TRAQ Series: Youth Athlete

This mini-blog was written by Micah Simpson, a 13-year-old baseball player.

I signed up for TRAQ because my strength trainer, who I had worked with for six years, moved away, and I wasn’t able to find a solid replacement who was either baseball specific or affordable. So, I created my own strength program using information from DrivelinePLUS. I trained in my dad’s small workout space, which I transformed into a decent pitching facility by building a homemade Plyo Ball ® wall, a homemade shoulder tube, and a pitching mound out of dirt. I followed that program for about a month. During that time, my parents and I continued to look for options for my strength and pitching training, so when I saw that TRAQ had become free, I thought I would give it a try. 

Before TRAQ, my training consisted of strength training with a trainer 1-3 days a week, a pitching program I designed for myself with the help of DrivelinePLUS and a former Driveline trainer, and occasionally working with a pitching coach. After the first week of using TRAQ, I knew that I wanted to make it a part of my routine.

When I first went into the website, I loved how easy it was to access all of the ‘’how-to’’ videos. The links to Hacking the Kinetic Chain and information about nutrition are very useful, and the way the workouts are planned out is amazing—TRAQ does most of the scheduling for me. My coaches and parents leave training to me, so I believe the structure will help me to stay on track.

I was tracking data before TRAQ, but not as in-depth as I am now. I used to track most of my bullpens with a Diamond Kinetics ball or a pocket radar, but I was not able to do it as much as I thought I should. For strength, I didn’t track a lot of data other than writing some PRs down and remembering the weight I had used on certain exercises in my head. 

Now, I use TRAQ in a couple different ways. First, I use TRAQ for a 3-day-a-week strength program. This program gives me a strength workout almost every other day. I tried the pitching program and loved it as well, even though it was very similar to what I was already doing – a 6-week blend to season pitching program. I play in a tournament—my first in 2 months—a couple days after this program ends, so it will prepare me for the in-game environment. Finally, if I have any questions about a drill or an exercise, I use TRAQ’s information vault. 

TRAQ has helped me organize my data and my schedule so much. I used to keep all of my data in my head—sometimes writing down a number if it seemed important—but now with TRAQ I’m able to keep all my numbers together, in a place where I can see them easily. I knew that the data was being logged, which meant others might see it, too. I never thought anybody at Driveline was tracking my workouts, but just in case they were, I always wanted to complete as much as I could and never skip anything. A dream of mine is to train and maybe even intern at Driveline someday, so I thought that taking the training seriously would be a good way to prepare myself if I ever get the chance to go to Seattle.

Learn more about TRAQ here

Micah Simpson