The Flap - Markwort Perfect Circle Pitcher's Training Aid - Any use for this?

Rich Balswick said:

Bill
The kids I get in my area, believe me, are just as messed up as the ones you work with, so often because of previous coaching, and I fully relate to the challenge of dealing with that big gap between the arm and body at release and the timidness of getting near the hip. I just had a very talented young high school pitcher start coming to me a couple of months ago who had broken her elbow bone twice from improperly hitting her hip; ( I was shown the gruesome pictures of bruises that only you could believe.) so you can imagine the look on her face, and her mother's, when I addressed the idea of brushing her hip; (I hadn't seen the pictures yet or been told of the twice broken bone.) so you can imagine my quick retreat! The most amazing part of the story was her incredible courage to continue pitching and even get near the hip which she still did do to some degree. UNBELIEVABLE !! So, anyhow I began addressing the issue with my eyes wide open, to say the least, and showed her where, how and why the contact "could" be made. I showed her how the forced and blind action she had been taught "could" be corrected and changed. I felt like I showed her the root of the problem which was basically how she was taught to force her pitching hand forward with a locked arm to release the ball rather than a very relaxed swinging action of the arm eventually being catapulted thru the release area. ( I spend untold hours helping kids get rid of potential harmful habits and most of it is right in this area. ( I don't have time to do it justice here. ) Getting the pitching arm to have some relaxed flex in it etc., etc.
I'm out of time to continue; so I will attempt more late tonight. Where I'm eventually trying to go with all this is that I believe that using the flap tends to treat a symptom rather than a cause. Love ya all!

So what am I trying to say? It boils down to this- when I am teaching a student to release the ball efficiently, one thing I'm showing them is how to CREATE SPACE with their lower arm and hand rather than trying to contact a flap. SO HOW IS THIS DONE AND WHY IS THE QUESTION in my eyes. If anyone is interested, I will answer that question.

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mothgirl said:

I'm very interested in hearing more about this plz. Thanks!


I hate tacos- said no Juan anywhere

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coach james said:

We'll cover this at the clinic next week and you can ask Rich yourself...... Oh wait,........ My bad, Mothgirl

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grcsftbll said:

Old thread but I'm resurrecting because I got one of these for my 9 year old. She's been having some recurring elbow pain. Took her to an ortho and it's soft tissue, he was very unconcerned, there's no injury. We've taken 2 weeks off pitching and plan to take another 2 for a full month. We're actually doing zero softball stuff right now, even hitting, which is so weird. But anyway.

I'm pretty sure what's causing the pain is her mechanics, specifically her lack of brush. She's remarkably accurate so I'm kind of curious once we fix that, how much more accurate she'll be. We shall see. I thought it was interesting, the instructional video that came with the perfect circle has the flag going directly out from the side of the thigh. I thought that seemed wrong, looked up Bill's video, which has it on the front. Came here, searched, found this thread. Thanks to DFP for help in not making her problems even worse than they already are!

I think our plan will be in another week or 2, to start doing arm circles every day with the windmill trainer, in front of mirror. I was thinking to have her do that for about a week before we get back into actual pitching with a ball. Hopefully that will help retrain her muscle memory with the brush. Any other tips for using this? Do you think she should wear it when she's actually pitching as well? Any other recommendations? This is my kid who lives to pitch and would practice for hours every day (and who's #3 on our team and does not want to be) so motivation is not an issue.

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