BBALLER13333 TUFF CUFF Workout Regime...Start to Finish

Logs
#1

I just received my TUFF CUFF workout book today and will begin the workout starting this coming Monday. I want to track my journey, because I feel it will be a good way to keep me motivated.

My Info:

Name: Kyle Smith
Age: 17
Height: 6’4’'
Weight: 280
School: Auburn Riverside High School

Throws: Right
Bats: Left
Pitches:
Fastball
Curveball
Change-Up (Circle)
Sinker
Slider

Practice Today (9/12/07)

Today I pitched for the first time in a week. I recently got a free lesson from the pitching coach I will hopefully be working with soon, so he changed some of my mechanic flaws. The hardest thing is staying back after my foot lands, my body wants to go forward with my stride leg, but I have to get used to staying back. The couple fixes he made really helped a lot, but will take a few sessions to get them down comfortably. I have recently added a sinker and slider to my arsenal though, sinker being the better of the two. However, my curveball wasn’t as sharp as normal because I havent worked on it much. My fastball now has a downward movement compared to the past when it stayed flat or rose a bit. Also my sinker is surprisingly breaking just before it crosses the plate, so Im hoping to get a lot of groundballs this year. I will keep working on these things and hopefully master it soon.

The hitting portion of my practice went really well. I hit three straight homeruns over RF (320 feet) and hit 3 cars, including my coaches brand new Mustang (oops). So I feel like I have my stroke back after not concentrating on hitting for close to a month.

I have a game on Sunday and should pitch 2-3 innings, I will let ya’ll know how I did and how I felt out there.

#2

When you say keeping your weight back after your front foot lands do u bring your weight forward before, during , or after you release the ball. because when you release the ball you want your nose to be out in front of your knee.

Good luck with your game

#3

[quote=“baseballer11”]When you say keeping your weight back after your front foot lands do u bring your weight forward before, during , or after you release the ball. because when you release the ball you want your nose to be out in front of your knee.

Good luck with your game[/quote]

What I mean is before I was moving forward with my stride foot and falling off the left. Now I am trying to stay back and have my stride foot land first, and then have all my weight come forward as I release the ball.

#4

Oic I wasn’t sure what you meant but now I understand. To make sure your landing in a straight line, you could draw a line from where your back heel is down towards the plate. You want to land on the line or very close to it. Hope this helps.

#5

My Game:

Well the game went fine being the first one for me in close to two months. I didn’t feel rusty at all, but I did feel awkward when I was pitching. I am trying new mechanics, and have only practice them two or three times. And I was trying new pitches, so I wasn’t feeling it today. My performance went as follows…

Defense- I played first base for 4 innings and only got one pop up hit to me and I caught it. So no errors and it was the first time Ive played first in about four months.

Batting- Ive only hit twice in the past month and today I felt pretty comfortable. In my first at bat I took five pitches and walked. My second at bat I nailed an inside pitch the other way and the LF made an awkward play robbing me of a double at least. My third AB I got down in the count 1-2, worked it to 3-2, fouled off two more and then smoked one up the middle for a single. My fourth AB I hit a hard deep one, but the OFs were playing back and it was right to him. My fifth AB I hit the first pitch and pulled a grounder to first for an out.

Overall: 1-4, single, BB…I felt good at the plate and the times I got out I hit it solid.

Pitching- Here is what I was looking forward to the most and I did alright for the two innings I got. The first inning I threw one pitch and got the kid to ground out. Then I walked a batter on a pitch that I thought was a strike that painted the inside corner on a 3-2 count. Then I tried my newly added sinker, but it started a little high and went right down the middle, luckily we used wood bats and the kid popped it up to center. I walked another batter, so 2 men were on with 2 outs. The next batter I blew a fastball by him for strike three.

2nd Inning- The first batter I got to a 3-2 count after falling behind 3-1 and I threw him a curveball and he swung and missed (He looked stupid, Im guessing he was expecting fastball). Then I threw a pretty good sinker, but the kid hit it just over my reach up the middle for a single. Next batter I got to pop out to my CF. Then walked another batter. 2 men on with 2 outs and I got a groundout to 1st.

Stat Line: 2 innings, 1 hit, 3 walks, 2 SOs, 0 runs.

Overall: I did well considering not being comfortable at all and just working on my new mechanics and pitches. Next week I play against a college team and Im hoping to perform well, because this is the college I am planning on attending after this year.

