in this video let's talk about your softball throwing mechanics and
specifically your hand position once your hands break
so if you're new to my channel I'm coach Dan Blewett - I do tons of softball
throwing videos softball fielding videos infield drills strength training mindset
all that stuff so if you're you know my channel definitely consider subscribing
because I put on new videos all the time so today in the softball throwing motion
we're gonna talk about your hand position this gonna be really quick and
but there are some myths that we need to debunk so number one if you're new I
have a video about why we shouldn't point the ball towards centerfield if
you're a mom centerfield more if you're a baseball pitcher but you shouldn't
point it back if you're a softball player that's old stuff I was taught
that when I was a kid and no one teaches that stuff because they're trying to
teach the wrong thing it's just it was what we taught like 20-30 years ago and
it just like is still slow to kind of completely go away but basically we need
to think about the mechanics this way so once we're here and we start to rotate
my chest in my core rotating my arm is flung back into this externally rotated
position I mean my my core is rotating very very fast and it throws my arm back
and it goes back and then it goes forward right we all know that so my
wrist and my form they're gonna be here to here right and so my hand is gonna be
behind the ball and then it's gonna come over top of it so here's what we need to
think let's think logically about this for a second if I'm pointed back and I
can just kind of just mimic us from here but if I'm pointed back and as I start
to rotate my wrist is not in the position to throw the ball this
direction which is where I'm going so I'm here I'm gonna go throw it this way
if I rotate my hand is still sideways this doesn't make sense so my hand has
to rotate back to get behind the ball and then go forward which your body
would never do that your body is very smart
it doesn't do stupid inefficient thing so it doesn't have to it was the easiest
thing possible when it can so this is not gonna put your hand in the proper
throwing position as we start to accelerate it's gonna have to turn back
out of it which is a wasted step likewise we sometimes see players
training and there's some drills and just because you see a drill with the
arm facing the ball face towards it doesn't mean that's the way
they want either your mechanics to be it might have some other purpose so don't
always view any specific drill in a vacuum because I definitely have some
drills or if you're like break them down you'd be like that doesn't make sense
well like well we're doing it this way because we want this to happen not
because we want that to be the new mechanics exactly so always consider
that so I'm not picking on any different drills so I'm saying this is but this is
not how we actually throw you'll see some players actually throw this way and
I do have an example I'll play right now you'll see some players throw the ball
here and this is better than with it that way that's for sure but this is
still again if I start to rotate my hand is sideways my pinkie is leading me
towards my target down here so my hands got to come back so if I'm here my hand
has to rotate back so I get behind the ball and then I throw and again that
doesn't make any sense so what we want to do and this is what you'll see major
league infielders do and they're a great reference to look at because these guys
all throw super hard and unfortunately even if you get slow-motion footage of a
lot of d1 softball players you're still gonna see bad throwing mechanics it's
unfortunate but it's just the way it is they're not always a good reference
point major-league infielders they all have good throwing mechanics
you can't play major league baseball as you throw hard across the diamond and
what you see from major leaguers is when they pull they get the ball here and
they pull their shoulders back and when they do that their hand their palm is
facing down it's not facing back it's not facing towards their head the ball
facing down now their hands gonna be somewhere between here and flat as their
mechanics start to go so they're really not going to be here either you don't
see high leveling fielders do that either so it's typically just pulled
back slightly about parallel or somewhere in this range but my hand is
facing the same way my chest is facing and so now when I start to rotate my
hand is just now behind the ball and then it's gonna go forward so it's the
thing that makes the most logical sense so basically when I am I've hit a ground
ball or I get a fly ball and I'm gonna throw this way so my chest is
perpendicular like I'm closed your palm should be facing the same
direction as your chest but your palm is probably gonna be
facing down but again your palm is facing the same dressing direction of
your chest it's not facing forward and it's not facing backwards
again I think the handbrake is a really important part of your mechanics and
where your hand is gonna go is important so if you have a camera phone and your
coach or your parent get some slow-motion video of the softball player
in your life and look at the way their hands separate typically this is not too
big of an issue typically this is not like a main problem unless you're
teaching them to point their hand away they probably won't do that naturally
again most most athletes just their bodies sort of figure it out and they're
almost certainly not going to do this this is I think less typical than that
but either this I'd say only probably 15% of players probably do this
naturally I'd say probably only 15% do this as well and I'd say the vast
majority just face the ball to where their chest is going natural and that's
my experience really working with lots of softball baseball players over the
years so again this isn't something we're that we're really trying to fix
all the time because most players will do a right on their own but we just
don't want to teach them into this thing and we don't want to teach them into
this either where the ball is facing the head again you might do drills cuz I've
seen some drills out there that makes sense that like have a purpose greater
than just where the hand is going but we wouldn't want to say hey we want you to
mechanics to be like this permanently that's not what we're looking for it's
not what we see in the best athletes in the world so again hopefully this video
helped I think your hand position the way your hands break are really really
important and so we want to just do a quick tutorial today to show you what
that's supposed to look like so if you're new to my channel hit the like
button for me I appreciate it subscribe the channel check out in the description
links below as well my online course is called she's got a cannon I have two
versions and they're great for analyzing your your throwing mechanics and getting
customized solutions to fix your mechanics increase your velocity in your
command and then I also have a ready to go plug-and-play course for coaches so
if you need something to implement for your team that course is also great for
it so check those out thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next
video