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Lesson Buyer Beware
by Dave
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
As if life were not complicated enough, we Americans are charged with significant responsibility via the simple phrase, "ignorance of the law is no excuse." We are obligated to know all the laws applicable to these United States when those laws and everything which explains, defines, and clarifies them would fill a very, very large library with so many pages that it would be impossible to read them all in a single lifetime! That body of law is constantly increasing at almost an exponential rate. There are attorneys who spend their entire professional lives working on tiny portions of the overall body of law. And these individuals find that they learn something new about their area of specialty on practically a daily basis. Even these studied, experienced professionals make monumental mistakes. When it comes to using a professional attorney, the client must endeavor to understand the law and to "supervise" the hired professional lest his or her mistake cost the client in ways that cannot ever be rectified. So it is with lawyers, so it is with all experts.
Ignorance is unacceptable when it comes to the law. It is also at least inadvisable in every other aspect of our lives including sport. We must constantly keep abreast of the entire body of knowledge pertaining to our own pursuits. We must therefore endeavor to gather and assimilate as much knowledge as possible. I can't speak for you but I know I learn something new about softball on a daily basis.
There are so many sources regarding mechanical and other issues that I know I could never have enough time to read, understand and evaluate them all. I struggle with this. I'm one of those who wants to hear the right answers and to understand the complete logic string which underlies them. I do an imperfect job but I do try.
When I am dealing with a subject about which I know too little, I almost always defer to experts. They not only know their subject far better than I can learn it in a short time, they also are able to explain it much better. So, when my kids wanted to play softball and then to pitch, I knew I was out of my league. I had to defer to an expert. Actually, I have deferred to several experts to teach my kids about pitching.
I am not the type of person who normally can be a passive buyer of these kinds of services. Many are passive about their daughters' pitching lessons. I see them all the time. They are the ones who sit in their car while taking phone calls or engage in unrelated discussions during their kids' pitching lessons. They don't know a lot and because they are busy in other aspects of their lives, they do not have the time to delve into things. I understand and respect that. Loads of people just do not have the time to go further. But I am not able to take that same approach. I have to understand what is being taught. And I question almost everything. Sometimes, I get unexpected surprises from sources previously unknown to me.
I am going to get into pitching from a mechanical perspective today. But before I do, I want to at least mention something about batting which contains a parallel lesson. From the time I first got involved with fastpitch softball, I heard about something called the "west coast swing." The very term insulted me. I heard it as "this is the way the softball hitters in California do it and, since CA has the best softball, they must be right." I started t0o try to understand what the west coast swing was and what its underpinnings were. After a while, it became clear to me that those who talked about this swing were really talking about a style which was often referred to as "rotational." I dug further and was fairly easily able to trace it back to essentially the Ted Williams school. It became clear to me that the question was not one of fact but rather of opinion. I read Charley Lau and others who had written books and articles on the mechanics of hitting. Before long, it became clear to me that many of the claims of "west coast" swing instructors just were not true. I won't go into the details right now but basically, I came to understand that the swing was not a new style, was not endemic to the west coast, and was not necessarily superior to other types of swings. It also became clear to me that loads of people made trade specifically by touting the "west coast swing" and they were loathe to admit any fallacies which were promulgated by them or their kindred. In fact, they were willing to argue every single point whether they believed their position or not. Some of these experts were quite wrong but they stuck to their guns.
More recently, what I have observed is a much lower frequency of folks referring to the "west coast swing." I have also heard many of the professionals who teach swinging start to move away from a purely rotational mechanical style. Many have stopped referring to "rotational hitting." Most no longer argue all of the points they once touted.
As I said, this piece is about pitching. There are several aspects of fundamental pitching mechanics which have given me trouble over the years. One of these is the stride. Another is hip closure at release and thereafter. There are a number of conflicting pieces of advice and "expert testimony" on these issues which I had consumed over the years and now I am trying to sort it all out.
I could not fail to hear Michele Smith talk about pitchers and the degree of angle of their hips. She always speaks about a 45 degree angle. This advice was in direct conflict with what most of the pitching experts I have seen were telling me. Yet, I am somewhat convinced that I merely misunderstood someone or everyone. So let me see if I can explain the issue and why it caused me so much consternation.
When a windmiller pitches, she stands with two feet on the pitcher's plate - her shoulders and hips are necessarily square to homeplate. We call this "closed." As she goes into her windmill and the arm is over the head, she has her hips and shoulders square to third base (first base for a lefty). We call this "open." So the pitcher opens the door and then pitches. What follows ivolves the subject of closing all the way or partially.
I have often disputed Michele Smith's charterization of a pitcher maintaining the good 45 degree angle with her hips as she released the ball. It seems counter intuitive to me because if you try to duplicate it, what you end up with is a motion in which the pitcher must hold herself back - prevent her hips from closing after releasing the ball. It is sort of a linear pitching approach, if you will, b ecause she is sort of slamming her back side leg and hip into the front side after ball release. This puts stress on the front leg, particularly the knee and also seems to hold back natural force from body momentum. But I think I slightly misunderstand Michele.
