After looking at the video posted by Ade's Dad I decided that it's a good time to look closer at the finer points of internal rotation (IR) of the arm and how it relates to the quality of a particular fastpitch motion.
There are basically two qualities or attributes to the IR part of the motion that vary considerably from pitcher to pitcher, they are timing and elbow angle. IR by itself is not a very dynamic action in terms of adding velocity to a pitched ball. You can see this for yourself by simply leaning over in your chair and letting your throwing arm hang straight down, rotate your palm/hand/arm clockwise and counter clockwise, there's not much to it.
How a pitcher times the IR part of her motion will determine how much speed she will gain from it. I would say that 98% of the 300+ pitchers that I have on video have some amount of IR in their motion. The vast majority of these pitchers are in a position like Ade in frame 3 of the 4 posted by her dad. They have their hand on the side of the ball and the elbow is leading, to some degree anyway. As they move down from this 9 o'clock position most pitchers will start their internal rotation, by the time they get to about 7 o'clock they will have completed it and be pushing the ball to release. They have released it early, not maximized the 'whip' part of their motion and lost velocity.
The second variable in the internal rotation part of the motion involves the amount of elbow bend or angle. The more angle or bend a pitcher has in her elbow the more she can take advantage of IR to add velocity to the ball. Some pitchers, like Jenny Finch and Sarah Pauly, with long arms do not have a lot of elbow bend, they rely more on their arm circle for velocity (they still have great timing). Other pitchers like Ueno employ a significant amount of elbow bend to add speed. Most of the college pitchers that I have on tape have a significant amount of arm bend, far more than you would think unless you see it in high speed slo-mo. I have some girls on tape that look basically like a baseball submarine pitcher, they disguise what is possibly an illegal motion with a windmill start and heavy body lean to the throwing arm side so that the release still takes place under the shoulder.
How a pitcher times her IR release and how much elbow bend she employs determines how much velocity she can add to the ball with the internal rotation part of the pitching motion.
To Ade's Dad, I would say that if your daughter wants to take it to the next level she needs more elbow bend and she needs to hold that release longer, this is what will allow her to 'crack the whip' and get maximum velocity on her fastball.
There are basically two qualities or attributes to the IR part of the motion that vary considerably from pitcher to pitcher, they are timing and elbow angle. IR by itself is not a very dynamic action in terms of adding velocity to a pitched ball. You can see this for yourself by simply leaning over in your chair and letting your throwing arm hang straight down, rotate your palm/hand/arm clockwise and counter clockwise, there's not much to it.
How a pitcher times the IR part of her motion will determine how much speed she will gain from it. I would say that 98% of the 300+ pitchers that I have on video have some amount of IR in their motion. The vast majority of these pitchers are in a position like Ade in frame 3 of the 4 posted by her dad. They have their hand on the side of the ball and the elbow is leading, to some degree anyway. As they move down from this 9 o'clock position most pitchers will start their internal rotation, by the time they get to about 7 o'clock they will have completed it and be pushing the ball to release. They have released it early, not maximized the 'whip' part of their motion and lost velocity.
The second variable in the internal rotation part of the motion involves the amount of elbow bend or angle. The more angle or bend a pitcher has in her elbow the more she can take advantage of IR to add velocity to the ball. Some pitchers, like Jenny Finch and Sarah Pauly, with long arms do not have a lot of elbow bend, they rely more on their arm circle for velocity (they still have great timing). Other pitchers like Ueno employ a significant amount of elbow bend to add speed. Most of the college pitchers that I have on tape have a significant amount of arm bend, far more than you would think unless you see it in high speed slo-mo. I have some girls on tape that look basically like a baseball submarine pitcher, they disguise what is possibly an illegal motion with a windmill start and heavy body lean to the throwing arm side so that the release still takes place under the shoulder.
How a pitcher times her IR release and how much elbow bend she employs determines how much velocity she can add to the ball with the internal rotation part of the pitching motion.
To Ade's Dad, I would say that if your daughter wants to take it to the next level she needs more elbow bend and she needs to hold that release longer, this is what will allow her to 'crack the whip' and get maximum velocity on her fastball.
