Drills for proper Internal Rotation and Release.

[Goetz]

I am having trouble getting my daughter to fee how to correctly release the ball. I have read and have been doing the drills suggested such as 3 and 12 oclock drill. She seems to have trouble getting the flex in her elbow and having her upper arm tricep area meet her body and have her lower arm accelerate. It seems like her elblow stays more locked and the follow through is long in straight pulling her throwing shoulder forward after the release. Any drills or suggestions to get her to feel the proper release.???

 

[Carly]

I've taught a lot of girls with the same problem. I'd take the ball out of her hand and have her try to get the feel for just the arm action. She should be aiming for a sort of cracking a whip type feeling. A lot of girls are too concerned with releasing the ball to pay attention to the feel of the arm, even in a drill. Once she does it a bunch of times correctly with just her arm, put the ball in her hand and have her throw to a net with no target and tell her to forget the ball is there and just focus on the feel. You could even have her close her eyes and just make sure it feels the same. Once she is capable of doing it with the ball in her hand, go back to the actual drills with a catcher again.

 

[Jojo]

Goetz, with my beginners I take a light ball, I use a tennis ball but tell them at home they can use anything small and light like a hand ball or nerf ball.

I have them stand sideways and pull the ball back past their hip with the ball facing 3rd base--pinky down--forearm out.
I then have them pull the ball downward rotating their thumb toward the target--forearm toward target.
Without releasing the ball, I have them finish into the follow through--forearm toward 1st base.

I get them to get used to the swing of the arm like this, it's actually a pretty natural swing.
Then I let them swing their arm back and forth, feeling the swing, and then feeling the wrist movement at the bottom. Like Carly, I tell them about the crack the whip feeling at the bottom.

After they do this a few times, I let them release the ball, using more of a natural toss motion. Letting them feel the arm/wrist/finger action loose and natural. I use the light ball so they don't feel like they have to throw strikes, they can stand close to their catcher and not worry about injury. With young students putting a softball in their hands they generally turn off everything and just want to toss strikes.

After they get used to this I get them to add speed, again the lighter ball allows them to feel more comfortable trying to get whip out of the release and humming something at their parent and not worrying about hurting them.

Then I move them to the real softball.

 

[Carly]

Jojo's response reminded me of something... how old is your daughter? How big are her hands? Often if a pitcher's hand is small and she can't keep a normal sized softball loosely in her fingertips with some distance between the ball and her palm, it can be a huge obstacle to feeling the "whip." The suggestion of using a different ball is great (tennis ball, as Jojo suggested, is a good size). If it's too slippery without the seams you can even try a baseball and gradually progress to a 10", then 11", and finally 12" softball.

 

[Goetz]

My daughter is 13, 8th grade. No problem with ball size. She actually throws pretty well but when I have her on video she does not get that good internal rotation release and whip with her arm. Its more of a straight arm push at the release. She can throw about 52mph but I think she is not going to get much faster if she continues to pitch the way she does now. Its a hard thing to fix but she is willing to try.

 

[Goetz]

Thanks! I will try that. Sounds like a good way to get a feel for the release.

Goetz, with my beginners I take a light ball, I use a tennis ball but tell them at home they can use anything small and light like a hand ball or nerf ball.

I have them stand sideways and pull the ball back past their hip with the ball facing 3rd base--pinky down--forearm out.
I then have them pull the ball downward rotating their thumb toward the target--forearm toward target.
Without releasing the ball, I have them finish into the follow through--forearm toward 1st base.

I get them to get used to the swing of the arm like this, it's actually a pretty natural swing.
Then I let them swing their arm back and forth, feeling the swing, and then feeling the wrist movement at the bottom. Like Carly, I tell them about the crack the whip feeling at the bottom.

After they do this a few times, I let them release the ball, using more of a natural toss motion. Letting them feel the arm/wrist/finger action loose and natural. I use the light ball so they don't feel like they have to throw strikes, they can stand close to their catcher and not worry about injury. With young students putting a softball in their hands they generally turn off everything and just want to toss strikes.

After they get used to this I get them to add speed, again the lighter ball allows them to feel more comfortable trying to get whip out of the release and humming something at their parent and not worrying about hurting them.

Then I move them to the real softball.

 

[Goetz]

Well thats part of the problem. In her full motion she does not feel where and what her arm is doing. Thats why I was asking for some ideas on how to get her to feel the correct release.

Being an achy pitcher from the other side (and seeing overuse wrist injuries in 10 year olds), I want to caution you about partial drills.

Wrist flips, of course, are not good. I also believe that separating the bottom of the circle out does nothing for you unless you are working on a change or movement spins. All motions should start at 12 o'clock (and better to be full). It is the whip while the arm is going downhill that the kid must get used to, not starting from a stopped or slingshot position.

I also see no benefit from really small balls that are too light, as the movement can be muscled and rushed. I feel that weight drill training (using light and heavy balls that are still really close to real weight) is for kids around 16-20 who have hit a plateau in velocity and even then I am not fond of it.

The small softball is sufficient for most kids even at 8 years old (don't know the age we are talking here). The idea of throwing strikes is typically an adult idea. Kids really don't care if they hit the broad side of a barn unless an adult tells them so.

In particular, the pattern for the locked arm is often set on the backswing, as Hillhouse says. It also arises out of closing the hips and shoulders. That is why I recommend closer to real motions.

 

[coachdan]

Try using a hand towel to work on the "Crack of the Whip" the whip should cracked on the down swing at the 9 o'clock position. Start slow and finish fast...and snap the towel.

If they make the circle with a straight arm they will not get the whip action.
If they start there circle really fast there will be no whip on the down swing.