Pitching instructors stealing money from parents and kids.
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Stacey Nelson was a screwball pitcher. Lots of lean.
KR threw the crop opposite lean than screw
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
was KR coached by Joe Cocker? I know I have seen that hand position and facial expression before.
Ken
Great question and I think you are right on with where you are heading with that question.
Pitching has so many similarities to hitting.
Relative to the shoulder "dip", IMO that is a poor term to use. When kids hear that cue they tend to collapse/dip the shoulder as they are trying to release the ball......which is extremely counter to achieving speed, location, and spin rates. The pitcher is strongest when the shoulders are perpendicular to the spine (same in hitting). What many perceive as "dip" is just a posture change by the entire upper torso.
Great question and I think you are right on with where you are heading with that question.
Pitching has so many similarities to hitting.
Relative to the shoulder "dip", IMO that is a poor term to use. When kids hear that cue they tend to collapse/dip the shoulder as they are trying to release the ball......which is extremely counter to achieving speed, location, and spin rates. The pitcher is strongest when the shoulders are perpendicular to the spine (same in hitting). What many perceive as "dip" is just a posture change by the entire upper torso.
Rick, You never cease to enlighten me! When the "dip" word was first used here, I scratched my head wondering what I was missing, as I have been working so hard to get my pitchers' shoulders perpendicular to their spine. I think the word "connection" that you have frequently used helps me with this.
javasource
6-4-3 = 2
JJ... add this to your brush collection, too!
- Oct 22, 2009
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Saw my new freshman again last night. I don't think I'm going to be able to help her out too much.
I just saw her last week for the first time and she was just horrible mechanical wise. And she and her mom actually thought she had near perfect mechanics, "just a little tightening up of her spins" was what her mother said she needed. I asked them if they've ever seen a college game on TV, and both said, "No", which was obvious.
She had no spins last week, nothing to work with so I quickly taught her a screwball and got a little more action on her dropball. While that was a success = 7 K's in her next game including striking out the side, before seeing me she only had 2 K's all year.
Her mechanics are so off and she's thrown with her upper body for so long, I can't get her to trust herself throwing any other way.
I'd feel free to say her PC ruined her. Maybe she can get better if she really really worked on it, but at this point I think she'll give up long before that happens. She's extremely frustrated by the whole thing.
So this goes back to; if you have a little athletic ability you can be a decent pitcher with a bad PC at the younger levels, but once you get to high school it's going to show, and then will it be too late to change?
I just saw her last week for the first time and she was just horrible mechanical wise. And she and her mom actually thought she had near perfect mechanics, "just a little tightening up of her spins" was what her mother said she needed. I asked them if they've ever seen a college game on TV, and both said, "No", which was obvious.
She had no spins last week, nothing to work with so I quickly taught her a screwball and got a little more action on her dropball. While that was a success = 7 K's in her next game including striking out the side, before seeing me she only had 2 K's all year.
Her mechanics are so off and she's thrown with her upper body for so long, I can't get her to trust herself throwing any other way.
I'd feel free to say her PC ruined her. Maybe she can get better if she really really worked on it, but at this point I think she'll give up long before that happens. She's extremely frustrated by the whole thing.
So this goes back to; if you have a little athletic ability you can be a decent pitcher with a bad PC at the younger levels, but once you get to high school it's going to show, and then will it be too late to change?
- Oct 22, 2009
- 1,779
- 0
I've been instructing at a league now for 9 years and last year they gave the league instructor to a new instructor (not because of anything I did, but because an instructor moved next door to a board member and she said saw his DD pitching in the yard and told him she could teach as she used to pitch in college and was an ex-All American.
So her credentials were higher than mine. I still instruct there for now because I still have students that haven't merged over to her yet.
Last night as I was finishing up and grooming the pitching area I watched give a new student her first lesson. Started out with a few wrist flips, then some push down/ pull up HE drills on the knee. Followed with a K drill and then straight on to a walk through drill.
It's my personal preference but I rarely allow a student to go to full pitch on a few lesson Especially if there are a lot of release issues going on, I don't like my pitchers throwing across 3 lanes.
After the walk throughs she sets her up to pitch then spends the rest of the practice ONLY WATCHING WHERE THE BALL GOES.
Every ten pitches or so the girl throws one over the plate, and she yells, "That's good! Do that again!" I could count about 4 major mechanical flaws that that kid did to get the ball over the plate and she just encouraged that kid to do it again.
So her credentials were higher than mine. I still instruct there for now because I still have students that haven't merged over to her yet.
Last night as I was finishing up and grooming the pitching area I watched give a new student her first lesson. Started out with a few wrist flips, then some push down/ pull up HE drills on the knee. Followed with a K drill and then straight on to a walk through drill.
It's my personal preference but I rarely allow a student to go to full pitch on a few lesson Especially if there are a lot of release issues going on, I don't like my pitchers throwing across 3 lanes.
After the walk throughs she sets her up to pitch then spends the rest of the practice ONLY WATCHING WHERE THE BALL GOES.
Every ten pitches or so the girl throws one over the plate, and she yells, "That's good! Do that again!" I could count about 4 major mechanical flaws that that kid did to get the ball over the plate and she just encouraged that kid to do it again.
