Pitching out of the pocket

[StacieM]

In order to stop there you have to slow down before release.

Thank you so much for posting this. I was beginning to think I was the only person on the planet who realized this. lol

I see many pitchers, especially at the older levels with this "follow through" and now I realize someone is teaching Yikes.

Some of these pitchers have decent speed and I watch them pitch and just think

1) imagine how much more speed they would have if they weren't stopping their arm right there
2) how terrible that must be for your arm to try to be picking up as much speed as possible only to abruptly stop there!

Ouch. I disagree with the "it won't hurt them part." Sorry

 

[bwalk63]

I have never heard the term "pitching out of the pocket" but maybe he just means hiding the ball in the glove with no back arm swing. Maybe like this, not saying that is what he means, but could be.

 

[Jojo]

I have never heard the term "pitching out of the pocket" but maybe he just means hiding the ball in the glove with no back arm swing. Maybe like this, not saying that is what he means, but could be.

Nope--the hand ends at the innner thigh. The right inner thigh on a rightie and the left on a leftie. Almost like the follow through on a splitter but to the back leg not the front.

 

[bwalk63]

wow, why would anyone teach that?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

The same reason that someone teaches girls to slap their hip with their glove.

 

[bwalk63]

like my DD does in that video? LOL

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Sorry. I can't see her glove smack her hip. I wouldn't directly insult a young lady, like that.

 

[bwalk63]

I was just teasing Amy, but she used to slap her glove and we finally broke her of it.

 

[NVfishing]

I think the coach is having the pitcher stop at the pocket. Using the inertia of the stop and the snap of the wrist to exert momentum to the ball. If you watch the hitting clips/good swing videos there are a lot of the pitchers stopping at the "Pocket". There's no follow through on the pitch.

 

[bwalk63]

After reading and thinking about this thread it finally came to mind. I won't name any names(actually I can't remember his name, I am getting old) but a few years back we were in the St Louis area for a few days and I took my DD to a pitching instructor who was going to take a look at her and give her his opinion. He suggested this very thing, and also using the glove hand like you were swatting at a fly, pulling your glove hand out away from your face and then slapping it to you thigh. This he said would pul your shoulders around and you would get more speed. Needless to say we ran away with our tails between our legs. Now there were some really good pitchers there, and the place was big and obviously he had a good business going with not only pitching but hitting as well, including baseball. But it was not something we were interested in.