screwball issue

[Coach JV]

My daughter has been practicing the screwball, for the past few months and used it in a game last
weekend. From the dugout I could not see release point. About 50% of the screwballs broke
too much and she hit one batter with one. When she moves back from 40 to 43' in 6 weeks, where
does she need to make the adjustment. In practice the pitch works very well, in games it is not so reliable, she likes it because it breaks pretty late and it is a devastating pitch when it works.
Any suggestions?

 

[SoCalASABlue]

Doesn't sound to me like there's a problem...but if it really concerns you that much, get video and I'm sure the folks on DFP will give you suggestions and/or advice. Paraphrasing from Hillhouse's video lesson at Fastpitch Softball TV Video Show, any pitching issues east-west is usually mechanics and anything north-south is usually release point.

 

[starsnuffer]

It could be a consistency issue. Perhaps some of her pitches have good spin and are thus generating a good late break. Perhaps others do not have sufficient spin and therefor are not breaking.

If some of her pitches are dead on, and others are off target, then it's a practice issue. Clearly she has the right mechanics to make the pitch work, but just can't do it every time. Practice practice practice.

Edit: BTW, she's going to hit batters with screwballs. Get used to it, especially batters that line up on top of the plate.

-W

 

[Coach JV]

starsnuffer-they all break, but some too much. when batters crowd the plate she likes to bust them
with an inside rise. I don't care that she hits an occasional batter (nor does she) I prefer not to give
too many free passes to the bases though. The transition from rise to screw is seamless, thus the reason
she wants to lean on the screw more. In practice the break is consistent, in games it is not, but it is a new
pitch in the arsenal.

Screwball, we will be throwing tonight, I will check the step more left and see how it goes

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Coach JV, if her screws are breaking a lot ( which is a good thing ). I'd practice using a backdoor screw, working the outside of the plate. Mine throws a backdoor curve ( she's a lefty ). Seen lots of batters give up on it thinking it will be outside the zone, then it breaks back in.

 

[starsnuffer]

I guess I don't understand the reasoning behind changing her mechanics when her pitches are usually, but not always, successful. I still think it comes down to needing more practice.

Have her pitch around a T (with a softball on top) set up about 15 feet in front of home plate right on the powerline, aiming at a basketball set up on another T where the catchers glove should be. You can vary the location of the second T depending on how well her screw is breaking. Her goal should be to hit the basketball without knocking over the softball as consistently as possible. This idea of a game put her mind into competition mode which is more similar to what she's going through in a game.

-W

 

[CoachFP]

Some of you guys don't get it. The "screwball" breaking too much? I have seen very few that break at all. All the screwball is, is an angle pitch. If your daughter's is "breaking" too much it means she is throwing it too far inside.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Some of you guys don't get it. The "screwball" breaking too much? I have seen very few that break at all. All the screwball is, is an angle pitch. If your daughter's is "breaking" too much it means she is throwing it too far inside.

I have to agree with you on this. The screwball doesn't snap like a good curve does. What is does, is it keeps running in on the hitter while they are swinging the bat. This constant movement is what is hard for the hitters to adjust to. The contact point keeps changing keeping the hitter for making solid contact with the ball.

 

[fastpitch91]

assuming it is moving, which I do not doubt, it willmove more from 43 than from 40. When my daughter moved to 43 the "words' we used to adjust were to think of thrwing the ball through the plate. I know that is not very scientific but the screws that break to much are usually a result of the hand/arm pushing inside rather just spinning the ball. It not hard when spinning to the right to have the hand drift to the right. Add some spin and some "inside" direction and see ya on first base! hence the idea of keeping the hand/arm path to the plate while spinning seemed to help her.

 

[RMGC]

CoachJV: Generally, when a screwball becomes what I call "too big" it has more to do with the travel of the hand as it releases the ball. Whether your pitcher is twisting the ball like a doorknob or turning her hand in and letting the ball roll off the gap between her index and thumb while whipping her hand up, it is the travel of the hand in relation to the elbow that will dictate where the ball will end up in relation to the plate. The further outside the eldow the hand is at release, the more inside the pitch will be to a right hand batter. If you stand behind the pitcher and watch the elbow travel and look at how far to the right the hand is with relation to it at release, you will see that the further "out" the hand is, the bigger the break will become. The simple solution to this is to tell your pitcher to perform the motion while keeping her hand in front of and closer to in line with the elbow. I call this the theory of tangents, and it works for many different pitches. If you can picture that as the pitcher's arm makes a circle, there is an imaginary line or tangent that travels to home plate from the elbow and hand at release point. The relationship between the elbow tangent and the hand tangent will dictate the travel of the ball. A perfectly straight fast ball down the center of the plate will have the elbow tangent line directly over the hand tangent line on release. A curve will have the hand tangent line to the left of the elbow tangent line looking from the rear of the pitcher. The screw will have the tangent line of the hand to the right of the elbow tangent. How much in each direction the hand tangent deviates from the elbow tangent will dictate how big the pitch's break becomes. Adjust this and it will adjust the break. Get your pitcher to control this and you will see a significant difference in her control. Rich