"Elbow" throwing.

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Does anyone have any suggestions on how to break the habit of someone throwing by snapping their elbow instead of using their entire arm and snapping with the wrist?

We have two girls on our team that use the elbow flex to throw the ball. We've been trying to correct this motion but they seem to be set in their ways. How anyone could have let them get into this habit without a correction is hard to believe.

This will take a lot of time over the winter months to try and break. We're looking for suggestions on how to go about this.

 

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Scarecrow, rotate, wrist flip method...

 

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Does anyone have any suggestions on how to break the habit of someone throwing by snapping their elbow instead of using their entire arm and snapping with the wrist?

We have two girls on our team that use the elbow flex to throw the ball. We've been trying to correct this motion but they seem to be set in their ways. How anyone could have let them get into this habit without a correction is hard to believe.

This will take a lot of time over the winter months to try and break. We're looking for suggestions on how to go about this.

"Carrying angle is much more pronounced in female verses male as much as 4 to 10 degrees, making swinging a bat or golf club more difficult causing shoulder or lower back pain."

To observe carrying angle simply hold both arms in front of you with hands and arms extended and palms turned up. The elbows will be angled inward and the thumb side of hand will be angled away as much as 4 to 10 degrees.

Weight shift must be taught for throwing and hitting for female.


About 80 percent of the arm injuries occur during deceleration or after throwing the ball and allowing the body to slow the arm down naturally by using the body as a shock absorber so to speak and finishing with the throwing hand to the glove side thigh.


I took a tennis ball and cut an X in it and knotted a rag and stuffed the knotted end in the tennis ball and left about 12 inches of rag hanging out and glued the rag in place. A person holds their out stretched hand in front of the thrower and they attempt to slap the persons out stretched hand with the rag while holding onto the ball. If the back foot leg is not releasing you have a weight shift issue also.

 

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As they rotate and flip their wrist, their rear foot is turning as they rotate and it should end up almost dragging their toes and stepping through as they do. Also have them think of also putting on a shoulder seat belt as they are following through..

 

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As they rotate and flip their wrist, their rear foot is turning as they rotate and it should end up almost dragging their toes and stepping through as they do. Also have them think of also putting on a shoulder seat belt as they are following through..

Another way to get them to feel the weight shift is stand in front of them and ask them to step to throw and stop.

Now ask them to bring the hand out of the glove, ball hand down and back elbow up and circle up with the ball hand.

Then grasp the index and social finger and tell them you are going to guide them forward by pulling on the two fingers. In most situations you will feel resistance immediately. Then point out that they are not on the ball of the lead foot, the knee is not flexed (make sure the foot is angled at about 40 to 45 degrees) , the nose is not over the toes and the chest is not over the knees. Then repeat and within a few attempts they will feel no resistance in the fingers at all!

We have them start with the feet about a shoulders width apart and the glove is in what we term the gathered position or the glove is in the middle of their chest with the ball in their hand in the glove.

They are balanced and then they slide their back foot to the instep of the lead foot and step forward with the lead foot and slide step and break and throw. The break comes after they step the ball hand comes out of the glove and goes down the up and circles.

We also show them how to increase the velocity of their throwing arm by inter locking our fingers of our glove hands while we are in front of each other. I will lead and show them how to tuck me in and I will pull my glove arm back so my elbow comes in under my shoulder and rearward and they will be pulled towards me as my ball hand arm goes forward. This is a basic martial arts move to increase the force of the punch or in this case throwing arm action.

With this technique we have found throwing force speeds can increase as much as 3 to 8 MPH for most kids.

 

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You are correct Hitter, especially the glove piece, especially at the younger ages, so many throw and run without the glove tuck. Everytime they run as a drill, run with the glove..... So many Statue of Liberty gloe runners out there Like they are serving Pizza as the run...

So Hard to explain to someone via web isn't it...

 

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Thanks guys for the tips. Yes, it is hard to understand without actually seeing it done. We'll do our best with it.

