Thoughts?

[cuzmail]

This relates to DD's progress from HE push the ball style to LD with IR. Is there a forum award for the numbers of abbreviations in a single sentence? FYI, DD is a 13 yo 7th grader.

DD has been progressing very nicely with the help of this forum's knowledge and specific help from some of the members.
Pros:
Velocity has increased
She looks much better
She says she feels better pitching
No complaints of elbow or shoulder pain in a while

Cons:
Accuracy has suffered although it is returning slowly
Ball movement on the horizontal plane (curve/screw) is reduced but increased in the vertical plane (drop/rise)
Having a hard time remembering to put all the pieces of the puzzle together at the same time?

Situation:
Last outing prior to this weekend was a huge step forward in progress and confidence. She pitched a win in 4 innings over a very good team with 0/BB, 3/K, 2/hits, and averaged 14.5 pitches per inning.

This past Saturday was a different story. All of the bad habits returned in one inning. Leaning forward, soft front side resistance, trying to aim, and crossing the power line. Only walked one, but struggled to hit her spots, gave up 5 hits, and didn't see the second inning. Now this was a great team (Bombers Prospects), but still. What gives? How does a pitcher completely lose focus and backtrack like that?

I know it isn't the end of the world, but her confidence is shaken and I would like to know how best to help her get back on track mentally. Skill wise, I know repetition will help make the good things a habit and reduce the bad things.

 

[coach james]

Practice makes permanent... she just needs more reps of leap and drag with I/R.
Muscle memory took over. Relax, and give her time to develop new habits. Did you or a coach go to the mound and reiterate her mechanics when she started to struggle?

 

[cuzmail]

Practice makes permanent... she just needs more reps of leap and drag with I/R.
Muscle memory took over. Relax, and give her time to develop new habits. Did you or a coach go to the mound and reiterate her mechanics when she started to struggle?

Yes, Her HC reminded her about leaning forward and DD acknowledged, but it didn't seem to help. HC is a former college pitcher so she is a little more in tune with mechanics than most. HC calls the pitches from a bucket near the dugout opening so I don't think she could see the crossing of the power line. DD said afterwards, that 1) she didn't realize what was happening and 2) She tried to correct but obviously it didn't work.

This team (new to us) likes her but also realizes that she is in transition to new mechanics.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

It does happen. The mind is a complex thing. I would have had her warm up, from a short distance, again. (in between innings) Or pull her, when the bad mechanics creep in. She has to practice her form, 1000 times. We can do it in the houses, here (w/o a ball) because we are all tile.

 

[knightsb]

This past Saturday was a different story. All of the bad habits returned in one inning. Leaning forward, soft front side resistance, trying to aim, and crossing the power line. Only walked one, but struggled to hit her spots, gave up 5 hits, and didn't see the second inning. Now this was a great team (Bombers Prospects), but still. What gives? How does a pitcher completely lose focus and backtrack like that?

I know it isn't the end of the world, but her confidence is shaken and I would like to know how best to help her get back on track mentally. Skill wise, I know repetition will help make the good things a habit and reduce the bad things.

I am sure you train a lot on the physical side of pitching. How much do you train on the mental side?

Last year DD had a meltdown in the circle.
It started off harmless enough, first inning, 1 out, second batter, got to a full count, didn't get a close call for ball 4... walk.
third batter, also gets to a full count... walk.
now, the wheels start to fall off, she starts bowling instead of pitching. She is trying to guide every pitch. Just tyring to put something right down the middle. The harder she tries, the worse she gets. Walks the next two batters, walks in a run. The opposing team stops swinging their bats, which adds to her frustration.

What happened? She stopped trusting her mechanics, and started in with the negative self talk. The negative self talk magnified the downward spiral. Ever since that event, we have allocated a significant amount of time to mental training and mental toughness. She still lets negativity creep in, now and again, but now she realizes how much impact her mental state has on her performance and can usually fix her mind before the downward spiral begins.

The Mind Gym....

 

[Jojo]

What happened? She stopped trusting her mechanics,

I see this a lot in my students, and I use it all the time in lessons. "You're not trusting that pitch, your trying to muscle it when you should just let it happen."
A lot of girls want to control what's going on and don't want to just sit back and let the mechanics take over Especially under times of duress. When they get frustrated is the most important time to be able to rely on your mechanics.

I do a lot of pressure drills in our workouts to help alleviate this instances. For one thing when I have them pitch under pressure they see where their mechanics fall apart, and then the next thing is to learn how to settle down and fix it.

Occasionally I'll have a kid meltdown in practice and I'll use this as a learning experience for a game experience and we'll treat it like that.

And for coaches, don't neglect that "Time Out", to go out and remind her to go back and get her mechanics back.

 

[sluggers]

Now this was a great team (Bombers Prospects), but still. What gives? How does a pitcher completely lose focus and backtrack like that?

1) Lack of pressure practice. That is, do you put her under pressure at practice and demand that she perform? E.g., I used to do the "one pitch for a win" drill at the end of the practice and then verbally harass my DD as she was pitching. My DD's PC used to do "how many strikes in a row can you throw" and verbally tease her before, during and after the pitch.
2) An inability to do "one pitch at a time".
3) Worrying to much about winning or losing.
4) Watching other girls and not understanding what the other pitchers are doing right and wrong.

 

[cuzmail]

We have been working on the mental side for only a short time. Definitely more work needed there.

 

[JJsqueeze]

I am with sluggers. I give my DD a lot of scenarios to pitch through and when she is out of control I heckle her a bit. Invariably she goes through a set of pitches where she TRIES to correct it by guiding and she just throws worse. Then she gets frustrated and tries to take my head off. Voila....control comes back.

 

[Softballs]

ha ha. the best pitches my DD has are when she is super pissed off and tries to take my head off with a pitch. If only we could bottle that.....