Softball Throwing Mechanics

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Oct 23, 2009
967
0
Los Angeles
I am looking for a good set of basic fundamental throwing philosophies/drills that will prepare my girls properly - unfortunately I am finding that the latest/greatest trickles downward. It is my hope that a player from my Wild Thang team will one day end up with a guy like one of you as a coach. What do you want me to teach her? And how?

I see a lot of this is wrong or that is wrong, here and elsewhere, but I see little of THIS is HOW you should teach your 7/8 year old to throw. And I know nothing about scapular declination in a sub-orbital plane.... :eek:)

Turn-Point-Step & Throw anyone?

Coach Greg

Its great that you are a coach that wants to educate yourself. For this age group, I suggest you purchase any number of books on the subject of learning softball fundamentals that are on the market. Just visit your local bookstore or google "softball books" and you will have many to choose from that teach the basics of throwing, catching, fielding and hitting. I also "steal" the best drills from the older coaches who have been coaching more than I have and incorporate them into my practice plans. Someone suggested USA Softball videos instructed by Mike Candrea, I agree that there is some very good information in them. Some of the clips are posted on Youtube or you can get ASA ACE certified online and watch them there as well. Of course you can so a search on this site and find pretty much any topic you can think of, the only problem is that the discussion can become very technical or go off in other directions quickly. You are coaching a great age, enjoy it!
 
W

willene2011

Guest
Great thread ,thank you for sharing
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obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
Chris, I was taught to throw by having the ball facing directly behind me. Every once in a while I get a small flare up of pain right around the inside of my elbow (whatever tendon is in there) and my lower bicep. I have had soreness on the bump you are talking about before as well. So is it better to have the ball facing 90 degrees away from my head (or to 3B as you said) and would that eliminate the little pain that I'm feeling?

My DD had/has the pain you describe and in her case it is caused by improper follow thru. she has a very strong throwing arm so no one noticed it until she let it get bad and then told us about it. Her 11 yo sister also has a good arm and just started developing the same sensitivity in her elbow. I looked closely at her mechanics and she has the same abbreviated follow thru.

Older DD gets relief using one of those "tennis elbow"-type wraps that goes around the forearm at the elbow. Because you can't correct throwing mechanics overnight, I went to a sporting goods store to get a wrap for my younger DD. I demonstrated the faulty follow-thru in the store and hurt my elbow when I did it!

For the real young kids who are first starting out or the habitual shot-putters, I'll have them show the ball to CF only because by overdoing the motion they will defaulkt to the correct position. as they get more experienced we emphasize showing to 3B.

I see few if any girls that do the complete throwing motion correctly. as previously stated, they go right to the "L" and throw from there. No separation, armcircle , thumb brushing the thigh- just right to the L and then a variety of throwing styles from there to follow-thru. I think this is because the girls get this ingrained as a starting point from when they first learn to throw and the preceding mechanics are not taught.
 
May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
I don't teach the method that I see Candrea, use in his videos. And, actually some of his athletes don't either. "Arm circle" wouldn't be a correct term, for me. I have mostly a baseball background and was taught to get sideways, load the hands together, break (seperate), elbow level or a bit higher than the shoulder. 4 seam grip, ball out in the finger tips and step towards the target. I release out in front of my left foot, using a loose wrist and then, I drag my right hip, through - so that my feet end up in a straight line (no longer sideways.) The ball comes off of the middle finger, which hopefully will be on a seam.

If they will get used to feeling a seam, with at least one finger (when they have fielded the ball) they will be more successful. And I can't stress , elbow up, enough.

A good drill is to throw at hula hoops tied to the fence. Try to get small ones. I use ones that I bought for arm circles. Make a game out of it. And when you have a group throwing to the fence, make certain that they do not retrieve their ball until everyone has thrown. Basically, you will tell them when it is safe to go get the balls.
 
