Still struggling to work through drive mechanics

jryan15 · Jul 15, 2015

Since I have additional videos, I thought it would be good to pull these comments from JS into this thread.

javasource said:
I use Kinovea to mark up the video, save it as an MP4. From there.. I use Photoshop (CS5) to create the gifs. Handbrake is also used from time to time to reduce the video size, if necessary.

One of the more difficult challenges you have... is that B is so dang flexible... and her joints so lax. I was looking at Lauren Chamberlain hitting the other day... and I thought of B... take a look at her lead elbow... it's wicked:

Anyway...

B has some significant posture issues... quite certain these are the largest inconsistencies for her mastering control. I'll post a still of an old video... I'm really hoping you're cool with that... pretty sure you mentioned before that it's not an issue. If you'd like me to remove them, let me know and I'll remove this post:

What I did was take a posture snapshot of each of the three pitches on the video. As you can see, B severely drops her throwing shoulder... AND... has significant backwards lean. These posture issues create a situation where the femur in her drive thigh cannot align with her torso.

Take a look at a girl with the same body type, Heather Stearns from Baylor. Note that the line created from the kneecap, to the hip, to the shoulder... she's what some people call "stacked". This is a trait you'll find in nearly every high-level pitcher. Also note that her shoulder line is near level:

I'd recommend that you work on getting her throwing shoulder elevated during release, first. From there, move her back posture to upright. From there... work on bringing the knee in line with the hip and shoulder. Three things... and once those are addressed, I believe it's a matter of repetition with the new posture points... and she'll gain the control of the zone she desires, add better kinetic energy to the ball, and be performing a healthier motion with less stress on the lower back and shoulder.

Hope to see you guys this summer! Best, ~JS

Oh yeah... almost forgot... Rich Balswick has some videos on Youtube that you can reference. If you haven't watched them already, I'd recommend taking a look.

jryan15 · Jul 15, 2015

Pitching results 7/14

Thanks to my dad coming out to hold down the bucket, I was finally able to get some more clips to post.

As I include clips here, if you have time, check out the other attached clips. For all of these pitches she was throwing a regular fast ball at similar locations. We continue to struggle with is how bendy DD is. That is the only explanation that I can come up with that explains how she ends up with 3 different release motions when throwing the same pitch.

Here is a clip from the side (other links below).

Side view #2
Side view #3

Here is a clip from the front (other links below).

Front view #2

Here is a clip from the back (other links below).

Back view #2
Back view #3

jryan15 · Jul 15, 2015

javasource said:
what i did was take a posture snapshot of each of the three pitches on the video. As you can see, b severely drops her throwing shoulder... And... Has significant backwards lean. These posture issues create a situation where the femur in her drive thigh cannot align with her torso.

I think Java is right on the money about the backwards lean.

We have been working hard to try and straighten out the shoulders, but we can't seem to make a ton of progress. Going into engineer mode, I've been trying to root cause analyze where things are breaking down. Below outlines what I'm seeing.

Looking at this front view image, it appears that DD's throwing shoulder hasn't dropped so much as her upper torso is tilted in the same plane as her pelvis.

Looking at the side view, the tilt does not appear to have formed up to this point.

It seems to be introduced in these frames... However it seems possible that the root cause happens even farther back...

I agree with what several people have said in the past that her front leg is landing too soft.

I also think that the other comments about how long her foot stays on the rubber is a problem. That is a drive issue that seems to me to be a lack of quad strength. I feel like we need to hit some weights to beef up leg strength.

jryan15 · Jul 15, 2015

I also noticed something when looking at the front view photo. Sometimes it appears like her belly button is not pointing down the power line very early in the process. Hopefully this image explains what I mean.

I think this early movement could be contributing to some of the bigger mechanical problems that happen later on.

Yesterday we did spend some time working on her plant foot which consistently crosses deep over the power line. It was a big struggle for her to land the foot on the other side. Even when I watched, I was struggling to see why it should be so hard to do. It is easy for me. Looking at these clips, I think she is heavily biasing herself to cross over right from the get go.

jryan15 · Jul 15, 2015

Adding onto my post above. I think this view better shows that DD is moving back at a different angle than away from the plate.

When I watch her start to drive, I can just about feel her stride leg fighting against her crooked attack angle to go straight. This seems to lead into the problems that we're having with her consistently crossing over the power line.

jryan15 · Jul 16, 2015

Here is another clip showing how early her stride leg starts to cross over the power line. Seems to tie right into her moving crooked from the initial backwards movement.

I don't recall seeing other high level pitchers with this kind of problem, but I never really looked for something like this. It took a lot of digging into video to notice it with DD.

I am hopeful that there is something here that can lead to solid improvements. We only had 30 minutes to warm up and pitch today, plus I was on the bucket so really didn't get to do a lot with it outside of awareness and try to move straight back and forward. It's a long standing habit and will be hard to break.

FastPitchCat · Jul 16, 2015

my DD has a similar 'leaning' issue and i attribute it to her drive leg flying out to the side instead of driving it (knee) forward to the catcher. we're working on this to get her better 'stacked'.

JJsqueeze · Jul 16, 2015

That left-right weight shift is one of the reasons I like a sliding across (centering) of the drive foot during the backswing or more accurately right at the turnaround from rearward load to coming forward. There is always going to be a left right component the the drive, it is minimized when the feet are closer together when they come forward. wide back-narrow forward.

abbygale · Jul 16, 2015

I see a lot of rolling sideways motion while still keeping the drive foot partially weighted.

The 2 step and pushback drills will fix most every issue you are seeing. Don't forget pushing with the big toe on the drive foot vs. using the bottom of the foot along with everting the stride foot (wall marches) when driving out.

She looks plenty strong so it could be a relatively painless fix. Good luck.

One thing that helped mine's weight shift was thinking of the sequence -swing (backswing) then lean- instead of - lean then swing.-
She would prematurely weight her drive foot when she leaned prior to starting backswing.

That sliding the foot/centering that JJ speaks of was critical in the beginning to completely unweighting her drive foot.

jryan15 · Jul 17, 2015

Excellent suggestions. We did work 2 step drill a lot in the winter and DD was centering the foot then. I do see the rolling weight shift issue and agree that two step will help with this. We'll get back to it.

I'm intrigued with the idea of backswing and then lean. DD still struggles to have her drive foot off of the rubber before the arms get to 3 o'clock. I had been testing having her delay her backswing to correct this, but maybe going the other way will work. Will try it out too.

Regarding strength. Yes, DD has developed a lot of hard earned strength, but is not inherently "athletic". She has especially weak quads which have been the hardest muscle group for her to develop. We've done Java's exercise routine a lot, but lack of strength leads to poor mechanics too early in the exercise. I feel like she needs a little more leg muscle mass to better develop them through the conditioning and explosive exercises.

During driving off the rubber, I find that she has a tendency to "step through" aggressively with her stride leg using her drive leg more as a pivot point than a power source. The aggressive step through results in a big reverse posture that appears often in video review. We've put a ton on emphasis on driving and will continue to do so via two step drill.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Still struggling to work through drive mechanics

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