Mythbusters recently did a scientific analysis on the difference in throwing posture between boys and girls. It's always been obvious that females tend to look much different than boys when throwing, but I never realized until seeing that episode that the specific reason is girls stay almost vertical throughout the throw and boys tend to go almost horizontal. Part of the reason for that seems to be the physiology of the pelvis.

I found that to be rather fascinating. Call me maybe.

said to m'sself before I finished reading your epiphany, "It's all in the hips."..The girls have it down which is why I would rather watch them dance and of course, practice contortion!

I haven't seen the episode, but my impression is that people who "throw like a girl" tend to push the ball with their hand, rather than using their arm like a tether that redirects the ball's momentum.. almost pulling it forward....
..if that makes any sense.

*timeshift

Adding video to channels (Timeshift) - requested by brycewi19.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/throw-like-a-girl-analysis.htm

*canada

Adding video to channels (Canada) - requested by xxovercastxx.

You should submit it.

Yep, she throws like a girl.

If you watch the entire episode they find that the differences between men and women's throwing ability is almost entirely cultural. i.e. boys are more exposed to ball sports than girls. Pro women ball players have the same technique as the men. When asked to throw with their opposite hand (i.e. left instead of right) the men basically did no better than the women. The pelvis shape thing was just a theory they threw out there initially when they didn't finish doing all their tests.

I tend to disagree. For example, in eric3579's video above, the pro female and male still tend to throw in the typical way, with the female mostly vertical, rotating sideways and the male going mostly horizontal, leaning forward.

Not sure what you mean by "did no better than the women..."

Ah, I see. You are focusing on "throwing ability" (accuracy, speed, etc.), whereas I'm just talking strictly about posture.

But weren't they looking at "throw like a girl" to be an insult? Where as you mentioned, the pro female pitcher clearly still "threw like a girl", she had the accuracy and power for it to not matter

It matters not what the Mythbusters episode was about. To re-reiterate, all I was talking about was the posture of a boy's throw versus the posture of a girl's throw.

I can't understand what's so unclear about that. I stated in my original comment that females tend to "look" different than boys when throwing. That's all I'm talking about: the look.

Rick Barry made a high percentage of free throws shooting underhand, which means he was great at it, but his shooting posture still looks different than most every other basketball player's.

While she definitely throws much faster than I do, I don't think you could say that she has anywhere near the same power that a male pitcher has. The GBoWW record for a woman is 65mph [1], and 101[2] for men. In MLB, the only pitchers who can't throw faster than 85mph have extraordinary control over the ball.[3] (and, granted, the fastest pitch is under contention for both sexes, but it's approx 2-3mph that is being argued over, not enough to affect this comparison)

The pro female (softball) pitcher threw very well... especially since her specialty is an underhanded pitch. But she doesn't generate anywhere near the power that a male pitcher can generate.

1) http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-6000/fastest-baseball-pitch-(female)/
2) http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/3000/fastest-baseball-pitch-(male)
3) http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_pitching_speed_in_MLB