97bucketdad DD *VIDEO*

[bobbyb]

bobby . my question about the apex of the leap and the arm position comes from trying to teach my pitchers not to use their drag foot as an ancher, and i have been to some instructors who have stressed the up together, down together type of motion, using gravity to help with the down part, in viewing footage of pitchers like white, gillis, hillhouse, they seem to have more up, and at the apex of their leap their toe of the drag foot is barely touching the ground, and the ball is directly above their head facing the catcher, this position seems quite consistant with them, and none of them appear to snap their lead leg out straight like a german soldier, it appears to be more of an athletic move up and out.

I agree they do have a little more up motion and I think that is because of what crystlemc said.

The leg extension is not really a kick and it is definitely not a snap. Its more a controlled thrust…imo. Its not to be locked out either. I definitely see various degrees of straightening with different pitchers and think its more of an athletic thing.

The drag foot being an anchor…I am not sure about. I have seen some that really lay the ankle over and are very slow in their thrust forward and that could be a problem. But it seems to me they should be concerned more with a stronger push off.

If you watch Hillhouse video here…08.06.04 "pitching motion"...when he does make contact again with the ground…he kicks up a bit of dirt and looks like he is creating a rut too where his drag foot lands.
Bill Hillhouse: House of Pitching Softball Academy

Is that slowing things down any more than dragging the rear foot? I do believe every single thing seems to matter to get those extra mph. Yet I haven't been able to convince myself that dragging that foot a couple of feet slows you down that much…or that you can't overcome it with a stronger push off...or where that balances out.

I could be wrong. I know there are a lot of people that seem to think otherwise. At some point I am going to try and measure the girls i have video on and see if it shows something but its not high on my priority list right now…for my dd.

 

[bobbyb]

Heres another thing i see with girls, in regards to striding and front leg extension…and i think is a good example.

Look at Abbott…this is from her highest knee point.

Look at Finch…thats from her highest knee point.

Abbott collapses the extension to get the weight forward for the curve ball (which is a good thing). Finch goes into weight load on a pretty extended leg.

If we didn't know this was Abbott doing a curve ball…and this was little suzie throwing a fast ball…we would be saying…she needs to keep her weight back.

How is she to do this? The main thing in my mind is …keep the stride leg extended and do not collapse it so early.

I see this a lot at tournaments with girls that seem to be having a stride problem/weight forward problem…they collapse that front leg early as Abbott does here…which results in their weight being forward…when their trying to keep their weight back. Naturally athletic girls don't seem to go through that much when learning it…and is one reason they learn to stride easier. imo

 

[abbygale]

I think "keep your weight back" has become bastardized due to people like myself whom are trying to help their daughters pitch. My daughter looked like "Cat Osterman throwing a riseball" when she was out on the rubber. Unfortunately, mine was throwing a fastball with riseball lower body mechanics. Needless to say, she was doomed. It was correctable but it has taken an individual who saw what she was doing. What was funny was that my daughter would get many compliments from well intentioned individuals so I thought I had her going in the right direction. Thankfully her new PC was abrupt enough to ask if I wanted her to look good or throw good.

I think up together, down together drills with the proper weight shift sequence would significantly benefit the OP's dd to feel the synching of her body. Boardmember has a great description of a drill which would help this young lady better "feel" it. I bet she "gets it" quickly and then adds the full circle with a step and is able to feel that. The overlap that is talked about is a great way of synching the arm/body especially if the girl feels it. Just my uneducated opinion.

Is Finch throwing a low riseball in that clip? Kind of looks like it to me based on her upper body position at release. Very similar to my daughter's original fastball.

 

[CoachFP]

Finch throws a "low riseball"? Most low riseballs are accidents.

 

[abbygale]

Low= in the zone
High= out of the zone

By my definition.

 

[bobbyb]

I think "keep your weight back" has become bastardized due to people like myself whom are trying to help their daughters pitch. My daughter looked like "Cat Osterman throwing a riseball" when she was out on the rubber. Unfortunately, mine was throwing a fastball with riseball lower body mechanics. Needless to say, she was doomed. It was correctable but it has taken an individual who saw what she was doing. What was funny was that my daughter would get many compliments from well intentioned individuals so I thought I had her going in the right direction. Thankfully her new PC was abrupt enough to ask if I wanted her to look good or throw good.

I think up together, down together drills with the proper weight shift sequence would significantly benefit the OP's dd to feel the synching of her body. Boardmember has a great description of a drill which would help this young lady better "feel" it. I bet she "gets it" quickly and then adds the full circle with a step and is able to feel that. The overlap that is talked about is a great way of synching the arm/body especially if the girl feels it. Just my uneducated opinion.

Is Finch throwing a low riseball in that clip? Kind of looks like it to me based on her upper body position at release. Very similar to my daughter's original fastball.

I agree on the up together and down together drills.

If you was going to have a problem...having a fastball problem because you throw it like a rise would be a good problem to have as far as problems go! What did your pc say your dd was doing specifically? and what was his fix?

I think Finch is throwing a screwball...the finish looks more like what she demonstrates in her screw ball video but I am not for sure.

 

[abbygale]

Bobby,

Daughters pc said that she was unable to finish her pitch without tension when there was weight on her throwing side leg. Something about weighting that side would not allow the shoulder joint to work freely on any fastball/drop ball pitches. Has nothing to do with IR, this is just a shoulder joint situation.

Stand open on a power line and swing your arm thru completely for a fastball. Do it with some weight on your back leg and then do it with no weight on your back leg. That tension kept my dd from finishing her pitch with a long arm. Bonus-spin rate really. She doesn't look like she is working near as hard now. Some people still think she should look like she is working hard. Oh well. She is throwing quite a bit faster now also. Go figure

On the rise it was the opposite. A little weight kept back allowed the elbow and the shoulder in it's orientation to swing thru freely.

Nowadays, it is no weight on the drive leg once the stride foot has planted unless she is working on a rise.

Please note that this was about "finishing the pitch without tension". JMO


That's why I emphasize Boardmembers cue of proper weight shift sequence on the show it, throw it drill.

 

[bobbyb]

Thanks for sharing that abbygale. This whole shoulder tension and finishing pitch has me thunkin. I can feel more tension in the shoulder with weight on the back. I am trying to understand the dynamics of this area more...as its one thing we are working on this offseason.

Screwball..i was envisioning a short stride or maybe a stride where she has the sole towards the ground and gets the weight there. If its while on toes or side of foot that would be interesting. Maybe abbygale can fill us in more.