In today’s video blog post, we are introducing the windmill pitching style, and talking about the open door position.
When pitching, there are three important things that you need to remember. And that is the wrist snap, the hip close, and balance. You have to have all three of those in order to be successful at pitching. You also have to be very determined and practice a lot. Today, we are going to focus on the open door position. We’ll start with the position of the body.
The technique that we use in this pitch is one of the most efficient as far as energy goes — so much so that you could pitch several games if necessary. There is also a lot less injury if you do it correctly.
Windmill Pitching: Open Door Position
In the open door position, you want to imagine that you have a dot on both shoulders, a dot at your hip, and a dot at your other hip.
When you face the catcher in the very beginning of your full motion, all four dots are facing your catcher.
As you open your door, you’re pointing your glove hand at your catcher and no dots are showing to your catcher. The reason for that is because if you come down and release the ball like you are supposed to, you have a lot of pressure on the shoulder. A lot of times the ball will get behind you. And that is what we’re trying to prevent. A lot of pressure and stress on your rotator cuff, your shoulder, and your elbow.
Make sure that when you do your backswing, you open your door from the full motion, backswing, open the door — this is the open door position and you’ll do most of your drills in this. Then when you get ready to slam the door, you’re coming down, snapping at your hip. Slamming the door means you bring your hip through where both feet are facing the catcher and all four dots are back to the catcher again.
At this point, you’re in a defensive position ready for the ball to come back to you. So it’s going to look like a full motion, close door, swing it back, open door, release the ball, you close the door again. Or what we call slam the door, because we want explosion and power at this point.
Looking for more awesome windmill pitching tips? Then be sure to check out Championship Coach Sue Enquist’s other Softball Coaching Videos! Sue will share some great tips and softball throwing, hitting and much more! And don’t forget to Like Us on Facebook, where we share more great drills, tips and suggestions.