Learning to Throw Underhand versus Learning to Pitch

[WillyT812]

I offer this video to help those learning to teach their DD how to pitch. Before learning to pitch a girl should first learn how to throw a ball underhand. This is not the same a pitching. In fact, the amount of time it takes to teach a boy or girl to throw overhand properly is comparable to the time it take to learn how to throw underhand. Never in a million years would a PC try to teach a boy to pitch without first ensuring they could throw overhand properly. Yet, time and time again we see fathers and mothers posting videos of their daughters starting the pitching journey asking what's wrong with their pitching technique when in reality they can't even throw underhand properly yet.

What is a proper underhand throw? Boardmember has explained too many times to count on this forum, he is the master and made me aware of its importance. But I will give it a shot and demo with a video. A proper underhand throw is using body rhythm to assist in an arm whip that uses the elbow joint as a pivot point. On the backside the ball will point up, release somewhere around mid thigh, and a finish with the palm down. This is rotation.

Nice, relaxed and smooth overhand delivery is exactly the same as the underhand delivery--nice, relaxed and smooth. You'll catch them trying to pitch when doing this, tell them to stop, we're not pitching, we're throwing. This is the starting point. When they can do this then they're ready to start learning the art of pitching.

 

[Jojo]

Great post Willy

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Overhand throw ..... High Level Throwing: 5 Common Throwing Mistakes Coaches & Athletes Continue to Make

 

[WillyT812]

Thanks FiveFrame, I'd discuss that post of yours but it would highjack this thread and take it in a direction I'd like to avoid. My main concern is that beginners should understand the energy level learning to throw underhand should match that of throwing overhand. Too many times the girls look relaxed and natural throwing overhand and tighten up and become jerky when throwing underhand. That is the intent and purpose of this thread.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Good job getting it back on track Willy. Throwing underhand is THE foundation for new pitchers, I too don't quite understand why so many young pitchers are trying to do a full pitch from day one. Just the other night a mom of a pitcher was complimenting my daughter's pitching and telling me how her 10 year old has been in lessons for two years and she just can't seem to pitch with any speed. I saw the kid warming up and she was doing full pitches with a leap, flinging balls everywhere at 33 mph but had no concept of how to simply throw underhand. Heck, at 10U a good underhand thrower would be a good pitcher without even using a full circle or a leap. And it is pretty darn easy to teach....and it removes the stress of trying to "pitch" when you are just playing underhand catch....too many good things to list. BM must have posted 1000 times that this is the best way to develop a pitcher.

 

[NorthMS]

I can't agree enough. DD started teaching herself how to pitch. It was an on again, off again type of thing that I hoped she'd grow out of. I wasn't a fan of her pitching. Well, she just didn't grow out of it and I started trying to learn about FP pitching. That's when I found this site.

I didn't let her throw a "pitch" for about 2 weeks while we worked on just playing catch while throwing underhanded. When we went back to pitching, BAM, there was an immediate difference. She still has a long way to go, but that was the first eye opening moment.

 

[Jojo]

Heck, at 10U a good underhand thrower would be a good pitcher without even using a full circle or a leap. And it is pretty darn easy to teach....

I had sisters come to me 3 weeks ago. They had taken lessons for 3 years, 1 was 14 the other 12. Dad brought them to me because their instructor claimed they had perfect mechanics, but he couldn't understand why they had no speed and no control.
After watching them, my first thought was, --they would have been better off left to their own devices in 3 years. Both naturally athletic with good overhand mechanics.

I'm going to lean a lot toward the underhand throwing for my pre-season pitching session for my local league

 

[WillyT812]

The girl in my video, always referred to as IR2 because she is the second girl I taught how to throw using I/R, could initially pitch better just using the technique demonstrated in the overhand/underhand video--often referred to as a slingshot. When the circle was introduced speed and accuracy went down but eventually picked back up and then became better than the slingshot. So then we started stepping and pitching which is what we did last season. Once again she took a step backwards but eventually picked up more speed and accuracy. This off-season we started with Java's Drive Mechanics...it's still a work in progress. This is an incremental journey...starting with learning how to throw underhand. Skip that step and the rest is darn near useless unless being average is all you're looking for.

 

[Jojo]

Wanted to share what happened in a lesson I night with a young 10yr old. It was just her 2nd lesson so I thought we'd really work on tossing for a bit.

She couldn't do it.
Even after I gave her a simple demonstration of just a low release toss off my fingers following trough toward the target.

She would bend over, raise her back leg in the air, snap the ball with her elbow and drive her arm into her chest.--The ball went way outside of her mothers reach who was just 5' away.

I then went on to explain the importance of being able to throw underhand. All the scenarios that call for it in a game. I had her try it again, she still couldn't do it.

Her mother went on to say all of last year those scenarios happened on her team and every single time the ball was then fired right at the first baseman's face, who never caught it and the runners ran and ran....

I asked if her coach ever had them work on tossing. She said, No.

So we worked on it. And it wasn't easy. But we made progress, and was able to keep her back leg on the ground by the end of class and get it over to her mom. She's to keep working at home on it this week. And I realized, if she can't toss that ball over to her mom from 5' away, how is she going to pitch it?

I talked with another parent about this later in the evening and his son is 10 and plays LL, said that they always work on tossing at practice.
If the new student has had some previous experience in tossing, I'm sure it's a lot easier but in this one's case, before seeing me, she had never tossed a ball.

 

[Playaction]

My 10U DD has been working on this for weeks. It has definitely helped her pitching. Most of the girls we are around still bend forward and release the ball out front-aiming. Some of them get good results so the dads are satisfied with their methods.