Overstriding

33fastpitch - what are the "splits"? Also, when you say "drive" leg, which is that?

Locked front leg and locked rear leg on stride! Drive leg is right leg if right handed, left leg left handed! Obviously extreamly tall, or extreamly athletic girls can get away with things that my daughter at 5'5" can not get away with. Any part of the bady that locks out on her slows her down.

33pitchfast said:

An exposive push is the key I think. My daughter went from 6'2" to 7'9" in stride length and every thing I told her to do to get there didnt work. Then one day some random guy told her to speed up her drive leg. Make the back knee stay up with your back hip. Since then she has learned to just glide out. Have to get that glove hand high as well to get that weight off of the drag leg. Has been a great aproach for my DD. If you have a huge stride but are doing the splits it will slow you down and screw everything up. Having said that I understand, there are great pitchers sticking that big side of the drag foot in the ground, so that method must not be bad at all either, just always looked like it could run the risk of injury to me so i chose to find some one who taught to glide. Speed is up not to mention when the ball comes out she is a ton closer to the batter.

Click to expand...

You mentioned above to speed up drive leg and back knee with back hip? Can you elaborate or possible attach a video? Are you saying just push harder? I have been having my DD drive out as far as she can but then people commented overstriding as why I started this thread. Thanks.

Java source has some really good stuff. He gets really technical which is great. My daughters coach has a way to get allot of the same things across in a really simple way that makes light bulbs go off and go oh ya, without confusion. Java has allot of good video clips in I believe drive mechanics. He can correct me if I am wrong.

I saw the Drive Mechanics thread about the drive leg becoming straight while stride knee is bend and in the air.

33pitchfast said:

Java source has some really good stuff. He gets really technical which is great. My daughters coach has a way to get allot of the same things across in a really simple way that makes light bulbs go off and go oh ya, without confusion. Java has allot of good video clips in I believe drive mechanics. He can correct me if I am wrong.

Click to expand...

Nope... your right... my stuff is great! lol

The cue your PC is using is actually a really decent one. You cannot gather your drive knee under your rear hip unless you've exhausted the push early. The effort needs to be spent before the movement can get going.

"Driving out as far as you can" is only as effective as the interpretation. MOST younger pitchers associate this as a reaching movement... not a power movement.

33 great point about the glide, a real advantage for the pitcher. With all the technical stuff being said, i think over-striding has more to do with he distance between the drive leg and stride leg and less to do with the overall distance achieved. If the relationship between the feet get too far, the pitcher looses the ability to contract the muscles forcefully and bringing the legs together. If there is enough momentum created the legs will still come together. If there is not enough, the pitcher will pause in the middle of stride and do a 1/4 squat closing the distance between the knees so the muscles can fire and pull the legs together. You can see this with younger pitchers that will pause in the middle of the stride and their head will go down then up and then the stride finishes.

Going to have 3 posts as im going to do them ind. with quote. Other wise will get confusing. So here we go.

Fastpitch86 said:

I saw the Drive Mechanics thread about the drive leg becoming straight while stride knee is bend and in the air.

Click to expand...

Not knocking the straight Drive leg. This is why a great pitching coach realizes not every student is the same. When you are small you have to figure out how to fly! This is a technicality that goes to different pitching styles that I have seen. Jenny Finch locked leg, A freak by size and athletisism. Just one example. Any way when you are 6' plus how far can you really leap and drag. If she did what my daughter does at 5'5" she would be 6+ inches out of the circle AT LEAST!
OK just from what I have seen of video of my daughters pitching coachs D1 girls that I know for sure are his. That back leg will stay almost totally under there back hip, now can they actually get it competely under them, maybe maybe not! As close as possable though. My daughter is bent and loose on both legs and both arms. Now does she some times not keep the back leg under her absolutely. And I see the explosiveness die. I dont think there is any pitching coach that gets every thing right, because every girl is different, and what may work for one may not work for another. The other thing is getting the kid to TOTALLY buy in, if they dont it is a lost cause no matter how correct it is. The best way for my daughter to buy in was for the coach to answer all of her quistions before she asked, and also to peg her as a pitcher after seeing her throw for five minutes. Then secondly as she changed seeing speed jump and the way ( her body felt.)A very key point!

javasource said:

Nope... your right... my stuff is great! lol

The cue your PC is using is actually a really decent one. You cannot gather your drive knee under your rear hip unless you've exhausted the push early. The effort needs to be spent before the movement can get going.

"Driving out as far as you can" is only as effective as the interpretation. MOST younger pitchers associate this as a reaching movement... not a power movement.

Click to expand...

As far as the 1st comment, I really like your stuff so dont take offence. And Im not sure I am smart enough to understand it but here goes my attempt. The POWERFULL push happens at take off. Once the drive toe leaves the mound the push is complete! Correct so far as what you are saying I hope. Now push is over, now comes the glide, font leg and glove high as possable taking as much weight off drag leg as possable, toe pointed verticle down to the ground to maintain contact, hopefully .1 pound on drag foot. LEGAL!! Then once it leaves the mound then pitcher just needs to really pull the leg through to keep up with the rest of the body.

Second one is a little harder to describe as her pc is great at illustrations and making it simple. You have to teach most young kids to feel power positions and speed positions. We ofter talk about power but do we really want a power position. A lineman in football is in power position correct! He is trying to move a man near his size. I wide reciever on the other hand is in speed position. Which one is better for a pitcher? Now if we can find a way to show them how to get to speed position so they can understand it easily and more importantly FEEL it then it is easier for them to go oh yah that is how I need to do it. Buy the way this is not my work just my notes from pc. Also teach them not to reach.
And I have seen my daughters explosion, so for her it has worked. My daughter is 15 now and is working with one girl who is 10 that she has grown fond of. This girl started in november and is currently consistantly at 47-48 miles an hour. Trying to get her to see my daughters pitching coach we believe in a visit she could gain another 2 miles an hour fixing things my daughter can not get across to her.