Good drills/ideas for improving push-off ???
- Thread starter fpmama
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
Take track. Study sprinter starts, practice them. Conditioning helps, squats and lunges in particular.
Practice jumping straight up on one foot (pivot foot)
Practice starting on the rubber in the normal stance (without a ball), and then "throwing" the stride foot, glove, and ball hand directly towards the catchers mitt while getting open. Mark the landing distance and try to beat it.
Do more lunges, squats, and bleacher runs, then do them again.
-W
Practice jumping straight up on one foot (pivot foot)
Practice starting on the rubber in the normal stance (without a ball), and then "throwing" the stride foot, glove, and ball hand directly towards the catchers mitt while getting open. Mark the landing distance and try to beat it.
Do more lunges, squats, and bleacher runs, then do them again.
-W
- Sep 16, 2009
- 46
- 0
flamingos....
Have player balance on one leg ( the push off leg ) ready to begin pitch. Have them slowly bend their knee -- loading it up and then push off.
By having their foot off the ground, they MUST push off to start the pitch. Surprisingly enough, younger pitchers actually pitch faster this way in my experience until that loading mechanism is part of their normal motion...
Have player balance on one leg ( the push off leg ) ready to begin pitch. Have them slowly bend their knee -- loading it up and then push off.
By having their foot off the ground, they MUST push off to start the pitch. Surprisingly enough, younger pitchers actually pitch faster this way in my experience until that loading mechanism is part of their normal motion...
halskinner
Banned
- May 7, 2008
- 2,649
- 0
"Do more lunges, squats, and bleacher runs, then do them again".
I would not advise the lunges and squats. The most promising pitcher I ever worked with just started her freshman year in college. Full ride for softball. Lunatic head coach started training the team like they were NFL players with lunges and squats with weights.
My former student tore her quad, never had a leg injury in her life. Coach said "Sometimes you have to play when it hurts". She went to a private doctor that did scans and found it was severly torn. Coach said "I don't casr if you have to pitch from a chair, you ARE playing". She gave the coach, the team and the scholarship the heave ho! She quit softball all together.
Stay away from lunges, squats and lunatic coaches.
sneakysoftballpitching.com
I would not advise the lunges and squats. The most promising pitcher I ever worked with just started her freshman year in college. Full ride for softball. Lunatic head coach started training the team like they were NFL players with lunges and squats with weights.
My former student tore her quad, never had a leg injury in her life. Coach said "Sometimes you have to play when it hurts". She went to a private doctor that did scans and found it was severly torn. Coach said "I don't casr if you have to pitch from a chair, you ARE playing". She gave the coach, the team and the scholarship the heave ho! She quit softball all together.
Stay away from lunges, squats and lunatic coaches.
sneakysoftballpitching.com
Last edited:
- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
Agree about the coaches. Have to strongly disagree about exercising and using body weight lunges and squats. Yes, they have to be done right, and yes, the good coach will take the time and instruction to learn how to do them correctly, but to damn an activity just because one kid got hurt is to damn us all to watch sports on on TV because we would have prevented all our children from doing something that might get them an owie. Those sports would be re-runs, BTW.
-W
-W
halskinner
Banned
- May 7, 2008
- 2,649
- 0
coach started training the team like they were NFL players with lunges and squats with weights.
These are female softball players, not male football players. It's the 'with weights' part that irritates me the most. This pitcher is 6 foot tall, somewhat slender and strong and started pitching at 5 years old. She had a tremendous career through travel ball and high school. Never an injury, until her college coach has her doing these exercises with weights. This head coach has been there as softball coach for 25 years as I understand it. She also acts as the team pitching coach too. SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER.
This young lady wasnt at that school but around one month.
These are female softball players, not male football players. It's the 'with weights' part that irritates me the most. This pitcher is 6 foot tall, somewhat slender and strong and started pitching at 5 years old. She had a tremendous career through travel ball and high school. Never an injury, until her college coach has her doing these exercises with weights. This head coach has been there as softball coach for 25 years as I understand it. She also acts as the team pitching coach too. SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER.
This young lady wasnt at that school but around one month.
- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
I can agree with that then, Hal. Kids shouldn't be using weights. Maybe, just maybe if they're light weights and they are under the supervision of a certified trainer, but most coaches don't fall under that category.
What kind of college was this? It's simply baffling that this happened, usually the colleges spend a lot of money on good sports medicine doctors and trainers because they have so much invested in their athletes. Weight work is very common if not expected at this level.
I'm wondering how athletic was this pitcher when she got into college? Was this the case of an out-of-shape kid who just happened to pitch well, or was she an all around athlete that just, for whatever reason, never went to a gym?
-W
What kind of college was this? It's simply baffling that this happened, usually the colleges spend a lot of money on good sports medicine doctors and trainers because they have so much invested in their athletes. Weight work is very common if not expected at this level.
I'm wondering how athletic was this pitcher when she got into college? Was this the case of an out-of-shape kid who just happened to pitch well, or was she an all around athlete that just, for whatever reason, never went to a gym?
-W
I know you said squats are bad. My DD is 10 and is beginning to pitch. What is your thought as to my DD doing what i call deep knee bends, with our weights. We use to do them when i was a kid in elmentery school.
