Slo-mo of my kid pitching. Thoughts?

We filmed her today and my husband turned part of the video into an animated gif in slow motion. Very cool to see! She's 8 and started taking lessons this year. She's usually around 38-41 mph when we clock her at lessons. The image is too large to embed but here's the direct link: http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j45/sublimebirth/download_20150607_140946_zpsnebqtser.gif


Here's the fast motion version:

I think your 8 year old is a stud is what I think.

Eight? She's well on her way! Be patient (take it slow and easy on the things you work to polish).

Right off the bat, looking at this video, your daughter is straight armed around the circle and has no overlap on her drive mechanics. Two massive no-no's in the book of pitching. Educate yourself going through the sticky's above, especially IR in the Classroom and Drive Mechanics. IR in the Classroom is your starting point.

The advice here on this website or forum is always the same for those just starting, not only for your daughter but for the parents as well. Your daughter is trying to pitch before she knows how to throw underhand. This is the first priority, learn to throw underhand properly. If your daughter was a student of mine we would stop trying to pitch and would solely focus on throwing underhand using the IR technique to do so. From there we'd build on a progression of drills leading up to a nice IR snap with a 1 to 7 spin.

Don't underestimate the value of precise drive mechanics. IR is where spin and speed comes from but drive mechanics is where consistency for delivery is built. Lay down a solid foundation on the FB with drive mechanics and then alter where needed for other pitches.

Thanks guys! We think she's pretty great ourselves but of course, we're biased I'll check out the sticky on I/R. Thanks for the input!

LHF,

When reading through the stickies, here are a couple of things to note:

• Your daughter is missing the whip, releasing the ball off her front leg, as opposed to the rear leg. Our upper arm should come into the side of our body... and at that point, the forearm should whip passed it. Your DD is allowing the upper arm to continue in front of the body... and then throwing.
• As a sidenote, take a look at what the lower part of the chain can do for your daughter if she allows her forearm to pronate.
• Your daughter is pinning her rear leg behind her... let her backside come into the pitch. This results in a posture issue... and adds to the late release.
• Your daughter is pitching around her upper body, as opposed to across. Adduction.
• Your daughter's timing is different in every pitch. Look at creating consistent overlap.
• Your daughter is rolling her drive foot (right) as opposed to striking the front of the pitching rubber.
• Your daughter has a very evident tell when she throws the horseshoe change in that last pitçh. Let me know if you can figure it out... perhaps the good people of this board can even try to figure this out... we'll make it round 2 of A Telltale Game.

Granted, she's very young... so don't go too nutty... but I just thought these would make for a good TODO list as she works on her craft.

Thanks javasource! No, I don't know what the tell is. But that doesn't mean much, because I just don't have an eye for this stuff. That's why I posted, I was hoping for exactly this kind of feedback. I'll let some other people say what they think but please tell me after awhile if no one gets it Yes, she's young and just getting started. She's wanted to pitch since she started playing (she was 5) so she's really motivated, and I definitely want to make sure my very amateur self doesn't cause problems for her down the road. Her dad has a better eye for these things but he never played softball either. Our pitching coach is awesome, we love her. But that's only 30 min a week so there is a lot more depth I feel like we can get into in between. That said, I'm definitely not going to nutty as you put it (haha). I want to balance getting her form and mechanics down with her also having fun and not feeling like it's all work and she's not doing anything right. Hope that makes sense.

What is "drops the ball out of the glove early?" Alex.

javasource said:

LHF,

When reading through the stickies, here are a couple of things to note:

• Your daughter is missing the whip, releasing the ball off her front leg, as opposed to the rear leg. Our upper arm should come into the side of our body... and at that point, the forearm should whip passed it. Your DD is allowing the upper arm to continue in front of the body... and then throwing.
• As a sidenote, take a look at what the lower part of the chain can do for your daughter if she allows her forearm to pronate.
• Your daughter is pinning her rear leg behind her... let her backside come into the pitch. This results in a posture issue... and adds to the late release.
• Your daughter is pitching around her upper body, as opposed to across. Adduction.
• Your daughter's timing is different in every pitch. Look at creating consistent overlap.
• Your daughter is rolling her drive foot (right) as opposed to striking the front of the pitching rubber.
• Your daughter has a very evident tell when she throws the horseshoe change in that last pitçh. Let me know if you can figure it out... perhaps the good people of this board can even try to figure this out... we'll make it round 2 of A Telltale Game.

Granted, she's very young... so don't go too nutty... but I just thought these would make for a good TODO list as she works on her craft.

Click to expand...

Java does let the backside get into the pitch mean rotate the hips at release like Pauley teaches?