14U team...increasing overhand throw speed...

[SLAM96Coach]

What are your best drills to do this and as a 14U team, what is a reasonable goal? I've set the goal at 50MPH and we have 4 of the 12 over the goal...

 

[SnocatzDad]

Our team does a few things, some pretty standard

#1 No one does casual throwing prior to start of practice. Too much chance of injury/soreness if you don't warm up first

#2 Throwing is the first thing we do after warm up and progress from
flips close in
40 feet light toss
40 feet hard toss
60 feet light toss
60 feet hard toss
80 feet light toss
80 feet hard toss

I call that push ups for your throwing arm. I think some long toss (80ft or more) is a great way to build up arm strength. Sometimes we'll start at 60 ft and make it a contest, 5 throws then move back 5 ft. If you drop a ball, you and partner are done.

IMO when I watch practice most throwing is light toss and some teams are still doing light toss even in between innings as they take the field, or when fielding practice grounders. It's important to stress the importance of throwing hard in practice in order to improve your hardest throw in games.

The other drill we like to incorporate to get them throwing hard is a "follow your throw" drill where you set up 2-3 kids at Home, 3B SS, 2b,1B and they throw hard and follow their throw to the next position in the following sequence, Home- SS-1B-3b-2b-Home repeat. Gets blood pumping when they do it fast and all throws are about equidistant (75 ft or so)

 

[Coach JV]

Like climbing Mt. Everest, each climber progresses according to their capability. More importantly than speed on the throw, we stress sound fundamentals such as attacking the ground ball and moving through the ball to 1B. A strong arm is an asset which some girls have and some don't. As long as they use proper throwing mechanics, we strengthen by having the girls pair up and have a 'distance challenge'. Last year we had a 3B that threw hard enough to bruise your hand, she prided herself on having a cannon. IN a championship game however, she overthrew 1B twice and overthrew the catcher for what would have been the 3rd out, but instead turned into the tying run in the 5th inning. This is thin ice as my experience has shown that when a coach stresses throwing hard, the tendency for throwing errors increases. My suggestion is to be very careful and not overemphasize speed. Again, look into strengthening excersises and drills.

 

[rowdy]

Speed of release is one area that I would suggest working on along with long toss to strengthen the arm. Too many players take two or three steps to throw which no amount of ball speed is going to overcome.

 

[Mark H]

Jaeger's long toss protocol.

 

[Da Coach]

This is thin ice as my experience has shown that when a coach stresses throwing hard, the tendency for throwing errors increases. My suggestion is to be very careful and not overemphasize speed. Again, look into strengthening excersises and drills.

No Way!

You play like you practice. If you learn to throw soft that's what you'll do i the game.

 

[SnocatzDad]

Jaeger's long toss protocol.

Mark,
Can you post a link to this and/or describe?

FYI,

As a note on the importance of incorporating flips into your everyday practice I just saw a girl yesterday attempt a flip from 20 ft away from 1B that went not only over 1B but over the fence and OB. Flips and dart throws are eeeaaaassssyyy but if you don't practice them regularly they can be disastourous when attempted under stress.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Read some of hitters posts on the hitting section. Most of the girls we have coming to our hitting camps, do not throw correctly and have leg and arm issues. Just my 2 cents, but unless you show them how to throw correctly, then drills are worthless. Howard Kobata runs into the same thing at his camps.

 

[softballfan94]

An observation I have noticed over the years is that too many kids let their back leg fly when making a throw. Not sure how I noticed this but those that keep it on the ground and let it slide forward have much better control of the throw. It doesn't affect the speed or distance by keeping that back leg down but it seems to make them more accurate overall. I have shown this to many kids and it helps them, especially infielders. It has helped on that 3rd to 1st overthrow that is so common, and SS to 1st.

As for strengthening, after a good warm up routine - we like to do the around the horn exercise and the indian drill where they follow the throw to the next position. It really works on stamina too.

 

[JC heir]

fan94- I may be misunderstanding you, but I dont think so. at any rate, if I understand you correctly, I totally disagree with a position player keeping their back foot in contact with the ground. I dont see how you can put full strength into your throw without the right foot(RH thrower) coming off the ground & planting ahead of the left foot on folloethrough.