More on Forearm Fire
Learning the arm whip when it doesn’t come naturally is one of the most difficult aspects of windmill pitching, and we still get a lot of questions about it. In today’s video I discuss the mechanics of the arm whip, which we call forearm fire, a little more.
GREAT INFORMATION!!!
I wish I would have seen this when my DD pitched. I am a High School coach and will be looking into the arm whip more. Thanks for the video!!!
Thanks so much for the comment, Larry. We always like to get feedback from coaches, it certainly helps us to stay on top of our game. If there are any issues that you would like to see addressed in the future, please let us know and we will make every effort to give you the best information possible.
Daughter is now trying to learn this, going from hello elbow to something entirely different. It is difficult to say the least. Third week into it and I am starting to see her old muscle memory being replaced with fore arm fire. I must say it makes alot of sense and the small results so far are amazing, cant wait till she can go full speed. She plays on a travel team here in ohio and can not wait to show this off in a few months. I would say when I think about it I think that 80 percent of the pitchers out there do not have any whip. We are so lucky to have stumbled upon some of your videos. Do you sell a pitching video yet ? I am not sure what site I was on but there was a Japanese pitcher in slow motion that does these exact movements, and that was a great help too. I wish you lived closer so I could bring my daughter to you for a lesson. Just wanted to thank you for the short clips I was able to find of you explaining this.
Ken:
Thank you so much for the comment and for following us on Fastpitchpower. The Japanese pitcher you refer to was, in fact, featured on our site. Her name is Yukiko Ueno and that demonstration is one of the best examples of forearm fire that we have found. This will likely be a difficult transition. However, the payoff will be worth the hard work. We are in the discussion phase of producing pitching videos and will keep you posted. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions or are having any difficulty with any of our protocols.
Phil
Hi Phil,
My daughter is a tournament travel player in Orange County, CA. She is 15 years old and plays for one of the top travel organizations in the country. As she has stepped up in level of competition, we have been dealing with more frequent injuries with her back and rotator as she throws as hard as she can. She recently participated in a PGF college showcase and was working next to very elite players. I was watching these smaller less athletic girls throwing 4 to 5 miles an hour faster than my daughter and wonder how they were generating more speed. They didn’t drive as far or as hard as my girl but they seemed to be effortlessly hitting their spots with greater velocity. I noticed that they were doing a slightly different release move with their arm. When I got home, I researched a few pitchers that had similar builds to my pitcher – Jennie Finch is the closest since she is tall and lanky like my daughter. While researching her YouTube videos, I bumped into your work. After watching what you were demonstrating, I realized that this relaxed release was exactly what these other elite pitchers were executing. I took my finding to my daughter’s pitching coach and she agreed that this was the move she tries to teach. She is a Don Sarno student who pitched in the Big 10 for 4 years – a very accomplished pitcher and excellent teacher. I showed her your stuff and she was very excited to see another approach in teaching that method. Long story short, I get the relaxed release that naturally turns the hand over and drives it down the power line. My questions is how do we execute the screwball, curveball and other grip pitches that require an opposite spin finish than the natural drop your method produces?
Hi Ralph
I hope that stumbling across our site continues to help your daughter. There should be little question that forearm fire will produce greater command and velocity for her. Your question regarding movement pitches is a complex one and will be difficult to answer in this space. If you put in our search bar, “establishing the throw zone for movement pitches” you will see a series of posts that will guide you in the right direction. Suffice it to ay that any pitch your daughter throws, no matter what pitch the throw zone is set up for, requires acceleration and extension down that zone much in the same way one would accelerate and extend their bat head after contact with a pitched ball. I would be happy to discuss this further with you. If you wish to reach out to Carly and leave a contact number, I will call you. Best of luck to you and your daughter.