Softball Pitching Drills - Arm-Speed Development

Purpose: To learn the feeling of arm speed and to develop acceleration though the arm circle. The drill helps pitchers improve arm speed.

Procedure: The pitcher works alone on her circle. The drill has two parts.

    1. The pitcher stands in a sideways pitching position with the stride leg forward and the pitching arm above the head at the top of the circle. She moves the arm around in a perfect circle as fast as she can to get the feel of high arm speed. She keeps the arm totally relaxed, as loose as a noodle.

    2. The pitcher then focuses on building acceleration through the circle. Still sideways, she begins with the pitching arm at waist level. The pitcher focuses on lifting the arm in a relaxed manner and increasing the speed of the arm by accelerating on the downswing with a whiplike action. The arm is extended (elbow relaxed) to create the biggest arc and lever possible. The longer the lever, the more force it can produce.

This drill is great for giving pitchers practice to throw the fastball.