More Evidence that Wrist Snaps Are a Waste of Time

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Ken Krause

Administrator
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May 7, 2008
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Mundelein, IL


You see it on fields and in cages everywhere you go: one or more pitchers lined up five feet in front of their catchers (or a wall) forcibly pushing a ball out of their hands by snapping their wrists up. Meanwhile, the pitching coach talks about how important a hard wrist snap is to maximizing the speed of the pitch.

As I have discussed before, this way of thinking is a holdover from the days before high-speed video enabled us to see what was really going on during the release phase of the pitch. What people perceive as a hard wrist snap is really a reaction to other things happening in the pitching motion, especially the sudden deceleration of forearm due to internal rotation and brush contact.

Giving up old beliefs, however, is difficult. I know it, because I’ve had to do it numerous times and it didn’t come easily. Most of us hate to admit when we’re wrong about something (some more than others), so we fight tooth and nail to justify what we’ve been doing or teaching.

Heck, I taught wrist snaps for a few years too before I saw the truth, and it wasn’t like I flipped the light switch one day and stopped. But when I realized that at best they were a waste of time and at worst they were preventing my students from maximizing their speed I stopped.

Of course, it helps to have evidence of what you’re promoting. That’s why I was excited to see this video experiment pitching guru (and personal friend) Rick Pauly created. Rick is driving force behind High Performance Pitching (full disclosure: I am an Elite Level certified coach at HPP) as well as the father of a pretty darned good pitcher who has had a long and distinguished career, first in college and then as a pro in the U.S. and Japan.

In this experiment, Rick place a bowler’s wrist brace on the pitching hand of a pitcher. If you’re not familiar with them, these braces are used to prevent the wrist from moving during the delivery of a bowling ball. They basically freeze it in place, preventing any kind of a forward snapping motion to protect bowlers from injury.

Here’s a video of the pitcher throwing with the wrist brace in place:



Within four pitches, using the wrist brace for the first time, this pitcher was able to throw within a half mile per hour of her top speed for that lesson. My guess is with a little more time to get used to it, the brace would have had zero effect on her speed.

This is an experiment you may want to try yourself. Have your daughter or other pitcher throw a few pitches as she normally does, and get a speed reading with a reliable radar gun on a tripod.

Then put the wrist brace on and have her throw a few more pitches. If she’s trying to throw hard at all you will likely find the same results.

By the way, if you do perform this experiment let us know how it comes out. I plan to pick up a wrist brace and try it as well.

The state of knowledge is evolving all the time, so it’s important to keep up. You wouldn’t want your doctor to automatically bring out the leeches no matter what you went in for, would you?

The same is true for pitching. The more you seek out the latest information, such as the effect a hard, forced wrist snap really has on pitch speeds, the better you’ll be able to serve your pitchers.

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radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Like the array of post topics you write about!

What is your feedback on the use of
wrist snaps focussing on learning/growing/warming up SPIN?
 
Oct 26, 2019
1,375
113
Something that is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to pitchers and it has to do with wrist snaps as well as the 53 other drills girls do when they warmup before pitching. As a parent or coach, kids need to understand the difference between doing drills for 20 minutes prior to a lesson or pitching practice and when a coach tells a player - “hey, Sally is having a bit of trouble this inning go get warmed up in case she needs to come out”.

First 10U tournament we went to I had this exact scenario and I look down to the bullpen after 5 minutes or so and Susie is down there doing wrist flips from 3 feet away. We had to have a nice chat about getting warmed up and ready to go quick.

While I’m on my soapbox - if you are I signet on doing wrist flicks and all the other drills every time before you pitch, please don’t make the catcher catch while all that is going on. There are so many more productive things a catcher could be doing than catching wrist flicks.

Rant over - good topic @Ken Krause
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Like the array of post topics you write about!

What is your feedback on the use of
wrist snaps focussing on learning/growing/warming up SPIN?

That's different. Wrist snaps (or more accurately close-in work) to learn spins is perfectly legit because you're learning how to manipulate your hand and the ball to throw - not trying to increase speed with a technique that doesn't work.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
That's different. Wrist snaps (or more accurately close-in work) to learn spins is perfectly legit because you're learning how to manipulate your hand and the ball to throw - not trying to increase speed with a technique that doesn't work.
👍
Just thought it would be good to distinguish the difference!

Could be part of some pitchers warm ups.
Stimulates that motion/mechanic.
 
Last edited:
Dec 30, 2020
7
3
York, PA
Very interesting! I'm not a fan of extended wrist flicks. Like, why do these for more than a couple minutes but this has me wondering why do them at all. Goes completely against what I've know through to this point so it is a shocker. I'd love to see any follow ups when you get a chance to try it out. I'm all about close-in work and getting familiar with hand/finger grip and motions on different pitches and as you clarified, that isn't the same as doing basic wrist flicks for strength/speed. We use a forearm roller to help strengthen DD's wrists and forearms. Consider me intrigued for sure.
 

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