Fixing a crow hop?

[corlay]

My 10yr old is pitching very well, but in her development in getting a stronger/more powerful stride, (we get six-seven foot lengths) has developed a leap and plant vs a leap and drag motion.

We are working toward addressing this, but as many of you well know, when you try to alter/fix an important aspect of a young pitchers mexhanics, they often tend to overly-fixate on that single aspect, making a HUGE adjustment, and killing everything else good about how they are delivering the ball. Certianly dont want her carving out the grand canyon with her toe drag in response to this "fix"!

Our prompting to her so far is to try and point her toe immediately after push off, and that seemed to help immediately. Shes getting a light toe drag maybe 50% of the time now. PC also suggested laying an old sock 6"-8" in front of the rubber and across her drag lane to receive instant feedback during practice sessions with me. If the sock moved than she had a drag. (Very difficult for me to assess hop vs drag from the catchers position)

Funny thing is, the hop is hurting more than helping her. When she hops, she tends to get very forward with her upper body at delivery. Her control and to a lesser extent her speed suffers. When she gets a drag she appears much smoother, stays back way better, and speed accuracy improves. Shes also probably doesnt get open enough during her motion, and I think that this might be a contrubuting factor as well?

Was wondering if others here could suggest other tricks/tips/drills to try as we get her back to a proper leap/drag motion?

Weve got 10u tournaments this weekend and next, so im loathe to really mess her up, until we get a week off in two weeks. But the "point your toe" prompt seems to be helping without adverse affects on the rest of her mechanics.

 

[Carly]

The hop DOES hurt way more than it helps, so that's not unusual.

I find the most effective way to combat the crow hop is to mix in dry-run pitches where she doesn't throw the ball. 99% of the time pitchers can do it perfectly that way. You say she's doing it right about half the time, which is great; it means she's in a malleable stage and this hasn't become habit. When she drags, let her keep throwing. When she hops, have her do 2 pitches without the ball, making sure her drag is correct, before throwing again. You can make it a game, where she tries to break her own no-hop record before she hops again and has to do it without the ball.

 

[corlay]

Thanks Carly!

You are right on the money about her looking perfect in Dry Runs without actually delivering the ball.

Although, when a girl is just 10, isn't *everything* still in a "malleable stage"? Ha!
I attribute it to a young body still learning "body awareness".
Still a lot of variability in her motion.
Gross mechanics have gotten pretty consistent, but lots of subtle variability still.
path of backswing, distance of hand to body at release, how "open" she gets, what she looks like after release, etc. all still vary a bit pitch-to-pitch.

I have repeated it too her enough though that when she executes "proper mechanics" it results in an excellent pitch.
She has bought in to this philosophy and has become extremely "coachable" as a result.
She is driven to do things "the right way" this season, and understands that learning proper mechanics now will only help her in the long run. This is the first season that she's started to become a "pitcher" vs. simply a kid who "throws strikes". Pretty amazing to witness that transformation...

Side Note: at our tournament this weekend, between our own games, we walked around the fields to watch and "critique" older 14U and 16U pitchers. She was completely *aghast* at how most of these older girls were demonstrating aspects of pitching that she's worked so hard to correct in her own pitching. And we saw a select few that were unbelievably amazing. She came away inspired, seeing the difference.

 

[Jojo]

Along with the dry pitching, which I totally love, also add close fence work where she can practice actually throwing the ball but throwing a strike is taken out of the mindset since the fence or wall is so close. It allows her to focus on her mechanics.

 

[corlay]

Jojo - thanks I'm going to include the close fence work into our practices and even pre-game until she gets a good feel for the toe drag. great idea. I'm thinking adding the sock on the ground with this will help provide and instant feedback loop.

 

[halskinner]

She is 10yo. Her stride length is 6 to 7 feet, as I understand it?

How tall is she? Does her pivot toe drag away from the rubber before the stride foot touches down, or after?

 

[NVfishing]

If it's not one thing it's another! I am experiencing the same thing with my 9 year old. I found out when I looked at a photo from this weekend. I'm going to use Amy's noodle method. Use a "pool" noodle and hold it above their head down the location they are pitching towards. Hold it the height of their tippy toes above the head. If they hit the noodle with their head while driving forward then they know they are leaping in air. She says it works very good to reduce the hop.

 

[NVfishing]

instaimage gallery


These are photos from the weekend. I will be starting tonight working on toe drag. It wasn't there a year ago in any of our photos.

The web page link has multiple photos but the link to this one page is where they photo'd my DD. She's in blue and gray with the two black stripes under her eyes.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

NV, Oh, no. That is huge! She is going to have to shorten up that stride. I consider that a leap. And a leap is easier to fix than a replant, in my opinion.

I know I sound like a broken record, but don't let her pitch if she is illegal. That might motivate her to fix it. Keep us posted.

 

[NVfishing]

I had no idea until I saw the photo. We started a new exercise to get more explosive, the flamingo. Not sure if that's when it happened? Going to do a lot of in the house and on the carpet with socks on toe drags. She did get more explosive though!!