Regarding Sara Pauly

Here's a link for reference

[video]https://youtu.be/0ROB7VqKymk[/video]

Just have a question that hopefully Rick can answer. This is no way a critique as obviously Sara is a very successful pitcher. I was wondering why her stride is so short. She's quite tall and wonder why she doesn't stride out even further to generate even more speed? Is there a reason why she strides short? Almost looks like a step than a stride. Just wondering what the reason is and if at some point she use to stride out further and then decided to change it?

Thanks

No expert here, but i'm not sure I'd call that a step, maybe she shortened up for the type of pitch or is warming up, but it still looks at least 80% of her height,
This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPztyxKOGLU

Looks like it was taken the same day and has to be 100% of her height

Yeah your video she does a long stride for sure. Must be the pitch. Thought the delivery is supposed to be the same for all pitches Though? As a catcher I use to be able to tell what pitchers were going to pitch due to variations in their delivery motion. Figured it as the same for fastpitch. Spin and breaks is all in the fingers is it not? Why would your motion change for different pitches?

Not sure if the pitch is why Sarah's stride is different in the videos, Some coaches do teach players to come as close to the same delivery every pitch as possible, Some teach players to shorten up just a bit and "get on top" on a drop or change, or to stride somewhat towards the glove side on a screw and stride to the throwing hand side for a curve or crop.

NEF said:

No expert here, but i'm not sure I'd call that a step, maybe she shortened up for the type of pitch or is warming up, but it still looks at least 80% of her height,
This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPztyxKOGLU

Looks like it was taken the same day and has to be 100% of her height

Click to expand...

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/1dKs2LA5icjwNlhVZJ" width="480" height="360" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/1dKs2LA5icjwNlhVZJ">via GIPHY</a></p>
..........

Your observation is spot on regarding this video.......This is a poor video done in a staged video setting not in a game setting.....I probably should destroy it.

Coincidently, Sarah was home at Christmas and we did some throwing and did look at her stride length..........she gets about 8 inches farther than she is tall.....which puts her at about 6' 11" from the front of the rubber....or roughly about a foot from the circle line. I am guessing that when she was younger she may have been a couple inches farther.

I do have a saying that IMO is very true relative to the stride......."it's not how far you go, it's how fast you get there that is important".

As mentioned in one of the above posts.....I believe the stride length should be the same regardless of the pitch.

Here are my general rules of thumb regarding stride length/skill level:
Beginner..........stride length same as height
Intermediate.......stride length 6 inches farther than height
Advanced..........stride length 8-12 inches farther than height

Thanks Rick!