Check out the ASA USA Pitching video. Take a look at Cat Osterman and you will see exact rotation on everyone of her pitches. In my opinion too many instructors move to fast and spend too little time on mechanics. My daughter's original instructor was the girl who filled in for Cat at UT when she took the year off to pitch in the olympics. She drove me and my wife crazy because she had our girls doing the same thing week in week out. I was watching other girls who had other instructors doing new stuff every week and I finally spoke up. I was told that if she didn't have a good base to start with she would always have problems. My daughter is strong mechanically but still doesn't get exactly 12-6 rotation but it is something we strive to achieve.
Ball Spin
- Thread starter mountyfan
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In my opinion, throwing a peel drop is not unlike shooting a basketball. Most decent basketball players have the ball roll off their fingers and spin straight back to the shooter. The drop ball would come off the fingers the same way. I have never seen a bullet spin basketball shooter. What the pitcher needs to do is concentrate on keeping her hand behind the ball. This is where the instructors who tell pitchers to throw the ball as hard as they can and worry about other things later. are wrong. Learn things at a comfortable speed and get them right before you move on.
- Jul 14, 2008
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And striving to "achieve" is what gets her closer.......Striving to achieve WITHOUT sacrificing sound mechanics that may slightly inhibit "perfect spin" is the difference between throwing a 65mph rise and a 55mph rise........Same goes for drop.....
Strive to achive WITHOUT sacrificing sound mechanics........
Push down/pull up to achieve perfect 6/12 spin is cutting off your nose to spite your face.........Balance between mechanics and spin MUST be the ultimate goal........
I would ask Nancy Evans why you would want to throw with a bullet spin.( Not perfect bullet spin ) She has quite a few College World Series Championships as a pitcher for Arizona and as pitching coach. Only the perfect bullet spin has no movement.
I respectfully disagree. There is no external or internal rotation of the wrist shooting a basketball. Elbow is tucked at the side and the wrist snap is straight down. And, as I've said before in this thread, I would like to see a video of ANY pitcher throwing a peel drop with his or her hand behind the ball. I have not seen it. The ball is facing third base as it comes down toward the release point (righty pitcher). If this is the case, you will have to internally rotate the wrist to release the ball which will make spin other than 12-6. If anyone has video of any pitcher throwing a full speed drop with the ball facing the cather on the downswing, please post it.
It's my understanding that speed AND movement (especially up and down movement) is optimum. I just don't see how good bullet spin has enough break unless you have some tilt of axis of the ball. When my young DD pitches, she sometimes accidently throws a pitch with some bullet spin but it always breaks down and in to a RHB, almost like a screwball because it does not have perfect bullet spin.
Regarding Nancy Evans, was this her"go to" pitch (the bullet spin) or was she using this pitch to set up other pitches. I would be surprised if there were a lot of PCs out there trying to teach perfect bullet spin.
I can't speak for her, but I doubt she threw many" bullet" fastballs since she was in high school.
