Breaking Pitches and Wear and Tear on the Arm

JJS said:

My DD throws this pitch, and throws it pretty well. The "arm/hand shaking" is a defense mechanism that I have seen a bunch out of girls this age. Throw a bad pitch, and they shake their hand. So, I am guessing that is the response that you are seeing.

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I have seen this a lot myself. My DD use to do this after a bad pitch. I think sometimes they do it and don't even realize it. It was a habit DD had to break. I basically told her when she does this she is telling the other team she threw a bad pitch and what she needed to convey was that she meant to throw the pitch in that spot, even if she didn't.

As far as wear and tear with a drop ball...DD throws it a lot and I have not seen any issues over the past few year. I think you will be surprised that even at 14U your DD can be successful with either a FB or Drop and a good CU. I would keep working hard on the CU. I think it is a must at 14u. If she can learn to place that drop inside and outside and a different levels she can be very successful with just that and her CU. Once she learns to control her drop some throw it with a "loose wrist" and she can get movement like a DC. As she learns the Drop this will happen some without even trying.

Again, drop is a great pitch...but got to have a CU at 14U IMO.

FrozenRope said:

...it's new to her body...so I'm thinking it's muscles she's using that she's never used before. Is this typical with regard to the new release patterns that the arm might get a little sore/tight....similar to the feeling a weight lifter might have after working a muscle for the first few times??

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FR, just wanted to add that you may need to look at some exercises to strengthen her muscles from the forearm down. I am not a big fan of heavy weights for this age of girl. I do like the more natural exercises, med ball work, etc. In the past few months my DD is doing work to strengthen herself specifically in the forearm and down area. Coach Pauly has a great video on his site that has a lot of great exercises to help with this. DD especially likes the rice bucket exercises. The things he recommends you can get very cheap or make it yourself and are very portable.

These days I primarily teach the peel drop, but there are some girls who just more inclined toward a RO so I will do that with them. Haven't really seen the hand shaking thing, though. Are you sure she's not just trying to get the feel of the motion by repeating it? I've had girls do that on different pitches. They know they didn't do it right, so they try again without the ball right away. I've also seen them make a motion to shake off a pitch that didn't work. We call that pulling a Taylor Swift.

Big thing to watch out for is hunching the throwing shoulder. In their effort to try to raise the flight of the ball, pitchers will sometimes pull the shoulder up, anywhere from a little to a lot. That creates tension throughout the arm and could cause injury. Be sure she's keeping the throwing side shoulder relaxed. Usually the problem is with the shoulder but I suppose it could travel down.

Out in Left Field said:

PS. None of my pitchers has ever shook their hand for a bad pitch. They shook it because something did not feel right.

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Maybe their spot?

PapaPump said:

I have seen this a lot myself. My DD use to do this after a bad pitch. I think sometimes they do it and don't even realize it. It was a habit DD had to break. I basically told her when she does this she is telling the other team she threw a bad pitch and what she needed to convey was that she meant to throw the pitch in that spot, even if she didn't.

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I fully agree. I see it all the time. It appears to be a subconscious, nervous gesture after throwing a pitch that didn't hit the spot. Usually far from the spot.

Out in Left Field said:

How about ball slipping, fingernail getting roughed up, dirt on the ball, something a little off that causes a twinge, lost grip.

The sub-conscious knows the pitch did not hit its spot, and the answer from the pitcher's nervous system is to shake the hand? This is really silly and I am signing off on this topic.

Why not ask the pitcher why and settle it?

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Lots of things may appear to be "silly" while they are still real. An individual's perception is their reality.

Out in Left Field said:

How about ball slipping, fingernail getting roughed up, dirt on the ball, something a little off that causes a twinge, lost grip.

The sub-conscious knows the pitch did not hit its spot, and the answer from the pitcher's nervous system is to shake the hand? This is really silly and I am signing off on this topic.

Why not ask the pitcher why and settle it?

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What specifically compelled you to make this decision?
The reason I ask is that I want to bottle it and market it internationally.

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Out in Left Field said:

Why not ask the pitcher why and settle it?

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I have asked my DD and she had always told me that she didn't do it. She had no idea she was even doing it. I haven't seen her do it in quite a while. We have talked about not letting the other team know that we didn't hit our spot. For all they know we were trying to throw the ball 6 inches outside rather than over the inside corner.

I have a feeling that this goes away as girls age

I've asked my pitchers every time I see them shake their arm. Because if something hurt we're going to look at it.

The answer I get most of the time if not all the time is "the pitch didn't go/do what I wanted it to do." So they wanted to shake off the last pitch or they do it to remind themselves to have a loose arm. I've been told the latter as well. They realized their arm was a little to stiff or so they say.

SoAZDad said:

I fully agree. I see it all the time. It appears to be a subconscious, nervous gesture after throwing a pitch that didn't hit the spot. Usually far from the spot.

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My daughter and son who pitches baseball both do this. Trying to break that habit too like Papapump said - don't want to let the other team know you are unhappy with what you just threw.