A confidence / speed builder for coaches with radar guns.

[halskinner]

I am going to quote my own response here to a different thread.

"One of the things I had all students do at the first lesson and then once a month;; warm up with both and gun both OH speed and UH speed. I talked with a few o ther instructors who did the same.

We talked about it when we ran intoi each other, tourneys, etc.

The general consensus seemed to point to this; A windmill pitcher could throw underhand within 3mph of what they threw overhand. No official study orecords kept, just professional opinions.

However, we all decided to use that conclusion for all our benefits. If a pitcher had a little experience at all, wer would clock them throwing both UH and OH at full speed. If more than 3mph variance, something wasnt right and a tune up oone or the other mechanics was needed. Or, for some other reason something wasnt right.

Not sure if this helped you at all".

This reminded me of a little thing I did with my new students.

Once they were warmed up for both UH and OH, I would have them throw 5 or 6 at full speed OH and yell out the speeds.

Then I would walk over to them and say, "Just so you know, a study was done by several pitching instructors. What they found out was simple; An underhand pitcher can throw within 3mph just as fast as they can overhand. Now we know what you can do overhand, let's see how you do underhand." Back to the bucket I would go.

It never failed, the first windmill pitch was always 6 or 7 mph slower than the overhand speed was ( NO MATTER WHAT THE GUN ACTUALLY SAID). THEN, I started getting 110% effort from them. By the 6th or 7th UH throw They were getting the real numbers. During those few pitches, war was declared - pitcher vs radar gun.

I fibbed a little and it always worked. Just a little suggestion there.

 

[FrozenRope]

No two ways about it. If you want try to increase your DD's speed as a bucket dad, you need to have the proper tools. I don't think that measuring their speed once every few months is the optimal method to get them throwing faster. I don't know about the veteran BD's here, but visually, I have a hard time distinguishing 35 from 38, and 3 mph is a good margin.

I bought a glove radar shortly after we started, primarily out of curiousity and to give me feedback so I knew when she was dogging it. Amazing little unit. Strap it to the back of your glove and you get the ball speed at the glove on every pitch. Add 1 MPH for every 7 feet away and you have gun speed +/- about 1mph. I lent it to one of the other coaches on the team to try it out with his DD. That week without it made me feel blind. Now, it went from being used out of curiousity to the best practice tool $70 can buy. During our practices, to motivate her, I call out the speed on every pitch. and I see how much it increases her intensity. Bottom line to increasing speed is you need to teach them to go outide of their "comfort zone" and exert a little more energy. Maybe the mechanics go slightly astray, but if they don't push, they'll never improve. If the mechanics are sound, then the only place the speed is going to come from is getting everything to move just a little faster. I can see it in dd's face when she wants to try and get that number just a little higher. Eyebrows curl in, and I think I see a little snarl. Maybe even a little audible grunt in there.