by Richard Todd, WebBall head coach

In thinking about the articles in the pitching plateau series by Bill Mooney and Ron Wolforth, and in reviewing my own related article on what it takes to be exceptional, something was missing - another form of reality check - and that's what this article is about.


To make the distinction clear, a plateau in pitching velocity is a temporary condition - you might make good progress going from 72 mph to 77 mph, then stall for a while, then progress from 78 to 83 mph in just a few weeks.

A ceiling is something different. It is an absolute, or near absolute.

For example, as best we can tell - in 150 years of baseball - somewhere around 104-105 mph seems to be the theoretical ceiling for velocity. There have been a rare few who've approached it but no one to my knowledge has been officially recorded as crossing it. And, on a practical basis, the achievable ceiling is more likely from 99-102 mph (a velocity reached by several modern day hurlers, usually closers.) And if there is a starter ceiling (given that they can't throw 100% on every pitch over several innings) that would more reasonably be in the 94-95 mph range.

But for many MLB pitchers their personal ceiling is less than that - and it can fluctuate by health and age from one season to the next. (As many have observed, Mariano Rivera's ceiling now is several mph less than it was 5 years ago, perhaps 91-92 vs 97-98.)


If you're reading this, then you are likely still on the way up - an amateur player, and a legitimate prospect, with (hopefully) high project-ability to be a college or pro star someday. In other words, you are dealing with the temporary plateaus discussed by Mooney and Wolforth, but you have not yet reached your limit.

At least, that's the assumption - that you still have some mph left in the tank, still room for growth and improvement, still an opportunity to see your numbers break through the current plateau. That's why you keep training. Because you don't know what your ceiling might be - and you aren't about to give up short of your goal. (Some might, but not you.)

Sticking to it is an admiral quality - what pro coaches and scouts are looking for. But there is a law of diminishing returns. As Wolforth point outs, adding 3 mph this month doesn't mean you'll add over 30 mph a year. At some point as you approach your own ceiling - plateaus or not - the time it takes to gain each additional 1 mph will lengthen. And eventually, you begin to realize - like it or not - you are approaching your ceiling.


So now comes the tough part in your training - accepting reality. If that eventual ceiling of yours is 94 mph it might not matter, but if the ceiling is 87 or 88, well, it can matter a lot.

Unfortunately, whatever the reason - your overall height, your arm length, your muscle make-up (by type), your kinetic sequencing or overall mechanical smoothness - no matter how much more you put into your physical effort, nothing happens. For months you keep trying to get over that last hump, only to eventually realize it's not a hump, it's your ceiling.

Fortunately, baseball is a strange game in many ways, and one of them is that the game is not purely physics. In pole vaulting if you can't get over a height, you just can't. If swimming, if you can't find any more mechanical efficiency, well that's it. More or less. But exceptional athletes - even in sports where the physics of distance or height or time are near absolutes, there is the other side of the sport - mental training.

While some sports may have some potential to beat the clock by pacing your race better, no sport offers more opportunity than baseball for pushing beyond the physical limitations of the game. You don't need to hit the ball the farthest to score a run, and you don't need to pitch the fastest to get an out. It helps, but it isn't always required.

What is necessary is an understanding of strategy - that an 86 mph fastball can be just as effective as one at 92 - if it's located in the right spot and sequenced with other pitches to fool the batter. (The details of this are covered in the Deception Lesson Series.)

So even throwers who have hit their physical ceiling, can continue to develop command and control and improve as pitchers.

Remember that the next time you're stuck on a plateau that seems to have no end. If phycisal progress is stalled or stopped, switch to a change in training focus - the mental aspect of pitching has no known ceiling - there's always room for improvement.