14-inch Training Softballs: Good or Bad?

Last week I received an email from a reader asking my opinion of 14-inch training softballs for pitchers. Personally, I’m not a fan of using oversize softballs for training, but the 14-inch softball is a tool used by a number of pitching coaches, and so you’ll probably come across conflicting opinions about them. Today we’ll take an in-depth look at their purpose and the effects they have on pitchers. Hopefully it will help you decide whether the 14-inch training softball is right for you.

What is the Purpose of a 14-Inch Training Softball?

The theory behind training with an oversize ball is that it makes the regular ball feel a lot easier to throw, and as a result you’ll be able to throw it with better control, speed, and spin. To quote the product page on the Spintech website, “After working on a pitch with the 14″ ball then going back to the 12″ makes the 12″ ball feel so small it’s like throwing a baseball.”

Is this true? Technically, yes; throwing an oversize ball probably will make the regular ball feel a lot easier to throw. But does your perception match what’s really going on?

Will a 14-Inch Training Softball Really Improve Your Spin?

In my opinion, NO. Now, there is no one-size-fits-all method of windmill pitching; every elite pitcher’s style is a little bit different because every girl is built differently. Is it possible that SOME pitchers with a particular hand size, body type, and feel for the ball COULD find this training tool helpful? Yes. However, I strongly believe that in the vast majority of cases, training with a 14-inch softball is likely to be detrimental.

In a previous post, I talked about how training with a baseball can help young softball players develop their overhand throw. The same concepts come into play here for windmill pitchers:

THE SCENARIO: You’re a windmill pitcher, quite possibly a young pitcher, and you need to improve the spin on your pitches, particularly your movement pitches.

THE PROBLEM: Most likely, your hand is not big enough to spin the ball with the greatest of ease. This doesn’t only affect young pitchers; If you started learning movement pitches at a young age, it’s possible that you never gained a feel for the proper spin even as your hand grew.

THE SOLUTION: If the most likely culprit in poor pitch spin is small hand size, does it make logical sense to try spinning a 14-inch softball when you can’t quite handle the 12-inch softball? Personally, I don’t think so. I would actually recommend the opposite: practice with an 11-inch softball, which should be really easy for you to spin. Once you get the hang of it, try moving on to the next level.

THE REASONING: If you really want physical proof, feel free to actually try this. Otherwise, your imagination will suffice.

Imagine you’re trying to throw a progression of balls as hard as you can. It doesn’t matter whether you’re throwing overhand or underhand. Start by throwing a golf ball. Then throw a baseball. Then throw a regular 12-inch softball. Then, try a grapefruit, followed by a soccer ball, and finally, a large beach ball.

The bigger the ball, the more difficult it is to throw with one hand. And as you progress to grapefruit, soccer ball, and beach ball, more and more of your palm starts to touch the ball, creating a stiff grip. It also becomes almost impossible to get good articulation in your elbow and wrist, resulting in little to no arm whip. Instead, you’ll push the ball, kind of like a catapult.

So, it follows that the bigger the ball, the less you’ll be able to whip your arm.

Will it feel easier to whip your arm when you move immediately from a bigger ball to a smaller ball? Of course! But what happens when you PRACTICE with a bigger ball in the long term?

The more you practice, the more you train your MUSCLE MEMORY. This is generally a good thing; you want your muscles to memorize the right way to perform any athletic movement—in this case, windmill pitching—so you don’t have to think about your mechanics come game time. But if you were to practice pitching with a 14-inch training softball, you’d be developing your muscle memory then as well. If you develop your muscle memory every time you practice, and you pitch with less arm whip whenever you throw a bigger ball, then practicing with a bigger ball will train your muscles to pitch with less arm whip.

Once this movement is ingrained in your muscle memory, your body will move that way even when you pick up the 12-inch ball again. Will it feel better in your mind? Yes. But your body will really be performing the movements it practiced.

An Analogy

This is really very similar to an extremely common practice in baseball. If you watch baseball games on TV, you’ll probably see most of the batters in the on deck circle swinging with weighted doughnuts on their bats. The theory is if you swing a heavier bat during your warmup, your regular bat will feel really light when you step up to the plate, and as a result you’ll swing faster.

You may also have heard that this is a myth! Scientific studies have shown that swinging a heavier bat actually engages your slow-twitch muscle fibers (the big muscles in your body used for strength activities, like heavy lifting), as opposed to your fast-twitch muscle fibers (the small, quick muscles). In reality, even though your brain perceives a lighter bat and more bat speed, the weighted bats actually slow your swing down. Here is one of many studies on this subject, and a quick internet search would turn up more.

Conclusion

I would really recommend staying away from 14-inch training softballs. A great alternative, as I mentioned, would be training with an 11-inch ball instead and working your way up once you improve your spin. To increase arm speed, you can even train with a wiffle ball from a close distance. A wiffle ball will have a tendency to loop and float, and you really have to whip it hard and fast to get it to go straight. This is a controversial topic, so if you have any further questions, I highly encourage you to leave a comment!