I see way too much cookie cutter coaching, especially in college. Unless the girls are already really talented and come in knowing what they're doing, it's like the coaches just go, "ok, you're a girl, so you have to do this." Can't stand it. I also don't like the idea that other younger girls are seeing this and saying, "wow, I guess I'm just gonna have to wear one of those to keep up." I watched a local girl here get basically forced to wear one even though she said it was uncomfortable and didn't like it. There was nothing wrong with the way she threw the ball and she wasn't having any kind of discomfort.
As for what Kelly said, I believe in wrist supports too . . but wrist supports, not robotic arms for no reason. Kelly also has some pretty old school form. Straight arm, straight wrist throughout her entire swing. You've gotta have wrist strength to throw it like that. I'll bounce one back at you. Leanne (Barrette) Hulsenberg. You think that takes much if any wrist strength at all? She has an extremely weak wrist position throughout her entire backswing, but with a little elbow action she gets behind it and then just uncoils like a whip and gets right through it. There's no muscling there, just physics. I'm a super big fan of her game, so I might be biased . . but I'm also not a big fan of bandaids. There's a way to do things without really taxing your body so much. I went through a lot of issues myself with "dead arm" after I dislocated my shoulder, it was a pretty bad dislocation that messed some stuff up (didn't require surgery though) and I lost a lot of strength in my entire arm. Before it happened, I used a wrister myself. I'd get tendonitis in my elbow or have other issues with my whole arm. Now I have more revs and more speed with virtually zero wear and tear on my arm.
I'm not saying that's the way everyone needs to do it or the way everyone should do it . . because some people honestly need those supports. But sometimes it's like giving a crutch to a person who is perfectly capable of walking just fine. Say they take that crutch and start using it like they do have a problem. Pretty soon it's something you rely on and depend on rather than trying to build strength or just use the laws of physics to your advantage. I went through being weak myself and I'm already pretty slender to begin with. Too many coaches just get a one track mind and push the easy button for way too much stuff instead of learning their student and finding out what tools they have to work with.
And why do you care?
