Getting Started With Fastpitch Power’s Pitching Style: A Guide
I got an email last week from a reader asking if our pitching articles followed a particular progression. I thought it would be very useful to compile some of our pitching articles and videos into a guide that could be used either by a complete beginner or by a pitcher who is transitioning from a different style to the one we teach. Reader, if you’re seeing this, thanks for the suggestion! Your email kept bouncing back so I’m sorry I was only able to reply this way. But now, everyone can benefit!
Before You Begin
One of the things we’ve found in the year we’ve been running Fastpitch Power is that there is some terminology confusion floating around the internet. Coaches and instructors from different parts of the country and the world may all use different words to describe aspects of the windmill pitching mechanics, but it’s possible they’re talking about the same thing. To ensure that you understand what we’re explaining, I recommend that you read our Intro to Pitching Terms before you tackle any other Fastpitch Power articles or videos.
Step 1: Learning Forearm Fire
Forearm fire, or arm whip, is an essential part of our pitching philosophy. It’s critical to achieving high speeds.
- Learning Forearm Fire
- Establishing your throw zone
- A Breakdown of arm and hand position throughout the pitch: You’ll want to isolate forearm fire first to learn it, but this information kind of goes along with that. Don’t rush too quickly into the full motion though.
Step 2: Incorporating the Glove Hand
- The importance of the glove hand
- End Game: a drill for good arm path and glove involvement. Start with just first end game, making sure you don’t move onto second and full until you fully understand those elements of the pitch.
Step 3: Ensuring Good Posture
Step 4: Incorporating the Drive Through
- Drive through mechanics
- Driving vs. Dragging
- Pitching drills for a smoother drive through
- How to stop illegal hopping: part 1 and part 2
Step 5: Putting it All Together
- Reach, Track, FIre
- Ensuring your wind up is OK: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
- Video analysis
This is just a set of basics, so be sure to browse the site for a lot more info, including advanced power drills, troubleshooting specific problems, and outstanding strength training information. While these articles and videos present a great place to start, they were not created in order with this progression in mind, so please don’t hesitate to ask questions!
Great stuff. Wish I had it when my daughter was learning. Now we have bad habits that need fixing. Any advice on how to break the bad habit of the “glove arm” estension to the left (on a right handed pitcher) as you demonstrated in your “Your Glove is the Rudder that Steers Your Ship” post.
Yes! Have her pitch with her glove side very close to a wall, fence, or net. Then she’ll hit it if she doesn’t keep her glove straight.
Carly,
Thank you so much for this website. I found it while looking for “fixes” to a couple of my 10U daughter’s pitching flaws. She was being taught “Hello Elbow”, but consistently wanted her follow through to go to the target instead of curling upward and her hips were remaining open. Once I stumbled onto your site and saw the method you teach, it felt like my daughter’s natural tendency was closer to your style than “Hello Elbow” so we decided to transition to Forearm Fire.
After studying many of the videos on your site and videos of my daughter pitching, I have identified a few areas where she needs work. I don’t think I can throw all of these things at her at once without overwhelming her and wanted to hear your opinion on the order I would choose to make the corrections. Please let know if you would fix the problems in a different order.
Problems –
1) Reverse Load
2) Turns foot (and knee) on push off
3) Drags foot instead of driving
4) Little to no elbow bend on back side of the circle reducing potential snap
5) Bends a little at waist just before delivery (bends toward 3rd base not so much leaning toward home)
Order to work –
1) Work on getting her load proper. I put this first because it is the first step of the pitch and seems to be nice low hanging fruit to give her a win early in the changing process.
2) Work on the drive. Make sure the drive foot stays straight during the push off and the knee is pointing toward the target and toe is lightly dragging the ground. I feel if/when this gets corrected is solves the issues in problems 2 and 3 and likely solves problem 5 (at least provides the body with the position to make that correction easier if it doesn’t solve it outright).
3) Work on developing the elbow bend on the back side of the circle, thus producing more forearm drag and subsequently more whip. She is an excellent hitter and I will share Phil’s post(s) relating bat lag to forearm lag with her
4) Work on developing the forearm fire portion to deliver the ball.
If you think my thinking is way off base, please let me know.
Bob