What's up softball players, coach Dan Blewett here in today's video we're
going to talk about softball throwing mechanics and how the pitching delivery
can affect your overhand throw.
So, this is actually a really common thing because lots of girls pitch, right.
And when you pitch, you still have to be to throw to first base.
And a lot of times you're one of the better athletes on the field.
So you're often gonna be playing shortstop and other positions
when you're not pitching.
Right.
Especially at the younger levels, obviously in college players are much
more one position, but leading all the way up to that, you're going to play a
lot of different places on the field.
And this is a common problem that I see.
So, so I worked with a girl for a long time, five years since she was like a
little munchkin and she was always a pitcher and was good at both of them.
She was good at throwing pitching under hand and she threw hard overhand too.
But every year, what happened?
So we'd work together all winter.
She'd go off and play her summer ball.
We would see each other.
Occasionally she's still coming to do strength, training, stuff like that.
Yeah.
But when it got back to, okay, next off season, let's start
fresh with your throwing stuff.
What do we got to work with?
She always came back looking something like this, where, because
her pitching MCAT, her pitching motion is obviously windmill.
And our throwing motion is supposed to be like this to end up blending
together very significantly.
And it's a major, major problem because the actions are very different.
And so.
Obviously in baseball, this is not an issue because baseball pitching
is the same as they throw overhand.
It's a really, that's why it's a little bit tougher for softball for players to
get traction on fixing their mechanics.
But in softball, obviously the motions are very different.
And the biggest problem with the women's the emotion is that the arms swings up
and we don't ever want this arm swinging up and the overhand throwing motion.
So with softball, throwing mechanics like overhand, throwing mechanics, We
want as our hand, separate the elbow to really pull back in a position, which
is very different from the windmill motion, which is down swing and go up.
So in the overhand throwing mechanics, when our hands separate, our elbow is
going to pull behind our body and really pinch your shoulder blades as we rotate
and then go in the windmill motion.
It's very much down comes up.
Right.
So.
Then we're going all the way back down through obviously
these two motions conflict.
And so my big tip here for today to improve your throwing mechanics, if
you're a pitcher, is that you have to have some drills in your pregame routine that
are heavily focused on scalp pinching.
So your scaps or your shoulder blades.
So you have to spend extra time essentially maintaining your overhand,
throwing mechanics by doing lots of.
Drills that focus on a shoulder blade, pinch a scap pinch.
So on my channel, one of the drills that I use a ton, so you can find it here on
YouTube is called the lawnmower drill.
The lawnmower drill is a very basic standard throwing drill that you'll
do with 30 ish feet players of all ages it's appropriate for all of them.
It's not just for little kids by any stretch, but this drill, you start
here, you rotate back into position and you pinch your shoulder blade,
and then you go through all at once.
This is the best one because it's forcing my arm to get comfortable going straight
back from where we would be in the game.
You know, you feel the ground ball and then you're here and then you throw,
so this drill is always helping to teach your body that when I throw over
hand, I'm pulling my shoulder blades back a lot, like a bow and arrow.
Or I'm pulling the cable of a lawnmower.
Again, this is helping to counteract the overhead windmill action from
the softball thrill, because what we don't want with the upper arm, and
this is my upper arm, like my bicep, when we are ready to throw, we don't
want our arm to be above our head.
And this is typically what most softball players who pitch
have they get ready to throw.
And then suddenly they're here when the elbow is above shoulder line now.
It has, it tends to come crashing down and they push the ball and they point their
elbow and they get much less velocity.
Again, it has to start with a shorter blade pinch so that when
we rotate the arm is thrown back into external shoulder rotation,
which is the fastest human movement.
And then it comes up and over top after that.
So the big thing here that's really, really important is just to have
something in your routine, a drill.
And again, I have them on my channel here for free.
That you are consistently doing as a pitcher to maintain pain,
your overhand throwing mechanics.
So the two don't bleed together.
It's a major problem that they bleed together.
So just like you take your car in routinely to get the oil change,
get the spark plugs fixed as a pitcher who also plays the field.
You have to have this routine to maintain your overhand throwing mechanics, because
otherwise, even if you're really diligent about it, they will still mix together.
And suddenly you'll come back every season being here and throwing with way less
velocity that you than you wanted to.
And your mechanics will essentially degrade over the course of a long season.
So hopefully this was a helpful well video.
I know this is a really, it's a challenging thing because you're
trying to balance to essentially like.
Types of mechanics that are just butting heads and it's just, it's difficult.
So if you don't pitch, you have a lot easier your time of saying,
all right, I learned good habits and there's nothing that's going
to really going to break them.
Right.
But in softball as a pitcher, you're actively breaking and hurting
your overhand, throwing mechanics.
When you jump onto the mound, So, again, it's just something that
you're going to have to live with it.
And you have to find drills in your routine that are going to continually help
to separate the two and say, no, I'm not going to let my body, you know, turn my
overhand, throwing into a windmill throw.
I'm going to focus every time I have my throwing, my pregame, my
pre-practice throwing routine.
I'm going to do shoulder pinch exercises that help remind my body that.
Getting my shoulder blades to retract all the way back is
the way that we need to do it.
Okay.
So leave a comment.
Is this a problem that you've had, have you been a pitcher?
That's, you know, you feel like you're throwing mechanics, you're always.
Sort of blending with your, uh, with your pitching mechanics.
Leave me a comment below and let me know what issues you've had.
I always respond and I'll let you know what I've, uh, what I've got to help you.
So, thanks again for watching I'm coach Dan blew it.
Be sure to check out my online courses and all my other stuff
in the YouTube description below.
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