In today's video I'm gonna teach you how to improve your softball throwing
mechanics just from a couple little tweaks that you can make during your
team's pregame so if you're a coach and you want your team to improve their
throwing velocity their throwing accuracy and all and make some of those
tough plays on the run and improve some of their throwing tasks well then this
video is gonna be for you because pregame there's a lot of little things
that might seem unimportant that I think are really important in the long run as
we try to get quality reps every single time we touch a softball so if you're
new here I'm coach Dan Blewett I'm a former pro baseball player I do lots of
soft ball throwing drills with mechanics tutorials stranger any videos mindset
stuff all that goes on here on my own my snap softball channel so if you're new
here definitely consider subscribing stick around stepping on new videos each
week.
okay so the first thing definitely get corrected is don't your
players do step through throws this was something that I battled softball and
baseball players with for years when they think of like go warm up they think
just like throwing the ball like this where they're just stepping towards
their target is warming up their arms you need to change the culture on your
team from warming up as a physical like I'm pumping warmth into my arm just by
throwing any single any given way to I warm up by having a structured routine
of drills and different types of throws that make me better at my specific
position so a catcher's throwing routine and pregame is gonna look a little
different than outfielders routine and it's gonna look different than
infielders routine and the best thing you can do as a coach is to convey this
that hey we have some core drills as a team which I'm sure most of you have but
then the big component that's missed a lot of times is we also have some
specific position positional drills that are gonna make an infielders throwing
routine unique to an infielder catcher al theater etc so that's really
important even at the college level I've seen a lot of teams they just send their
players in the right field and they just step through and they throw and you know
that every throw they're making is actually making them a little bit worse
because they're not reinforcing good habits they're just warming with their
arm they're stepping through and not having good throwing mechanics so if it
the very least if you did nothing else but you stayed close to your target and
shuffled your feet really fast that would be good because when your feet are
moving fast and your chest is close to your target meaning I'm throwing that
way and my chest can't be seen by my partner that puts us in a really good
position to use the body as a whole as a system so at the very least if your
players always have to move their feet fast which is something the Latin
American baseball players grow up doing really really well which is why they
grow up to be great throwers and great infielders that's a very bare minimum
that would still make a really big impact on our team but don't don't
overlook the way your players warm up and make it a cultural thing where it's
not only structured but fun and spend position-specific number two do not hit
ground balls to your players that are less than four
you're fifty feet away now of course there's some caveats this once in a
while when you're practicing different types of throws like the feed throw to
second or they're throwing on the run or stuff like that but I've seen a lot of
teams in pregame they might have the coach hanging right before right behind
first base hitting ground balls to a group of kids at the second base area
which is like 30 or 40 feet away and now because they get a ground ball they
charge a little bit and now their throw is only 25 or 30 feet they're just gonna
throw a dart even if you can throw a ball 90 miles per hour you're still
gonna throw a dart from 25 feet away and so now every time you get to a ground
ball there you can make the throw you can hit your first baseman in the chest
with ugly throwing mechanics your body doesn't have to learn to improve your
throwing and so you want to move them back where they have to move their feet
they have to stay close they have to have good footwork and their whole body
has to work as a system so I've seen this at a bunch of different levels it's
not a good habit to get into the softball field is so small already which
is part of the reason a lot of softball players can get by having poor throwing
mechanics where throwing darts across the infield when it's a longer throw it
exposes your throwing mechanics and in and it forces your body to adapt to it
it forces you to say okay that falls not really getting there I need to stay
closed a little more I need to use my front side a little better and you move
my feet a little bit better and your body will start to adapt especially if
you have good athletes on your team they will start to figure down their own so
I'd encourage you to move your players back so when they make a throw in
pregame it's a minimum I'd say 50 feet and again if that means you have to cut
down the amount of ground balls you hit or maybe they're just like fielding a
couple and just like tossing it in like a discard knot rather than like making
an actual throw that's fine you know like getting them warmed up eating then
their reps is important but you just don't want them to be constantly
throwing like this as part of their pregame because that's not the way you
want to throw we don't want our elbow leading in front we want our body moving
as a system and our arm eating thrown back in external rotation all that stuff
because that's how we throw our hardest and that's how your body's going to
learn so please if you're doing your pregame infield drills make sure they're
farther away so it forces to use their whole body and the third
thing that you can do and this is for in fitters again is allow your players and
make it part of your routine that they throw on the run and they throw from
sidearm arm angles sidearm could be here it could be below sidearm but basically
and I'll link below I put another long video out about shoulder till your arm
always has to match the tilt of your shoulder so if you're throwing overhand
you have to pull your front side down and get this tilt you can't throw the
high arm slot with your shoulders level it physically done just like doesn't
work I'm trying to make it work right now but your elbow will Bend if you
watch a baseball pitcher or a softball player it doesn't make a difference this
arm follows your shoulder tilt and softball is such a small field and such
a fast game and you have to charge the ball as an infielder to get some of
these speed speed demons out of first base right they hit a chopper between
short and third that that third base one's got to charge it and get rid of it
and when you're running across the diamond when you're on the move it has
to be a level shouldered sidearm throw you don't have to you don't have time to
be running and you've no way to really set yourself and then get your front
shoulder and pull it down to create the tilt that's gonna let you throw overhand
every throw you see that's on the run that's a charge
in baseball they throw it side on every single one without exception if they're
really close they might throw a dart but you can't be running and then get your
arm above it's physically uncomfortable and borderline impossible so your body
is smart it understands when my shoulders are level I'm gonna make my
arm angle match it so softball again is such a fast game there's you're charging
the ball you're getting rid of as quickly as you can
those are all things that sidearm is good for sidearm is a very quick
effective fast throw especially for short distances and the common complaint
is my girls can't throw sight on they don't they're they they're super wild
when they try they throw it away they get frustrated and and the reason they
do that is because they don't practice it enough it's just that simple every
kid in baseball learns to throw sidearm if they want to be an infielder in high
school or college they just learn it and if they're not good at it they go
home and they play with their buddies and they emulate the big leaguers and
they make all those fun throws and they get better and it's honestly a fun for
the thing to practice and so if you make it part of your practice in part of your
pregame routine it's gonna get easier and they're gonna find confidence in it
and it's a really exciting fun play to make I mean you see a girl charge the
ball and make this spectacular athletic play you're gonna see a big smile on her
face she's gonna have more confidence and now she's not gonna have any issues
charging those balls trying to cut them off and make more of that exciting play
so make it part of your team don't just make every ground ball the the square up
field in the center step and throw for some hey we're gonna go to this way and
throw it on the wrong don't square your feet up don't square your feet I'll make
it a tough throw this is something that's gonna benefit them in the long
run and I promise you they can do it even if they're struggling with it now
keep at it it's a big part of the game especially
as it gets as they climb the ladder and the game gets faster so just encourage
them that hey if you throw a couple away in pregame no big deal its pregame right
so that's my third tip I really think teaching your players to throw on the
run to make some of these off-balance difficult throws in pregame is just
gonna set them up for success in the game and then down the run as they
continue to climb the ladder in their sport okay so hopefully today's video
helped if you're new here again I'm coach Dan blooood I do tons of softball
throwing drills mechanics tutorials all that stuff so hit the like button for me
subscribe the channel and stick around because I put out new videos each week
and I will see you here on the next video