Help me help her!

[csmda5]

I've been reading here and slowly teaching myself. My daughter just turned 12(6th grade) and played her first year in fast pitch this season. She played little league and made her middle school team. In november we started practicing for softball and started pitching. So she's only been pitching for about 7 months. We had a friend who pitched in college work with her a few times to get her started.

At this point I've been stressing the nose and her posture/lean. It was very forward before. She's done really well pitching this season. She has good velocity but that's just because she's so long and flexible, but before this she was the kid who could throw a runner out at first with her foot still on 3rd base. Getting her to catch that ball was a different story entirely her first year She's much better at fielding now, lol. I'm not surprised she can throw hard. All I want is for her to throw RIGHT.

She wants this bad and my husband and I are not equipped to help her with this. We don't know any coaches that teach IR and this is really what I have my heart set on for her, especially with the way her body is set up. Her joints are "too" flexible. Normally an elbow only bends one way, hers bends both ways... This over flexibility has caused some issues but we're seeing a physical therapist to fix that. I want to make sure she doesn't injure herself in the future.

Here are some really awful iphone videos of her warming up. I don't have any programs to slow it down. One doesn't have sound because I turned it off. Figured you didn't want to hear me babbling with my daughter and oldest son.
[video]http://www.amandarockwell.com/bananapitch1.mp4[/video]
[video]http://www.amandarockwell.com/bananapitch2.mp4[/video]

 

[Amy in AZ.]

There is a lot of wasted motion, in her pitch. I would advise her not to take the ball over her head, to start. My own daughter did that in HS, and tore up her shoulder. Her shoulder was working twice each pitch.

Watch the Bill Hillhouse videos on Youtube, about keeping it simple.

You are right, about her having the ability. Down load the app SloMo and then, give us better videos.

 

[lhowser]

Her "elbow bends both ways"?

 

[Doug Romrell]

One positive thing is that I think she has the physique to be a very good pitcher. There's just a lot to work on. I see a lot of things that need to be smoothed out. I would slow her down and calm her motions down some.

 

[sluggers]

Totally agree with Amy...

She has talent, *BUT* she is starting late. You either have to jump in with both feet or forget it. At her age, there is no middle ground. The truth: There are less talented 12YOA girls in California, Arizona and Alabama who can pitch circles around your DD.

This is a little tough love: You and her either get with it *NOW*, or don't bother.

What do I mean? You want help, but you post a really bad video. If you want help, take a few extra minutes and post a much better quality video? (We need one from the back.)

Anyway:

Can she play pitch and catch underhanded? That is, can you and she toss the ball underhanded to you without doing that crazy windup? (Where do these kids get these insane windups?)

1) You need to get the "parent pitching kit" consisting of the two Bill Hillhouse DVDs, "Building the House" and "Tricks of the Trade", which will cost you $70 total. Bill Hillhouse: House of Pitching Softball Academy That way, you won't have to be guessing about the motion.

2) IR is important, but it isn't the whole enchilada. Your DD is transferring her weight forward too early.
Her torso should be the middle between her feet at release. As you can see, her torso is over her left foot at release.

3) She needs to be practicing much, much more. She needs to be throwing 4 -5 days a week for 60 minutes. (60 minutes *AFTER* she warms up.)

 

[csmda5]

I found an app and will get better video this week, I will also be purchasing those DVDs.

I agree that her windup is on the crazy side. I've been telling her there is too much and it throws her off balance, there is also no consistency. It just seems common sense to me that those things need to be in line. And the weight transfer has actually gotten much better, so you can see why I felt the "lean" issue was important.

She can play catch underhand. I don't know why she puts all that movement in her pitch, I really believe it's mental and not physical. If you give her too much time to think, then you see what I posted above. It's when she's in game mode and just throwing that she gets in a good groove. I think the only way to explain this to her would be to record her and show her after the fact.

About the elbow, yes it bends the other way. When you lock your elbow into a straight position it's straight, hers can bend the opposite direction almost at a 45 degree angle. There's no neutral point in her joints, this goes for her shoulders and hips as well.

