Peace.

Alright, today I'm going to be going over some throwing mechanics.

So I get a lot of questions on throwing mechanics, how my little kid, my little player is supposed to be throwing and I just wanted to go over the proper throwing mechanics for you all today.

Ball.

I am just breaking in this glove, this is my new Nakona glove.

We love her.

A lot of throws that I see from younger athletes is when they go to throw, they don't get the proper rhythm of separation here.

And when they go to throw, their glove hand ends up pulling their body out away instead of staying connected here.

So you want to think, the same thing as hitting, we want to think that everything rotates around our spine.

So when I go to throw, I want to pull my glove back in towards me to then release the ball.

I don't want to have this glove out away from me, and I'll show you this way too.

I want to make sure that this glove is pulling in towards me and bringing this arm forward towards my target, not out and away, which is going to pull this away from the center of our spine, which we are trying to rotate around.

Alright, so I want you all to start with your partner.

We're going to go, our feet are going to be squared towards our target, and our first order of business is here.

So we're going to work on our wrist snaps.

What happens a lot is we don't want our ball to look like this as it's going into our target because our receiver is not going to receive that properly.

They want a nice back spin towards them, that way when it does hop, if you are throwing somebody out the plate, if you're throwing to a bag and you're going to one hop, or just any receiving in general, you want a nice back spin so that your receiver is happy.

So what I'm going to work on first is I'm going to go 90 degree angle, and I'm going to work on releasing out front, and I'm going to pull down with my three fingers, almost like I'm saying goodbye, and I should see a nice back spin on my ball to the target.

This is also going to help us create a lot of strength in this part of our throwing sequence and our arm.

Another thing that I want you all to focus on and prioritize when you're doing your warm up throws, so even when you're just throwing with a partner, this should be something that you are aware of, is how you're gripping the ball.

Are you just going like this and not even thinking about how we're gripping it, or are you taking the time to really set up your grip in the correct way?

So when we're doing a grip for a softball, we want to make sure that our three fingers, we want to try to grab the seam if we can, but we want to make sure that our three fingers are here, and then our thumb is going to be straight beneath our pointer finger and our middle finger.

So in between those, that way we have a good grip.

And then our third finger goes here, and this one just pinky wraps around.

So this is the grip you want.

We don't want to do the thumb on the side, because if the thumb's on the side, then we don't have, we're just palming the ball, we don't have any control in our fingers.

And if we go here with the thumb underneath, then we're able to control the ball and release properly.

The next sequence that we're going to do is we're going to still stay in not moving our feet, but now we're going to add that rotation into our throw.

So I'm here, and then when I come through, this glove opens and pulls back in, which is what we talked about at the beginning.

So I'm here, boom, pull in.

And I'm working on that pull down of the ball.

Don't forget to pull this back in, that's the biggest thing that I see our athletes forget.

What I like to do here is when I'm turning, I'm pointing this to the target, creating that separation.

And then as I go forward, this pulls in, this stays connected, release out front.

Okay, now we're going to walk into it.

Now my target's going to gradually start to move farther away.

We're going to stretch our distance a little bit.

So I'm just walking in.

I like to start with it in my glove to work on my transfer, turn, boom, throw.

On these two, you'll see both Meg and I do this, but we'll feel this a lot.

You'll just see us maybe run through it once or twice when we're doing our, right before our throwing movement.

And this is just kind of reiterating that to our muscle, to our muscle memory of keeping that rhythm and that control right here.

And when we get to this position, it pulls back in.

So this is what is moving together, not that.

So I really want to stay pulling this glove back in.

As this glove pulls in, this arm is going forward.

Now as my target starts to move back, we don't want to just be throwing with our upper body.

We want to make sure that we're fully connected from the ground up.

And so what you'll see me start to do as my distance of my partner starts to get longer, what I'm going to do is make sure that I'm getting off of my backside.

So getting off of my backside means when I get to this position and I throw, I'm not staying here.

I'm making sure that my momentum is bringing me through and I'm getting that leg off the ground, almost like I'm a baseball pitcher.

Okay.

So I just want to feel that that backside is like forcing my momentum and my throw to my target.

That's why you see like a lot of pro baseball players in the outfield when they're throwing far balls.

A lot of them sometimes come off their body and they get into a roll.

So they're really getting their backside momentum forward.

That way all of their strength and everything is going forward towards their target.

This is also really important to aid in your arm care and the health of your arm.

If we're just throwing a lot like this, it's going to be a lot on your shoulder and your elbow.

So we want to make sure that we're taking care of that and we're following all the way through being smooth through our body movements.

Also one more point that I like to make is when we throw, I'm sure you've heard like finish in your other pocket, in your opposite pocket, but really like you just want to feel the lengthening of the release out front and then allowing that arm to finish through so that we're not stopping and jerking our arms, which is going to cause a lot of tension and strain on our elbows and our shoulders.

So I really want to follow through and just let it kind of go.

So that's also something that will help with the longevity of your arm and the health of your arm.

And that is how we throw.

Thanks for watching.

Oh, I missed.