#6

how fast do u throw? i was wondering cause u are a big guyy

#7

Havent been clocked since I was 14. I feel like I throw high 70s to low 80s right now…with uncomfortable mechanics.

edit: Of course that is my judgement and I always feel like Im not throwing good enough or hard at all. While I was pitching today the opposing coach kept telling his batters to start quicker, Im assuming because I was throwing kinda hard? At least I hope, lol.

#8

well i think u have a lot of potential keep working hard

#9

Thanks, Im trying my best.

#10

Well my original intent was to start the TUFF CUFF work out yesterday (tuesday), but I got sick and decided to put it off for this week. I will be starting it on the monday or tuesday coming up and hopefully I should be feeling better by then.

I have baseball practice today and I am going to it to get a bullpen session in and a little hitting. I will have a 20 second clip of me pitching two or three pitches, so hopefully I can get that up here asap and I can get some suggestions.

My next game is sunday against a community college team that I was planning on attending after this year. So I hope I play good and make a good impression for the coach!

#11

Well had my practice today and it figures that I did more running in today’s practice then in previous ones (I say it figures because Im sick, lol). I did some covering first base on a grounders that pull the 1B off the bag and then bunt coverage. And although that doesnt seem like much running, but there was only three pitchers doing it and it was bang-bang-bang so I was hustling the entire time for a good 10-12 times at each thing. Being sick got me very tired.

After that I hit a couple rounds and didn’t do great, but I had a few solid line drives.

Pitching wise we started running out of daylight and two kids that think they are a pitcher just had to go before me and left me with no light. So I went through two warm-up routines (tubing and running) and then only got to throw four pitches.

I guess the positive was the kid before me was pitching with about the same light as I did and when I got up on the fourth fastball the catcher dove out of the way because he couldn’t see it. The positive from this was when he said, “When Zach (other kid) was pitching I could see fine, but Smitty (me) gets up there and he blazes it in there and I couldn’t see crap.” So I guess that means I throw pretty hard :lol:

I wasnt able to get any video done of me pitching because of the daylight, so Im not sure when I will be able to. I may try to get some tomorrow.

#12

So I pitched against the college team today and it went really well. We ended up losing 4-3, but we hung in there and fought hard.

My game:

Hitting- I got up 3 times and struck out twice with a flyout. I wasnt seeing the ball and I was more focused on pitching anyways.

Pitching- I pitched great, the first inning it took a few pitches to adjust to the mound, so I threw some balls, but I settled in. I gave up a weak groundball infield single to the first batter, but then set them down 1-2-3 after that. My second inning was just as good getting a 1 pitch 1 out right away. Then I gave up another infield single that skipped off a laid out 3B glove. Then three pitches later I got a groundball for a Double Play (9 pitch inning). My third and final inning I did just as good sitting them down 1-2-3 using 11 pitches. Since it was fall ball I was only going to get 2 innings, but I begged for a third and got it. It felt great shutting down a college team, especially when I incorporated a splitter for the first time ever. My fastball had good zip on it in the last inning, because I got comfortable with my mechnics. My curveball was breaking hard and the splitter got 5 groundball outs.

Overall Stat Line: 3 IP, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 0 Runs (8 of 9 were groundball outs)

I am pretty proud of myself coming in there and shutting them down. Especially with me keeping the ball down and getting all groundball outs except for one. Next week I play a intersquad game with another college, so hopefully I can be successful again!

#13

I did my first TUFF CUFF workout finally today. I decided to get right into Phase 3 because Phase 1 and 2 are just to easy.

It was tough spending a lot of time in a gym doing these slow and boring workouts, but it is just something I need to get back into again. It will take me this first week to get used to spending a good chunk of time in the gym again, but it will be worth it.

Now Im waiting for Friday to et my pay check so I can stock the kitchen with good food to eat and not junk food.

#14

then you log should be called TUFFCUFF skip phase 1&2 cuase there to easy skip[ right to phase 3 to the end. Whats the point you need to do everything to say I finished TUFFCUFF

#15

Well I decided to try and get this going again.

Baseball started yesterday and I am pretty excited and tired at the same time.

Practice 1, Monday:

Well we did a ton more running, probably more cardio then we do ALL of last year. It’s a good thing, but also get’s me way more tired because I have a weight training class, which exhausts me, AND basketball class at the end of the day (more running).

We now have about 5 “Pitchers Only” and we all kinda do our own thing for most of the practice. I basically do the team stretching and running warm-ups. Then I play long toss with my pitching partner, then will usually do some tubing. Then I will get a good stretching session in on my legs (Hammy’s have been tight the past couple days), and then run 4-5 sets of poles. Once I am done with that I might hit, if we are hitting, or throw some flat ground.