 

[marriard]

1) You need to get the "parent pitching kit" consisting of the two Bill Hillhouse DVDs, "Building the House" and "Tricks of the Trade", which will cost you $70 total. Bill Hillhouse: House of Pitching Softball Academy That way, you won't have to be guessing about the motion.

Every pitcher should have this

3) She needs to be practicing much, much more. She needs to be throwing 4 -5 days a week for 60 minutes. (60 minutes *AFTER* she warms up.)

That is a LOT - but as long as you are including games as part of this time you are probably not over doing it and she does have ground to make up.

I will say this - it doesn't look smooth. It is like she does this, then she does this, and then... and so on. The whole pre-pitch can be massively simplified and smoothed. I don't like her bending all the way forward while her arm goes all the way back - her weight is all over the place and it is tough to drive and get your timing right from that position unless you are Amanda Scarborough - and she compensates with a massively fast arm catching up to everything else. Your DD could easily just start with her hands near her chest, stand tall and just bring the ball down to her hip/slightly behind her-right now there is a lot of energy being used going backwards which doesn't do much for going forward.

Hard to tell with your video, but it looks like her arm is pretty straight through a lot of the motion. Almost a bowling motion.

If she is throwing a lot of strikes with her current motion then she has some talent.


Yes we need much better video and from additional angles to help us help you more.

 

[csmda5]

Every pitcher should have this



That is a LOT - but as long as you are including games as part of this time you are probably not over doing it and she does have ground to make up.

I will say this - it doesn't look smooth. It is like she does this, then she does this, and then... and so on. The whole pre-pitch can be massively simplified and smoothed. I don't like her bending all the way forward while her arm goes all the way back - her weight is all over the place and it is tough to drive and get your timing right from that position unless you are Amanda Scarborough - and she compensates with a massively fast arm catching up to everything else. Your DD could easily just start with her hands near her chest, stand tall and just bring the ball down to her hip/slightly behind her-right now there is a lot of energy being used going backwards which doesn't do much for going forward.

Hard to tell with your video, but it looks like her arm is pretty straight through a lot of the motion. Almost a bowling motion.

If she is throwing a lot of strikes with her current motion then she has some talent.


Yes we need much better video and from additional angles to help us help you more.

That's the thing, she is throwing a lot of strikes. She has struck out 3 girls in a row at middle school level multiple times. There is no JV/varsity here, the teams have 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Obviously that's easier to do in little league level, but it's very common for her to do 3 up and 3 down. Which in my opinion is great for her confidence but doesn't mean much for her future. I don't care about instant gratification and I don't want her to either. I want to break everything down and make her do it right.

Thank you for adding the backwards energy comment. For some reason that makes complete sense to me and I didn't have a way to word it before.

 

[marriard]

Thank you for adding the backwards energy comment. For some reason that makes complete sense to me and I didn't have a way to word it before.

No problem. It is all about efficient use of energy used. It isn't effortless - but it can certainly look that way.

You didn't give us a general location - sometimes we might know a good PC in your area. Even if you only go once a month due to distance or time, it is still better than going totally alone no matter how good the advice is here at DFP.

Is she joining a travel team now LL & Middle School are likely over? Depending on where you are LL and Middle School tend to be either questionable competition or at best inconsistent. Being around the next level of competition players is also going to be important (so is circle time to pitch).

 

[csmda5]

I live in the panhandle of FL. We've been asked to join a travel team but my husband is just now realizing this needs to be done this year. I could travel west to pensacola or east to Panama City.

There's basically one coach I know of that a lot of people use here but I don't know what she teaches, her students all pitch so differently. I'm really afraid of her learning more bad habits. I do want to take her for one lesson and see what she teaches exactly.

Middle school is over and the only thing we have left for LL is all stars. She's played with the local travel girls on the middle school team and there's one LL team that is full of them from a neighboring city. So she'd have friends no matter where someone picked her up for travel.