Personally, I don't like the stopping in the motion. I would prefer to see her simply get use to the sideways (or nearly sideways) with the ball pointed up with the arm back at 9:00 and practice whipping it through. After this, I like the K drill.
I love this drill for beginners. The only thing I would like your daughter to do when doing this drill is when she turns make sure her pivot foot is completely turned so when she lands open she is completely open. Right now she is turning not getting completely open finishing the turn. This will help her when she work on getting open without stopping.
Your DD is not a "natural" thrower of the ball........Get her a little football and teach her to throw an underhand spiral FIRST.........And tell her to finish toward the target vs. toward her left shoulder........
My experience tells me that this finish up to the left shoulder will eventually create a roll over action vs. a snapping through to the target action........
Study this clip and compare the difference..........
Thanks for all the input. I truly appreciate it. I'm new to softball and don't know much. We're working on it daily and the goal is to do a proper ir pitching as boardmember showed. Any other tips or critique is welcomed. Thank you
You've come to the right place. I've been in your position. The clip above with the ugly man throwing the softball underhand is worth paying attention to.
There are several ways to start a VERY beginning pitcher depending on her natural ability to throw underhand.....
For the VERY beginning pitcher, the MOST IMPORTANT PART is to stay inside the ball as long as possible into/through delivery.......
One way to help accomplish this is to get her a little football and do a 45 degree/9:00 drill until she can throw a spiral.........Once accomplished, I'd substitute the football for a softball with a black line and begin introducing "1/2 spiral spin", or spin with the line facing between forward (6/12) and sideways (bullet)......THEN I'd begin to introduce I/R as a way to ENHANCE propelling the ball with 1/2 spiral spin........
A child with a more advanced natural ability with the propensity to stay inside the ball NATURALLY, would cause me to eliminate the football, and go straight to the "1/2 spiral" lined softball without worrying much about I/R, and then progress into adding I/R while MAINTAINING 1/2 Spiral Spin for enhanced velocity.........
Something POSITIVE to watch for is the child's natural ability to resist "turning the ball over" in her natural underhand motion.........These are the one's who progress the fastest.........
The ones who naturally want to turn the ball over need the MOST basic work on retraining proper "throwing form"........Which is NOT to turn the over UNLESS YOU WANT TO.......
This is NO DIFFERENT then when you have an infielder whose natural propensity when throwing to bases is to throw a "curve ball"........In effect "turning the ball over", vs. staying slightly INSIDE THE BALL through release, which produces a much better overhand throw with higher velocity, WAY MORE control, and better overall mechanics.......
Boardmember thank you.Over the years you have helped me on several occcations with IR She is my student and what you've described is what I call "pushing the ball" and not snapping the ball. We will add the football drill to the other drills you've posted. As for the drill with the body and lifting the leg, that is something I've used with beginners over the years, it has nothing to do with IR. Its about feeling the momentum and transfer of power through you stride. We spend half of the lesson working on IR and the other half on posture and pitching mechanics. Since we are in season, getting new pitchers capable enough to perform decent enough to get some mound time is part of the big picture. Im just a local coach that loves fastpitch and is trying to get better at teaching it. A former HE to IR guy. Thanks for the kind words for my student. To be continued