Pitching - Where to start?

[Ken B]

@RADcatcher,

Please consider checking out Wasserman’s throwing program:

Throwing eBook Downloads - Wasserman Strength -

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www.wassermanstrength.com

I’ll gladly split the cost with you knowing that the athletes you work with will benefit.

 

[Ken B]

@RADcatcher,

“Thankfully you weren't saying that people were teaching something that's called a snapping drill with a locked wrist.”

I actually do a demonstration with students where we compare throws: with and without a bowler’s wrist brace. I strongly recommend trying it. It’s fun and really eye opening.

 

[Ken B]

 

[radness]

@Ken B thank you for your contributions on the website!

I as well pay attention to the technical in the technique of throwing! Have been involved in teaching to others the technical technique in overhand throwing for over 35 years. To include throwing from feet, one knee and two knees.

Particular to pitching I've been involved going to pitching lessons since I was 11 years old. Being a catcher who went multiple times weekly to catch for pitchers and not just at one pitching instructor but at multiple. What a great journey to be able to pay attention to the technical in the techniques. The opportunity to see that not all instructors use the same verbiage. Nor do they all use the same exact mechanics in developing pitchers.
What I also found very interesting was that even pitchers who went to the same instructor did not look exactly the same in their mechanics. I learned a lot, *massive amounts of a lot for decades going to pitching lessons!

From this I highly recommend for folks to go watch different pitching lessons.
It is an interesting and educational experience!

 

[radness]

To bring this back to the do's or don'ts conversation and why I chose to contribute perspective in this thread

Speaking for myself... what I prefer to read/listen to
is people talking about what has worked for them!
In that way can share a positive purpose.
Think it's okay to say 'hey this didn't work for me' (AKA themselves)
However that does not mean it may not work for someone else.

Why do I think this way?
Because I have spent many decades paying attention to the technical in the technique AND recognizing that not everybody is the same.
Perhaps it is also part of trial and error that people learn different ways to become successful.
For that I would not take tools out of a toolbox that someone might need!

 

[radness]

Being that I teach catchers to field and recover dirt pitches to transition directly into our throw, my first post on this website was about dirt pitch recovery. The very next post was someone saying that was misguided information.
( thankfully that would not stop me from contributing on the softball forum)

As the thread moved on people paid attention to having good discussion about it. Others started commenting the interest in what I was talking about. People started expressing that their daughter catchers also use their glove on dirt pitches. After a few pages as the thread went on ,*Amazingly the person who initially posted what I was saying was misguided information, sent me a PM apologizing for saying it was misguided and thank me for joining the Forum.

If you can imagine that there are a percentage of coaches that think that catcher should block all dirt pitches. Then have had students that are far more trained than some of the coaches would even know to teach their own catchers on their team. Go play for these coaches That coaches have said to these catchers when they were using their glove "don't do that, you're doing it wrong." Then, Heavy conversations parents and players had to have with coaches, that had a restricted mindset of what they wanted to see on the field. Catchers knowing the value of what they have been training to do continued using their glove. And what has happened is a phenomenal thing...
where coaches recognizing the performance value stepped up and said 'you know I've learned something watching that young catcher, learned mechanics that control the ball work well in controlling runners'.
Then I have had those coaches contact me over the years for more catchers.
To include College coaches seeing these mechanics and wanting more catchers to control runners.

Share this part of the journey because I know that there is more than one way to reach success.
If people go around eliminating / limiting the resources of mechanical tools to help people learn and grow, we will hold back the future of the possibilities of growth and opportunity!

Thank you for the opportunity to share about softball on DFP!

 

[_MIA_]

If people go around limiting the opportunities of mechanical tools to help people learn and grow, we will hold back the future of possibilities and opportunity!

Like I said before, there are a million drills out there and for every one there are people who have had success with it and there are people who haven’t. There has to be some higher level thinking involved in choosing what you use otherwise you will be chasing your tail. Pointing out the connection (or lack thereof) between the drill and the action you are trying to improve is an example of that “thinking”. Discussions like that don’t impede progress they enhance it. People are still free to use a drill if they choose. If the people on this board were not interested in that sort of discussion they wouldn't be on here. They would just send their kid to an instructor and be on their merry way..

 

[radness]

Like I said before, there are a million drills out there and for every one there are people who have had success with it and there are people who haven’t.

There has to be some higher level thinking involved in choosing what you use otherwise you will be chasing your tail. Pointing out the connection (or lack thereof) between the drill and the action you are trying to improve is an example of that “thinking”. Discussions like that don’t impede progress they enhance it. People are still free to use a drill if they choose. If the people on this board were not interested in that sort of discussion they wouldn't be on here. They would just send their kid to an instructor and be on their merry way..

discussions with an open mind are great!

Enjoy the day!

 

[ArmWhip]

If people go around eliminating / limiting the resources of mechanical tools to help people learn and grow, we will hold back the future of the possibilities of growth and opportunity!

Hmmm, so there are no bad drills, because every drill can teach you something, even if it's the wrong thing?

I have been involved at the youth/beginner/rec level for years. I decided to become a pitching instructor after seeing countless numbers of girls, who wanted to be pitchers, have that desire sabotaged by pitching coaches who started them off with wrist snaps. The girls who survived and became good pitchers stopped doing what their pitching coach told them to do. And you know what, the coaches didn't even recognize this, they went on teaching 'snaps'. Am I on a crusade, yup.

 

[radness]

Hmmm, so there are no bad drills, because every drill can teach you something, even if it's the wrong thing?

People learn in different ways and from different experiences.

I have been involved at the youth/beginner/rec level for years. I decided to become a pitching instructor after seeing countless numbers of girls, who wanted to be pitchers, have that desire sabotaged by pitching coaches who started them off with wrist snaps. The girls who survived and became good pitchers stopped doing what their pitching coach told them to do. And you know what, the coaches didn't even recognize this, they went on teaching 'snaps'. Am I on a crusade, yup.

Ok crusader! You go! Great passion!

Amongst other things I teach in softball I am a catcher and love to focus on catching!
There are other mechanics people teach that I would never do.
In fact some of those mechanics/drills, that I would never do, think can be critically detrimental. Perhaps that's in the same category as wrist snaps for you?!
However I do not tell people to not experience something that they may learn from! And knowing that there are people that are successful using tools I would not do I would not tell another to take a tool out of their toolbox because someone could learn from it in a useful way!
( meaning it may work for them)

* my perspective is not only about wrist snaps hope that is clear

Enjoy your wrist snaps crusade!