Lockinging elbow and pushing during full motion

Not only does she need to work on that arm, but that significant hinging forward at the waist must be stopped. Javasource's "Drive Mechanics" thread is essential in this regard, as is Boardmember's "IR in the Classroom."

To me it looks like she is trying to use her shoulder to push the straight arm to the target, and she is using the hinge to clear her arm from her body.

Tell her make the circle smaller. Literally. Only one way to do that. Guess what it is?

Thanks BoardMember. There is so much great info to digest on this site given by you and several others that it's almost overwhelming! I have to keep reminding myself that I can't fix everything in a day.

OK.... I checked out the video....and damn....I'm gunna make this positive. You have some opportunities here. She's VERY explosive at the start.... but she gets sucked into a forward lean bowling motion. This is the motion of a pitcher that has not been very well trained that is doing her very best to get the ball over the plate. No knock on her....she's doing what she was taught or what she thinks is best. Unfortunately, what you explained in your first post was as good as you can expect if she pitches against a decent team.

As a first start.... do you think you can get her to throw a few pitches for you on video where she focuses on 2 things..... A flex in the elbow, and a tall posture. Tell her to use her nose....... stick it up in the air when she's pitching. This is just a test to see how capable she is of adjusting.

I am gunna be harsh here... what i see on video is very far from ideal..... but she looks pretty athletic.... so whether she remains not so impressive, or turns out to be a stud is all up to you and her at this point.

I will try to get some more video today. My point of posting this video was not to ask what is wrong with her motion, but just to show how her mechanics break down to this level the longer she pitches in a game. She is pitching in games a least twice a week, and wanted to know some opinions on whether I should pull her once the mechanics break down this much or keep letting her try to work through it? Her league and TB team both need her to pitch, but I do not want her to keep throwing using bad mechanics.

After reading my last post, I just wanted to clarify. I know there are numerous issues to work on. As I stated in the beginning, she does the I/R drills pretty well. When doing these drills, it is impossible for her to have the bent over posture as shown in the video. Is the poor posture due to the arm being locked straight throughout the entire motion, or just poor drive mechanics?

Full Count said:

Any other ideas to help get this concept down other than me wanting to bang my head against the fence while telling her to relax and pull the ball down the circle?

Click to expand...

The forward lean is often an "aiming" mechanism... where they abandon all trust in themselves and revert to the goal of "Just Throw Strikes " as you mentioned. In your original post you said she started out great in the game.... then reverted back. The other queue you can use is Posture.... Staying tall and trusting herself. Change is difficult.....especially mid season. Be patient... banging your head against the fence will not help!

Thanks, I think we will dedicate more of our practice to correct posture. Do you remember what thread contained the combined version of BM's I/R and JS's Drive Mechanics in Google Docs?

Here is the IR In the Classroom Doc...... don't recall seeing the same done for Drive Mechanics.

IR in the Classroom