Ball in Glove Method
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My DD (1st year 18s) transitioned to out of glove her 2nd year of 14s to simplify her motion and, out of desperation, to see if it would help keep more bend in her ball arm (by eliminating the long straight back swing). It helped some, though probably not as much as I was hoping. Still, she is used to it now and from casual observation of softball at various levels, the style seems to have become a lot more common than it used to be in women's fastpitch.
I don't know if there is an optimal clock number for ball and glove hand separation in this style...at least as far as speed is concerned. I am inclined to think that it probably doesn't matter very much. My daughter separates her hands right about at 3 o'clock as she drives off the rubber toward the plate. I think it would be better to keep the ball in the glove longer (perhaps closer to 1 o'clock), mostly to keep the ball hidden from the batter as long as possible. However, my daughter's glove hand flies out between 3 and 2, just what her body does. She doesn't have the pretty, traditional glove whirl that many girls have and that I think is more consistent with separating the hands closer to 1 o'clock.
I don't know if there is an optimal clock number for ball and glove hand separation in this style...at least as far as speed is concerned. I am inclined to think that it probably doesn't matter very much. My daughter separates her hands right about at 3 o'clock as she drives off the rubber toward the plate. I think it would be better to keep the ball in the glove longer (perhaps closer to 1 o'clock), mostly to keep the ball hidden from the batter as long as possible. However, my daughter's glove hand flies out between 3 and 2, just what her body does. She doesn't have the pretty, traditional glove whirl that many girls have and that I think is more consistent with separating the hands closer to 1 o'clock.
This is personal opinion, but my answer to this question is always......for as long as possible. Couple reasons that I'll do my best to keep short.
1 - 3: Deception.
4: Timing. Helps keeps the ball arm more in time with the rest of the body (and not be late from an ill timed back swing motion or ball hand separating early at the bottom).
5: Helps keep the body square longer (avoiding opening up too early).
My DD used to have tough timing with her ball arm when utilizing a back-swing. We transitioned to pitching out of the glove and, once she got used to it, helped tremendously. She would break from the glove early still, so in practice the goal was to leave it in for as long as possible. Yes, it would cover her view of me at a certain point but only for a split second. The end result was that her body found a middle between too early and the other extreme of head high. It may have been the single most important change she made (among the other 1000 things a pitcher has to work on).
1 - 3: Deception.
4: Timing. Helps keeps the ball arm more in time with the rest of the body (and not be late from an ill timed back swing motion or ball hand separating early at the bottom).
5: Helps keep the body square longer (avoiding opening up too early).
My DD used to have tough timing with her ball arm when utilizing a back-swing. We transitioned to pitching out of the glove and, once she got used to it, helped tremendously. She would break from the glove early still, so in practice the goal was to leave it in for as long as possible. Yes, it would cover her view of me at a certain point but only for a split second. The end result was that her body found a middle between too early and the other extreme of head high. It may have been the single most important change she made (among the other 1000 things a pitcher has to work on).
I say about 3. 2 at the latest so you can pull the ball back. Word of caution when teaching this method: cue “keep the glove with the ball” not “keep the ball in the glove.” I’ve seen the former lead to a girl messing up her arm circle as her glove pulled the ball with it!
I think those 2 different cues might be what I was most curious about. If you keep the ball with the glove all the way up to 1 o'clock it means that the ball hand can never go faster than the glove hand during the upside of the pitching motion.
You got it - It's one way to slow down the arm circle to help with timing. I also use it to help girls with excessive "swim" hence "keep the glove with the ball" vs. "keep the ball in the glove." It kind of gets both halves of the brain on the same page LOL. It can take a while though. I like to tell them to start by covering the backswing with the glove rather than a two arm backswing or parking the glove on their belly. Once they have that down we try to lose the back swing, but they'll usually still punch the ball out of the glove as soon as they start going forward. Take your time doing it - it's quite the change over!
