Wrist snap will take place naturally as part of relaxed acceleration of the hand and forearm through the "throw zone" (what we call forearm fire). The snapping of the wrist is not limited to one direction, such as an upside-down "bye bye" wave. The internal rotation of the forearm during delivery, if the forearm is relaxed, will result in a natural whip of the wrist similar to the tip of snapped towel. The wrist will snap slightly differently depending on what type of pitch you are throwing. For those of you who requested the link to the video being discussed here it is Video: Windmill Pitching Release Mechanics
My expertise is in hitting. I'm trying to learn fastpitch pitching so I find the discussion between you, Screwball, Boardmember and others informative.
I have a pretty good knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology, so I have a bit of a quibble with something you said in the video.
You said, paraphrasing; that the shoulder disengages after reaching the top and that mostly gravity is all that is left. That is not true. There are at least 5 muscles that are activated and that pull the arm down from the top, and through release.
The latisimus dorsi, the pectoralis, the teres major, the coracobrachialis and to a small extent; the biceps. They are all involved in pulling the hand down and into internal rotation.
Now, if someone teaches a locked straight arm that swings around with no IR and you simply windmill your arm around, in that case, those muscles don't do much. The momentum created by the deltoid bringing the arm up, and gravity pulling it down, would be fairly accurate. But, even in that motion, the lat and pecs are somewhat involved. The pecs and teres less so when you hold that bone position.
What Boardmember is teaching, is how to recruit and involve muscles that will accelerate the hand and not just rely on gravity and/or momentum from the start of the arm circle. I realize that you are saying that also, but I think you're missing a lot of the kinesiology involved in the IR movement.
You are promoting wrist snap done by the muscles that flex the wrist. Boardmember is promoting the use of the pronator muscles to twist the hand before/as it flexes. You aren't doing that in your demo.
Specifically the pronator teres and the pronator quadratis. You don't appear to be using those as much as you are using the flexors. As you stated, your hand is naturally pronating and then you snap or flex. BM is saying to put more emphasis on actively pronating the wrist and let the snap be natural.
It's the subtle difference between "snapping" and "throwing". BM is trying to describe how to throw; not just snap by extending the elbow and flexing the wrist. BM is saying IR the upper arm and pronate the forearm, which is more of a throw than gravity followed by a snap.
At least that is how I see it at this point from what has been shown by both of you. I could be wrong.
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