DD has recently has issues with her arm circle. She has the tendency to push her arm out and away from her body on the back swing, which in turn makes her come in front of her body on the upswing. It looks like she is trying to muscle the ball around the circle. I have tried to emphasis relaxing and just let the ball fall beside her, but still struggling. I have tried getting her to keep the ball in her glove and eliminate the back swing, but she still tends to swing the ball across her body on the way up. We just started throwing the 12" ball and moved back to 40' last month, so I am thinking this is her way of trying to generate more power to compensate. Any ideas or cues to help? The dummy on the bucket is starting to get frustrated!
Help with arm circle
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Couple of suggestions:
1. I start out beginning pitchers to stand at near-90degrees open to the direction of the plate, then, without the ball, have them swing their arm in a circle on the "power-line". Progress the speed until they can feel their hand getting tingy. My point is to recognize the capability of the arm to reach speeds that the pitch needs to reach, eventually.
2. I emphasize the use of the imaginary power line to align the movement of the pitching arm -- all arm movement should be along that line: back swing, forward swing, over-the-top swing, and finally down-and-past the hip swing.
3. Frequently young pitchers tend to let them arm drift away from the body -- I refer to it as making a shallow cone with the arm. One aid is to have the pitcher brush her ear with her bicep while bringing the arm up and over the top.
4. As part of the arm circle being executed properly is having the body opened to near-90degrees as she swings the arm to 12:00, above her head.
5. The back swing should be done with a relaxed motion; the arm should accelerate as it swings forward and up.
jim
1. I start out beginning pitchers to stand at near-90degrees open to the direction of the plate, then, without the ball, have them swing their arm in a circle on the "power-line". Progress the speed until they can feel their hand getting tingy. My point is to recognize the capability of the arm to reach speeds that the pitch needs to reach, eventually.
2. I emphasize the use of the imaginary power line to align the movement of the pitching arm -- all arm movement should be along that line: back swing, forward swing, over-the-top swing, and finally down-and-past the hip swing.
3. Frequently young pitchers tend to let them arm drift away from the body -- I refer to it as making a shallow cone with the arm. One aid is to have the pitcher brush her ear with her bicep while bringing the arm up and over the top.
4. As part of the arm circle being executed properly is having the body opened to near-90degrees as she swings the arm to 12:00, above her head.
5. The back swing should be done with a relaxed motion; the arm should accelerate as it swings forward and up.
jim
K.I.S. as in Keep it simple:Have her pitch to her glove.Arms up together and down together.If glove arm or pitch arm are not in sync the ball will not go into glove.Start with L and move to k then all the way around and finally full pitching to glove with use of power line and open.
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Been a long time since I've posted so here goes…Not an expert, just a bucketdad.
My DD had the same problem when she move from 10U to 12U. Her PC recommended we do long toss. Walk up drill from 40', then 45', then 50' etc as far as she's able. Then back in till she's back at 40' off the rubber. Sure enough after doing this as part of her routine it solved the arm circle issue. Of course this also had a great side effect of making her drive better with her legs, increase velocity etc etc.. I think Sluggers said once that walk ups are the drill of drills, so true. Its works wonders to fix a variety of issues for my DD.
Hope this helps, certain worked for my DD.
My DD had the same problem when she move from 10U to 12U. Her PC recommended we do long toss. Walk up drill from 40', then 45', then 50' etc as far as she's able. Then back in till she's back at 40' off the rubber. Sure enough after doing this as part of her routine it solved the arm circle issue. Of course this also had a great side effect of making her drive better with her legs, increase velocity etc etc.. I think Sluggers said once that walk ups are the drill of drills, so true. Its works wonders to fix a variety of issues for my DD.
Hope this helps, certain worked for my DD.
