Looking for honest feedback

12u DD second year pitching. Trying to convert over to I/R. Bucket dad looking for for feedback on what needs to be improved?
[video]https://youtu.be/6wDBiFoCa94[/video]

Stop her from coming forward after she pitches.

The drill to use is the walkthrough drill.

She stands behind the rubber a couple of steps, walks forward and throws. She keeps her right foot off the ground until you return the ball to her. She stands on her left foot. If she falls forward, she did it wrong.

Here is Osterman. Look at her balance. She could stand on her right foot (she is a lefty) without letting her left foot touch down forever.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kK2opycNSOI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The front leg seems to collapse some going into release. It should firm up--provide resistance after landing, not a shockabsorber. This, along with keeping the torso more perpendicular, will help keep her from leaking energy forward.

Thanks for feedback! I will work with her on that. I'm new at this bucket dad stuff. We are learning as we go. We are having a hard time finding a pitching coach in the area that teaches I/R.

Looks like you have put a lot of work in with her. There are a lot of good things in her pitch. My recommendation is to find a PC in your area who teaches I/R and is well known. Then take her to them. There is no substitute to a person right there giving immediate feedback. If that's not an option then the place to start is with the drills in the I/R in the classroom sticky. You may feel like you're starting over but those drills are great.

As for basic form, as said before shes leaking a lot of energy forward. She needs more left side resistance. It seems that her right side is stacked at release so that's a good thing. Also, her right shoulder seems to be coming forward before the ball is released. In order to have good I/R you need the shoulder to be the anchor and the lat muscle to stay engaged so upper part of the arm remains firm and the forearm can wip with the ball. Make sure that her palm is facing third base or the sky at 9:00 and that the pinky leades the ball into release.
I think you will find that when you get her throwing with correct IR mechanics mixing in other pitches will be much easier. She is going to need breaking pitches for 12u and up.
Hope my novice opinion helps. Hopefully someone with more experience and better ideas can come on and help. A GIF would be helpful too.

We have used the I/R in the classroom and it has really helped. I am glad BM took the time to post such a great thread. My DD asked why didn't we start with this from the beginning. She pitches the ball palm to third at 9:00 and leads with the pinky to release. She has been working hard to get to ball facing the catcher at 12, pulling down the back side. That has been the hardest part of the switch to I/R. The good news is the drop ball is working great when she does.

The good....
1. great drive
2. great timing
3. good overlap
4. very athletic

The bad...
1. poor posture
2. weak resistance
3. over rotates torso through release

The ugly...
1. way too much bend and zero resistance through release
2. premature rotation of the arm into release (negates whip)

Diagnosis....
Keep the torso vertical and behind the front leg, then focus on pushing down and back with that front foot to create as much ground force as possible. Secondly, try keeping the ball oriented upwards as long as poss. and PULL the arms down together with the core muscles. The arms will naturally rotate themselves and will create more speed and spin. This will be a challenge for her at first due to her muscle memory will want to carry her arm past her hip to release. By correcting the posture, her pitches will all most likely be very high. Good luck, James

coach james said:

The good....
1. great drive
2. great timing
3. good overlap
4. very athletic

The bad...
1. poor posture
2. weak resistance
3. over rotates torso through release

The ugly...
1. way too much bend and zero resistance through release
2. premature rotation of the arm into release (negates whip)

Diagnosis....
Keep the torso vertical and behind the front leg, then focus on pushing down and back with that front foot to create as much ground force as possible. Secondly, try keeping the ball oriented upwards as long as poss. and PULL the arms down together with the core muscles. The arms will naturally rotate themselves and will create more speed and spin. This will be a challenge for her at first due to her muscle memory will want to carry her arm past her hip to release. By correcting the posture, her pitches will all most likely be very high. Good luck, James

Click to expand...

Thanks Coach James. That is exactly what we're looking for. You are correct about the pitches going high. We were working on that this morning. She has been working hard to work through the muscle memory issues, she has already seen a lot of improvement in accuracy since the beginning of the season. It really makes it easier when the dd sees the results of her hard work.

Biggest things have already been mentioned. If you can get her to stop falling forward that would help a lot. Another thing is just a small timing thing that might actually help, look at when her glove is all the way back as she is loading it is at this point that she should be storing all that energy in her legs waiting to release forward in the video she has already started forward (leaking everything forwards) and now everything thing in her motion is racing to catch up. A video I would recommend is this one by Amanda Scarborough, I would disregard the arm going all the way back over her head at the begin and stick with rocking the ball back in the glove as she is currently doing but everything else is pretty spot on.

Not an expert, but I would guess that she was trying to throw a strike. Have her throw into a tarp and work on the posture and resistance issues others have pointed out. I personally don't see lack of whip here.