- Oct 10, 2011
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If you were to rewrite this with some small changes, what would you change? T his is a portion of the article on 2nd base throw down on NECC ' S website. ..
"Now the upper half of the body.
The exchange of the ball from glove to hand is a big time eater for many players.
Once the ball makes contact with the glove the first move the player makes is to turn the glove so the pocket is now facing them. They grab the ball and the throwing hand immediately begins its path back through the throwing slot. The back of the throwing hand leads the hand back. Do not lead with the elbow. The glove stays out in front of the player. It does not travel back toward the throwing shoulder after the ball is removed.
Many kids are taught to draw the glove back with the ball and remove the ball when the glove is back to the right ear. I believe that technique causes 2 problems that need to be eliminated.
By drawing the glove back to the ear you cause the front (left) shoulders to close off the front side. Some girls rotate that shoulder so far that their left shoulder is pointed towards the 1 st base dugout. Obviously this causes alignment problems that almost surely will result in a erratic throw.
The 2 nd problem this causes is the sideways movement that will be created by the glove side arm when the throw is executed. As we throw, the glove side arm should be driving down to the left side to help pull the right side forward to get the release point out in front. With the glove back so deep on the right side of the catchers face, the first moves that arm will make is a radical sideways motion just to get back on the left side of the body. Then, and only then can that left elbow bend and the left arm drive down where it belongs. All of this sideways torque is counter productive to a throw that’s should be headed toward 2 nd base.
From this point the left elbow moves up to a point where the elbow is bent at a 90-degree and the left elbow is pointed directly at 2 nd. I tell the catchers to use this elbow as their sight. The upper arm should be shoulder height. Level to the ground. Glove hand is allowed to bend down at wrist in relaxed position.
When the ball was removed it began its path back the throwing slot. The grip we are working for here is a 4-seam. With practice a player can come out of the glove with a 4-seam grip nearly ever time. The biggest issue from this point is that the entire throwing arm, shoulder, elbow, hand and ball NEVER go any lower then when they remove the ball from the glove. As soon as the arm starts back it should begin to track in an upward direction, the back of the hand leading the arm back. Our “target” is to end up with our right elbow shoulder high with the upper arm parallel to the ground. Yes, just like the glove side arm. The elbow should be at a 90-degree angle up. The ball should face the backstop, hand slightly on top of the ball. If the ball is not all the way facing the back stop the impending rotation of the hips and arm will almost always create a wrist roll. This will result in a throw that will act like a curve ball and tail away to the left."
I'll remove if copying this is not permitted, but I was curious after hearing this being taught recently and seeing that it hasn't been changed on their site.
Thanks.
"Now the upper half of the body.
The exchange of the ball from glove to hand is a big time eater for many players.
Once the ball makes contact with the glove the first move the player makes is to turn the glove so the pocket is now facing them. They grab the ball and the throwing hand immediately begins its path back through the throwing slot. The back of the throwing hand leads the hand back. Do not lead with the elbow. The glove stays out in front of the player. It does not travel back toward the throwing shoulder after the ball is removed.
Many kids are taught to draw the glove back with the ball and remove the ball when the glove is back to the right ear. I believe that technique causes 2 problems that need to be eliminated.
By drawing the glove back to the ear you cause the front (left) shoulders to close off the front side. Some girls rotate that shoulder so far that their left shoulder is pointed towards the 1 st base dugout. Obviously this causes alignment problems that almost surely will result in a erratic throw.
The 2 nd problem this causes is the sideways movement that will be created by the glove side arm when the throw is executed. As we throw, the glove side arm should be driving down to the left side to help pull the right side forward to get the release point out in front. With the glove back so deep on the right side of the catchers face, the first moves that arm will make is a radical sideways motion just to get back on the left side of the body. Then, and only then can that left elbow bend and the left arm drive down where it belongs. All of this sideways torque is counter productive to a throw that’s should be headed toward 2 nd base.
From this point the left elbow moves up to a point where the elbow is bent at a 90-degree and the left elbow is pointed directly at 2 nd. I tell the catchers to use this elbow as their sight. The upper arm should be shoulder height. Level to the ground. Glove hand is allowed to bend down at wrist in relaxed position.
When the ball was removed it began its path back the throwing slot. The grip we are working for here is a 4-seam. With practice a player can come out of the glove with a 4-seam grip nearly ever time. The biggest issue from this point is that the entire throwing arm, shoulder, elbow, hand and ball NEVER go any lower then when they remove the ball from the glove. As soon as the arm starts back it should begin to track in an upward direction, the back of the hand leading the arm back. Our “target” is to end up with our right elbow shoulder high with the upper arm parallel to the ground. Yes, just like the glove side arm. The elbow should be at a 90-degree angle up. The ball should face the backstop, hand slightly on top of the ball. If the ball is not all the way facing the back stop the impending rotation of the hips and arm will almost always create a wrist roll. This will result in a throw that will act like a curve ball and tail away to the left."
I'll remove if copying this is not permitted, but I was curious after hearing this being taught recently and seeing that it hasn't been changed on their site.
Thanks.