Leaping issues...

Two of my pitchers have developed a really bad leaping issue.

We have tried a variety of things including:
- Pitching off a mound
- changing stride length (both longer and shorter)
- raising foot as they go back
- u-box/ball by inseam/string/paper drag trick
- sprinter starts concentrating on push on drag foot

None of this is working. Both are turning their feet in and the drag foot is not being pointed down and neither of them seem to be able to get this down.

Any other suggestions?

I would suggest getting them to go through their pitching motion without throwing a ball concentrating on dragging their toe. If you clear the dirt around the pitching rubber, when she is done throwing the pitch there should be a Nike 'swish' in the dirt from her toe drag. If she 'leaps' there will be a noticeable gap from the pitching rubber to her drag foot mark.

Another good drill would be to get some socks rolled into a ball, then go through her pitching motion in a mirror, throwing the socks at the mirror, and watching herself drag her toe. She needs to work on her mechanics without worrying about throwing strikes.

By leaping, do you mean their drag foot leaves the rubber and then doesn't come back down till after the front foot lands?
This is usually caused by their weight being forward throughout the pitch--you'll need weight back drills for this.

I have found that sometimes it is can be caused by a teeny tiny pause in the arm circle.

Also, tell them they don't pitch in games until it is fixed and then carry it out.

pridefpsb17 said:

I have found that sometimes it is can be caused by a teeny tiny pause in the arm circle.

Also, tell them they don't pitch in games until it is fixed and then carry it out.

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This pause was the first thing I noticed. Dd would pause while foot twists sideways. Problem got worse and worse until I finally shut her down pitching to work on leap. We broke all her pitching footwork down and concentrated on that a few days. When we added the throwing motion to it I had her throw into a net so she wouldn't have to worry about throwing strikes. It was boring but hard work is paying off. True test will be this weekend when she pitches in a tourney and has to go 5 or 6 innings.
Fix it now. All you do by continueing to let her pitch like this is make the habt harder to break.

In my experience this is the hardest habit to break. JAD's suggestion of going through the motion (aggressively) without the ball is good. Have them do 50-100 motions like that, then alternate one mimed motion and one pitch with the ball until the two motions become the same.

There are a number of things that can cause a leap. I'd have to see video or at least pictures to know exactly what's going on in your case. The most common causes are the foot turn you mentioned along with leaning forward during the delivery and "sitting down" during the load rather than loading forward, creating the impulse to push up off the rubber rather than out toward the catcher.

All of these causes have a major root cause: poor core strength! A pitcher develops a turn in her foot if she is not strong enough to open up in mid air; she leans if her core isn't strong enough to hold her upright and create front side resistance; etc. You'll need to break the habit on the pitching level, but it's possible the girls will be incapable of doing it consistently unless they prepare their bodies for the aggressive pitching motion by strength training.

Jojo said:

By leaping, do you mean their drag foot leaves the rubber and then doesn't come back down till after the front foot lands?
This is usually caused by their weight being forward throughout the pitch--you'll need weight back drills for this.

Click to expand...

Weight back drills such as...???


It actually isn't normally a terribly bad leap for either of them. There is just a clear gap between the rubber and the drag starting. So often there is a reasonable drag but the foot clearly comes off the ground before the drag.

marriard said:

Weight back drills such as...???


It actually isn't normally a terribly bad leap for either of them. There is just a clear gap between the rubber and the drag starting. So often there is a reasonable drag but the foot clearly comes off the ground before the drag.

Click to expand...

I use a number of drills for weight forward issues.
I'll start with "kick up drills"-- I use a bucket for this and have them stand in front of the bucket in a racer start then practice stepping with the stride foot having them place that up on the bucket while getting the head to go back and stay over the push leg.

Next they stand sideways next to the bucket and place their front leg(stride leg) on the bucket and do releases here, just so they get the feeling of the weight being on the back leg.
I graduated from the bucket to the can drill --where they stride slowly up onto a can(stride leg) and release--if they push weight forward the can will tip over.
For more advanced work I have them stride slowly onto a softball--this is more a balance drill where they are balancing on the back leg but I'm allowing the stride foot to barely rest on the ball.

One leg drills are good drills for weight back as well.
Pitching close to a wall, where if you lean forward you smash your nose into the wall helps as well.

Sounds like you've given her the tools to fix it. Has her PC given her drills to fix it?

Once you give the kid the knowledge, the tools, and the practice media, it's up to them. If pitching was easy then everyone would be a pitcher. Maybe it's time to get her some catchers gear.

-W

Leaping

marriard said:

Two of my pitchers have developed a really bad leaping issue.

We have tried a variety of things including:
- Pitching off a mound
- changing stride length (both longer and shorter)
- raising foot as they go back
- u-box/ball by inseam/string/paper drag trick
- sprinter starts concentrating on push on drag foot

None of this is working. Both are turning their feet in and the drag foot is not being pointed down and neither of them seem to be able to get this down.

Any other suggestions?

Click to expand...

I have been a coach for 35 years and the easy way to correct this is to place a rope or belt about 4 inches from the pitching plate parallel to it.They must drag the rope or belt with big toe.Another way to do this and for her to stay on the power line is to place a karate belt down the power line and fasten it down 6 inches from where she lands.As she does this without the ball she will drag the belt to firgure 4 position and will stay on the power line with glove hand,hip,shoulder and pitching hand.I hope you understand this??Steve(ALB N.M )