Correcting a cow hop

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May 7, 2008
58
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I have a student that I have been training since seventh grade. She is now going into her senior year at school and has become a premier pitcher in our area. She transferred to a private boarding school last year out of state, so I have not been seeing her regularly as in the past. When I finally did see her, she had developed a crow hop in her motion. She throws hard and has great stuff, but anything with weight back now has a crow hop. I have tried a few things to see if I could mitigate it, like shortening the stride or lowering her body elevation as she strides but it has not worked. Anyone have any other suggestions? Any exercises that could help would be appreciated.
 
Dec 10, 2009
34
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I have a student that I have been training since seventh grade. She is now going into her senior year at school and has become a premier pitcher in our area. She transferred to a private boarding school last year out of state, so I have not been seeing her regularly as in the past. When I finally did see her, she had developed a crow hop in her motion. She throws hard and has great stuff, but anything with weight back now has a crow hop. I have tried a few things to see if I could mitigate it, like shortening the stride or lowering her body elevation as she strides but it has not worked. Anyone have any other suggestions? Any exercises that could help would be appreciated.

My dd was crow hopping and her pc did this exercise - no sure why it worked, but it did.

PC put an orange cone out in front of dd to indicate proper leap distance (same as her height). As dd was standing on the rubber, he had me hold one end of a red ribbon at the height of her head. He held the other end (the ribbon was about 8 feet long) straight out in front of her. He told her to "stay under the ribbon." The first few times her head popped up over the ribbon on her leap (and she crow hopped) but from then on she stayed under and the crow hopping stopped. By the way - he didn't say anything to her about her feet, other than to ask her to leap to the cone. I thought it was amazing.

ETA: The ribbon is next to her as she leaps/pitches. She doesn't go under it. Sort of like a head high pitching lane.
 
Last edited:
Aug 21, 2008
2,359
113
crow hopping isn't a problem with the feet. it's a problem with the hands. every crow hopper has a "hitch" or pause in their arm circle. They can pause their arm circle at 7 o'clock, 12 o'clock or any other point in the arm circle. It's this pause that allows the foot to go sideways for a crow hop. If you eliminate the pause in the arm circle, the foot MUST go as fast as the hands and will not have time to go sideways for the hop. the arm circle needs to be sped up... the feet will follow. Most crow hoppers also get sore in the front of their shoulder too... this is from stopping the arm circle and forcing it around with muscle after.

Bill
 
May 7, 2008
58
6
Thanks Bill for the advice. I hadn't thought of that at all but I am fairly certain that you are right that she does seem to have a pause or hesitation just at the moment she replants the pivot foot. If I just get her arm to move faster and not hesitate, this will stop the crow hopping? I am seeing her this week and we will work on that. I will let you know the progress. I thought that possibly her stride was too up high and long, bordering on a leap, and that was the cause. Could this also contribute to crow hopping?
 
Dec 10, 2009
34
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Thanks Bill for the advice. I hadn't thought of that at all but I am fairly certain that you are right that she does seem to have a pause or hesitation just at the moment she replants the pivot foot. If I just get her arm to move faster and not hesitate, this will stop the crow hopping? I am seeing her this week and we will work on that. I will let you know the progress. I thought that possibly her stride was too up high and long, bordering on a leap, and that was the cause. Could this also contribute to crow hopping?

Hey, Bill is the expert :) so definitely listen to him, I do!

I thought I would comment on the bolded part of your post above, because it is exactly what my dd was doing. My dd's pc took video of her and saw that she was going up too high, but she was still able to drag her toe until she replanted her pivot foot. He showed us videos of great pitchers and drew a line showing that their heads never went above the line. The ribbon exercise corrected the crow hop and gave her a nice long stride with her nose behind her belly button, too. Now when I see her start to replant that foot, all I say is "stay under the ribbon" and she knows exactly what to do - it is exactly about "not going up too high" for my daughter. She should never waste energy going up - she should use all energy to take her pitch in the direction of the batter.
 
May 7, 2008
58
6
Thanks for the advice SoftballMama. I am going to work on that exercise also and see how we do. I thought that her leap looked like it was going up instead of out even though she did leap far for her size. She is very conscious of her speed and I think she is concentrating too much on trying to extend the leap and raise her stride leg. I will let you know her progress, thanks again.
 
Crow Hop

Thanks for the advice SoftballMama. I am going to work on that exercise also and see how we do. I thought that her leap looked like it was going up instead of out even though she did leap far for her size. She is very conscious of her speed and I think she is concentrating too much on trying to extend the leap and raise her stride leg. I will let you know her progress, thanks again.

I have worked with crow hoppers and have used a 2 by 4 inch board cut to the size of a pitching rubber.I have her start with her right foot arch on the middle so that she has her weight on her left foot .She then must roll and push her right foot forward in the leap and drag so that there is not a second plant.I hope I explained this as easy as possible.S.Sanchez N.M
 
May 7, 2008
58
6
I have worked with crow hoppers and have used a 2 by 4 inch board cut to the size of a pitching rubber.I have her start with her right foot arch on the middle so that she has her weight on her left foot .She then must roll and push her right foot forward in the leap and drag so that there is not a second plant.I hope I explained this as easy as possible.S.Sanchez N.M

Thanks Sanchosj for the response. Do you anchor the 2" x 4" to the ground so it is not kicked backwards when the push and leap occurs? I understand how you explained it and I know that the object is to get her to roll her toe over on the leap. Thanks for the advice.
 
Arm circle corrections is a very simple way to correct a crow hop. But I have used this for 35 years and it works every time. But you must be patient. Take a rag (prefer a t-shirt type rag) about 4" by 5". Lay the rag on the ground under her push foot on every drill and when she is pitching. She must drag the rag with her toe every time she drags her foot. She does not need to complete the drag with the rag but as long as it moves with her when she starts.
 
Mar 18, 2009
131
0
La Crosse WI
Just to be sure you're addressing the problem, is she actually crow-hopping or jumping? A crow-hop is when the pivot or push-off foot is brought forward to a point where it is replanted and provides for an additional drive forward. A jump is when both feet leave the ground in an effort to maximize effort and minimize distance to the plate -- it's what was being called IP during the College championships -- the guilty were leaving the ground with the pushoff foot.
I've found most of my pitchers who jump also tend to be forward leaners. Getting them upright or a slight back lean at the K point helps to keep the foot in contact with the ground.
jim
 

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