I wish I had discovered this board earlier, as I have learned a lot (notably the internal rotation discussion) during the past couple of weeks by reading through many recent threads.
I have a small 13 yr old (5'1") who started pitching in 10 U, using nothing more than Cheri Kempf's book and video for guidance (having studied human anatomy in school myself, Kempf's explanations made more sense to me biomechanically than what I was hearing from some of our local pitching coaches, so I made the decision to become a bucket-dad and channel Kempf myself. Since then, I've added Barry Sammons' book and Marc Dagenais' pitching bundle to our reference collection). She has had reasonable success this summer playing 14 C, leading her team to a good showing at the state games. However, her progress has become stagnant, and my ability to help her improve has definitely reached a hard limit. Our rather uneven fall ball experience proves that a 50 mph fastball and an upper 30's change-up can only get you so far against A and B batters. I would like to find some new ways to help her develop further (and correct some bad habits) during the off season, so that she will continue to have fun next season. We are not really after anything else.
As several posters have received very helpful feedback from the experts here using their videos, I figured I'd give it a try as well. Here are a few shots of her during a pre-game warm-up. These are 300 fps sequences shot with a Casio EX-F1, which has been a godsend for DIY motion analysis.
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511307&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511307&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7511307">Front</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user516005">Gene</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511203&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511203&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7511203">Side</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user516005">Gene</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511158&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511158&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7511158">Back</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user516005">Gene</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
... and some frame captures per the pinned video-posting instructions:
Clearly, her internal rotation is nowhere near where it needs to be (we are working on it); perhaps due to insufficient thumb pressure, her hand tends to slip medially behind the ball at release if she fully pronates her forearm during the snap, giving her ball the dreaded football spin. In these videos, she was doing her 'normal' release, because she didn't have enough confidence in her 'new' motion to use it in a game. Until I read the internal rotation thread here, I had been actively encouraging her to make her release more 'bowling'-like, no doubt contributing to her slow progress.
Purely by chance, we ran into Ken Gardner at a Burger joint this weekend during a tournament. As my daughter was in uniform, he picked up a conversation with us and introduced himself as Monica Abbott's one time pitching coach (and counts Keilani Ricketts among his recent students). He then proceeded to give my daughter some quick tips, such as closing her hip behind the pitch to maintain her forward momentum after release. I wonder if this was a sign from the softball gods that it's time for me to entrust the coaching task to the pros...
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, both in terms of my daughter's pitching mechanics and whether or not I should give Ken a call.
Thanks!
GT
I have a small 13 yr old (5'1") who started pitching in 10 U, using nothing more than Cheri Kempf's book and video for guidance (having studied human anatomy in school myself, Kempf's explanations made more sense to me biomechanically than what I was hearing from some of our local pitching coaches, so I made the decision to become a bucket-dad and channel Kempf myself. Since then, I've added Barry Sammons' book and Marc Dagenais' pitching bundle to our reference collection). She has had reasonable success this summer playing 14 C, leading her team to a good showing at the state games. However, her progress has become stagnant, and my ability to help her improve has definitely reached a hard limit. Our rather uneven fall ball experience proves that a 50 mph fastball and an upper 30's change-up can only get you so far against A and B batters. I would like to find some new ways to help her develop further (and correct some bad habits) during the off season, so that she will continue to have fun next season. We are not really after anything else.
As several posters have received very helpful feedback from the experts here using their videos, I figured I'd give it a try as well. Here are a few shots of her during a pre-game warm-up. These are 300 fps sequences shot with a Casio EX-F1, which has been a godsend for DIY motion analysis.
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511307&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511307&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7511307">Front</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user516005">Gene</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511203&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511203&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7511203">Side</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user516005">Gene</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511158&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7511158&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7511158">Back</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user516005">Gene</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
... and some frame captures per the pinned video-posting instructions:
Clearly, her internal rotation is nowhere near where it needs to be (we are working on it); perhaps due to insufficient thumb pressure, her hand tends to slip medially behind the ball at release if she fully pronates her forearm during the snap, giving her ball the dreaded football spin. In these videos, she was doing her 'normal' release, because she didn't have enough confidence in her 'new' motion to use it in a game. Until I read the internal rotation thread here, I had been actively encouraging her to make her release more 'bowling'-like, no doubt contributing to her slow progress.
Purely by chance, we ran into Ken Gardner at a Burger joint this weekend during a tournament. As my daughter was in uniform, he picked up a conversation with us and introduced himself as Monica Abbott's one time pitching coach (and counts Keilani Ricketts among his recent students). He then proceeded to give my daughter some quick tips, such as closing her hip behind the pitch to maintain her forward momentum after release. I wonder if this was a sign from the softball gods that it's time for me to entrust the coaching task to the pros...
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, both in terms of my daughter's pitching mechanics and whether or not I should give Ken a call.
Thanks!
GT