Recently, a reader of this blog, a friend of mine over the past several years, asked me about the timing of the various parts of the pitching motion. I have struggled with his questions and comments for quite a while and still have not answered him. I suppose it is difficult to put it all together. And hip closure really complicates things.
One of my daughters is more "hippy" than the other. Their pitching coaches have always advocated hip closure in order to promote speed as well as ball rotation on certain pitches and as a way of better controlling the location of pitches. When I questioned one the instructors, he told me that the pitchers who advocate hip openness are generally six foot tall girls with long arms who throw 65-70 without really trying. He went on to say that everybody else needs to close their hip in order to generate the speed needed to compete with these ladies.
That was a simple enough explanation and I bought it since it seemed somewhat logical to me. I saw many girls pitch with open hips and they did generally seem to be taller kids with tremendous speed. Then I saw the Japanese great Ueno and noted that she closes her hips. She throws faster than most - she may actually be the fastest pitcher in softball, I'm not sure. And Ueno is rather diminutive when compared to most Olympic pitchers. She's something like 5-6, 5-7. That cleared things up for me since my kids' coach was validated. Still, I was left with some unresolved issues because of something which happened repeatedly over several years.
Have you ever experienced anything like the following? Your kid is pitching practice when she swings her arm around and strikes her leg with the ball as she comes to the release point. Now that's an interesting occurrence. First of all, the pain must be absolutely excruciating as it drives her body to the ground. Tears follow shortly thereafter. But the pitch itself is something I wish I could bottle because some of the most fantastic curves I have ever seen in my life usually result. I mean, we're talking about a curve which has double the sideways action of anything I have seen world class pitchers throw! If you could harness that pitch - obviously without the pain - you could put out just about any fire in any game at any time. What's possibly worse than the pain, however, are the bruises that result. If this kind of thing happened anytime close to a regular doctor checkup, I'm sure I would find myself locked up and my kids in protective custody. Nobody would believe such a bruise would be self-inflicted. It looks as if it was caused by an adult striking a child with a bat while using all their strength!
In any event, I think this striking of the leg with the pitch is caused by excessively early hip closure. Girls have their curves and it is probably impossible to both close the hip and have a decent arm circle. If you try to do both, what you get is agony and ugly bruising. So there's got to be a better way.
The arm needs to stay in a nearly perfect circle. If it isn't on that track, frist of all, you lose power. Secondly, and more importantly, if the arm is not on a nearly perfect circle, you put too much stress on the shoulder. if you do something in your motion which takes the arm off track, you may cause shoulder injury, perhaps significant injury. This injury potential is really the subject of this piece and how I learned of that conclusion - it isn't my own - will be explained toward the end.
So, if a pitcher cannot pitch the ball around her hip, if she must be open to some degree, then Michele Smith has to be right. On the other hand, if you test this out, you will find that in order to keep the hips open, you have to hold yourself back and that will reduce power, and so she has to be at least partially wrong. The answer is the hips must be open at ball release and nothing should be done to hold back the ball side after release, which means that many or most pitchers should be closed when their bodies come to rest after the pitch.
In fact, it is worth noting that pitchers cannot gain any additional force by forcing their hips closed at the end since that must happen after ball release and it is impossible to get any additional speed on the ball at this point. Once the ball leaves the hand, it is going as fast as it ever will. More to the point, once the back leg pushes off the plate, it has no impetus from which to add any additional force. After push off, the pivot leg has used up its potential to generate force. Thereafter, anything it does to the pitch is caused by its enertia, its forward momentum. Allowing that momentum to continue is what caused the hips to close. Closing the hips doesn't add force but, I believe, preventing the hips from closing causes speed to be diminished since it requires force in an opposite direction. You shouldn't cause your hips to close. It should just happen as the result of an otherwise correct motion with good arm speed.
To sum up, a pitcher needs to keep her arm in a nearly perfect circle from the time she starts upwards until she releases the ball. In order to accomplish this nearly perfect circle, the pitcher must have her hips open in order to get the arm through to release. Hip closure cannot add force, it follows proper mechanics. Ueno closes her hips because her motion causes this to happen. That is, I believe, that. Michele Smith is not wrong but you do not need to keep your hips open at 45 degrees after you have released the pitch. My daughter's coaches are wrong because they believe closing the hips causes force to be added. And, most of all, trying to affirmatively close the hips may knock the arm out of its nearly perfect circle which can cause injury. So, buyer beware.
