Lisa Fernandez's Pitching Motion

[earlg3]

Moving this sub-question to it's own thread in the Pitching forum instead of in the Hitting forum:

Go on youtube and watch the old fastpitch swing and game. Listen to the thud making contact.

Can someone explain Lisa Fernandez's shoulder mechanics in this? It's such a violent throw of her shoulder that doesn't seem to exist in modern pitchers. What's going on there, why isn't this taught anymore, etc.?

I've seen a girl or two throw like this in younger-level travel games, and maybe it's a hangover from someone in this era teaching her?

Fernandez from this video:



Canady from last night:

 

[sluggers]

There's a lot to unpack about this.

Lisa Fernandez is the best female softball player in the history of the sport. (Yukiko Ueno is the best pitcher ever. As far as the total player, no one's close to Fernandez.)

Fernandez learned to pitch before high-speed videos and any in-depth studies of the pitching motion. Her motion is not refined. The exaggerated shoulder movement is when she's throwing a curve or her changeup. (I've never seen a better changeup--men's or women's--than Fernandez.) She doesn't have quite the same shoulder motion when she throws a FB.

She threw about 65MPH. Today, the top pitchers are topping 70MPH.

 

[earlg3]

There's a lot to unpack about this.

Lisa Fernandez is the best female softball player in the history of the sport. (Yukiko Ueno is the best pitcher ever. As far as the total player, no one's close to Fernandez.)

Fernandez learned to pitch before high-speed videos and any in-depth studies of the pitching motion. Her motion is not refined. The exaggerated shoulder movement is when she's throwing a curve or her changeup. (I've never seen a better changeup--men's or women's--than Fernandez.) She doesn't have quite the same shoulder motion when she throws a FB.

She threw about 65MPH. Today, the top pitchers are topping 70MPH.

You're definitely spot on that the changeup has the most shoulder action, I think.

I thought maybe it was a particular pitch to get a certain spin, but if you watch the top of the 7th (just happens to be where I am in watching the video at the moment ), she throws her shoulder aggressively almost every pitch, though in varying degrees.

I'm not nearly smart enough to tell what pitch she's throwing usually, but is she throwing almost exclusively curve and change? Are there modern pitchers that throw like this as well (this is my first year really watching college softball a lot)?

 

[ArmWhip]

That was back when pitchers exaggerated their body action when throwing a pitch, out on the front foot for a drop, tilt back for a rise, hard left for a curve. Here is a better look at Fernandez. At about 3 minutes you get side views.

 

[Ken B]

@Hillhouse might have some info regarding some changes she had to make with her exaggerated motion prior to a major international tournament where there was concern she was going to get picked. (Could be wrong on that one...)

 

[Hillhouse]

@Hillhouse might have some info regarding some changes she had to make with her exaggerated motion prior to a major international tournament where there was concern she was going to get picked. (Could be wrong on that one...)

Lisa's career occurred '89-93, I think. I remember playing a game in Bellevue Washington, just north of Seattle when UCLA was playing Washington. At the time, UW didn't have their own field so they used this park in Bellevue, where my team played their home games too. This was a slow pitch field, with a 300' fence, with a break-away fence put up for UW games and our required field dimensions, it was 250' for men's FP. I don't know if that's been changed or not but at the time we had 250'. Anyway, that was the first time I'd seen her pitch. I can remember thinking about how little she tried to hide her pitches. I couldn't understand how someone who did virtually nothing to conceal what pitch she was throwing was not getting tee'd off on. Her signature pitch was her change up, she would buckle knees and break backs with that pitch. But, from behind the backstop, it was incredibly easy to see. From what I saw from behind the backstop, which would've been the same view as seen from the batter's box, nobody would've needed a big background in picking pitches to see it.

Anyway, Lisa's career was before the influx of the male fastpitch world. There was a few guys coaching, and I know Doug Gillis was in business at the time with his pitching training. But to illustrate how much times have changed, I mentioned her career as 1989-93 or so but New Zealand had won the 1986 ISF World championship!! That's the NZ women's team!! Since that time, NZ women have barely qualified for World championships and never qualified for the Olympics. Once the Olympics came into play, other countries poured money into softball and the game was forever changed.

Anyway, it was around that time the college softball started to explode. Guys I played with and against started coaching in the NCAA and brought some of the men's FP things into female fastpitch world. And now, there's a lot of male fastpitch players coaching in all divisions. And picking pitchers is more common than ever in the women's game.

 

[RADcatchers]

What I like most about Lisa Fernandez in the circle is directly after she finishes her pitch she is an intensely determined defensive player in Fielding position!


Should be noted that Lisa Fernandez is an example of a student of the game who trained to become incredibly physically talented. She has been known to say become the best version of yourself! There is no limit to her drive and determination to become the best person she can be.
She is a person who will strive with an open mind for any knowledge that would help her. As a player she resourced simultaneously different pitching instructors to absorb what knowledge she could from them. From what I can recall in particular there was one that focused more on leg lower half and the other that focused more on spin.
She additionally performed at third base as an elite defensive player as well her hitting prowess carried her teams. Incredibly well-rounded player earning greatest of all time honors!

 

[Shawn]

Moving this sub-question to it's own thread in the Pitching forum instead of in the Hitting forum:



Can someone explain Lisa Fernandez's shoulder mechanics in this? It's such a violent throw of her shoulder that doesn't seem to exist in modern pitchers. What's going on there, why isn't this taught anymore, etc.?

I've seen a girl or two throw like this in younger-level travel games, and maybe it's a hangover from someone in this era teaching her?

Fernandez from this video:

View attachment 29684

Canady from last night:

View attachment 29685

You do know that Lisa is throwing a drop and Canady is throwing a rise?

 

[Shawn]

Here is Lisa throwing a rise

 

[RADcatchers]

Playing in shorts is great!