Mar 14, 2011
785
18
Silicon Valley, CA
Its great that you are a coach that wants to educate yourself. For this age group, I suggest you purchase any number of books on the subject of learning softball fundamentals that are on the market. Just visit your local bookstore or google "softball books" and you will have many to choose from that teach the basics of throwing, catching, fielding and hitting. I also "steal" the best drills from the older coaches who have been coaching more than I have and incorporate them into my practice plans. Someone suggested USA Softball videos instructed by Mike Candrea, I agree that there is some very good information in them. Some of the clips are posted on Youtube or you can get ASA ACE certified online and watch them there as well. Of course you can so a search on this site and find pretty much any topic you can think of, the only problem is that the discussion can become very technical or go off in other directions quickly. You are coaching a great age, enjoy it!

I feel Greg's pain. A good method really hasn't been put forward on how to teach throwing. Learning the mechanics here and trying to come up with some way to impart that is the best you can do. The books, videos, etc, still don't get you there. The Candrea "statue" throwing drill is very typical. It's OK I suppose.

But just like in hitting, you have to be very careful any time you do a drill that starts part way through what is supposed to be a fluid complete motion.

I have a team of 8U kids that throw like the Candrea vid. They all bring that ball up to that statue position, stop, some even think for a moment here, and then throw. It's a very hard habit to break.
 
Oct 25, 2009
3,345
48
You have to be careful with beginners. We used to teach the kids to wave at the back fence with the ball in the launch position to remind them to flick the wrist I guess. I observed one of the players "wave the ball" in a game every time she threw it. Breaking a technique down for explanation is one thing, practicing a segment of a technique too much is quite another.
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
When my 16 yo was first starting out, i had her learning to swing a bat in a progression of 3 or 4 steps (from a Sue Enquist video). she could get all the steps right individually, but when it came time to do it all in one fluid motion, she couldn't. It kind of frustrated her. we stopped that and the next season she was fine and we never talked about those steps again.

I can see now how it could be the same thing with throwing.
 
May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
I just had a wonderful athlete start this morning that is 16. She has played a couple of season of rec ball, but she wants to progress and pitch. Although, she has been a short stop, she hadn't been taught to throw.

She is going to start homeschooling and will come to softball lessons, twice a week. She hopes to play ASA travel ball.

She has been in rodeo forever and is doing a homeschool program that is geared towards athletes. She expects it to be difficult and not a breeze. But, anyway, she said that they video tape everything in rodeo and her mom can help me tape the lessons.

This would be too good to be true, if it works out.
 
Jul 25, 2011
680
16
Southern Illinois
We taught our dd how to throw using the Candrea method and it worked extremely well. She picked it up quickly and become very accurate almost over night. She also has one of the strongest arms in her league, which I attribute to a lot of long toss. While she can throw farther than most I have seen a few girls that throw with more velocity, but less accurately. She does most things slower than other girls(like running) but can field extremely well as well as throw. However she does some crazy flick thing with her wrist when she throw causing the ball to spin at 4and 10 instead of 6 and 12. amazingly the ball doesn't tail off on throws across field.
 
Jan 14, 2009
1,591
0
Atlanta, Georgia
We taught our dd how to throw using the Candrea method and it worked extremely well. She picked it up quickly and become very accurate almost over night. She also has one of the strongest arms in her league, which I attribute to a lot of long toss. While she can throw farther than most I have seen a few girls that throw with more velocity, but less accurately. She does most things slower than other girls(like running) but can field extremely well as well as throw. However she does some crazy flick thing with her wrist when she throw causing the ball to spin at 4and 10 instead of 6 and 12. amazingly the ball doesn't tail off on throws across field.

If she continues to throw the way it's shown in the Candrea video, there is a good chance she will develop arm issues over time. When your throwing arm is out of sync with your lower body, you put undue stress on your arm. My suggestion is to try and dupicate what Candrea teaches in the video yourself before teaching it to your daughter. It is very unnatural. More like a push than a throw.
 

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