Paige Lowary Pitching Analysis

First point I’d like to make from the video of Paige Lowary, is the fact that there is obviously no one specific way to pitch/throw. There are a ton of variances, styles, preferences, and even limitations based on strength, height, coordination, and flexibility.

Just like teaching standards in school, I as a coach have a standard on how I teach form based on factors of how I was taught, the successes I took away from my own form, and what I believe will reduce the chances of injury both now and in your future. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for wiggle, or some variances to get some spikes in speed…as long as it’s safe!

The speed killers I listed are pretty generalized guidelines of what is seen in most the successful forms, but doesn’t necessarily mean that they will “make" or “break" your form.

With that said, let’s take a look at how Paige is able to get the power from her body, to be one of the hardest throwing pitchers in our sport:

⁃ glide/slide of drag foot. She has incredible power coming off the mound. How do we know this even in slow-mo? Check out how far that drag foot glides (yes this is legal because it remains in contact with the ground the entire time) before it begins to kick out to the side behind her.

⁃ That glide time in her drag also allows her to get her back side back underneath her upper body for maximum whip/torque of her arm coming down the hill

⁃ Check out the quickness/speed that Paige closes her backside/hips. Even in slow mo, the amount of time it takes for her to stride out and close her door is violently quick.

⁃ Which means she has perfected the timing of her body. The arm has to be in the perfect spot to match that closing of her hips, and her arm gets right where it needs to be right before the hips close

I know that one of the things Paige worked really hard on after transferring to OU, was having better control over her change up, having more variances in her speed (instead of just being able to throw really hard), and being able to locate her pitches better. With a lot of speed, you give up having a lot of spin/movement because the ball has less time to reach the plate. So Paige’s strength of being able to throw hard, means that she gave up the strength of having good movement.

Please know that speed isn’t everything!

Paige became most effective and a championship pitcher, when she was able to combine her speed with her change up. Hitters will catch up to speed, so what do you have in your tool belt to compliment the speed? No one trick ponies pitchers, and no one way avenue to being an effective, top notch pitcher.

What will be your strengths? Lateral movement (curve/screw), horizontal movement (drop/rise), speed, laser location/accuracy, speed variances, or a combo of several strengths?

Keep working! Keep pushing your boundaries to get to that next level.