Throwing drill

[Hustle Coach]

Can somebody tell me the use of this drill. The drill is to take the ball, reach back and turn your hand backwards so that your palm is facing behind you and then throw ball from there. I dont get the use, every girl i have seen that has done this drill, there elbow gets to far ahead of the ball. If you turn your wrist while throwing your elbow will try to lead the way and leave you hand and ball behind.

 

[HittingGuru]

Your elbow should lead if you want to pull the ball with ypur hips otherwise they arehing the ball.

 

[newsoftballdad]

We absolutely teach our girls (10U) "away, tray, go". Palm facing back, high five the coach, then lead with a high elbow, looks like carrying a tray, and then let it go. I have been to several coaches clinics is this is what was taught as well. Without it the throws tend to look like shotputs.

 

[Hustle Coach]

Every girl i have seen throw this way looks like they are shot puting the ball. I have seen two coaches teach this and none of the girls could throw this way. Can you provide a vid or pic of a player turning there hand backwards while throwing the ball in a game ? Do you teach turn hand back sideways then throw or hand back and throw. My daughter did this drill along with some other girls they all got sore arms with high school coach. My daughter is 5' 5" 120 pounds and throws over 60 they way she throws now. Dont want to sound to negitve but only seen bad things from this drill they way i have seen it. So maybe they are doing it wrong. When my daughter throws now the shoulders open up and the hand is the same as the shoulders. She is sideways to target and so is her hand. If you look at the top of this screen the girls hand is sideways not backwards.

 

[Hustle Coach]

Came back and read your post again this morning. Do you do the away, then make tray before you start the go? If i take my hand and try to turn it while it is moving forward it wants to make my elbow drop and put my arm in a weak position. If i make a tray before forward movement my elbow stays up like it should. Im thinking these guys missed part of the drill or purpose. They are making them turn there hand backwards in a normal throw. Again i like the way the girl at the top of the screen looks. Now that would be the position of the arm for this drill but the hand isnt backwards. Turning hand while throwing makes the elbow drop and girls are alittle weak in the triceps also making it hard not to collapse the arm or lag it to far behind.

 

[newsoftballdad]

I will look closer next practice. It may be a case of not actually doing what we are teaching. I have seen debates about the ball being 3/4 away, or towards 3b like in the picture on the header and I think if she can be effective that way that is what is important. The main thing is not towards their target. A few years ago we taught the "C" technique but we have moved away from that.

As far as your question, absolutely they start to "go" with their forward movement before the tray. We try to have them field the ball with the left foot forward, then step open with the right, farward with the left and follow through with the right. Basically ball is away when they step open to the trget with the right foot.

 

[obbay]

At the HS level your daughter is probably ready for more advanced throwing technique. I do this drill with beginners up to U14- less with the older kids. This gets the girls to go through the motions correctly. I do it with the U14 girls rarely because they usually already know how to throw and then it's employed when I see someone slipping into bad habits.

This point-the-glove-at-the-target-and-make-an-L-with-your-throwing-arm may exaggerate some elements (like the palm facing backward), but you need to do that to break them of their natural, face the target and throw-a-pie motion. The way Howard Kobata teaches throwing in the infield is a short, quick throw. It is VERY easy to "throw like a girl" this way unless the athlete already knows how to throw like a ballplayer.

It frustrates me to see girls who are supposed to be good athletes throwing creampuffs with a lame, girly throw, and their coaches don't even notice!

 

[newsoftballdad]

"Throw a pie" I like that better than shotput. That gives a better visual for what not to do. We are also trying to keep the girls lower and quicker a la Kubota. Keeping everything from the core.

 

[Wellphyt]

Can somebody tell me the use of this drill. The drill is to take the ball, reach back and turn your hand backwards so that your palm is facing behind you and then throw ball from there. I dont get the use, every girl i have seen that has done this drill, there elbow gets to far ahead of the ball. If you turn your wrist while throwing your elbow will try to lead the way and leave you hand and ball behind.

It's taken me two years to figure out how to teach the overhand throw correctly. I throw fine, but I never could figure out how to break down and teach how I throw because I do it naturally. So, I taught the overhand throw using commonly taught drills like the one you describe. My daughter never improved much and often times practiced with a sore elbow.

What I've learned is that facing the ball backwards with the arm bent in an "L" shape is not how I throw, nor any other player that throws correctly. The only thing a player can do from that position is push the ball.

For those who like to experiment try this;
When you break your hands during the stride form an 'L' with both the throwing hand and the glove hand, and keep the arms horizontal to the ground with the palms facing down to slightly out away from the body. Pause in this position. You should be balanced and be on the ball of your front foot. Do a bunch of these until you get comfortable getting the arms into the correct position.

Now, do the same thing, but instead of pausing, externally rotate your front leg into foot plant and throw. If you do it correctly the external rotation of the front leg will automatically trigger the external rotation of your throwing arm and away you go.

The way it works is that as you stride the front leg internally rotates along with the arms. As the front foot approaches foot plant the front leg externally rotates, along with both arms. The glove arm externally rotates down and back into the body and the throwing arm externally rotates up and forward.

The throw is actually triggered from a horizontal forearm position and not a vertical forearm position. Synching up the lower body with the upper body, best done by using external rotation of the front leg as the trigger, is critcal.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Can somebody tell me the use of this drill. The drill is to take the ball, reach back and turn your hand backwards so that your palm is facing behind you and then throw ball from there. I dont get the use, every girl i have seen that has done this drill, there elbow gets to far ahead of the ball. If you turn your wrist while throwing your elbow will try to lead the way and leave you hand and ball behind.

This action is variously called showing the ball to CF/2B, putting the ball on the shelf, feeding the giant, or the cobra position. There's no really good logic behind it, if any, and some explanations are laughably bad. In one of the Ripken books, they say it promotes arm action. Of course, the truth is that anything promotes arm action (the real question is whether the arm action is good or not). Another explanation I have heard basically relates to alignment and not reverse-rotating the shoulders too much, which is a problem with some kids. However, in my experience this is a case of fixing one problem and creating another. In boys at least, this can lead to elbow problems by forcing you to supinate through the release point.

I teach showing the ball to 3B at the high-cocked position, which is what most people do naturally.