Sarah Pauly--super slow motion video

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sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
Sarah Pauly, by way of her father Rick Pauly, was gracious enough to provide us with a super slow motion video of Sarah pitching. Thanks very much!

Ray

<embed src="http://share.ovi.com/flash/player.aspx?media=ratwod.11508&albumname=ratwod.softball" width="512" height="420" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>

Sarah Pauly, 2006 National Pro Fastpitch NFP Most Valuable Player

As a senior at UT-Corpus Christi, TX Pauly went 37-7 with a 0.56 earned run average and finished with 497 strikeouts and 12.08 strikeouts per seven innings. The 37 victories placed her third in the nation behind Texas’ Cat Osterman and Tennessee’s Monica Abbott while her strikeout ratio, strikeout total and ERA ranked second, third and fourth in the country. Her strikeout total and ratio are each among the NCAA’s Top-25 single season performances, ranking 15th and 12th, respectively. Following that season, Pauly was named an NCAA Third-Team All-American.

The version above has some artifacts. If you want the original version of the video:

Sarah Pauly--super slo motion original version
 
Mar 18, 2009
131
0
La Crosse WI
I have 2 questions:
1. There's a lot of action going on with Sarah's wrist and hand at the release point and followthru. Does Rick clarify whether she is throwing a movement pitch? It sort of looks like she's launching a rise, but the video still isn't slow enough for me to see if she's twisting her fingers under the ball. Her hand afte the release reminds me of the Japanese girl's video, where she waves it around like a dishrag.
2. Her drop-back has an exaggerated roll-up of her wrist and she swings forward into the windmill with the back of her hand leading (facing the target). Is this the recommended hand position? I have been more comfortable with a relaxed orientation of the hand, where it is outside the ball, facing in toward the hip.
Jim
 

halskinner

Banned
May 7, 2008
2,681
0
It looks like a 5-11 spin, it's a down and in pitch that is coming off the area between her thumb and index finger.
 
Mar 18, 2009
131
0
La Crosse WI
I don't get it. Why would that extreme tuck of the hand at swing-back and start of the windmill be desirous? Or the hand's back facing forward in the start of the windmill.
And after watching the super-slow-motion-video for the 85th time, I still can't decipher what the heck she's throwing. At 012 sec thru 015, it appears that she's under the ball with her hand inside the ball at release. But then the rest of her delivery/followthru appears to be the downward rolling over of her hand as one should do in completing a rollover drop.
Rick? Help.
JimP
 

halskinner

Banned
May 7, 2008
2,681
0
It looks like a 5-11 spin, it's a down and in pitch that is coming off the area between her thumb and index finger.

Should have added this before. The follow through like she is doing will add 5-11 spin pressure AS the ball rolls off the hand between the index and thumb.

To stop that follow through sooner might decrease the spin rate if stopped too soon.

She's getting the most spin she can, even if it looks a little goofy at the end.

:)
 
Feb 19, 2009
196
0
I don't get it. Why would that extreme tuck of the hand at swing-back and start of the windmill be desirous? Or the hand's back facing forward in the start of the windmill.
And after watching the super-slow-motion-video for the 85th time, I still can't decipher what the heck she's throwing. At 012 sec thru 015, it appears that she's under the ball with her hand inside the ball at release. But then the rest of her delivery/followthru appears to be the downward rolling over of her hand as one should do in completing a rollover drop.
Rick? Help.
JimP


I'm no pitching coach (maybe an amateur one for my dd's) but my dd's were getting mostly bullet spins on their balls and their coach noticed it and took a video of their release. He told them to go from 6 to 12 with their knuckles facing forward (towards catcher) and that would help them get into better position with the hand behind the ball on the downswing. Their natural tendancy was to have their hands at their sides so the catcher would see the ball between thier thumb and index finger.

It wasn't long after that that I saw this clip on the Pauley's website and pointed it out to them, seeing how exagerated she is when doing this certainly helped in pointing it out to them (it also helped that we've been to several Washington Glory games so Sarah's very popular with them).

We worked on that with taped balls and they've improved their spins and speed dramatically.
 
Jan 24, 2009
5
0
Having the back of the hand facing the catcher will help keep the hand behind the ball, avoiding corkscrew spin ( bullet spin - previous post ). This will also create consistency by starting the same way and turning the hand with the same timing as new pitches are learned. Some cup the hand on both rise and curve during pre-motion and do something different on other pitches causing inconsistency.

John
Powerline Fastpitch
 
Nov 6, 2008
71
0
Coachof4

Please elaborate as to why having the back of the hand to the catcher during the upswing is the optimum position. My experience has been that this varies from student to student based on what is comfortable - for many an upswing with thumb towards the hip is natural (hand shake position), for others back of hand facing batter fits better. Potentially, forcing the upswing to conform to the back of hand to batter technique could cause a certain amount of tension in the forearm and be counter productive. In either technique, the forearm rotates and the hand ultimately falls into the desired position at time of release.

It looks to me like Finch has thumb facing hip, Ueno seems to be behind the ball on the clips I have seen, while others like Pauly in this video follow what you recommend.

Steve
 

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