The second issue I said I would discuss is the length of the forward stride before ball release. Here I have real issues since some of the coaches we have seen emphasize this while some are diametrically opposed to a long forward stride. To understand the issue, the first coach of my kids told them to stride out very hard with an aopparent objective of a landing spot about 5 feet away. This was more or less of a leap in which the back foot was dragged forward. And my kids were little at the time so 5 feet is about right. Now that they are bigger, over 5 feet tall, the stride comes to around 6 feet.
The coach opposed to this kind of a stride advocates a normal walking stride. For me, at about 5-9, and known for having short legs, a walking stride is about 2.5 - 3 feet. There's quite a large difference for anyone of any height and leg length between a normal walking stride and the pitcher's stride the other coach advocated. The pitching stride would be about double the walking stride.
What made me concerned about this issue of shortening the stride was I have seen all the top pitchers throw. I know the pitchers circle is 8 feet from the midpoint of the rubber. I watch these top pitchers routinely land near or on the line. Some come awfully close to exceeding it. When the coach who advocates the shorter stride asked one of these top pitchers about stride length, she agreed with him that it should be short. Yet when she pitches, she lands 8 feet from the rubber. She's just about 6 feet tall! Her walking stride couldn't be any more than 4 feet or so.
I was stuck on this issue of stride length for a couple of years. I didn't give it much thought because my kids continue to take fairly long strides. They haven't "corrected" themselves and shortened up. Now I am glad they haven't because I just read the definitive study on this.
On the link I am about to give you is a study of pitcher's mechanics. It was conducted at the 1996 Olympics. Its chief concern is injury. It seeks to explain pitching motions which cause the least amount of injury. The largest percentage of pitcher injuries in fastpitch softball are those to the shoulder. So the motion which puts the least amount of stress on the shoulder while generating the fastest pitch is the best. The link is here: http://www.softballclinics.com/olympic/olympics01.html
Please take the time to read this study because you really must educate yourself in its findings. You cannot simply rely upon the experts since they often disagree. And when it comes to injuries to your children, ignorance of the realities is absolutely no excuse. You are the buyer of pitching lessons. Let the buyer beware.Labels: lessons, pitching
Permanent Link: Lesson Buyer Beware
 
Somebody Always Gets Shorted
by Dave
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
I am happy that the high school federation decided to move the pitching distance back to 43. My state adopted it for this year, good move. I am also happy to learn that other youth bodies are likewise moving back to the same distance. It is insane to have pitchers in high school pitching from a different distance than they do in age group play. It is just too much to ask of kids this young. They throw for their high school team Monday through Saturday at 40 feet and then go play in front of, perhaps, college coaches on Sunday at 43. Windmilling is just too hard to have kids jumping back and forth in an effort to locate their pitches where they need to be. So the fact that most, if not all 16U and 18U youth play will be at the same 43 feet as most, if not all, high school play is undeniably a good thing. But, as usual, somebody gets shorted. And that somebody seems to be the 14 year old freshmen.
I have seen nothing about any sort of 14U play being pitched from 43 feet. Maybe some organization has adopted this distance and I missed it. But from what I have seen, ASA 14U is going to be pitched at 40 feet for the forseeable future. The same is true for USSSA, PONY, NSA, etc. I think this may be a mistake.
In some high schools, freshmen do sometimes pitch varsity. Of course, it is very likely that even if they do not, their JV or freshman games will be at 43. I know that the NFHS rule change was for varsity but I have not heard of any state which adopted the 43 feet for this year having a sifferent pitching distance for the junior circuits. There's good reason for that since JV and freshman pitchers are often brought up for a variety of reasons. Also, hitters likewise suffer when the pitchers are moved around.
It does not take a genius to figure out that 14 year-olds equate to freshmen. It does not take a genius to know that this is a tender young age at which the distance confusion is likely to take a significant toll. One could argue that perhaps freshmen should be excluded from varsity softball - indeed I know of one school which follows this policy - but from a practical reality point of view, many schools could not play competitively without their freshman varsity pitching ace. They do not want to see any sort of rule prohibiting 9th graders from participation in any sport, least of all softball.
The discussion does not end here since, 13 year-olds equate, generally, to 8th graders and middle school play is likely to continue at 40 feet. I would like to see that come to an end since the boys pitch at full distance from middle school on. But the other side of the argument is some middle schools use 7th, even 6th graders to pitch their games.
The bottom line is somebody is going to get shortchanged. I don't wish to continue the analysis infinitely. I do want to say that when I advocated for HS ball at 43, I had in mind a number of girls who I had watched struggle with their command at 40 feet after playing the winter showcases and other tournaments at 43. Then I watched them struggle yet again to acclimate back to 43. It was a bit too much. But I neglected to consider 14s doing likewise when, obviously, the struggle for them is yet more difficult. Somehow we must resolve this. And I do not believe that 14U ball should remain at 40 feet. If we leave it at 40, most talented pitchers will skip the 14U ranks and move directly to 16U. That would be very bad for 14U ball.Labels: pitching
Permanent Link: Somebody Always Gets Shorted
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