Feedback on mechanics

[JJsqueeze]

you had to point that out huh? Sad but true... I will pick up some gear the next time I go to the sporting goods store Mr. Sluggers.

 

[slingnit]

The little step before she drives off, not sure if the reason for your dd is the same as mine. When not using a pitching rubber she will take a slight step, just like yours. Put her on a rubber, it goes away.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Yeah- on the rubber this disappears. I tried to find a good material to make a rubber from but no luck so I'll rig something up this weekend using a 1X4 with some sort of cushiony cover.

 

[JJsqueeze]

She is super athletic and looks like she throws the ball hard. Yes I agree that she should try and get more elbow bend.
One thing I see that is a little different than my DD is that the left foot steps on and across the powerline. We find it easier to get the hips and shoulders more at a 45 degree angle if the left foot steps just to the left of the powerline, or exactly forward from where it originally starts on the rubber.

Then again we could be doing it totally wrong.

You turned out to be so right on. The stepping across the powerline is the #1 accuracy killer right now. The sequence is that she is rotating her pivot foot to open up quickly and all the way but is actually opening up too much, causes the foot to go to 90 and she steps across the powerline. 80% of her pitchers are on the inside half of the zone when she does this... but when she uses less rotation of the pivot foot and lands with her toes just a smidge to the left of the powerline she can get anywhere in the zone. BIG ACCURACY IPROVEMENT. Thank you soooo much.

 

[Softballs]

Awesome. That is why I love this board so much.

I can tell when my DD is stepping too far over the powerline, inside pitches and the occasional fresh leg bruise from hitting the leg.

 

[Ken B]

Yeah- on the rubber this disappears. I tried to find a good material to make a rubber from but no luck so I'll rig something up this weekend using a 1X4 with some sort of cushiony cover.

A 1x4 would feel a little awkward. Check with a good hardware or farm supply store and look for shop/stall mat. Meanwhile, I'd suggest cutting a piece of plywood to 6x24" with 2-4 holes drilled in it for large nails or spikes.

 

[JJsqueeze]

We hadn't done walkthroughs in a while for some reason so yesterday we added them back in and of course I had to see the speed since they tend to be a good indicator of where her speed will be in 6 months or so and me being a bucket dad, I just love seeing new numbers pop out of the radar gun....she was cracking 56-57...57 friggin miles an hour as a 12 year old. When we first started this thread a year and a half ago I would have been impressed if she was touching that in high school, now she is seriously eyeballing trying to hit 60 by her first year of 14s. I had to go back and remind myself how far she has come as a result of a lot of practice and my being able to feed her information I have learned on this board. To those dads and moms that are just kind of finding out about some of the teaching points most of us adhere to in this forum, I promise that if my DD can get better using them then any kid can. I still can't believe this stuff isn't common knowledge.

 

[Perfect Circle]

Awesome...DD's getting her first radar gun readings this weekend. I'm just as interested in her BatSpeed

 

[Rocketech1]

We hadn't done walkthroughs in a while for some reason so yesterday we added them back in and of course I had to see the speed since they tend to be a good indicator of where her speed will be in 6 months or so and me being a bucket dad, I just love seeing new numbers pop out of the radar gun....she was cracking 56-57...57 friggin miles an hour as a 12 year old. When we first started this thread a year and a half ago I would have been impressed if she was touching that in high school, now she is seriously eyeballing trying to hit 60 by her first year of 14s. I had to go back and remind myself how far she has come as a result of a lot of practice and my being able to feed her information I have learned on this board. To those dads and moms that are just kind of finding out about some of the teaching points most of us adhere to in this forum, I promise that if my DD can get better using them then any kid can. I still can't believe this stuff isn't common knowledge.

Great job JJ.

One thing to keep in mind as it relates to speed at this age is that growth spurts from 11-13YO also has an effect on generating more velocity. For example, at 10U nationals we faced a pitcher that threw consistently mid 50's (was very dominate) and while she had good mechanics, physically she was bigger than most pitchers her age as she matured early based on her peer group. Fast forward to 12U, we faced her again last summer and she wasn't nearly as dominate as she was the previous year and her speed was about the same.

I also like what you said that Rick Balswick focuses almost exclusively on SPIN. I think we parents can get caught up with pure speed, but spin and movement should be emphasized just as much as velocity.

 

[BoardMember]

The question is.......What are you going to do with everything you've learned AFTER your kids are done.......