Revfire

[AlwaysImprove]

Our pitching coach has one. He has had it since they came out, it is a good product and works as advertised.

I see parents and coaches make a common mistake with the revfire. They start comparing and working on better spin rates before the pitcher has an organized spin. Unorganized spin is when the ball breaks back onto itself, or corkscrews.

Any break on the ball at younger ages confuses hitters. So pitcher have some success. By 18g those who learned to spin the ball hard, but did not figure how to get the ball to actually break, were getting hit hard.

[fastpitchforever]

So here's the deal IMO. We've trained with the revfire since the age of 10. DD learned to spin the heck out of the ball, like up to 40 rps on her curve, but it comes at the expense of speed. It's just tough to learn both at the same time. So after learning the spin and reaching the age of 14, we've backed off the revfire, and now work more on speed, but of course check the spin from time to time. Now at the age of 15, it's resulted in her ability to understand both the importance of spin and speed, and how to make it work together. We backed off the spin emphasis, mainly because we've learned you don't need a 40 rps to make the ball move. Now she has a great choice of technique to use in games for strikeouts.

However, we have learned from her pitching friends, that it's very difficult to do the opposite, ie learn speed then spin. Most who do this give up, as they see the cost on speed that the spin gives. Thus they become "power pitchers" and try to overcome batters with speed and change ups.

If I had to do it over, I'd still start them on the revfire, but then work more on speed once they learned the concept of spin, say at age 12. Then it would be time to make the transition to speed, but by then they have learned to spin, and maybe you would have a great combination.

[ice_67]

So here's the deal IMO. We've trained with the revfire since the age of 10. DD learned to spin the heck out of the ball, like up to 40 rpm on her curve, but it comes at the expense of speed. It's just tough to learn both at the same time. So after learning the spin and reaching the age of 14, we've backed off the revfire, and now work more on speed, but of course check the spin from time to time. Now at the age of 15, it's resulted in her ability to understand both the importance of spin and speed, and how to make it work together. We backed off the spin emphasis, mainly because we've learned you don't need a 40 rpm to make the ball move. Now she has a great choice of technique to use in games for strikeouts.

However, we have learned from her pitching friends, that it's very difficult to do the opposite, ie learn speed then spin. Most who do this give up, as they see the cost on speed that the spin gives. Thus they become "power pitchers" and try to overcome batters with speed and change ups.

If I had to do it over, I'd still start them on the revfire, but then work more on speed once they learned the concept of spin, say at age 12. Then it would be time to make the transition to speed, but by then they have learned to spin, and maybe you would have a great combination.

40 RPM is not a whole lot of spin. Or did you mean RPS?

[fastpitchforever]

You are correct! Revfire measures in RPS, not RPM. Post is corrected.

[ice_67]

40 RPS is off the charts for fastpitch softball.

http://revfire.com/coaching_data.html

http://revfire.com/files/2011_NFCA_Show ... rmance.pdf

[AlwaysImprove]

Kinda back to my point. If all you are doing is maximizing spin with the revfire one of the best ways to do that is just bullet spin the ball. Revfire really seems to like that spinning motion and gives it high numbers. I have not seen 40's but I have seen kids get up in the 35 range.

You try that spin in a 10U game or a 12U game and the kids freak out. You try it in a 16U or 18gold, they hit it over the fence.

Make sure you work on break, not spin. They are not the same thing. Revfire can only tell you revs per second, not how much the ball is breaking.

[ontheblack]

Kinda back to my point. If all you are doing is maximizing spin with the revfire one of the best ways to do that is just bullet spin the ball. Revfire really seems to like that spinning motion and gives it high numbers. I have not seen 40's but I have seen kids get up in the 35 range.

You try that spin in a 10U game or a 12U game and the kids freak out. You try it in a 16U or 18gold, they hit it over the fence.

Make sure you work on break, not spin. They are not the same thing. Revfire can only tell you revs per second, not how much the ball is breaking.

Great points.

My oldest was working out for a team last year and one of their coaches asked her to throw the revfire. When she threw a rise, he seemed disappointed, even though she threw it well. He said there wasnt enough spin. Her pitching coach had explained early on the difference between the bullet spin and the 6-12 spin. She changed the spin and suddenly the knucklehead was happy.

[fastpitchforever]

40 RPS is off the charts for fastpitch softball.

http://revfire.com/coaching_data.html

http://revfire.com/files/2011_NFCA_Show ... rmance.pdf

It is off their charts, agreed. However, I've got documented results from a 2010 camp that shows results up to 39 rps, and I thought about posting it but didn't want to post camp results with a bunch of kids names. Depends who your pitching coach is as to how much spin is emphasized. But I agree 100% that it is not just spin to make it work, for a spinning ball does not always break (here is where homeruns are made). Hence my point about the importance of learning spin plus technique to be successful making the ball break.

I've not seen a bullet spin go over 25 rps in my experience, but some pitchers use that for their curve. A true rise (vertical spin) or curve (horizontal spin) hits the high marks, and both spin off the bat very effectively.

But back to the point. Learn spin early (and the Revfire can help you do that), then add speed and some technique and poof, you've got it made!