The best not knowing what they do (did)

[fastpitch91]

I think the idea of wrist flicks has its origins in 25 years of flawed pitching instruction. Each pitcher coming up was taught that flicks were important and they taught that to the next generation, and so on. The good news is they probably don't do any harm! Hillhouse has always been vocal that wrist flops are useless. The current thinking ( that i have seen most recently, Kirk Walkers research on 50 years of pitchers ) is that spin comes from the fingers not the wrist and as most all would agree speed comes from snapping the elbow ( internal rotation or what you want to call it by various different instructional styles, again see Kirk walkers research) not snapping the wrist.

What you can see in slow motion video ( like sarah pauley videos) that looks like all kinds of wrist action is really happening after the ball leaves the fingers! It is a result of spinning the ball hard with the fingers and is really wrist "follow through" . Just as in hitting having the bat finish over the shoulder is a follow through of having a positive angle of attack on hitting a pitch below your hands.

With HS video the conclusion is the ball leaves the fingers pretty much with the arm straight down and the wrist "straight" ; once the ball is out of your fingers NOTHING a pitcher does will impact the ball. What you see is only indicative of where the pitcher was moving at release and where momentum takes their body parts. NOW that indicative can be very helpful in training athletes. Its hard to throw a rise if your hand travels down below your waist and a drop if your follow through is high - because things go where they were headed , its called inertia, after release.

i do think a better training method for all , and especially starting pitchers, is elbow snaps. Tricep on the body, fingers behind the ball, rotate the arm down and around the elbow joint, release at straight down and finish palm to the body. Even better combine that with small stride to toe touch to initiate hand movement, and collect the drive leg backunder the body to maintain good vertical body posture.

 

[Ken B]

The wrist is critical for putting the fingertips into the correct position, as is the forearm and upper arm. They work as a system to deliver every pitch. One CANNOT work without the other. Smaller motions, that look like wrist flips, can be helpful for teaching spin awareness to a kid who is just starting to learn a spin. Once they have spin awareness, that small motion is no longer needed and they go to whatever motion 99's, 12's. full circle, whatever....)