Straight Arm all the way through release - Please Help!

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Jul 14, 2008
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Lets see now.........If the hand goes from palm-up to palm-in during I/R...........Wouldn't that mean at some point the hand would be "behind the ball"?..........

5mep2b.gif


Pretty funny screwball..........
 

JJsqueeze

Dad, Husband....legend
Jul 5, 2013
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Top picture has hand behind the ball. Is that true? Thought posters said that was bad.

??? Which picture are you referring to? the one of SP? If that is the one, then you are misinterpreting the "hand behind the ball=bad" you see posted. The hand behind the ball during the circle, pushing the ball is bad. The hand behind the ball at the moment of release is necessary for a FB and Drop.
 

JJsqueeze

Dad, Husband....legend
Jul 5, 2013
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safe in an undisclosed location
You all say it all the time, hand can't go behind the ball, so now don't say that. Devil in the details.

I think all of the instruction/feedback given needs to be understood before being put into practice. I have read the same instruction about not having the hand behind the ball over and over but it never occurred to me to not have the hand behind the ball at release because that would decrease velocity too much. Applying common sense and trying the instruction you see here before you start instructing it usually irons out semantic wrinkles like this.
 
Actually Ken, I'd add the snapover drop to that group also.
For Left Field.....in order to put maximum energy into the ball the fingers should be directly behind the ball at release. As Ken has noted this finger/hand position is indicitive of Fastball, Peel Drop, and Snapover Drop.......that is why these are typically your fastest pitch.....more energy directed into the center of the ball. Other movement pitches such as riseball and curveball will have the fingers more on the side or underneath the ball to create the spin axis desired for that particular movement. Because of the off center position of the fingers the energy is not directed at the center of the ball and thus these pitches are typically not as fast. Understand though that there are exceptions to this general rule....I do know pitchers who's fastest pitch is a curve or a rise.
Creating energy and then transferring energy is a huge key to pitching.
Guess it depends on the pitch. I think a peel/FB would look about like that.
 

JJsqueeze

Dad, Husband....legend
Jul 5, 2013
5,436
38
safe in an undisclosed location
I find it perplexing and counter intuitive-

I would say that if you have really snappy wrists that have a lot of side to side snap as opposed to back to front snap, then that extra lever could make the rise and palm under CB faster for certain pitchers.
 
Jul 26, 2010
3,567
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Oooh!!! One of my favorite dilemmas! How can the rise and curve be faster than a FB?

Anyone?

The ball takes less time to reach the catchers mitt when throwing those pitches compared to throwing the other pitches.

Glad I could help!

-W
 

halskinner

Banned
May 7, 2008
2,681
0
I have a 10U kid who's the opposite. She can't make an overhand throw across the infield, but can whip as good as anyone.

Have her throw that half sized football in a spiral. The mechanics for overhand throwing are exactly the same. This how we trained young catchers to throw to 2nd in a straight line and not a big slow looping arc.
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
Thanks Hal. I've been shopping for such a ball for a couple years and haven't found the perfect size. A couple days ago DD said, "Hey dad! Catch!" and threw me a football we'd had in the bottom of the toy chest for years! It's perfect... DUH!!!

We'll go out tonight and play.
 

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