Aiming for Pitching Perfection: on the mound or behind the lens

For my third goal, I chose to tell a story through pictures. I have read pieces of What Matters and this has helped me push myself to tell an understandable narrative through images while also integrating text. Meetings with Geoff Crimmins, photo editor of our local newspaper, have helped me with the technical pieces of the photography. I am a pitcher for the softball team, and I wanted to show a few good and bad techniques involved. I took pictures of my classmate Leah, who is doing an ELI on softball pitching.Taking these pictures has helped me understand the finer aspects of pitching and see how important technique is. Check out Leah’s blog posts at the links below:

http://mhs-elitalks.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-blame-game-understanding-fine-art.html.

http://mhs-elitalks.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-blame-game-understanding-fine-art.html

Every play in softball starts and stops with the pitcher. On most softball teams the pitchers have more practices than any other player because as Ted Matsuoka says, “there are only about 1,000 different things to think about when you are pitching.” Without a strong foundation and understanding of the motion, it is very hard to integrate all the different types of pitches with the ability to throw them quickly. The three main techniques that I want to focus on includes the “power line,” toe drag, and glove placement.

The "power line" is an essential piece of every pitch. Whether pitchers are just beginning or in the Olympics, it is essential that they recognize and use the imaginary line from the pitcher to the catcher. When pitchers take off from the mound, they obviously want the ball to go to the catcher. In order to do this, they must take their step toward the catcher. This opens up the hips and shoulders, allowing the pitcher's arm to come through uninhibited and in line with the plate and the catcher.

In pitching, toe drag is a very important aspect. The toe drag of the back foot allows the front leg to extend as far as possible, in turn providing the most explosive pitch possible. The optimal toe drag is on the very tip of the inside of the big toe. This lets the pitcher be quick with follow through and recovery. If the pitcher is on the side of the foot, this slows down the pitch considerably and may throw some other technical aspects off.

Glove placement is also key. The shoulders need to be in line with the hips, and this allows the arm swing and follow through to be in line with the target. Without the glove in the right place, many other parts of the pitching motion are thrown askew. As seen in the pictures, the glove placement effects Leah’s hip angle and shoulder angle. This causes the hand to get off of the “power line”  and the ball will not go where pitchers want it.

Pitching requires hundreds upon hundreds of hours of practice as well as dedication to meticulously obsess over technique. There is immense skill necessary for pitching, as well as photography. In photography, the photographers must also obsess over the technical aspects of their art. But if the photographers only know about the technical pieces, then their pictures can never be fabulously composed. The camera must be known inside and out by the user to get it to work correctly, but hours and hours of practice is also vital. With both activities, dedication is  a must.

~ Emma L. C.