilities.

The vast majority of players need to enhance some part, maybe even several parts, of their ability to play and/or be a contributor at the NEXT level. This is true whether that level is making a high school team, getting a college scholarship, getting in the rotation next season, becoming the #1 guy on the staff, or even getting drafted.

Going to college showcase camps will NOT get you on that team or into that school unless certain criteria are met on the mound:

• Velocity

• Arm health

• Physical strength

Despite what many coaches may tell you, throwing a baseball at 90 miles per hour is almost a guarantee to play at a D1 school. However, 91+ miles per hour IS a guarantee!

Most coaches state how important it is to throw strikes—as if no one else knows this. However, top colleges and universities also know that throwing a baseball faster means more swings and misses from a batter, plus an ability to throw the ball down the middle of the plate and get people out.

That CANNOT happen if you throw 85 mph, let alone 80–84 mph.

Pitches in the 86–87 mph range may get a school to look at them once or twice, but only after they finish looking at all the 90+ mph pitchers. Even 88–89 mph pitches get you their consideration and possibly on the team.

However, it will not get you more playing time because everyone in college does that. They throw 88 mph and get one opportunity to prove themselves before finding out that hitters LIKE 88 mph!

BUT, pitches that are 90+ mph make hitters shake their heads and say, “No bueno.”

Arm health is the ability to recover strongly enough after a long outing. It means you end up recovering, so you can come back and pitch another day if you’re in the bullpen.

Physical strength is what it is: the strength to throw a baseball with power and precision AND repeat that delivery over and over!

Showcases, college camps, and high school and club teams do not offer you any of these traits if you’re a hopeful high school and college player, even if you’re a professional. 

At our Throwzone Academy Summer Training Program, we see pitchers with a variety of goals who are looking to:

• Increase velocity
• Develop better secondary pitches
• Enhance command
• Eliminate an arm issue
• Achieve a combination of all the above

I fully believe the Throwzone Academy Summer Program is the place to help that progress occur. The reason we can train through so many different constraints is because we don’t use a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach.

Our past camp participants have moved on to play at the following universities:

• UCLA
• Arizona
• Oregon
• UC Irvine
• Cal State Fullerton
• Loyola-Marymount University
• Cal State Northridge
• Harvard University
• University of San Diego
• Stanford University
• University of Northern Colorado
• Campbell University
• Cal State Bakersfield
• University of Penn
• Air Force Academy
• UC Santa Barbara
• Georgetown University
• Westmont

There are never any guarantees in life, but you play the best hand available to you. You can rest assured we do a very good job at giving you the best cards so you can play the best hand possible.

Our summer training camp is tailored to match the way workouts and weekend clinics are run at the nationally known Texas Baseball Ranch in Houston, the Florida Baseball Ranch just outside of Tampa, and Driveline Baseball in Seattle, Washington.

Training will occur 3 times each week for 2½ hours each day. The workout will incorporate the following schedule:

• Mental training video
• Notebook review and daily goals
• Multiple warm-up routines
• Thoracic spine/glute activation
• Agility training
• Explosive training and speed work utilizing medicine balls, ropes, chains, box jumps, and weighted sprints
• Band, Plyo care throws, and reverse weighted implements
• Various deceleration work with weighted balls
• Lower half training drills
• Velocity enhancement with a weighted ball-throwing routine tailored to the individual needs of the player
• Video analysis
• Mound work
• Explosive sprint work
• Post-workout arm protocols and cool down
• Recovery work, including MarcPro, cupping, and mobility wrap enhancement for rapid recovery
• Nutritional guidelines for post-recovery success

We will have a specific and personalized throwing protocol for each player that will be part of their everyday training program. A camp notebook for velocity and strength goals will be of their daily routine.

We will be measuring and recording all reps and miles per hour, a staple of the class.

Keep in mind, this training is not for everyone. We would love to have every single person we’ve worked with involved in this class. As we’ve told players in the past, due to the training aspect and specificity of our program, we will be turning away students who may not be 100% committed to what we offer.

Our training sessions will not be a playground to keep players busy during the day. It isn’t that we don’t want everyone to be here, but we want only students who are serious about becoming better players and are looking to further their development for the next season. This is the perfect complement to finishing up a long summer season and transitioning to what becomes the most important part of training—the offseason or development time.

If you want to improve, then your progress will be measured, and you’ll know the path you’re on. Each player will know exactly where he stands. You can rest assured you’ll see great improvement, provided you put in the necessary work.

Our class schedule acts as the perfect complement to a high school and all-star team practice and any scheduled games they may have. Many of our students have shared how much more prepared they’ve felt before their summer games and that this training put them on the right track to begin their school practice sessions the following year.

The Throwzone Academy Summer Program is for three kinds of pitchers. Which one are you?

1. You threw plenty of innings in the fall, winter, and spring, and now you need to focus on making gains in one or two areas. You don’t need more innings; you need specialized development to reach your goals.
2. You lag behind your peers in one or more of these major categories: velocity, command, recovery and durability, or consistency from outing to outing. Simply throwing in more games during the summer won’t help you catch up.
3. You’re dealing with an injury, and you need to ensure you’re taking the right steps to get back to full health and stay there.

The camp will only be open to the first 14 players who register for that particular day’s time slot. You are considered registered when you make the initial class deposit and complete and sign the training registration form.

DATES:

June 5 to June 29

July 3 to July 27

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays

TIMES:  

First class: 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Second class: 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm

All training will be held indoors at the Throwzone Academy pitching facility.

This particular training is for players aged 13 and older. We will announce our training for younger players in the next two weeks.

The first training session will run from June 5 to June 29. We’ll then have a second session from July 3 through July 27.   

Each day, the camp will be a 2-and-a-half-hour workout with individual attention given to building up core strength and beginning arm care in addition to movement patterns that will precede the camp.

Dates of each session: 

1st Session: June 5–June 29 

2nd Session: July 3–July 27

 

Cost for each of the weeks:

2 weeks: $ 429

3 weeks: $ 629

4 weeks: $ 799

If you plan to attend all 8 weeks, the total (with a discount) is $1,509. 

Due to the individual nature of our summer training program, we will be offering ONLY 14 spots per class. And slots are filling up with 10 spots already taken out of the 28 total spots available for the morning and afternoon sessions! This means you must register as soon as possible. Due to social distancing, registration shut down once we fill all the slots. 

The first clients to contact me will be allowed into the class. A $100 deposit is required to hold a spot with the remaining fees due on the first day of camp. Deposits can be made via Venmo (search under @throwzone, my name is listed as James Wagner) or Zelle (use cell # 661-644-2147). Camp registration forms will be emailed to you after your confirmation.

When you reach out to us requesting to hold a spot for the summer training, I will send you a registration form to be completed and signed. Once that’s filled out and the deposit is secured, you will be one of the campers whose summer training is going to have a permanent impact on your baseball career!

Once our classes are full, there will be no further students admitted. 

Don’t miss out on the only sport-specific training and throwing program available on the West Coast that focuses on the areas you need to develop to become a more durable baseball player—with better arm recovery AND increased velocity while also maintaining control and command of your pitches.

Contact Jim at 661-644-2147 (texting is preferred) or email jim@throwzone.com for more information regarding the sessions you’re interested in and payment options.

If you want to become great at something and achieve your goal, you must write it down and measure the steps along the way. That is what Throwzone Academy is doing and why we are a leader in developing pitchers and throwers!