Dodgeball: How to throw a ball efficiently?

Question

I am going to teach dodgeball to some children.

How to throw a ball efficiently?

What you have to pay attention to and what are common mistakes?

Answer 1

I think any time you teach throwing to children you should try and make it simple and understandable. Some good teaching points:

• Feet shoulder-width apart.
• Your lead shoulder should be facing your target.
• With the ball in your throwing hand, make a "T" with your arms.
• The lead arm should now be pointing at the target.
• Step with your lead foot and let it fly.

As far as the body during the actual throw, there are many different ways people throw.

• To begin the motion of the throw, your lead elbow should come into your side as you begin to rotate your torso.
• Your throwing arm should bend to about 90 degrees.
• The elbow of the throwing arm should lead the hand/ball to the target.
• At release the hand will begin to lead instead of the elbow.
• Follow through with the throwing hand/arm ending up by/past the lead leg's knee.

Throwing will come natural for some and not so much for others. Everyone throws slightly different. With kids, make it fun and practice it.

Common mistakes I can think of are:

• Stepping with the wrong foot.
• Throwing with a straight arm.
• Throwing with a stiff body.
• Not following through.
• Trying to make it robotic.

Answer 2

For a while, my throws were like huge blooper rainbows. Then after watching the cubs win the world series, and chapman pitch the 100mph, I began to use his windup as a strategy. I would raise my knee, then take a step forward (not too big, or you'll lose your balance) and let it fly. For a while, I was trying to throw it like a football, which is directly over the shoulder, but that doesn't work. It ends up going down as soon as you let go. If you twist, and bend your arm, you can add curve, and a nice rise to the ball. My best shot was from 20 feet. It was fast, and curved upwards, and smacked them in the left leg. If this starts to hurt your arm, whatever you do, take a break from throwing like this. There is a reason chapman doesn't pitch the whole game. After throwing to your arms limit, it can get painful. Do not throw like this if you are afraid of pain. Also, make sure you throw it down, because if you throw this at their chest, they will catch it. If it doesn't curve, it kind of floats, and wobbles through the air like a knuckleball, and is surprisingly easy to catch.