14-THE LEAP VS THE STEP TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MENTHODS OF PITCHING-COMING SOON

The leap or aggressive stride method of pitching is the predominant style of pitching among division one pitchers. Virtually all of the greatest female pitchers in history used the leap style, which is commonly known as the western , or California style. I believe that the leap and it's close cousins should be applied to girls in almost every case. The stepping style is conducive to men and the fact that many men teach pitching, is the reason that it survives. However, in my opinion, it is flawed to the point where a pitcher trained in this style cannot likely reach the higher levels of the game. Below, I will explain why.

Leaping, or striding aggressively achieves several positives for a pitcher. First, females are not nearly as strong as men, in the upper body region, but almost as strong men through the legs. Using the legs via a fast, relatively long stride allows the female pitcher to unleash more power than she could if she merely stepped off the mound and tried to rotate her torso aggressively. Men can do the stepping style , because they are so strong that they can generate a lot of power without utilizing the legs efficiently. Of course, a young lady that cannot explode off the mound into the leap should probably concentrate on the step style. In my opinion these type of girls are not candidates for advanced pitching.

Leaping opens up the hips so that the pitching hand can clear the hip and leg just before snapping off the pitch. Pitchers who concentrate on just stepping have to get energy by rotating their hip closed. To do this they must close the hip a fraction of a second earlier than the leap style pitcher. This earlier close causes the hand to fail to clear the hip. Thus advanced , true movement pitches, which depend on an fast wrist and various path patterns through the release area, are practically impossible to achieve. A steppers hip is always there with the wrist as release is conducted. A leap pitcher has an open hip and this allows her to develop various patterns of release without obstruction from the hip. It is these variation that produce true moving pitches. True pitches explode across the plate, bending between 5 and 17 inches , as they do so. A step pitcher will be lucky to produce a 3-5 inch break on any pitch. In softball, this simply is not enough. Personally , I have never seen a step pitcher throw true pitches. Virtually all of the pitches I witnessed, simply went almost perfectly straight all the way to the plate. The drop fa ired the best, but even it had to be slowed down to work. The slowness , a result of the fact that the hand has to pass the hip in order to release the ball. Once pass the hip, the hand speed is reduced dramatically. Admittedly, most of the step style that I have viewed has been in the south. Danny Thornburg, in Indiana, teaches a kick out style of stepping and no doubt, this would allow the pitcher to clear her hip much more effectively. However, to me , this style would favor only the girl with a relatively powerful upper body build and not one who could generate a fast aggressive stride.

There are more advantages to using the leap.

A leap pitcher uses her legs so hard that her arm and hand can stay relaxed and whippy. This will allow her to snap faster , thus producing more spin to move pitches with. Additionally, a loose and relaxed arm, undergoes lots less stress than a tighter one. Refracting the pitching arm out, even slightly, in order to clear the hip area, produces up to ten times more stress on the shoulder area. Older girls have hips that are wider than their shoulders. Men are the opposite. I believe that this is one reason why many young steppers do well for a few years and then taper off, or slow down and often begin to endure repetitive sore arm problems.
(Personally, my pitchers rarely have sore arms and do not even recommend them to ice up as recent research shows that icing slows the bodies recovery rate. If the arm is sore, yes ice so that you can come back a little sooner, But icing an arm merely reduces capillary bleeding, which is part of the bodies healing mechanism.)

A leap pitcher will deliver a pitch about 2 to 3 feet closer to home plate than her counter part. Research finds that a batter will perceive a pitch as three miles per hour faster for each foot closer to the plate it is delivered. In effect a pitcher, looks 3-9 miles per hour leaping than she would stepping.