As coaches we all have ideas, thoughts or conceptions about how various joints work, often these are really preconceptions and they keep us from truly understanding what a joint is actually doing or how it performs. We think of the wrist as a hinge that can fold or flip back and forth. The elbow can fold but can't open past 180 degrees, it is the upper body equivalent of the knee. It order to truly understand what a joint can or cannot do it is necessary to examine it closely. I propose some experiments to help clarify what we mean by 'wrist snap'.
Experiment 1
Put your elbow on your desk, arm/hand pointing up, palm out as if telling someone to 'stop'. Now imagine that you have just laid your forearm on the windshield of your car, palm down. Now move your fingers/hand back and forth like a windshield wiper but don't move your forearm. You might be surprised to see that your fingers/hand have almost 90 degrees of motion. If someone asked you to demonstrate a wrist snap you most likely would use a flipping or waving 'good bye' action and not this windshield wiper motion.
Experiment 2
Elbow on the desk, arm up, palm facing out, With your other hand grasp your forearm just below the wrist. Begin the windshield wiper action with the hand/wrist, don't move the forearm. Now slowly let the hand bend over so that the palm starts to face down, still doing the windshield wiper motion. You will notice that as the hand gets bent to about 45 degrees the wiper action becomes restricted and as you go further it becomes more restricted to the point where the bones in the forearm under the skin in the grip of your other hand will try to move as body attempts to follow the minds command to perform the wiper action.
Experiment 3
Elbow on the desk, arm up, palm facing out. Now rotate your hand so that your palm is facing you, rotate your hand back and forth as far as possible. You might be surprised to discover that your hand/forearm has about 180 degrees of rotation in the horizontal plane while the upper arm doesn't move at all.
Experiment 4
Elbow on the desk, arm up, imagine that you are holding a baseball. Imagine throwing a baseball curve, you are trying to impart horizontal spin to the ball. Notice that the action necessary to impart side spin comes from rotating the forearm, not the wrist.
Experiment 5
Same position, imagine holding a baseball, this time you want to throw a drop or put top/over spin on the ball. Notice that the action necessary for this comes from the windshield wiper action of the wrist.
All three of these actions are used in softball, the flip (rarely in my opinion), the windshield wiper, the forearm rotation.
When throwing a softball curve as the arm comes into the release area the palm should be facing up, fingers pointing up, wrist cupped, we are attempting to impart horizontal/side spin to the ball. At this point most coaches will tell their students to snap their wrist, in fact many 'star' pitchers will say that they focus on snapping their wrist. But as we have seen in experiment 2 with the wrist bent it cannot be snapped, what is really happening is that the forearm is rotating, but no coach is going to tell their student to snap the forearm.
When throwing the rise ball as the arm comes into the release area the palm should be facing 3rd base with fingers also pointing in that direction. We are attempting to apply backspin to the ball so the applied wrist action will be the windshield wiper type.
Some people think that when throwing a topspin fastball or peel drop the flip variety of wrist snap is used, I am very skeptical about this. I have watched a lot of good video and never seen a pitcher with the wrist cocked back, at least not to the degree that it is noticeable. What I have noticed with one former Olympian is that she does have a little of the windshield wiper wrist cock toward the thumb side but it seems to be there on all of her pitches.
It seems to me that the oft given cue of snapping the wrist actually applies to 3 distinct actions, flipping, wiping and forearm rotation.
Experiment 1
Put your elbow on your desk, arm/hand pointing up, palm out as if telling someone to 'stop'. Now imagine that you have just laid your forearm on the windshield of your car, palm down. Now move your fingers/hand back and forth like a windshield wiper but don't move your forearm. You might be surprised to see that your fingers/hand have almost 90 degrees of motion. If someone asked you to demonstrate a wrist snap you most likely would use a flipping or waving 'good bye' action and not this windshield wiper motion.
Experiment 2
Elbow on the desk, arm up, palm facing out, With your other hand grasp your forearm just below the wrist. Begin the windshield wiper action with the hand/wrist, don't move the forearm. Now slowly let the hand bend over so that the palm starts to face down, still doing the windshield wiper motion. You will notice that as the hand gets bent to about 45 degrees the wiper action becomes restricted and as you go further it becomes more restricted to the point where the bones in the forearm under the skin in the grip of your other hand will try to move as body attempts to follow the minds command to perform the wiper action.
Experiment 3
Elbow on the desk, arm up, palm facing out. Now rotate your hand so that your palm is facing you, rotate your hand back and forth as far as possible. You might be surprised to discover that your hand/forearm has about 180 degrees of rotation in the horizontal plane while the upper arm doesn't move at all.
Experiment 4
Elbow on the desk, arm up, imagine that you are holding a baseball. Imagine throwing a baseball curve, you are trying to impart horizontal spin to the ball. Notice that the action necessary to impart side spin comes from rotating the forearm, not the wrist.
Experiment 5
Same position, imagine holding a baseball, this time you want to throw a drop or put top/over spin on the ball. Notice that the action necessary for this comes from the windshield wiper action of the wrist.
All three of these actions are used in softball, the flip (rarely in my opinion), the windshield wiper, the forearm rotation.
When throwing a softball curve as the arm comes into the release area the palm should be facing up, fingers pointing up, wrist cupped, we are attempting to impart horizontal/side spin to the ball. At this point most coaches will tell their students to snap their wrist, in fact many 'star' pitchers will say that they focus on snapping their wrist. But as we have seen in experiment 2 with the wrist bent it cannot be snapped, what is really happening is that the forearm is rotating, but no coach is going to tell their student to snap the forearm.
When throwing the rise ball as the arm comes into the release area the palm should be facing 3rd base with fingers also pointing in that direction. We are attempting to apply backspin to the ball so the applied wrist action will be the windshield wiper type.
Some people think that when throwing a topspin fastball or peel drop the flip variety of wrist snap is used, I am very skeptical about this. I have watched a lot of good video and never seen a pitcher with the wrist cocked back, at least not to the degree that it is noticeable. What I have noticed with one former Olympian is that she does have a little of the windshield wiper wrist cock toward the thumb side but it seems to be there on all of her pitches.
It seems to me that the oft given cue of snapping the wrist actually applies to 3 distinct actions, flipping, wiping and forearm rotation.
