baseball throw

ksteensma

New Member
15 yr old daughter plays fast pitch softball. Her mechanics of throwing are alittle off. Coach is working with her. I would like to add strength trianing to increase the speed of the throw.
Tricep work? I know girls do not develope as men do in the arm and shoulder area, but i am no expert.
Thanks for the help in advance!
 
I don't think that resistance training will help much with increasing velocity.

Do you want to increase her velocity for pitching or for just throwing? Because that its very different.

I played baseball and college (and I dont know anything about how to throw underhand)

But this is what I would suggest...

I would make sure you have her doing a lot of "long toss".

Have her slowly move the distance out so that she is throwing as far as possible. If she is an outfielder practicing a good crow hop is important as well, not many girls can execute a quick and powerful crow hop.

In college sometimes our coach would bring us onto the football field and throw long toss so that we could see how far we could throw (makes it kind of fun), and he would also move the infielders out to the outfield during practice every once in a while to "stretch" our arms out to add some velocity.

Also make sure her arm slot is correct. A lot of girls tend to throw over the top too much.

Hope that helps a little,

Joe G
 
o yea,

In terms of resistance training.....

We would always do rotator cuff exercises after our work outs in the gym. This was more to keep us "loose" than to pick up any additional velocity.

You can take a dumbell, with your elbows tucked into your sides and just move the weights outward. Another variation is to have your arms like your hitting a double bicep pose and move the weights foward/down and back up keeping your elbows in the same place.

That was hard to describe so if you have any questions let me know.

Joe G
 
she is infield, 3rd and short. she has a peculiar throw. I call a short stroke. Doesnt reach back very far, tends to bring the ball back to about the back of your head, and then more or less pushes the ball. She has alot of ball speed and accuracy, but the method is wrong, and the coach hates it. She has learned to adapt to this method, and makes it work quite well. but I'm sure some college coach may not like it, so maybe try to correct it now.
Working out in the outfield makes sense.
I relate back to my other daughter who never played ball. she threw like a "girl'. then she became a swimmer. built those lats and triceps. 2 years later i play catch with her and wow, could she throw a ball. totally different just due to the swimmer muscles. Thats why i questioned the weight training of the tricep.
what do you mean by the "arm slot", and "over the top"?
 
What I meant by over the top is pretty much exactly how you described her mechanics. You said she brings the ball behind her head and pushes the ball. This is almost always what happens when you throw "over the top". By over the top I mean her elbow is too high so shes kind of throwing like the Statue of Liberty.

Now instead of throwing a baseball like that, she should try and change her arm slot so she comes down to 3/4. Another way to look at arm slot is the angle your elbow is at when throwing. A rule of thumb is to have your arm at 90 degrees. However I think for infield she would benefit from an arm slot even wider.

The benefit of having an arm slot like this is to prevent her from pushing the ball and creates a sling shot like mechanism out of her arm.

Look at how wide Pedro Martinez's arm slot is in this picture...

http://www.baseballxxl.de/Stars/pedro_martinez02.jpg

Its no coincidence he throws in the high 90's.

You'll notice guys like Jeter and Furcal throw the same way, just not as dramatic as Pedro's.

An example of a poor arm slot and in turn a poor arm would be Bernie Williams. He come straight over the top and pushes the ball. And he has a terrible arm.

I had the same problem in high school and did't really know it was a problem until I got to College. After I altered my arm slot my arm became much more powerful. I would say I picked up atleast 5 mph in College.

Joe G
 
Joe:
I think i follow you. Im confused by the statement "comes down to 3/4."
Coach has worked on the "knock at the door". Bring the arm back, holding the ball as if knocking on a door, pull the arm back and follow through the throw.
Elbow is at 90 degree. We work at it at home, be she drifts back to the "old reliable" in the heat of the game.
I was'nt sure if there was muscular deficiency that caused this method.
We will continue the "practice practice practice". I thank you for the input Joe. If you only lived in the Chicago area!
Thank you, Kevin.
 
Be sure to be very very very very patient with her. Changing your throwing mechanics is something that takes time. It is so hard because she has been throwing the "wrong" way for so long. I also think that it is something that should be stressed more in the off season as well.

When she becomes comfortable with her new mechanics to the point where she doesnt have to think about it that is when she will really start seeing the benefits. For now just tell her that she has to accept that she is going to feel a little umcomfortable and even awkward.

Goodluck

Joe G
 
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