Model Pitchers

[FiveFrameSwing]

Escobedo Riseball:

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Kendra Knight, Screwball:

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Paige Arnold, Coppin State - Change-up:

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Amanda Scarborough (... demonstrating the Powerdrive product):

 

[RayR]

Rachele Fico - HS Clip

 

[Ken B]

I didn't personally consider that pitch to have late break, but basically thrown high. I believe it was pitches like this that had Michelle Smith referring to Escobedo as being "Effectively Wild".

Thought I'd responded to this. My comment was meant to poke a little fun at the often heard phrase, "sharp, late break."

 

[NVfishing]

Take a close look at where her hips are when she releases the ball. Looks to me like she's at the 45 to 52 degree angle we always talk about. Her slamming of the door, so to speak, doesn't occur until after release.

Think about it this way. If she were hitting with this type of hip rotation, we'd be all over her for not really driving the back hip through properly. Instead, it's a little move with the hips the following the hands afterwards. A true door slammer is taught to close the hips completely, in one motion, as fast as she can.

As for how she throws 70 mph without being a giant, there could be lots of reasons, starting with her muscle structure and how much of it is fast twitch. Difficult to determine that without a biopsy. Or maybe there is more elasticity to her body, allowing her to achieve more of a stretch or recoil or something else than other pitchers.

There is way too little real, verifiable data, and way too many variables, to come to a conclusion. Two pitchers with the same motion can achieve vastly different results because there's more to it than just how you throw. Could be that Ueno devoted more time to deep practice -- the 10,000 hours thing -- than other pitchers, so her movements are more refined or better timed. We may not be able to see it with the naked eye, even on high def video.

I think it's virtually impossible to slam the door with her back foot going behind her plant leg. My oldest DD was taught to slam the door and it causes her rear leg to drag to the front and side of her plant leg. We will be working on breaking that motion this off season. Going to use a balance beam to keep the rear leg in line with the plant foot.

 

[Jason McBee]

Life's a Pitch
Fastpitch Softball Pitching Lesson - Meagen Denny - YouTube

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Change Up:

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Amanda Scarborough Power-Drive Demonstration: