New Year’s Holiday Sale: ends december 31st
From 74 to 82 mph in under a year and over .25 seconds shaved off his pop-time—Henry Lamberg was without a doubt one of our top off-season standouts in the BackStopU community. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how we elevated Henry’s throw-down velocity by 8 mph and reduced his pop time to an elite 1.88 seconds.
Henry has high aspirations for himself as a catcher, and because of that, we hit the ground running as soon as the off-season began. His throw-down velocity was consistently in the low to mid 70s last spring, but thanks to his accuracy, he was still throwing out runners at a solid clip. That said, if Henry was going to get on the radar at the level he envisioned, his throwing velocity had to take a leap.
While velocity was our main focus, the path we took to improve it naturally elevated other key catcher metrics along the way.
Our first areas of focus were bodyweight, force production, and power output. In the spring of 2024, Henry’s bodyweight hovered around 155 pounds. At 5'9", that wasn't enough mass to create the kind of force and power needed to become a truly explosive athlete. With a combination of dedicated strength training and significant dietary improvements, Henry steadily added mass and muscle, which translated quickly into increased force production—as measured by his Isometric Mid-Thigh Pull.
From there, we progressed Henry through ballistic and rate-of-force-development (RFD) training phases aimed at building power. His Countermovement Jump data showed that those adaptations stuck and continued climbing.
Based on Henry’s updated force and power profiles, our velocity equation suggested he had the potential to throw 82 mph from behind the plate.
As a thrower, Henry already had a solid foundation—good body control, clean timing, and strong intent. At a PBR event in March of 2024, his catcher metrics were:
Henry’s longer levers—an asset or a challenge depending on how they’re used—required us to rethink how we generated velocity efficiently. Instead of focusing on “feeling” his arm in space, we targeted the proximal segments of his body (mainly his torso). This meant tons of torso-focused waterbag drills that helped Henry internalize better sequencing and timing. These drills gave him a simpler, more compact approach and further refined his already solid mechanics.
Another major piece was monitoring Henry’s ArmCare force metrics before and after throwing sessions. While there wasn’t a red flag to fix, we wanted to leave no stone unturned. Monitoring helped us regulate workload and stress, ensuring he could train consistently at high intent. One pivotal area of focus was improving Henry’s total strength which rose from 152 pounds of force, to 187 pounds of force. This was a great sign given that as Henry’s bodyweight increased, so did the force capacity in his arm.
We also built variability into his throwing—different arm slots, different environments—to build coordination, athleticism, and confidence. As a catcher, being locked into one throwing style is limiting. The goal was to become a shortstop behind the dish. (If you want a visual of this, search Patrick Bailey throwing on YouTube.)
Finally, we placed a big emphasis on high-intent throw-down reps in a practice setting. This gave Henry space to experiment and take risks without fear of failure. Through this, he began consistently tapping into the 80+ mph range from the crouch—a massive milestone for a developing catcher.
Earlier this March, Henry retested at the same PBR event from a year prior. His updated metrics:
These are numbers that put him on the map as a legit 2027 backstop.
Henry’s consistency, coachability, and hunger to improve made this process not just productive—but genuinely fun. His hard work has paid off in a big way.
Major props to Henry for the focus and consistency he showed this off-season. We’re fired up to see all of this translate to the field this spring.
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