Thread: What to do when mechanics break down during game

My DD is 12u. This is her first year pitching and she has done very well. At lessons and in practice, she has really good form, good leg drive, nice extension and good control. During games, her mechanics do break down some which I am sure is a result of lack of confidence/inexperience. Most common break down is lack of leg drive resulting in her dragging the whole side of her foot instead of the toe. In the last game she pitched in, she felt a lot of pressure to perform and her mechanics really went out the window. Again she was dragging the whole side of her foot, but then she also had her front leg bent a lot when landing and through release, she landed with her foot pointing towards catcher instead of at 45 so her hips were closed, she was bent at the waist, and she was stopping her arm after release instead of following through the ball. Obviously she was trying to guide the ball. She was getting the job done with several 3 up/3 down innings in a row. I was in the stands and not sure what to do. What I did was not mention anything about her mechanics and just cheered her on. Was that right? Should I have yelled out mechanic clues such was stay tall? Land with foot at 45? Follow through the ball? Loose upper body?

DD is digging a trench in the circle with her back foot, similar or same as yours. During practice she is fine, during games not so much.

IDK she doesn’t need me yelling at her during her games, I leave her alone and cheer. We talk about it after the game sometimes and she says she knows she is doing it wrong just cannot stop it. If she did not I would have someone video her during the game and show her later.

Once she gets her cleats on before a game I am a relatively quite cheerer. At the beginning of year HC asked me to warm DD up a couple times and I told him no thank you. It is her time; she knows what she is doing. She knows where I am at if she wants any help or encouragement.

Watching the finch video in slow motion her foot drags horribly. Also watched a former pitcher from Texas that won two championships and she says drag the side of the push off foot. As the landing leg goes forward and the hips open the side of the push off foot will drag.

[QUOTE=Screwball;117726]She can work on this with an extended lesson with a pitching coach. The coach should teach how to deal with this and the player should 'feel' when this happens (loss of balance, etc.).

At her last lesson her pitching coach was talking about working with her on feeling more when she pitches.

"The problem is when she turns her foot sideways off of the mound she is not allowing herself to go up and out (she just simply goes out). She is also dragging her whole foot sideways and is not on the toe..."

During games she does seem to only be going out instead of up and out. I'll have to look at how much she is turning her foot during games. She does not do it during practice/lessons, just games so I think it is mental.

Originally Posted by Screwball

JN:
I was also wondering how push off relates to dragging the whole foot? It is simply too much tension in the ankle, which you have more often have with strong pitchers than weak ones...

It seems when she was pushing off in her last game, she was not pushing up and out but rather just out. Her legs stayed bent. Since this is something that does not occur during practice/lessons, I am assuming it is lack of confidence which makes sense since it is her first year pitching. So I guess just keep practicing and as she gets more game time and has more success during those games, her confidence will build and her practice mechanics will transfer to the game.

It's a difficult issue. My DD (just turned 13...playing 12 u TB) has struggled with drag foot issues and leaning all year. She looked great all winter and early spring. She was throwing in the low 50s, hitting spots with a nice drop and lots of spin on her fastball. Her PC went on a one month hiatus and we started TB in May. She regressed and started doing the things you mentioned. It got her by on the traveling rec league team, but she's been hit hard by the good teams in TB.

I pushed too hard and probably made things worse at times. I do, however, think it is important to stress to her that mechanics are most important. Blowing them by a bunch of rec leaguers who only touch a bat May through June isn't good enough. Believe me, the poor mechanics will not be good enough as she gets older and faces better competition and better hitters.

Just work, work, work. After you do that....work some more.

First off, do not yell, give instruction to or anything else while she is on the mound. She has enough pressure on her from the coaches, the team and most importantly, herself. I've found my DD puts more pressure on herself than the other two EVER could.

Secondly, if PC is not teaching DD how to diagnose what she is doing wrong and how to fix it by looking at how the ball is rotating and where it ends up, then your PC is doing you and her a HUGE disservice. There are usually only a handful of common problems that occur when a ball rotates differently than the pitch that your DD tried to throw. There are also a handfull of common problems that cause her to miss her mark.

At the age of 12-13YO, she should at the very least be learning what usually causes these mistakes, how to differentiate these by the feel of her motion and how to correct them by herself on the mound. Granted, there are sometimes errors in her motion that may be more esoteric and which she might not figure out how to fix. If that's the case, it's the PC who will need to pinpoint it. The only thing you can hope for is that the HC pulls her before she develops more bad habits to compensate for the one she already has just to get the ball over the plate.