Ken Krause of Life in the Fast Pitch Lane shares that the overhand pitch is an under-taught skill. Ken shares his observation that many throwing motions whether seen in middle school, high school, or even college softball games are questionable.
"The only conclusion I can come to is that it’s not being taught. Throwing may be part of warm-ups, but it apparently isn’t a skill anyone thinks about working on. It’s more of a prelude to the “important stuff,” like fielding or hitting or running the bases." Ken feels that not teaching overhand throwing skills is a giant mistane. He points out the "often-quoted figure that 80% of all errors are throwing errors". That could be interpreted as improving teaching throwing skills could cut out 80% of errors.
He shares that if every team allocated time to specifically work on learning how to throw harder and work on improving accuracy, a by-product could be diminishing arm injuries that come with poor throwing practices. Here are some basics that Ken would like to see happening in throwing practice:
- Standing sideways to the target with glove arms in front, hands together in front of you.
- Begin your stride, stepping the front foot so it will land at a 45 degree angle and separate the hands by pulling the elbows apart, with more emphasis in the beginning on the glove-hand elbow. The motion should be like stretching a rubber band
- As the throwing hand goes back, turn the hand palm-down and start to make a circle. How big of a circle depends on the position and distance you will have to throw. Small circle for catchers and infielders, larger circle for outfielders.
- Land the front foot, which should be about when the glove-side elbow gets as far as it can. Then start pulling the elbow back like you’re trying to elbow someone behind you in the gut. (Be careful not to just swing it around like you’re elbowing someone in the head.)
- As the glove-side elbow begins to pulls back, rotate the hips the hips, which will help pull the shoulders in. You should feel a stretch around the stomach area if the hips are leading the shoulders properly. By now the arm should have completed the circle and be in a position to come forward.
- Continue pulling with the body, bringing the arm forward with the elbow leading, at or slightly above shoulder height.
- Drive through, allow the wrist to snap (don’t “snap” it on purpose, just keep it relaxed and allow it to happen), allow the back leg to drag up naturally, and finish with the throwing-side shoulder facing the target. That shoulder should now be lower than the glove-side shoulder.
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For details: Overhand Throwing May Be the Most Under-Taught Skill in Fastpitch Softball
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