Thread: Importance of the glove hand

My dd has been working to correct a weight to forward problem with some success for the drills mentioned in a previous thread. I have found that if she is looping her glove hand instead of bringing it straight forward, it usaully ends with her shoulders being closed at release.
We have now turned our attention to pointing the glove at the target, then a small pause to ensure a big "k". My question is all the stuff about the glove hand then dropping down and slapping the front of the left thigh. I saw Finch in a live pitching demo last yr. and saw that she slaps the back of her thigh somewhere in her follow thru.
What is everyones take on all the glove slapping, good or bad. Or is it just a style issue?

p.s. My 12u travel teams first tourney is this weekend and I am confident in our teams ability to perform at a higher level than they previous saw in little league. I will post a post-tourney summary with results.

Mike
"Bradford Blizzard"

I don't let my students slap. It doesn't help the pitch and it may hurt their wrist.

I want them to have the glove up, to help protect themselves from line drives.

Recently, I saw a 12U slapping twice during one pitch. A mom came up and asked me about it. She said that the pitcher appeared to be making this whole thing about her. Ouch.

I always want them to slap!!!!! It should be a brush slap on the side of the landing leg (not a direct hit) as the glove pulls together with the ball hand.
When the glove doesn't slap---the pitcher has not pulled everything into the ball that she should.
Rick

My daughter and I are pretty new to pitching. I tend to agree with Rick, but as I understand it slapping the thigh seems to be more of a timing thing, so brushing the thigh might be less violent and not leave a bruise. I do believe that bringing the glove hand down at a rapid pace is important in creating an opposing force for your throwing arm, much like reverse posture this enables you to whip your throwing arm faster. Most importantly it gives your glove hand a target so it moves in a straight line and does not throw you off balance. I would love to here opinions on the contrary though.

Mike

The glove hand has little to do with generating speed. The elites drop their glove hand, but they are not pulling the arm down. The problem with doing anything aggressive with the glove hand is that it will tend to force the pitcher "off line" with the arm and body.

The upper body pitching motion consists of several rotating rods that work in sequence. The first rotating rod is the shoulder, the second is the upper arm, the third is the lower arm, the fourth is the wrist and the fifth are the fingers. So, the entire rod is *not* from the shoulder to the ball, but rather from the neck to the ball. Pulling down aggressively with the left arm will take the shoulder movement out of the pitching equation, resulting in a lower net speed.

My DD had a maximum top speed of 67 mph. She cruised at 62+ mph. She didn't pull down with her glove hand, but rather kept it above her waist after the "point". (Please don't tell me her fielding must have been poor because her glove was up. She was a great fielder.)

Originally Posted by sluggers

The glove hand has little to do with generating speed. The elites drop their glove hand, but they are not pulling the arm down. The problem with doing anything aggressive with the glove hand is that it will tend to force the pitcher "off line" with the arm and body.

The upper body pitching motion consists of several rotating rods that work in sequence. The first rotating rod is the shoulder, the second is the upper arm, the third is the lower arm, the fourth is the wrist and the fifth are the fingers. So, the entire rod is *not* from the shoulder to the ball, but rather from the neck to the ball. Pulling down aggressively with the left arm will take the shoulder movement out of the pitching equation, resulting in a lower net speed.

My DD had a maximum top speed of 67 mph. She cruised at 62+ mph. She didn't pull down with her glove hand, but rather kept it above her waist after the "point". (Please don't tell me her fielding must have been poor because her glove was up. She was a great fielder.)

I can only imagine how fast she would have thrown if she really pulled her glove hand and ball hand together in a balance/synchronized fashion. I'm curious if you have checked frame by frame video of your DD?
Very, very few elite level pitchers (none that I can recall) leave the glove above the waist as you have described. Just looked at pics of Abbott and Cat at release of their curveball-----the glove is doing a direct hit on the front of the thigh.
Can you post a clip of DD or stil pic of her at release?
Rick

I believe hands and front foot work together in a up together/down together rythym. So glove pull is important for rythym. I teach glove pull to side of hip. Glove becomes part of hip to assist in creating front side resistance. Resistance ='s max whip. I agree with Rick in saying that MOST elite pitchers have glove pull. You will find some clips of pitchers who still get away with no glove pull because they are elite athletes. Just watch the world series and you can pick pitchers apart with mechanical flaws but they still manage to get the job done with movement and change of speeds. Just think how much better these kids could be with improved mechanics.

I couldn't videotape her during her college years because I was too crazy when I watched her pitch. I was the worst "pitcher daddy" the world has ever seen.

As to pulling the glove hand down, I don't believe it would have added 1 MPH to her pitching speed. IMHO, the elites bring the glove hand down as an alignment aid to keep the arm from flying out, not because it adds to the pitching speed. I don't buy the "pulling against resistance". It doesn't make any sense.

Darrick: Probably not much better. The reality is that every pitcher is unique, and therefore every pitching style is unique. At some point, the pitcher has to work on a style that suits her talents and physical attributes as opposed to some formulaic ideal.

I don't agree that glove pull pulls you off line unless you are flailing the glove away from the body as stated in a above post. I am a pitcher and I guarantee that if I throw without glove pull my mph will drop. Also rythym will be disrupted because the hands and front foot work together. When doing lessons when I tell a kid to pull glove to hip the dad always notices a big difference and so do I. I have 50-70 students a year and I get good results with glove pull.

IMHO, slapping the thigh does nothing but wear out the glove and hurt the leg.

The glove hand should aggressively fold into the body to keep balance.