Slow progress but BI struggles?

It's been close to three weeks now that I have been converting DD from HE to I/R. We have mainly focused on the I/R motion and throwing underhanded so far. I am letting things like push and toe drag rest right now until we get the HE out of her. She's showing pretty good progress on the I/R motion, thanks to you folks. Not saying she has it licked because she doesn't but at least it's not HE anymore. Thing is, there seems to be very little BI. It's there but ever so slightly. I was wondering, should I be pressing that she get the arm further behind her now, later, or at all? And if so, what tips might anyone have for getting her to make better contact?

Excuse the mess in the garage but yeah... it's a garage.

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Brush and posture are closely related. If a pitcher is leaning towards third then they can't brush, if they are leaning forward their brain will purposely avoid brush because it knows it does not want to throw a ball in the dirt.

If you can get her posture more "nose behind the belly button" at release then the brush contact point will be in a position to throw a strike and her brain will ALLOW it to happen. I did not slow down it down to see if there is contact but it looks to at least be close and I don't see a butt out to first base posture so she should be able to get it.

Brushing from a power K is a good way to work on getting her the feeling of contact but from a position that is easier to maintain proper posture.

I second JJ's suggestions and will add that if she improves her drag to more laces-to-target, it will help bring her right hip into position for brush. Also, I'd ask her how close to her wrist she can feel the brush. As the bucket person, I'd be looking for any gap between the hand and thigh (hopefully very little or no gap.)

If you plan to improve her drive this winter, I'd suggest just playing catch with a focus on whip, toe drag and brush. Work on drive separately (I prefer no ball to start, but add the ball and go into a net or standing receiver as soon as possible.)

Feet first........experiment with moving the angle of the front toe...I was taught 45 degree is optima... Found if DD went 22 degree to almost straight @ catcher, she'll have more hip to brush... JMHO

When I was teaching my dd to pitch, I wanted her to release the ball at the same point everytime. If she had the same, consistent, release point, her accuracy would be greatly improved. Therefore, I taught my dd brush interference at the most early stages of pitching.

As a bucketdad, I couldn't catch and watch for brush interference with great success. During my dd's struggles with BI, I would have my dd stand on the rubber and look at my glove, then I would have her close her eyes and pitch the ball. If she was using BI as her release point, she would be able to get it to my glove without straying all over the place. I often had my dd pitch with her eyes closed and throw the ball as hard as she could. If she was using BI as her release point, she was pitching with considerable accuracy.

My dd would lose her BI with crappy arm circles, power line deviations or some other flaw in her pitching mechanics. One thing that we would always come back to was pitching with her eyes closed for several pitches to monitor her BI. It would be extremely difficult for my dd to guess her release point with any accuracy without using BI.

In my opinion, if your dd has very little BI, then your dd has BI and that would be a good thing.

So, I was working with DD the other day and she seemed to be concentrating on every little thing too much. I thought about Sleepwalker's tip and I told her to get in her stance, look at my glove, close your eyes... now pitch. She popped me right in the glove. It was all kinds of Jedi.

MountainMan said:

So, I was working with DD the other day and she seemed to be concentrating on every little thing too much. I thought about Sleepwalker's tip and I told her to get in her stance, look at my glove, close your eyes... now pitch. She popped me right in the glove. It was all kinds of Jedi.

Click to expand...

Yep... get a real blindfold (sleeping thing) keep it w/ your stuff... also have her do her pitch eyes closed and in super slo-mo. For fun have her work on the pitch in the pool, it forces slo-mo.... JMHO