Thread: Hitting Batters – 12U Rec.

Is she bothered that she's hitting more batters? That could compound the problem, since a common reaction to that situation, even if it's subconscious, is to try to steer the ball into the strike zone by slowing down the pitching hand. However, this actually often makes the pitch go more inside; as others have mentioned, her hip may be getting in the way, but it's possible the cause is really the hand becoming slower than the lower body rather than the hip being off.

If she hits a batter, or even if she throws a normal inside pitch without meaning to, I'd tell her to try throwing the next one harder.

Originally Posted by Screwball

Carly: Are you talking some sort of bullet spin or screwball spin, because I have never seen what you are describing.

No, just the regular fastball. It's extremely common from what I've seen. I'm still getting used to the terminology everyone on this board uses, so I apologize if any of my explanations seem strange. I believe I teach what you call open mechanics, which I've taken to mean turning to the side after push-off so that if you paused at landing your front hip would be facing the catcher (I've always just called it reach, track, fire). So with those mechanics, the hip closest to the pitching arm should be out of the way during the delivery of the ball.

However, even with open mechanics, that hip does close EVENTUALLY; the pitcher should, in one smooth motion, deliver the ball and immediately come around to face the catcher and prepare to field her position. If that hip closes before the pitching arm gets through the throw zone, the ball goes inside because the hip is now in the way of the clear path to the target, and the arm has to go around. Or, sometimes the pitcher will hit her hip.

There are two ways that can happen: one is the pitcher is "slamming the door," or closing her hip too early. The other is her body is performing a generally well-timed open mechanics pitch, but she decelerates her pitching arm at the end, causing the hand to slow down and not make it all the way through the throw zone before the hip gets in the way. If her arm is slowing down from day 1 of learning the pitch, this doesn't happen because the timing of everything adapts. But if she has learned to throw harder and then suddenly slows down her arm for some reason, often the rest of the body continues on as before from muscle memory and the timing of the release becomes off.

That's what I meant. I see it happen a lot with younger, more timid girls who really get affected emotionally when they walk or hit batters.