Coach Candrea and Leah O'Brien-Amico work with SportSkool to teach the proper softball throwing mechanics. He breaks the throwing mechanics into two segments: upper body and lower body. The upper body consists of the grip, arm circle, and glove side. The lower body moves forward as you to prepare and follow through.
Key Points:
Upper Body:
Grip: Grip the ball with two or three fingers across the large horseshoe of the ball that will allow the thrower to get twelve six rotation. A key to hand positioning is to make sure the thumb is on the bottom of the ball and splitting the top fingers. The ball is held in the base of the fingers and not deep in the palm of the hand.
Arm Circle (power side): The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, which means it is meant to move in a circle. With an outfielder, the first movement is thumb to thigh. The next movement is to bring the ball into the throwing position where the upper arm is parallel to the ground, getting the elbow high, and the lower arm is perpendicular to the ground. This will put the hand in the position to high-five a player behind them. The only difference in this movement for a infielder is to take the ball thumb to chest to shorten the arm circle. For a catcher, it is thumb to ear.
Glove side (directional side): Whether you point the glove at the target or the elbow at the target, the upper arm should be pointing directly toward the target. As the hand rotates forward, gather the glove toward the heart and pull back and slightly down with the elbow to increase arm speed through the use of the core muscles.
Lower Body:
Prepare to throw: The first movement is to step toward the target with the throwing side foot and the toe pointing at a 45-degree angle to allow the hips and shoulders to turn toward the target. This is similar to the negative movement in hitting where the weight is transferred to the backside and then transfers to the front side on the step. The knees are inside the feet with a slight bend at the waist to put the thrower is a strong position to create ball rotation as you step forward.
Follow through: Most of the injuries that occur during throwing happen in the deceleration phase of the arm. Arm deceleration occurs from the release of the ball to the hand approaching the ground. This is why the follow through is important in reducing injuries. A proper follow through occurs by pointing the back foot's shoelaces toward the ground and the arm rotating from above the head to the opposite side hip.
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