Everyone wants their pitcher to throw faster
and yet we make it so difficult and complicated that they
actually end up pitching slower. The concept of how to pitch
faster isn't that hard, or complicated so learn how your pitcher
can do it with 2 great drills!
If you want to pitch the ball faster then basically your
pitcher must do one very simple thing: Her hand (not her arm)
has to move faster when she's letting go of the ball. Period!
Sounds simple, doesn't it? But, what makes it kind of hard
are two things:
- We tend to move our arm instead of our hand. The
difference is that your brain considers your arm as either
your elbow, your bicep or your shoulder. In either case
those are all things that if your brain is trying to move
fast, will only tense up and then slow you down. To prove
this raise your shoulders up and then try to move your arm
around in your pitching circle (with your shoulders staying
up) - it's really hard, isn't it?! So, to help speed up your
hand you need to relax your shoulders, and to do that you
need your brain to think about moving your pitching HAND
instead of your Arm.
- The second thing to help you get a faster hand at the
release point is to move your hand faster at the end of your
circle instead of at the beginning. Most pitchers start
their circle fast and then run out of speed at the end - and
the end is when you're letting go of the ball. So, your
pitcher needs to think about her hand getting faster as it
gets closer to letting go. Or, another way to think of it is
to have her hand as fast as possible at the release and
follow through.
Do the feet help, yes, but only in starting the pitching, not
in throwing the pitch. The feet help create the power that the
hand will use at the release point. Everything else (hips
included) only help the pitcher's speed at the release point!