Thread: Stride length and hard landings

I have seen a well meaning piece of advice of a drill that requires a pitcher to step up and over knee heigth. Just so you know in pitching the higher you step the harder you will land. Hard landings at the instant of 'landing foot touchdown' is Very jaring to the body and is VERY hard on the shoulder complex.

I always told my students to pretend they had a rollerblade on thier stride foot and to never let their stride foot get any higher than that. Landing on the ball of the foot with the heel slightly in the air and coming down immediately afterwards, along with a slightly bent knee, is the body's shock absorber. Striding out with the foot too high will usually cause the pitcher to touch down with the knee either straight or bent too much. Landing with too much of a bend or a locked knee can quickly cause injury to the knee.

The use of wiffle balls as a pitching drill does NOTHING for the arm circle. This is a tool I introduced to this board to help pitchers learn "finger finesse" for pinpoint accuracy and to help establish a better release point.

All too often pitchers are told "just throw hard, accuracy will come" this is idiotic. Way too many young pitchers try and let the weight of the ball do most of thier thinking when it comes to accuracy. THOSE pitchers are not really pitchers, they are throwers and they are a dime a dozen no smarter than the softball they are throwing. Take the weight of that softball away from them and they are forced to actually think about the roll their hand and fingers play in pinpoint accuracy. Give them a whiffle ball held with the fingertips, and the ball not touching the palm of the hand and they have no choice but to think about the release point and their fingers.

This is what the wiffle ball teaches.

Originally Posted by Westwind

Hal- I tried this and dd fussed about where to put her fingers around the holes. Shouldn't a jugs light flight ball accomplish the same? Ww.

Try using the thumb, index abd middle fingersa only. The other two just get u thr way anyway. Liht grp.