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by Gerald Warner, Softball Pitching
Instructor
“Stay
Tall” and "pull your shoulders back" and “have a firm front
side”. We
always encourage pitchers to finish heir pitching rotation by
bringing their shoulders back and having their body
upright
(no bending at the waist).
But it
is the LOWER portion of a pitcher’s body that can GREATLY improve
the speed and control of her fastest pitch. For leaping-style
pitchers (the
majority of female pitchers are “leapers”), the
whole sequence of lower-body pitching “mechanics” is based on three
important stages:
(1) a powerful push-off from the pitching
rubber
(2) a strong, fast, and long
stride
(3) a push-back against the stride leg as the
pitching arm
comes down through the release
point
The smaller percentage of pitchers who use the "stepping
style" take a
shorter stride without leaping. "Steppers" depend
largely on their upper
body strength. Therefore,
the specific mechanics for shorter-stride
stepping-style
pitchers are different from what is being discussed here.
This article does not apply to fastpitch pitchers using that
style.
_____________________________________________
Sir
Isaac Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion says that “for every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. With a “leaping” method
of softball pitching, at the end of the stride the push-back against
the stride leg serves as the resistance (or “reaction”) for the
action of the arm as it does its final downswing into the release of
the pitch.
Therefore,
a leaping-style pitcher must have a strong, fast push-off
from the pitching rubber in order to drive her stride leg out fast
and far.
Then
the power, speed, and landing of the stride determines how
effectively the pitcher can push back against her stride leg
to give her the resistance for a hard final arm “whip” to throw the
ball with maximum speed:
A
good landing of the stride leg is with the knee slightly bent to
“cushion” the leg as the pitcher’s weight is temporarily shifted
forward. But then, just
as in batting, the pitcher “blocks” or “builds a wall” with the
stride leg, and pushes back against it. Often, especially with
young pitchers, the stride leg is slightly bent at landing, but then
bends even more which substantially reduces the pushback against the
leg, and virtually eliminates the possibility of throwing a good,
fast pitch:
 
Bent knee...slower
pitch Good
pushback...good speed
Even
though the length of the stride is important
(usually
90% to 125% of the pitcher’s height),
to work on increasing a pitcher’s speed, we always look at the power
and quickness of the stride to allow for a “blocking” or hard
push-back against the stride leg at the end of the pitch
sequence.
Ideally, we want the pitcher to have these positions as the
precise point that the pitch leaves her
hand:
(1)
Her
stride leg which was slightly bent at landing, has
straightened, and is at an angle of 15 to 20 degrees
(more
for rise ball, less for drop ball)
(2)
She
is pushing back against her stride
leg
(3)
Her
upper body is approximately one-third of the way back
from her front foot
(4)
Her
shoulders are most of the way
closed
(5)
Her
hips are halfway (or
slightly less than halfway)
closed
These
photos of pitchers of various ages demonstrate all five of these
critical components:
    
If
you want to maximize YOUR pitching speed…and have good control of
your pitches, always work on correctly finishing your
pitch:
·
Upper
body upright at the release
·
Push
back against your stride leg
·
Shoulders
most of the way closed
·
Hips
halfway or less closed at the release
This article above can be downloaded and printed from
Microsoft Word
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include the following sentence:
Article by Gerald Warner of
PitchSoftball.com
and include a reference to this
website: www.pitchsoftball.com
If
you have questions or need more information
E-mail us, or call Pitching Instructor Gerald Warner in
Colorado at (720) 200-4575
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