Using the light ball for throws and not releasing the weighted balls for the last month has had a negative effect on my throwing speed. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I'm scratching this from my training for now.
I've noticed the same thing this last year. I noticed my mechanics were way off. Going to work a lot on my mechanic this off season. Saw an u tube video about hip arm separation. Seems to be helping. Don't know how to copy the link. search topvelocity.net.
Just once per week in addition to other weight lifting and core stuff 5-6 days a week. I went from a consistent 62-63mph to 58-59mph.
So long story short I took a break from throwing each week. My velocity was decreasing, and while the med ball workouts were helping my rotational power there were still a lot of other areas of my back, core, and legs/hips/glutes that were being neglected. I decided to switch things up and I started the AthleanX AX-2 program on January 1st. This guy (Jeff Cavalier) was the strength and condition coach + physical therapist for the Mets for 3 years. I saw a lot of his videos on YouTube and really enjoyed how thorough and in depth he went with bones, joints, muscles, etc. Being so involved with MLB he seems to have a really good handle on injury prevention for throwing and running sports. A lot of focus on the rotator cuff (exercises very similar to the J-Bands workouts) and glutes (weak glutes = hamstring pulls). AX-2 has been INCREDIBLY tough, but in terms of my overall body strength + endurance I feel I’m in the best shape of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a flabby mid-section and have a good ways to go, but this is a huge step in the right direction. I plan on starting throwing again at the end of the month, and after watching some video of my most recent throws in December I really need to work on shoulder and hip separation. I found a few good drills to start with.
In the last couple weeks I've done some light throwing to loosen my arm up. Today I hit the cages and then threw some. High of 62mph but fairly consistent at 61mph. Not bad after taking about 4 months off! Working on shoulder/hip separation really for the first time. It's going to take some time.
I'm 61 and the best thing I've found is throwing a football. If your throwing technique is good you'll get a spiral. I've thrown the football a lot this spring and my softball throws from the outfield now have much better distance and velocity.
