How do we achieve "wrist snap"?

[Jeff_H]

Jeff, there is nothing wrong with the position of the hand in this picture, it is very common especially when a girl is throwing a riseball. Hand under the ball is quite common and actually a good thing.

Iz, it sounds to me like the term wrist snap is getting in the way, the wrist does not cock back so it cannot snap forward. Doing 'wrist snaps' as commonly taught, with the wrist flipping back and through, will actually encourage bad mechanics. If this is what the coach wants then he does not understand the finer points of the pitching motion.

I know it is a good thing, and it shows good IR mechanics. This is the picture of the arm circle of the same pitch. The elbow is almost locked out allowing for very little whip at the bottom, that is where my not a model pitcher comment came from. She is on my daughter college team, and she said that she hit 67mph during that game. She is a model of inefficiency, but some how it works for this particular girl.

My comment was towards JoJo in trying to get his student to forget the emphasis on snapping at the bottom. Maybe Boardmembers' show it and throw it drill might help her out.

 

[Coachhab]

If you are doing the snap drills, make sure she is cocking her wrist as she is entering the release point of her motion. The back of her wrist should be almost parallel to the ground so you have more range of motion for the wrist snap. If she is not doing that, stand several feet from a block wall with her pitching arm at her side and isolate the wrist snap as you bring the elbow past the body. When she finishes the pitch (for a fast ball) her fingers should be pointing back at her face with the elbow past the body and the tricep muscle somewhere close to parallel with the ground. If her fingers are not pointing at her face and elbow bent, she is not snapping her wrist and may be throwing with her shoulder.

 

[coachdan]

If you are doing the snap drills, make sure she is cocking her wrist as she is entering the release point of her motion. The back of her wrist should be almost parallel to the ground so you have more range of motion for the wrist snap. If she is not doing that, stand several feet from a block wall with her pitching arm at her side and isolate the wrist snap as you bring the elbow past the body. When she finishes the pitch (for a fast ball) her fingers should be pointing back at her face with the elbow past the body and the tricep muscle somewhere close to parallel with the ground. If her fingers are not pointing at her face and elbow bent, she is not snapping her wrist and may be throwing with her shoulder.[/QUOTE]

I think you might need to read the IR thread. Sounds like you are still teaching the bowling style pitching.

 

[Jojo]

If you are doing the snap drills, make sure she is cocking her wrist as she is entering the release point of her motion. The back of her wrist should be almost parallel to the ground so you have more range of motion for the wrist snap. If she is not doing that, stand several feet from a block wall with her pitching arm at her side and isolate the wrist snap as you bring the elbow past the body. When she finishes the pitch (for a fast ball) her fingers should be pointing back at her face with the elbow past the body and the tricep muscle somewhere close to parallel with the ground. If her fingers are not pointing at her face and elbow bent, she is not snapping her wrist and may be throwing with her shoulder.[/QUOTE]

I think you might need to read the IR thread. Sounds like you are still teaching the bowling style pitching.

Exactly ---sounds like the bowling style.
Where I give lessons, every pitcher practicing that is not one of mine will warm up holding onto their arm above their wrist while the arm is straight down, then snap the wrist and push the fingers straight up.

 

[Coachhab]

wrist snap

I don't know how you can pitch without snapping the wrist unless all you throw is a change up and a knuckleball. Call it what you want but every spin pitch requires a wrist snap to deliver the proper rotation of the ball and it also increases speed. The ball leaves the fingers and if the hand is moving slow the ball is going slow, if the hand is moving fast the ball is moving fast and the wrist snap makes the hand move faster. If you don't have good control it is not the fault of wrist snap unless the timing of the snap is wrong. If the ball is going high then the wrist snap is to late or to far infront of the body. The ball must be thrown between the legs, by that I mean the release should begin at the back leg and be completed before you get to the front leg

 

[Ken Krause]

There's a difference between allowing/encouraging the wrist to snap and forcing it to snap. The "wrist snap drills" you describe force it to snap. That is a slow and stiff movement. You want something quick, like snapping a towel in the locker room.

Try this: hold your hand in front of your face with your fingers together. Then try to fan yourself as quickly and powerfully as you can by using the wrist snap movement you describe. You will feel very little air because you can't move it fast enough. You will probably also feel a little pain. Now relax the wrist and use the forearm muscles to move the hand. You'll feel much more air, because your hand is moving much faster.

The wrist's value isn't strength. It's flexibility. Allow it to do its job and you'll produce better results.

 

[2DDspitching]

try one of the movement pitch releases (rollover drop, curve, some screws, or rise), and you will see how there is a twist and no snap "

My DD can throw a pretty good rise but she struggled for a long time with twisting to get her hand to come under the ball instead of snapping.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

There's a difference between allowing/encouraging the wrist to snap and forcing it to snap. The "wrist snap drills" you describe force it to snap. That is a slow and stiff movement. You want something quick, like snapping a towel in the locker room.

Try this: hold your hand in front of your face with your fingers together. Then try to fan yourself as quickly and powerfully as you can by using the wrist snap movement you describe. You will feel very little air because you can't move it fast enough. You will probably also feel a little pain. Now relax the wrist and use the forearm muscles to move the hand. You'll feel much more air, because your hand is moving much faster.

The wrist's value isn't strength. It's flexibility. Allow it to do its job and you'll produce better results.

As described by Boardmember in his IR thread, I think this is the key to generating maximum speed for the arm whip. He argues that the fastest movement in the body is the rotation of the forearm. To demonstrate this hold your arm straight out from your body and quickly rotate the hand palm to face up, then down, than up, than down, etc. quickly. The hand will blur because it is moving so rapidly. This forearm movement is the critical component of generating speed to the pitch from 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock (release).

IMO, the wrist snap is less critical for speed, but more important for controlling the rotation of the ball and how the fingers come off of the ball at release.

 

[Coachhab]

The wrist snap is just part of the pitching motion and you have to keep the arm relaxed through the entire arm circle. I don't know that you force the wrist but I do think that it requires a voluntary deliberate action to move the wrist. You move the forearm by bending the elbow and if you do not deliberately move the wrist through the release area, the wrist will not move and you will not achieve the desired result. If the wrist requires a deliberate movement to get it moving then that is a wrist snap. You cannot say that there is no wrist snap in the pitching motion because if you don't snap it it does not move. It seems funny to me that for many years the wrist snap was the standard terminology and now all of a sudden you no longer need a wrist snap.

 

[Ken Krause]

It's not whether you need a wrist snap that's really in question. It's whether you need to stand in front of the catcher (or a wall) and do those wrist snap isolation drills. No one is advocating keeping the wrist from moving. It's more a matter of what causes it.

The motion of the forearm accelerating quickly past the elbow will do far more to help the wrist snap than trying to force the wrist to snap by muscling it. If you keep the wrist loose it will snap. If you tighten it up and try to force it you will think you snapped it, but you really got in the way. That's just basic human anatomy.