What's the biggest issues you as a player or you as a coach see with throwing mechanics? Why are arm injuries becoming more and more common in softball? I answer these concerns with a few of my favorite tips for developing good mechanics at a young age to develop arm speed, accuracy, but most importantly prevent long term injuries down the road! Check out my recent post here I'd love to help!
Throwing Mechanics: Building a good foundation
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Mastering the basic overhand throw BEFORE moving on to sidearm dishes and throwing on the run is over looked. Having (most) 10 year old girls practicing side arm slots is stupid, but I see it. My DD has small hands and is difficult to get her thumb under the ball. Do you teach that the thumb and middle finger should be on the equator of the ball?
Yes, and that's totally okay if she can't get her thumb directly under the ball. It should be opposite of equator it should be north and south essentially. It helps too to make sure she is holding the ball on the pads of her fingers and not shoved deep into her hand. You should be able to see a little bit space between the palm and the ball. If she can't get her thumb completely under thats okay its just for training purposes in a game obviously no one takes the time to get their grip perfect lol but when practicing making sure that the thumb is as under the ball as she can get it and that on release she's directly behind the ball snapping straight down and having the middle finger as the last finger that the ball should roll off of. This prevents peeling off to the left or right and having throws that tail.
The #1 biggest issue that I see with girls is that they do not get enough whip out of their arm. The first thing many girls want to do is get the ball out of their glove and raise their arm. This causes their arm to get ahead of their feet. Now their arm has to pause so their feet can get on time.
I really believe that throwing is this simple. Too many coaches like to complicate throwing.
Trosky teaches the player to keep his fingers on top of the ball as the separate to throw. That is where I personally see the biggest issue with girls throwing. It is like every little league coach taught them wall drills where you turn the ball away from yourself before you throw. No idea wear wall drill came from but I have never seen any MLB infielders turn the ball away from them when they throw.
For some reason, I see far fewer boys with the issue that I am describing.
I really believe that throwing is this simple. Too many coaches like to complicate throwing.
Trosky teaches the player to keep his fingers on top of the ball as the separate to throw. That is where I personally see the biggest issue with girls throwing. It is like every little league coach taught them wall drills where you turn the ball away from yourself before you throw. No idea wear wall drill came from but I have never seen any MLB infielders turn the ball away from them when they throw.
For some reason, I see far fewer boys with the issue that I am describing.
For me, one of the biggest issues is overuse injuries. You see more injuries today because players are throwing more without a break. Two, three, four hour practices sometimes 3-4 times a week, plus a tournament all weekend (including warmups) puts a lot of stress on young arms no matter how good their mechanics are.
Proper arm care and REST and recovery should be emphasized more.
After that, it's probably a strength issue, especially at the younger ages. Small girls with small hands (mostly) throwing larger, heavier balls than boys of the same age. I never did it myself, but if I had it to do over again I like the idea of teaching 10U and maybe 12U players to throw with a baseball or tennis ball first. Make it easy for them to lift the ball and get it into the proper position and they'll be more likely to learn good mechanics.
Proper arm care and REST and recovery should be emphasized more.
After that, it's probably a strength issue, especially at the younger ages. Small girls with small hands (mostly) throwing larger, heavier balls than boys of the same age. I never did it myself, but if I had it to do over again I like the idea of teaching 10U and maybe 12U players to throw with a baseball or tennis ball first. Make it easy for them to lift the ball and get it into the proper position and they'll be more likely to learn good mechanics.
Great points and video, I think the big reason people teach to turn your hand away from yourself during separation is that for some reason girls struggle to learn how to snap their wrists when they throw. When the ball starts facing away, your forced to engage the wrist to snap the ball, if the ball never faces away its more of a "pushing" action. They get separation and then straight arm it or launch it like a catapult instead of actually getting the wrist action of snapping like you said getting that "whip" result. I agree with transferring with your fingers on the top of the ball, I think there's a few ways people teach this but it's like hitting, you see all these mlb players doing weird motions and quirks in their swing but all of them eventually get to the same point in their stance where their locked and loaded to get on plane. For throwing, especially with girls, emphasizing getting that rotation and spin on the ball can help them focus on getting that whip and snapping feeling that doesn't seem to come as natural as it does to boys.
- Jun 8, 2016
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A) In general little girls listen better than little boys
B) In general people teach throwing incorrectly
...
Give a 5 YO kid (boy or girl) a ball and have them throw it far and hard and most will organize their bodies to do it correctly eventually...
B) In general people teach throwing incorrectly
...
Give a 5 YO kid (boy or girl) a ball and have them throw it far and hard and most will organize their bodies to do it correctly eventually...
This is so true, I'm a big advocate for band work for warmups, and when we would do strength and conditioning in college it was never about how much weight we could curl, press, etc but rather mobility and strength from bands and light weight for more reps. We walked out of every practice and games wrapped in ice bags because of the physical demand and I think that's something that high schoolers need to take more serious! I like your idea of starting with a tennis ball or something lighter in order to master mechanics, no one ever starts squatting serious weight without having mastered the proper squat technique so why should throwing be different?
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