Comments/Criticsm Welcomed

[javasource]

I believe you'll find that JS addresses this somewhat differently in the Drive thread, but I see your DD driving with maybe too much emphasis to get open, rather than to drive forward. I like the cue of driving hard to the target with the backs of the hands and stride toe. I also like the thought of driving squarely towards the target with the hips/shoulders, but letting the arm circle open up the torso naturally.

Notice how the hips, shoulders and stride toe seem to be driving to the target vs trying to get open?

L,

You already know this... or have heard this from me before, but the biggest issue... by far... is the fact that she is releasing the ball outside her shoulder. It is a country mile from her body. Otis's DD HAD this issue... it was easily the thing that killed her control and power. She's spent the last couple weeks addressing this fix... and you should see her now... completely different pitcher. Even took down her dad... but that's another story.

How? She went back to basics in drill... working on Lock-It-In and 9 drills... with the sole focus of starting with her hand in the correct position (against thigh, hand inside)... backchaining and then forward chaining... with the sole focus of getting back to where she started.

As riseball said, there is some anchoring going on... in the form of a long and steady push... as opposed to a "quick stick" into the front of the rubber. Her foot is rolling... instead of striking the front of the plate. I'd work on that, too.

Personally, I think she opens fine... but I do see a tendency for her to turn her stride foot inwards, prematurely. Take a look at the wall sprints on the first page of the DM sticky. Note how the toe is pointed at the target the entire time... and in that drill, the thigh is perpendicular while the toe is still pointed forward. During a pitch... I'd recommend completing the knee driving out first... and then tell her to get that foot down.

I'd experiment a little if I had you guys in clinic... as getting to the bottom of the premature turn-in of the stride foot might be from a bunch of things. Even though I wouldn't recommend it for the majority of people... I'd probably have her trying landing with less of a stride foot angle... as it may be something as simple as that... and that might be worth a stab... even if unsuccessful.

Honestly... I don't see a lot of differences in your DD... when compared to the stills Ken posted. Her hips are open, her glove shoulder is getting ahead of her throwing shoulder, etc. It's actually a REALLY good position to be in. I worry that if you try and square her too much, you're going to damage an otherwise smooth over-the-top motion that she currently has. It's probably her best trait... just food for thought.

Lastly, her torso is leaning towards third, too much. You might try the tip-toe drills SBMOM posted a little while back... especially when working on bringing that circle in closer to her body.

Anyway... get her to work, she has a bunch of quality traits!

P.S. Those gifs are huge, man! (like 25 meg!) Killing my bandwidth! Glad you sent me the Youtube link!

 

[JAD]

She stopped me from wrappin up to throw this pitch @ ME. (it was a heater !!!) She is noticing I'm getting alittle flinchy behind the plate. Its my eyes, and the lighting in there kinda plays tricks on me. I'm getting an umps mask...finally that time.

I have been taking our TB/HS catcher (she is a neighbor which is convenient) with us to pitching lessons for the last three months. She was out of town for the holidays so I was back on the bucket. To say that I was "flincy" the first 3-4 pitches is an understatement. As I have gotten older my eye doctor changed my contact prescription so one eye is set to see close and one is set to see distance. Needless to say, this does not help my depth perception when a 65 MPH riseball is screaming towards my face....I went on Ebay today to find an umpires mask and bought a complete set of used umpiring equipment for $65! Maybe I will become an umpire when my DD is done playing.....

 

[JAD]

I haven't messed with portable pitching mats and in my estimation, the hassle/cost isn't worth it.

I bought a lightly used pitching mat off Craigslist and love it. Works great if it is going to be used in the same location frequently, but is a little bulk and heavy to carry around on a regular basis.

 

[Perfect Circle]

Thx Java... Sorry about the big files. I was dissapointed @ my first clip... Your Clip was awesome with the Sony. I guess I was just kinda doing a little review: We got a place to work, and we got color... & I can make monster .gif ...I never really thought about it affects on the other end. I make them really to save on a drive, kinda calander view. When I make them for others, its more about pretty...like FFS told me early on. I kinda hope they save them to a drive...look back on them years later...LOL Also I hope that the .gifs encourages them... that they have a really cool clip... more like a "moving Baseball card" style.

I was really suprised to get any comments...let alone the great ones I got. I might have said.."Video Sucks"...Ken & JJ challenged me on the safety first, and I got right on that the next day. The Yellow Trax work great in our unique place. I have also found that you can put down a small (Sticky) carpet, then put it on top of it, and use GYM floor.

Today we ran over to throw, and got upstaged by volleyball practice. So we went to Family center, that has carpet. We wasn't going to pitch, we were just going to throw underhand....But a college coach was there shooting Basket ball with his son. We went full bore. I watched her really wanting something to push off. She even said, we can't forget the things anymore.

I'm workin on getting them hinged in the middle so they fold in half, and fit in my camera backpack. I ripped one to 6"...and use the other one about 2" behind so she can get Drive from both feet. I'm starting to think...(LOOK OUT) There is no way she can dig a hole behind the rubber in a game to get that drive off the other foot, like she is now. I'm starting to wonder if she can put both feet on the front of the rubber ??? I know rules say both feet on....??? front & Back???

Just quick reply... I'll need to meditate on what you said.... As always Thx Again !!!!

