I was just reading through this again and this made me chuckle. We have a senior on our high school team that played travel ball for years and she still throws like this. She has bruised several girls, including mine a couple times, by throwing the ball straight at their shins from very close distances. She wants to be at 3rd but ended up at 2nd and the coach makes her underhand almost everything to 1st.Wow.
My wife says she thinks the before video from tewks is a put on. She says no one throws like that without trying hard to look bad. She does have a point in "why is she throwing at the ground 10 feet in front of her?"
I want to add to my post above:
I was an above average ball player growing up all the way through high school and played multiple sports. Football was my favorite followed by basketball, baseball, and tennis. Only now (as in the last couple of weeks) and as I am approaching mid-40's did I realize I that so many sports have the same motion.
Throwing a football - check out Montana on this link :
The last 40 secs or so talking about the finish (thumb down) is the most important IMO.
Tennis Serve - Check out this link : https://youtu.be/mcwiAv_a7TQ
Baseball/Softball Throw: link above I posted earlier.
Looking back, I was a darn good Tennis player and my coaches pushed me not to give it up for baseball. The reason was I could serve the ball like very few others. I didn't know what I was doing but it was darn near un-returnable because of the heat I could put on it. Again, I didn't know any of the mechanics of it but I did like the video above shows.
In baseball, I was probably closer to average than above average and could not throw the ball as hard as most. I didn't use the same (similiar) mechanics I did on my serve in tennis but if I had.....who knows.
Anyway, purpose of the post is to show the similar mechanics that so many sports have in common yet rarely mastered (or even taught correctly) IMO.
Also, and extremely embarrassed to admit...... it has taken me 44 years to learn how to throw!!
In college, using the L pitching mechanics, I was throwing 10mph less than from the OF, but I was throwing strikes. I couldn't throw strikes with my natural motion which was a long whip. Recently, at 39 after becoming a coach I made a minor change in my delivery (copying Aroldis Chapman) which was to get my lead knee across the mid section (instead of a straight up lift), pause/load slightly and then stride/uncoil, resulting in my throwing arm going behind my head AFTER the front thigh rolling over. I got my velocity back up to 10mph faster than in college and am throwing nearly as accurate with L mechanics. Now after reading this thread I know why...