High School Ball

[rdbass]

She tucks the ball behind her head in her overhand throwing motion

 

[left turn]

RD BASS, I see what you are talking about. There is a fluidity and beauty to Ichiro's motion. His throwing hand is behind his head as his left hand/elbow/shoulder points to the target. This young lady I mentioned tucks the throwing hand behind her head but does not rotate her shoulders nearly as much. She faces the target as she throws.

The point is not the correctness of her motion. The issue is the HS coach expected the young lady to make an immediate change to her throwing motion within a few short weeks. It is a fundamental change that would probably take months.

So here is the question, how long would it take for a player to make a fundamental change in their throwing motion? For example a player that drops her elbow when she throws or doesn't rotate her shoulders to throw or a batter that drops her hands to her waist during the swing. What does it take to make that type of fundamental change and how would you approach it?

 

[RubberBiscuit]

High School Softball carries way more pressure than travel ball

I knew I could count on you SC for an injection of comedy.....

 

[JAD]

Dd's skill set has been destroyed in HS ball... batting avg has dropped about 200 points, and her pitching has never been worse. She is made to do push ups for utilizing an IR approach, if HE isn't performed she is told to drop and push ten. Thanks to this a-- hole her speed is down about 10 mph and the spin/movement is horrible. Been such a horrible experience that it's highly unlikely she'll play next year. Thinking we'll give tennis a whirl.

If a HS coach made my DD do push ups for pitching with IR vs. HE, that would be her last day on the team.....

 

[Doug Romrell]

If a HS coach made my DD do push ups for pitching with IR vs. HE, that would be her last day on the team.....

It would take less flack than that about IR for it to be my DD's last day on the team. As far as I'm concerned, a coach who isn't familiar with internal rotation has no business suggesting much of anything with regards to a pitchers mechanics. Call it bias, but that's how I see it.

 

[Greenmonsters]

So here is the question, how long would it take for a player to make a fundamental change in their throwing motion? For example a player that drops her elbow when she throws or doesn't rotate her shoulders to throw....... What does it take to make that type of fundamental change and how would you approach it?

Show her the right way (see Wasserman drill/refs above) and she'll immediately see increased speed and feel less (or no) stress on her arm when she throws. With that kind of incentive, changing mechanics can be pretty quick.

 

[coach james]

Without seeing the motion in action, I would strongly suggest you check out Austin Wasserman's throwing motion then have the coaches do the same. He has everyone he instructs take the ball behind the head and it never ceases to amaze me how fast the overhand ball speed is for his students.

I saw that Wasserman utube clip....weird, but effective in getting more of a torso led whip.
When I helped coach the HS team a couple years ago, my approach was a lot less technical than it is with my travel team. HS girls only have about two months. With that said the coaching approach needs to be more results based and less technical mechanics. If a kid is the worlds biggest caster but somehow adjusts well and is quick to the ball and can consistently hit smoking line drives, why in the hell would a HS coach spend every day shortening up her swing. That time is better served fielding basic fungo or fly balls! Some of these guys get a big head and try to be a hero with Sally and take her credit when she doss well. This is true my personal case. The HC wanted to be her exclusive PC. I never worked with dd much after school or on weekends due to my younger dds team as well as my private lesson students and I tried to watch as many of her games as I could, not to mention dd was exhausted after school practices. All those hours relearning muscle memory....gone. All the money spent with Bill Hillhouse....gone. All her spin...gone. About 10 mph...gone. Makes me furious. Why cant they just let them play? I get it, if its little Suzie who doesn't play outside of school ball or rec, but to change the fundamentals on seasoned TB girls that do this 11 months a year is insane! Then to find out he made her do push ups for not performing HE....Im ready to kick his rear, this is why DD will be on the tennis court next spring.

 

[iMlearning]

throes

So here is the question, how long would it take for a player to make a fundamental change in their throwing motion? For example a player that drops her elbow when she throws or doesn't rotate her shoulders to throw....... What does it take to make that type of fundamental change and how would you approach it?

Show her the right way (see Wasserman drill/refs above) and she'll immediately see increased speed and feel less (or no) stress on her arm when she throws. With that kind of incentive, changing mechanics can be pretty quick.

I started to see a difference in about 2 weeks with DD doing the drills every day and after a month her coaches noticed a big change and I never told them what we were doing.

 

[JUST A Softball mom]

HS.....where to start,

DD struggled initially. Where we live HS ball is very competitive. At first, as her parent, and her biggest fan , it was really hard for me to take a step back and watch my DD struggle. She just turned 15 this month, and was not nor was I prepared for the intense pressure to perform with and or compete against 16, 17, 18 year olds at the varsity level. However, having just finished up with state and watching her team take home a trophy....and knowing that she had contributed to that, was an amazing thing to witness (oh that SMILE).

HS ball, for DD, was a time of major growth, mentally, physically and emotionally. As a parent, it was at times very hard to watch her go through those growing pains but at the end of the day, she is better for it.

 

[Country Boy]

True that but I've been called insane for various legitimate reasons and quite a few illegitimate reasons.... I was just trying to figure out which side of the fence the OP was on.

Maybe we've been in some of the same padded rooms!!