9yo Pitching Video - Three Angles with Slo-Mo

[Jesse]

Took this in the back yard today. Please take a look and let me know what you see. She's had no formal instruction beyond a pitching clinic that she attended a few months ago. She's been pitching seriously for about a month, and so far has pitched in two games. The first game, she pitched two innings, walked the limit in each one. Second game, held them to three runs in the first inning, walked the limit in the second. So she is improving. My assistant coach and I are working with her, but we're novices ourselves.

9yo Fastpitch - YouTube

The two things I notice are a) the forward lean at release - is that what's causing her to throw so many in the dirt? And b) the bowler's kick at the end. I've heard that's bad but have no idea how to fix? What else?

Thanks!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Hi. She really needs to see a pitching coach. She isn't even close to being able to pitch in a game. #1 - have her stop all of that pre-motion. Less is better. She lacks a nice flowing arm circle. Read the sticky on this site, about internal rotation. Her arm circle is pretty much, non existent. #2 - She is not hitting her power line #3 - She doesn't know how to grip the ball or where to release it.
#4 - She needs to land on a firm front side and keep her shoulders back and tall.

If she were to come to me for lessons, we would start with perfecting her overhand throw and then, begin to fix the things that she doesn't know about and hasn't been taught. Good luck and be patient. She is quite similar to most 9 yos that come to me.

 

[sluggers]

Amy is correct. If you can't afford a pitching coach, try Bill Hillhouse's video.

The drill she needs to do is called a "1/2 frame". So, she gets open (her upper body and lower body facing 3rd). She get her feet wider than her shoulders. She takes the ball to 12 (directly over her head). She throws. She does *NOT* move her feet. So, after she throws, her upper body will still be facing 3rd. One more time: her feet do *NOT* move before, during or after the throw.

A variation is the 1/4 frame: Take the ball back to 3 (her arm pointing to 2nd base) and then throw. The full frame is where she points her mitt and the ball at home and then she throws.

She needs to do lots and lots of these. Perhaps 2 or 3 hours spread over 4 or 5 days.

Also, please stop the pre-motion, where she goes down and then back up, and then starts her pitch. This is just complicating the motion for her. All she needs to do is swing right arm back and then start moving forward.

 

[Jesse]

Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately a PC is not an option right now. For better or worse, I’m it. I’m mainly trying to understand the big picture at this point so let me clarify the progression:

First, get rid of that pre-motion. No problems there.

Second, work on the arm circle and release point. 1/2 and 1/4 frame drills.

Third, establish the power line. Not as clear on how to do that, or how what she’s doing is wrong. Is the bowler’s kick related to this?

Fourth, work on a firm front side, staying tall at release.

Am I on the right track? Getting warmer? Colder? Freezing?

Amy, I will also post video of her overhand throw.

 

[Carly]

To be totally clear, the power line is just an imaginary line from her to the target. Ideally, her arm should stay over it for the whole pitch. When I'm teaching a beginner from scratch I actually draw it on the ground or lay down some tape or string so she really gets it as a visual.

She really needs to take a step back and do some isolation drills to establish her arm on the power line before doing a full pitch. The full pitch has way too many moving parts to worry about when none of them are individually sound yet. You can emphasize keeping the front side firm while she's doing drills to isolate her arm circle. In fact, I'd even focus on just the release portion before doing the full arm circle. The internal rotation topic is a good place to start.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I will send you my e-mail address. Look up under Notifications, at the top of your page.