Been working on increased whip action. So far so good.
10yo dd updated vid 1-13-14
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- Sep 10, 2013
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nice work!
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
She looks good. It looks like you have her hiding the ball on the backswing pretty well. One thing I noticed with my 9 year old is that she could not do an effective rock the cradle like that and still get enough oomf on the drive without some backswing, so we ditched the hide the ball, rock the baby, for now to allow more backwards load and to allow her to use her arms to generate some forward power and to sync up the arm to the stride leg a little better. It looks like your DD's drive power and upper/lower body timing might benefit from a bit more backswing.
I am operating under the assumption that changing this part of the windup when they are older will be reasonably easy (her sister went from a 2 arm to a 1 arm backswing in a day) and that she won't have to worry about her pitches being picked for a few years
I am operating under the assumption that changing this part of the windup when they are older will be reasonably easy (her sister went from a 2 arm to a 1 arm backswing in a day) and that she won't have to worry about her pitches being picked for a few years
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jj- she always had problems with her backswing, for some reason she would change the plane of her arm to go out more toward 3rd base when she would bring it back, so that is when we limited her back swing to just at the hip.
Her next area of focus is to get further out on her stride leg, by lifting the stride leg knee higher. Currently she is only pushing out straight and low, and her stride length is suffering. We have only been working on this very recently and she needs to get the timing of her arm circle back in sync with the stride length.
I also wonder if the 2 hand windup (which twists her shoulders) causes her glove swim when she tries to get open.
I don't want to change too much at once, because as you know that is when the frustration kicks in.
Her next area of focus is to get further out on her stride leg, by lifting the stride leg knee higher. Currently she is only pushing out straight and low, and her stride length is suffering. We have only been working on this very recently and she needs to get the timing of her arm circle back in sync with the stride length.
I also wonder if the 2 hand windup (which twists her shoulders) causes her glove swim when she tries to get open.
I don't want to change too much at once, because as you know that is when the frustration kicks in.
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
I hear ya. She has good hand/arm positions in the back half of the circle and she has good whip so that is BIG. I honestly would not worry about stride length as much as stride power and timing at such a young age. I am actually dialing back my 9 year olds stride length because she just gets too unstable. As she gets older, taller and stronger I am sure she will get more length. I only care about length as it relates to stepping vs leaping. I want her long enough to where she can't cheat to a step, but that is all. The important thing to me is to get the correct synchronization between the upper and lower half and that my DD pitches at her own natural rhythm.
I do think that you are on the right path with getting her stride knee in a more powerful position, but length is not the goal IMO, power and timing are the goals. The throwing arm and the stride knee are intimately related timing wise so I say go for the adjustment to the knee angle and see if her two halves sync better.
edit-Don't forget Ken's posture input, I didn't mention it because it was already contributed but it is by far the best thing to work on right now for her. I just think that knee and some timing will help her get in better positions to address the posture. I have found that "posture" is a hard thing to teach and comes a little easier if other things are taught that just promote good posture by getting the body into the correct positions.
I do think that you are on the right path with getting her stride knee in a more powerful position, but length is not the goal IMO, power and timing are the goals. The throwing arm and the stride knee are intimately related timing wise so I say go for the adjustment to the knee angle and see if her two halves sync better.
edit-Don't forget Ken's posture input, I didn't mention it because it was already contributed but it is by far the best thing to work on right now for her. I just think that knee and some timing will help her get in better positions to address the posture. I have found that "posture" is a hard thing to teach and comes a little easier if other things are taught that just promote good posture by getting the body into the correct positions.
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yea, the reason I want to work on the stride is that I think it will help with posture. You can't see in this video, but she drags the inside of her entire foot when she drags, almost like an anchor. You can see how the push off leg lags behind. My hope is that by increasing that front knee stride height, it will force her to drag only the toe, and keep her from getting her weight too far forward, trying to counterbalance the lagging push off leg.
This is what i'm hoping at least.
This is what i'm hoping at least.