Howard, will your coming book include fielding/throwing, etc?? I can't wait until it hits the market! The sooner the better my friend!

 

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Thanks guys for the tips. Yes, it is hard to understand without actually seeing it done. We'll do our best with it.

Howard, will your coming book include fielding/throwing, etc?? I can't wait until it hits the market! The sooner the better my friend!

Basic throwing a walk through on fielding which is what we put all of our kids through as to doing very basic grounding work only.

 

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My DD had this problem but I finally broke her of it. Basically we continually drilled. Took about three weeks but now she's throwing correctly. Go thru the whole drill of proper feet placement, upper body, knees and most importantly throwing all the way through. What I mean by that is your players should do two things when actually throwing the ball. Glove should be tucked in tight and thier throwing hand should graze or smack thier opposite thigh after releasing the ball..( Think about how a major league pitcher throws)

If they don't feel the momentum of thier body behind the throw then they are not "throwing thru" they are more likely stopping thier upper body movement at release. (habit from snapping elbow)

Walk thru the mechanics one step at a time, then have them do it right up to the point of release and stop. They should see where thier hands are or are not. Hand should not be behind elbow but a bit out in front. Then have them do all of it. Accuracy may not be there at first but right now you only want them to correct thier throwing.
My daughter said she basically had to learn a completely new way to throw the ball after years of snapping her elbow. No more pain in elbow now. She feels her muscles and tendons in her shoulders now but not pain. I think that's a critical understanding to have when your girls undertake this.

Hope this helps.

 

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In my opinion it, the momentum, stops when the stride foot lands flat and the knee becomes stiff and they can not get the weight to shift forward.

As they release the ball we put a lot of emphasis on the ball hand finishing to the glove side thigh so the body can slow the arm down naturally.

To feel the legs in a shifting manner simply have them put both feet together and ask them to stride forward and field a slow rolling ground ball and hold their position. They should feel the pressure between their knees.

The knees should be flexed....this is the same feeling you would have when hitting which is why we teach throwing first.

I use a box that is 16 x 16 by 5 inches high and they step off the box with the lead foot and throw. We start with the hands together and say load, step, break and throw. The knee will usually flex within one to two throws and they get that look of I have got it now and then start to throw even harder.

For the kids that have a more difficult time....they get on the box and raise their lead foot up like a baseball pitcher. I tell them in advance I am going to put my wrist under their knee and steady them and if they feel like they are going to fall grab my shoulder. The foot is angled downward and the knee is about waist high. Then they bend the back knee slightly and balance for a moment and step forward and throw. I have found this to be very effective.

Crystl showed me a drill where the player gets on both knees as if praying and the belly button is facing the target. The player turns the body or coils looks back at the ball and throws as hard as possible. If done correctly they will land on their chest with an out stretched ball hand and the glove will be tucked in and off the ground.

They are a little intimidated at first and then start putting more effort into it.

After they master that they stand up widen their stance and throw and if it works correctly as to the nose over the toes and chest over the knee, their momentum will force their body forward and the right foot as a RH thrower will move forward. Do not tell them this will happen or they will force it. Let them struggle a little. It will happen.

Howard

 

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I have been able to watch about a dozen indoor HS games the past three weeks and there seems to be a lot of players 14-18 years old with poor or no throwing mechanics...

I seen bunts yesterday with three bad throws in a row allowing runners to score just by making contact. Walks with a 4 base award when the catcher missed the pitcher on the return throw and the fielders could not stop the runner circling the bases.
Some throws were missing the target by as much as 5 feet!

It is sad watching 14 to 18 year olds warming up with their glove under there throwing elbow 20 feet apart, flat footed flicking the ball over their partners head. Then the partner running back to get the ball and doing the same thing to her partner. After about 10 min they went back to about 40 feet and started tossing to each other, again all arm, and facing each other no lower body or step like their legs were in concrete... The ball going everywhere but in the glove...

There are too many speed toss, quick feet and step drills out there like Howard provided to have the amount of players throwing flat footed with no follow through.