A question, I'm not sure anyone can answer

I know they're a lot of variables but if a girl transitions from pushing to whipping with IR, how much speed could she possibly pick up?

Lots! And Lots!

Comparing a "pull" pitcher to a whip pitcher is like comparing a Camry to a Ferrari. They kinda sorta do the same thing, but one is a lot faster than the other.

The whip, by itself, adds about 5MPH.

*BUT* the whip also greatly improves control. Improved control allows the pitcher to use her entire body for each pitch. The pitcher is able to increase arm speed and leg drive. This can add another 5 to 10 MPH, for a total of 10 to 15MPH speed increase...depending upon athletic ability and work ethic of the pitcher.

The endurance of a whip pitcher is about 10X that of a pull pitcher.

I've seen a couple of "pull" pitchers who hit 60. Their control and endurance is awful.

most "pushers", no matter how big/strong, usually have a real hard time breaking that 60mph barrier;
with many topping-out mid-50s...

ive been told in a few comments on my DDs video that she has the beginnings of IR but needed refined. Could I expect a full 5 mph out of her by refining?

My dd went from 38mpr pushing it, to 48mpr with the whip, and she's still got lots of room for improvement with her whip!


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Man10 said:

ive been told in a few comments on my DDs video that she has the beginnings of IR but needed refined. Could I expect a full 5 mph out of her by refining?

Click to expand...

You will see an increase. How much is hard to definitively answer.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the speed increase and instead worry about the mechanics needed to refine her motion.

The problem with attributing speed improvements to mechanics is that most girls are still growing while they are learning to pitch, so there will be some natural speed increase that come from maturing and has nothing to do with mechanics. My DD increased @ 5 MPH a year from 10-15. After she turned 15, speed increases became much harder to come by!

DD (11 currently playing 10U) was a push pitcher and was throwing an average of 39 via Rev Fire in November at our first clinic with JS in her journey converting to IR. We took some more measurements in February after she was able to demonstrate decent whip mechanics and she we throwing around 50ish (we didn't take an average) with several 52's and a high of 54. She still has more speed in her, just gotta work on those darn drive mechanics.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to master each portion of the back chaining sequence before moving onto the next phase while learning I/R. DD was able to make the switch within 3 clinics with JS because we focused only on rebuilding her foundation which meant no full pitches until she could demonstrate I/R from show it to liberty to 3/4 pitch.

Personally, I think it's much harder for those who change from pushing to IR to reach the speed they could have reached if they had started off with IR with no exposure to pushing. Granted, this is rare, but one of my pitching students started with IR just two years ago. Of my pitching students, guess who is throwing with the greatest velocity....... Yup, the one who was never exposed to the pushing method. And, the one who started with IR has the least years of pitching under her belt.