My DD new pitching instructor wants her to maintain her release stance, hips at about 45 degrees on finish, after release and not square up into defensive stance. Any advantage to this? She had three errors in the circle this weekend which is atypical. Her coaches have expressed they want her to focus on agility during the off season but I kind of wonder if she's already at a disadvantage in not squaring up following release. Thoughts?
Pitcher Defensive Stance
- Thread starter Watershed
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Your PC is correct.
The pitcher's main job with a glove is to protect herself...not field. At higher levels of play (gold, A, college), the pitcher doesn't field unless the ball is hit right back at her. Other than that, she lets her C, 3B and 1B cover everything.
On good teams, the pitcher is the worst fielder on the team.
I don't know how many videos you want to watch to show this:
Cat Osterman
Lauren Haeger
Monica Abbott
Angela Tincher
The pitcher's main job with a glove is to protect herself...not field. At higher levels of play (gold, A, college), the pitcher doesn't field unless the ball is hit right back at her. Other than that, she lets her C, 3B and 1B cover everything.
On good teams, the pitcher is the worst fielder on the team.
I don't know how many videos you want to watch to show this:
Cat Osterman
Lauren Haeger
Monica Abbott
Angela Tincher
Last edited:
Squaring up to the catcher usually results in an over rotation of the shoulders . If you rotate your shoulders around your body you throw around your body. You will lose accuracy. If you keep your throwing shoulder back (at least until after release) you'll keep the ball on the power line, throws will be more accurate you don't want to be completely open but you don't want to be completely square to catcher. That's how I understand it anyway. I do see some high level pitchers that look like they square up to catcher but if you watch in slomo, at release they are around 45* and continue to close after ball is gone.
- Nov 29, 2009
- 2,973
- 83
That is what I teach my pitchers. You are a pitcher first, fielder second. I want them to finish with glove just above the waist so they can protect themselves from a comebacker. After that they are a fielder. Too many coaches do not understand just how hard it is to go from a fully ballistic motion of pitching a ball, stopping while maintaining your balance, track the ball to determine if you're going to need to defend yourself and then try and field hit ball. All within the span of 1.25 - 1.75 seconds. That's a lot ask of any athlete.
Top_Notch
Screwball
- Dec 18, 2014
- 524
- 63
Any advantage to this?
Yes. Smaller 'profile' to the batted ball. Better defensive stance to protect against batted ball. More resistance in the pitch to throw harder/faster. I think I like your PC.
Yes. Smaller 'profile' to the batted ball. Better defensive stance to protect against batted ball. More resistance in the pitch to throw harder/faster. I think I like your PC.
Yes, this is my understanding as well. I agree you lose accuracy and I believe you also lose some speed because allowing that throwing shoulder to come forward minimizes your resistance.
yeah definitely encouraging thing with the new instructor. DD typically has pretty good command even before this small change. im finding she occasionally isn't getting the hips near that 45ish sweet spot and throws a bit across her body with a slight decrease in speed. But it's not too bad. Never found her to square prior to release so just wanted to gather some thoughts on the direction it seems she's heading. Thanks for the replies!
