Curve ball drill: The student becomes the teacher

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Ken Krause

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May 7, 2008
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Mundelein, IL
Last night I was doing lessons as usual, and it came time for my first student (Megan) to start working on the curve ball. She threw a couple, then told me she wanted to ask me about a drill she'd learned at a college pitching clinic the previous week.

For the drill, the pitcher stands with her back to the catcher, starts her arm circle (which will be going out toward third and then first base for a right handed pitcher), then twists her upper body and delivers the ball to the plate. She was told she should hug herself when she was done.

I looked at her doing the drill, imitated the movements, and gave her the thumbs up. In fact, I thanked her for showing it to me because I plan to use it with other students. See? I'm not completely set in my ways!

I was happy with this whole encounter for a couple of reasons. First, Megan asked me what I thought of the drill before really incorporating it into her routine. She's a HS pitcher and we've only been working together for a short time, so it was good to see that the rapport is there and she trusts my judgement. That's always important in the coach-player relationship. She wanted to be sure, I think, that it didn't teach something that I didn't want her doing. Since her pitching has been improving she's generally bought in to the idea that I know what I'm doing.
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The other is this is the first time I've seen anyone teaching the same mechanics I do for the curve ball. The normal curve I've seen has the pitcher start the wrist snap behind the back hip and then come around it. (That's a poor description but you get the general idea.) I've always found the movement to be fairly minimal with that method, so I teach pitcher to actually cut the circle off at the top, drive the elbow down toward the bellybutton, and when the elbow is "pinned" snap around it. You get more dynamic movement that way, and once pitchers learn to cut the circle off instead of bringing it all the way back it eliminates a lot of the problems of the pitch going wildly inside.

The drill Megan showed me encourages the same arm path and pivot point I teach, and makes it pretty easy to feel. The only thing that's really different is I like the front shoulder to stay in, angled toward the back of the batter's box on the throwing side (RH batter's box for a RHP), so you end up throwing around it. I call it throwing around the corner. But that's a trifle, and I am not worried about that part of it crossing over into the actual pitch.

It's not necessarily a drill I would do every time, but then again I don't really do particular drills every time anyway. I prefer to keep drills for specific teaching moments or to correct specific problems. For the pitcher who's having trouble getting the feeling, though, I think this one is a keeper. I will definitely add it to my arsenal, and can thank Megan for bringing it to me. I love it when the student becomes the teacher!

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Jan 13, 2009
52
0
Help me understand how this drill does not violate the legal delivery rule of:

"The delivery must be an underhanded motion with the hand below the hip and the wrist not farther from the body than the elbow" ASA

It sounds like the elbow is planted on the back of the hip and the forearm and wrist end up outside the elbow. What am I missing?
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
Help me understand how this drill does not violate the legal delivery rule of:

"The delivery must be an underhanded motion with the hand below the hip and the wrist not farther from the body than the elbow" ASA

It sounds like the elbow is planted on the back of the hip and the forearm and wrist end up outside the elbow. What am I missing?

I guess you are missing that it is a drill and not a method of pitching. From what I see its to help isolate the release and the hand action necessary to throw a curve. The drill is to reinforce that, then you take from that and integrate the release into the normal pitching motion. Not different then any drill that focuses on one segment of the pitching motion.
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Thanks for the assist, Chinamigarden. That is correct, it's a drill. Note that you start with your back to plate.

For the actual delivery in a real pitch, the elbow moves forward (toward the belly button) instead of being behind the hip as I've seen it taught by others. The hand is under the elbow at release.

That being said, I've never, ever seen a pitcher called for violating the hand under the elbow rule. It's just not something umpires watch for. They have enough on their plates. You'd pretty much have to sidearm the ball to get an illegal pitch called.
 
Jan 13, 2009
52
0
I admit, I have not known any drills that, in themselves, violate a rule of softball but reinforce proper methodology in the whole.

This may merit a thread of its own.
 
Jan 13, 2009
52
0
It was the "...the wrist not farther from the body than the elbow" part that seems to be violated. That's why I asked what I was missing.

From the way you describe the drill, it sounds like the wrist is farther away from the body than the elbow is.
 

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