Luke Thelen got the call last Tuesday he’s been dreaming about since he was a kid.

The 2020 Caledonia High School graduate was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 15th round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft.

“It was awesome,” Luke said about the moment he was picked. “I mean some it kind of shocked me, it didn’t really hit me until later that night, but it was something I’ve always dreamed about so I was really excited. A lot of emotions, but I’m just excited to get down there get going.”

Thelen, who pitched the last 3 years at Western Michigan University, reported to the Rockies spring training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona this past weekend.

Thelen is a hard thrower. He touched 100 miles per hour on his fastball at his Pro Day this spring and was consistently in the upper 90s (mph) during the season pitching for the Broncos.

VELOCITY KING

Throwing a baseball that hard takes a combination of talent, practice, and strength.

Since he was a sophomore in high school he has been training at PowerStrength. He has blossomed with the customized plans that are created for him by expert coaches based on his needs not just as a baseball player, but specifically a pitcher. 

“Strength training, I think is really important,” Luke said. “Baseball is such a weird sport compared to other sports because you want to be strong, but we don’t want to lose the flexibility and mobility. If you’re too stocky, then it’s doesn’t do any good, no matter how much you can lift. So baseball is kind of like the happy medium of moving the weight fast and still having that mobility and flexibility, which PowerStrength really incorporates into my program. I have a completely different program than say a football player would have. I think it’s super important for any sport, because then you’re getting what you need in order to be the best at that respective sport.”

This hasn’t happened by accident, Luke is an extremely hard worker. He has spent countless hours in the gym making sure he has every advantage he can get, even when he was in high school and also played basketball, or when he went to college an hour away.

“He has always been super consistent despite a busy schedule,” PowerStrength trainer Will VanderArk said. “He’s always been making it happen multiple sessions per week. Every single session he is rolling in and putting 100% effort into it three, four or five times a week. When he got into college, it was every day. Every single day that he physically could be here, he’s been here.”

Luke has always thrown hard, but he has been able to keep progressing. In his junior year of high school he was in the mid-80s, his senior year he touched 90, at WMU he was reaching the mid-90s, and this past season is when he increased to the upper 90s and eventually 100 miles per hour.

“He throws super hard, so that’s a big thing that physically makes him different, and it’s something that he earned too,” VanderArk said. “If he didn’t do some of the stuff, if he was here just some of the time, did only some of the hard stuff like a lot of people do, he’s probably not throwing 100 miles an hour. However, he did all that extra stuff, and now he is throwing 100. I think it’s just the drive and the work ethic and the consistency on that, put that together consistently over a long time, you’ve got something different, for sure.”

Luke is sure that strength training has played a major role in his ability to continue to build velocity.

“Throughout the year, when I’m playing in-season I don’t get to lift as much, just with us being so busy and it’s harder because you want to feel sore when you’re playing games. I’d see my velo (velocity) drop a little bit during the year and as soon as I come back and start lifting more in the off-season, I’d see the velo tick back up,” Luke said. “It’s definitely important to continue to lift especially throughout the year, which is harder just because you don’t want to be sore when you’re out there pitching but definitely when you’re lifting you see those velo numbers increase.”

MOVING THE CHAINS

Luke has made incredible strides in his time at PowerStrength. In 5 years he dropped his 10-yard sprint by a whopping quarter of a second, added 35 inches to his broad jump, 8.5 inches to his vertical, and went from 4 max reps on his chin-up test to an astounding 21.

“They’ve done so much for me,” Luke said about PowerStrength. “Every year I just see steady growth in my strength numbers and that shows both on the field as a pitcher, but also it’s helped me as a person because they preach doing the right things off the field as well. It’s just a family atmosphere with all the coaches and all the other athletes. It’s a competitive zone but also it’s a family that you can talk to about anything. It is friendships I’m gonna have for life.”

Luke’s younger sister, Ellie who plays softball at Siena Heights, started at PowerStrength with him back in 2017 and still trains. She has had a front-row seat for Luke’s journey.

“When we started Luke and I were both just normal kids, didn’t have a ton of strength,” she recalled, “and after PowerStrength, we’ve been here for now 8 years, and I’ve seen great strength with me and Luke too, so we’ve grown a lot here at PowerStrength.”

Strong gains are made at PowerStrength in short periods, but it’s longevity that has helped turn Luke into a professional baseball player. 

“There are athletes who come and train consistently during certain seasons, but miss, and then it’s a lot of ebb and flow and then for the those that do it across such a long period of time, the difference is measurable,” VanderArk said. “When we test, there’s a massive difference between athletes who are here all the time and those that are here some of the time  – and the athletes that are here consistently across long periods, years, there’s a very obvious difference.”

“I know for me personally in softball, I could see my improvements with hitting and how hard I was hitting them and how much better I was performing,” Ellie added. “So pitching obviously, it’s huge for Luke, he gained velocity just from lifting at PowerStrength, when a lot of kids that don’t do this stuff in the summer, Luke and I did for summers and he’s seen that improvement obviously, and now he got drafted.”

RISING TOGETHER

The benefits of training at PowerStrength go beyond the physical gains. Luke believes he is better ‘above the shoulders’ from training alongside other athletes who are very serious about their sport.

“I would say it makes me a better competitor especially here at PowerStrength, where there are other athletes and you’re trying to out-lift them or beat them when we were are running and stuff like that,” Luke said. “It definitely works on that competitor muscle which you need in any sport, but it also helps with the discipline, making sure that you’re doing the stuff even when nobody’s watching. Are you cutting reps out or doing as much as you possibly can? And are you doing it the right way? So discipline and being a competitor I think are the two biggest things that it has done for me.”

GET STARTED AT POWERSTRENGTH 

5th-12th grade athletes of all sports and abilities can sign up at PowerStrength – while spots remain. PowerStrength currently has 4 facilities in West Michigan – Alpine, Kentwood, Jenison, and Plainfield – with a 5th facility in Holland coming in late fall 2024!

Multiple training sessions are offered throughout the day and into the evening during the summer, specific training times vary by location. 

Visit https://powerstrengthpro.com/athlete/contact/ to learn more or click below to schedule your assessment and get started.