 

[Perfect Circle]

I have been taking our TB/HS catcher (she is a neighbor which is convenient) with us to pitching lessons for the last three months. She was out of town for the holidays so I was back on the bucket. To say that I was "flincy" the first 3-4 pitches is an understatement. As I have gotten older my eye doctor changed my contact prescription so one eye is set to see close and one is set to see distance. Needless to say, this does not help my depth perception when a 65 MPH riseball is screaming towards my face....I went on Ebay today to find an umpires mask and bought a complete set of used umpiring equipment for $65! Maybe I will become an umpire when my DD is done playing.....

JAD... I got same problem...I can't trust my glasses. Maybe it's the six lose teeth I still have from 1 1/2yr ago. I gotta get bi-focals, and I know thats a learning process to. Fell down several steps getting used to these glasses at first...

 

[JAD]

I did not read through all of the previous posts, so I apologize if this is repetitive:

It is hard to tell since she is pitching on a gym floor and her plant leg slides, but she needs more drive from her drag leg. Her drag leg knee should be driving towards her plant leg knee on release. She will gain a couple of MPH if she can get the two in sync.

 

[Perfect Circle]

I did not read through all of the previous posts, so I apologize if this is repetitive:

It is hard to tell since she is pitching on a gym floor and her plant leg slides, but she needs more drive from her drag leg. Her drag leg knee should be driving towards her plant leg knee on release. She will gain a couple of MPH if she can get the two in sync.

I see what your sayin. This is not the norm. We were done & I was picking up, she wanted to throw this pitch @ME...lol I switched the camera over to TV 1/2000 to tryout lighting in the gym, and see how many frames I could pick up. I knew that she was going to throw as hard as she could. She took an extra step, to get even closer... I'm backed in a corner, up aginist block wall. With the jump, she was probably 33' or so. She does do better, but your spot on over all...sync...Thx

 

[JAD]

I would also check to see where she is wearing out her cleats. In this video she gets her drag foot turned sideways and almost looks like she is dragging her heel. It may be because she is in the gym, but she needs to get more up on the tip of her toe to keep more of her momentum going forward vs. "bowling" with her drag leg.

 

[Otis]

PC...the experts are on the scene and I'm certainly not one of them, but as Java pointed out, your DD's motion looks exactly like what my DD's looked like as far as separation and zero brush. My DD is making huge strides, but still has a long way to go. Here are a few suggestions based on our journey so far.

First thing is to have fun!!!

Start out slow...like real slow. And be patient! Take all targets away. In fact, my DD hasn't thrown a full pitch since mid November. (I'm sure you probably read a recent thread about Coach Balswick where someone mentioned how Cheridan Hawkins went 7 months without facing a batter...nothing but basic drills...good stuff!) She has done nothing but back chain in front of a bow net from a few feet away. Lock in it and 9 o'clock drills are huge! As elementary as they seem, they have been the most important drills that we have done. Then, patiently, we moved further into the IR progression. As soon as we would see her bad habits creep up, we would dial it back a notch and start over. It takes time, but it's worth it...she is really starting to feel "the whip".

Another thing I had her do to insure she was brushing is I would have her wear a pair of my jogging pants, so I could hear the brush every time. If any of you have ever watched the video of Rick Pauley demonstrating brush you will see what sparked the idea. My DD happens to be 5'9" so she can fit into my clothes

We are going to start some lazy 2-step walk-throughs today, as the doctor ordered, after we do our IR progression. We will start at about 65% effort and slowly turn it up until her mechanics break down, then we will dial it back a bit. Baby steps!

***Last but not least, and most importantly, when taking video of you DD from behind the bow net to send to her pitching coach, be sure to allow yourself enough room so you don't take one off of the knee. This, I'm an expert on!***

Best of luck to your DD. Looking forward to seeing her progress!

Otis

 

[Perfect Circle]

PC...the experts are on the scene and I'm certainly not one of them, but as Java pointed out, your DD's motion looks exactly like what my DD's looked like as far as separation and zero brush. My DD is making huge strides, but still has a long way to go. Here are a few suggestions based on our journey so far.

First thing is to have fun!!!

Start out slow...like real slow. And be patient! Take all targets away. In fact, my DD hasn't thrown a full pitch since mid November. (I'm sure you probably read a recent thread about Coach Balswick where someone mentioned how Cheridan Hawkins went 7 months without facing a batter...nothing but basic drills...good stuff!) She has done nothing but back chain in front of a bow net from a few feet away. Lock in it and 9 o'clock drills are huge! As elementary as they seem, they have been the most important drills that we have done. Then, patiently, we moved further into the IR progression. As soon as we would see her bad habits creep up, we would dial it back a notch and start over. It takes time, but it's worth it...she is really starting to feel "the whip".

Another thing I had her do to insure she was brushing is I would have her wear a pair of my jogging pants, so I could hear the brush every time. If any of you have ever watched the video of Rick Pauley demonstrating brush you will see what sparked the idea. My DD happens to be 5'9" so she can fit into my clothes

We are going to start some lazy 2-step walk-throughs today, as the doctor ordered, after we do our IR progression. We will start at about 65% effort and slowly turn it up until her mechanics break down, then we will dial it back a bit. Baby steps!

***Last but not least, and most importantly, when taking video of you DD from behind the bow net to send to her pitching coach, be sure to allow yourself enough room so you don't take one off of the knee. This, I'm an expert on!***

Best of luck to your DD. Looking forward to seeing her progress!

Otis

Thank You... We are in same training mod as C.H. ....DD has not pitched since last Aug. We are getting into it strong now. I found the drills from SBmom8992 and we are heading in that direction. Thx Again !!!