Then I got to throw a live BP session to 3 of our best hitters. The 1-2-3 hitters to be exact. The leadoff guy I BLEW a fastball right by him for strike three (He is a D1 shortstop and got 2nd Team last year, but he will get 1st team this year). The second hitter I plunked in the shoulder really hard, so that was short lived. Then they #3 hitter comes up (Would go D1 if his grades weren’t piss-poor) and I got 0-2 on him and then caught a little to much of the play, luckily he popped up.

I was a bit rust and the curve or change weren’t as sharp as normal, but I am confident it will all come together real quickly.

The leadoff hitter that I blew a fastball by told me the next day (Today) in class that I was throwing way harder then I was last year. Also, his brother I have in class said that Josh (the D1 SS) told him that I musta been working hard, because I had gotten a lot better. So I like getting those kinds of praises, especially from one of our leaders.

That is basically all I did on monday.

Practice 2, Tuesday:

Today I actually got to hit a little. I got up there, without hitting for 3-4 weeks, and crushed 2 homeruns and a lot of smoking line drives. Our leadoff and #3 hitter were telling me, “I was hitting the sh*t out of the ball.” So maybe I can FINALLY get my shot at being the DH?

Pitching wise I just did my normal running, long toss, tubing and worked on the curveball spins. Didn’t do a ton. Tomorrow I will be throwing live BP again and I hope to strike out every batter I face.

#16

Practice 3:

So today it was just the normal stuff. I played long toss, ran, did some tubing, and threw a 20 pitch bullpen. Nothing exciting, just a long slow practice.

I got to hit ONCE, it was hit and run drill, and the one pitch I saw all practice, I crushed a double off the fence.

I have been feeling my power really start to hone in on me in my hitting and same with the pitching. I feel a lot stronger this year and it’s a great thing.

#17

So I decided to just post in here after a game.

Had our jamboree today, 2 3-inning games.

I got 1 inning, the 2nd inning, as we had 6 pitchers go 1 each.

I’d say mine went pretty well…Stat line is.

1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BBs, 3 SOs, 13 pitches

I struck out the side on 12 fastballs and 1 curve (my final pitch for a SO).

Felt good to get out there after a long layoff and dominate like that.

#18

We lost 13-11 today in 5 innings (got called cuz of rain).

Luckily they are non-league games and dont count on our record. I pitched my 2 innings and by far did the best out of all the pitchers, but in my mind it wasn’t that great of an outing.

Stat Line:

2 IP
3 Hits
1 BB
1 ER
2 SO
40 pitches.

I guess it is good, but the pitch count was a little high and the hits were just dinky grounders the infielders couldnt get to.

Also the pitching mound was AWFUL! It was like pitching in a sand box and there was basically no slope what-so-ever. Definitely not a fun mound to pitch on.

I pitch again on Thursday for another 2-3 innings.

#19

We’ve played three games since my last post. Rainouts suck.

Ive pitched twice since then, one went pretty bad, and the other one (yesterday) I just tossed 1 inning and went 1-2-3 on 7 pitches.

I havent been throwing as hard and my elbow is just not holding up like I thought it would. I will still continue to pitch, but I have to use my change more and hit spots even better.

I finally got my first AB two games ago and hit a RBI double off the fence. So in my last game (yesterday) I got the DH start. I went 1-2, RBI single and a walk. The AB i got out on was a hard line drive smash about 320 feet, but in dead center right to the fielder. It was a really hard hit out, lol.

Hopefully I keep earning ABs and I can make a name for myself at the plate this year.

#20

Well my regular season over and playoffs start this weekend.

My season started out great, but kinda leveled out.

Pitching was great for my first three starts, but my final two outings were sub-par.

I got more at-bats then I thought I would, but I never got into a good rythm at the plate. I either struck out or walked it seemed.

My pitching stats are as follows…

Win-Loss: 3-1
IP: 28
SO: 26
ERA: 5.00

My ERA was high, but three of my four starts I only gave up 4 runs each (7 in the other start). I kept my team in the game and three of my four starts were 1 run ball games only once being on the losing end (4-3).

My highlight of the season was striking out 9 in a CG over the then #1 ranked team in Washington (Auburn High School). They have 2 Washington State University commits and one of the them is going to get drafted at the catcher position. I struck out the soon-to-be drafted catcher twice as he went 0-2 with a intentional walk. And the other WSU commit went 1-2 against me and I struck him out as well. We lost that game 4-3 which sucked, but NOBODY expected me to shut down that team for the most part. The other sweet thing about it was that catcher was being taped for some draft highlight video and I struck him out twice on camera :lol: .