| Out of the Box Pitching and Throwing
These confused coaches equate aggressive physical exertion by the pitcher (throw harder, exploding off the mound, leaping , jumping foot dragging, unbalanced throughout, thigh slapping, and usually struggling for control on release) with pitching, not as simply throwing issues. Way too many of the confused, have a "monkey-see, monkey-do" perception of these throwing skill. All mechanical stuff and a hold over from old men's fastpitch. Its sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy. This is what these coaches think they see in other teams, college pitchers, and on celebrity DVD's etc. or in men's fastpitch, so this is what they expect to see in their starting female pitchers. Thus, the myth of ball speed for its own sake persists and the demand for perceived explosive speed mechanics is perpetuated. Additionally, most throwers (98%) thus trained, top out in the mid 50's mph actual game speeds. It's not, nor in fact is throwing harder the key to increasing ball speeds. It actually slows speeds. More importantly It has little to do with making the ball break or move. It actually works against it. Ball speed and the ball spin to make the ball break are two separate dynamics! Ball spin is all about pitching. A much more important aspect today than speed. Few, it appears may understand the basics of efficient female bio - mechanics and physics pertaining both to the pitching motion and the variety of pitches available to the fastpitch pitcher and what it takes to learn them. Many myths prevail. Seldom, do I think the questions, "what is the real roll of the pitcher in today's game and how does that relate to fastpitch throwing techniques and training and more importantly how to control hitters - strategies, asked?" At the current female game 43 feet, mound to plate distances, the strike out of a reasonably able hitter is a rare occurrence. The fact of today's new composite bat technologies resulting in better bat control, and faster bat swings, i.e. letting the batter have a fraction of a second longer look, and make it easier to control the hands inside the flight of the pitch. Adding a wider sweet spot, makes simply blowing it by the hitter an extremely rare occurrence. Today's strike out is a ground ball to the infield usually the left side or an easy fly ball. Today's called strike is a foul ball. Today's best pitchers are or should be working on pitches that they want batters to make controlled contact with resulting in anticipated defensive results. The basics of pitching are control and being able to fool the batter with a pitch. To do this a pitcher needs a variety of tools i.e. drops, rise, screwballs, curves, change up, et all being capable of thrown at different speed changes. This pitcher also needs to be able to locate the break of these pitches so that they reach specific locations in and around the plate and brake from the power line as late as possible maximizing deception and minimizing hitter reaction time. It all boils down to teaching a pitcher/catcher how to read basic batter characteristics and calling the right pitch, pitch speed, and location. It's not rocket science to predict where any specific pitch if hit may travel as each pitch has its own spin and the ball is rarely squarely it. A well trained defense clued into the pitch calling plan should be able to handle it. I have had teams where the left fielder played deep short, center fielder played 2nd base, and the right fielder 25 feet back of 1st as our pitch calling precluded pitches whose probability to be hit to these areas and pitchers as young as 7-8th graders who could hit their spots. That's pitching!! Coach Bill Redmer Happy to answer all questions at |
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About the Author... |
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| Bill Redmer is currently serving on the Beloit College's (WI) ( DIII) softball team's coaching staff as their pitching coach and has a private pitching school is Orfordvill , Wis. |