What do I Mean

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Apr 22, 2016
64
6
Texas
Bump with a question. Does holding the inside the ball too long produce more bullet spin instead of true 12-6 spin? DD often seems to stay inside the ball but does not release through to get the true 12-6 spin.
 
Jun 18, 2010
2,624
38
Bump with a question. Does holding the inside the ball too long produce more bullet spin instead of true 12-6 spin? DD often seems to stay inside the ball but does not release through to get the true 12-6 spin.

Yes, it did for DD. When leading with the pinky, and the last finger coming off the ball was her index finger, DD threw bullet spin. It took us along time to get the hand behind the ball a little more to fix her spin.
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
Adding to knightsb--the trade off is that kids feel whip quicker when pulling the ball into release. Once they have whip down, you can start tweaking the spin.

Imagine you're a baseball PC with a brand new kid--excited about becoming a pitcher, but no clue how to hurl a fastball. We wouldn't stop what we're doing because he wasn't getting a good game spin. We'd teach this kid sequence and how to maximize mechanics. Once he had a fastball down with good control, we'd take a look at another spin or two.

Show them how to throw, then teach them how to pitch.

https://i40.tinypic.com/2vtwdvs.gif
 
Last edited:
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
[MENTION=551]BoardMember[/MENTION],
Do you have time to update the pics and gifs in this classic?

Thanks!
 
Apr 22, 2016
64
6
Texas
Yes, it did for DD. When leading with the pinky, and the last finger coming off the ball was her index finger, DD threw bullet spin. It took us along time to get the hand behind the ball a little more to fix her spin.

What cue did you use to do this? I have tried to tell dd to be quicker with her release from 7 to 6 o'clock. I don't want to screw this up and start pushing the ball again!
 
Jun 18, 2010
2,624
38
What cue did you use to do this? I have tried to tell dd to be quicker with her release from 7 to 6 o'clock. I don't want to screw this up and start pushing the ball again!

We had a pitching lesson with the University of Washington's pitching coach Mike Roberts. He said if you're not pitching with a striped ball, you're fooling yourself. He also said if you can't get the stripe correct at 50% speed, what makes you think you can do it at 100%. Over a period of many weeks, we would do lock-it-in and T-drills at 50% concentrating on the throw zone and what the hand needed to do and the stripe on the ball was our instant feedback. We would increase speed until the stripe was wrong, then we would back it off, rinse and repeat. Ultimately worked into a walk-through, then a full pitch. When the stripe isn't correct we back off the speed for a few pitches, or revert back to the T-drill.
 
Jul 17, 2012
175
28
Kenmore, WA
What cue did you use to do this? I have tried to tell dd to be quicker with her release from 7 to 6 o'clock. I don't want to screw this up and start pushing the ball again!

My DD had the same issue early on in her journey. I used the cue of getting behind the ball. She was IR from the start, so there wasn't an issue with pushing the ball. It was only that she was late in starting the rotation. "Get behind the ball" or "get your hand behind the ball" got the timing right for her.
 
Sep 15, 2015
98
33
What cue did you use to do this? I have tried to tell dd to be quicker with her release from 7 to 6 o'clock. I don't want to screw this up and start pushing the ball again!

FWIW, my DD had bullet spin for months when she started to throw leading with the pinkie. After trying a bunch of different things, the cue that ultimately worked was was "thumb in"--i.e., try to turn the hand at release so the thumb brushes the thigh (like you would orient the hand to throw a horseshoe change). It's a gross overcorrection, but the result for my daughter was to get more behind the ball, resulting in 12-6 spin, and this (I think) is what she still thinks to do when throwing a drop, as opposed to a normal I/R fastball (which for her now spins 11-7). I've also heard people analogize to putting the hand in your throwing-side pocket or to "snap across the belt"--i.e snap the wrist at release horizontally. We tried those cues too with some success, but "thumb in" worked the best to produce better down-spin. The other drill that was very helpful was Coach Pauly's cross-fire cannonball drill, which we still do. See the fifth post here https://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/25560-drop-ball-drill.html.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,479
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top