Need Advice: Day 1 Road to Recovery

[Dave619]

First let me apologize for the video. I cannot find a way to rotate it in windows media player so I hope it will do if it loads. I ended up loading it on youtube. This was the first day we (my DD is 11 and pitching 1 year) started to work on getting away from the "elbow to the catcher" on the follow through.

Last night I watched Bill Hillhouse pitching clinic videos on youtube and ordered two of his videos. Very helpful stuff. There are a lot of things she needs to work on based on what you all have given me advice on and what Bill had to say in his clinic videos.

Today my DD and I had a good discussion on "taking two steps forward and one step back" so she understands we are working to correct a few things so she can be consistent in what she is doing. She didn't like the idea of only throwing a fastball for now, but I explained if she could locate her fastball and throw it off speed that is better than what she is doing now. She understood and we moved on.

From Bill Hillhouse's video clips I focused on a few things: Shoulder towards target, arm makes two touches (bicep by ear and arm by the belly button), and snap at the elbow.

I wanted to go slow with her so all I had her do was throw with a focus on brushing by her belly button and snap at the elbow. As you will see in the video she wants to close her hip out of habit. I wanted her lower body to be passive while we were doing this in order to not close that hip. I assume the hip will just rotate naturally from the throw itself. Not sure if that if correct? She has been throwing a lot of inside pitches becuase she was doing exactly what Hillhouse says in his video...she is closing her hip and throwing around her body.

What you see in the video she probably did about 100 reps of this. Again, not sure if right or wrong? That is all we did today. While she was doing this she did make the statement "this is easier". I asked why and she said, "i don't have to focus on making my elbow come up". Made sense to me.

VID 20130120 171502 - YouTube

Please tell me anything I need to point out to her that you see or if this is a good way for her start making these corrections. Thanks!

 

[ThatDad]

Lets see if I can explain this right. One thing I have done in the past is to get about a 3' dowl, and I sit on a bucket straight in front of her while she is in K position. I point the dowl into her hip and push a little to keep her hip back. As she hits the dowl with her arm, it releases easily and lets her hip come through naturaly. You should'nt have to do it for long. Keep in mind as well those dang hips never go away, it is an issues pitchers deal with through-out their carreers

 

[Carly]

It's a good place to start to fix the release, but she's got a little to much hard rotation forward in her whole body. Have her try to keep both feet down for this type of drill and hardly move the body at all, focusing on the arms only. This will help her work on the finish too; she's somewhere between an elbow up release and a fluid release, but that's normal for the early stages of changing.

 

[Pitching Dad]

Papa, tell her to RELAX!!!! LOL!!!!First off I commend yourself and her on identifying some problems and trying to fix things. I also have an 11 yr old that I have been going through the same things that you currently fixing. We have been going to Hillhouse now for two months and are well on our way to recovering from 3 years of bad habits!!! What I see is her shoulder, arm, wrist and fingers are forcing the ball through instead of a "whip" some call in IR. Bill teaches an up together down together drill in which she stands sideways to her target on her power line ball in glove at her side. Her right arm goes back to the 12 o'clock position with bicep touching her ear, at the same time her rt arm goes back her glove hand goes up and points toward her target and her left leg goes up. When she starts "down" with her right arm her left arm drops and so does her left leg. Hence Up together with the arms and left leg then down together. As she comes down her elbow snaps, then wrist then fingers in succession and she makes sure her arm brushes her stomach and she finishes the pitch arm following through across her body and touching her left shoulder.
This really helped my daughter gain about 6 mph and when whipped correctly my dd says "Dad I don't feel like I'm even throwing hard" It has also helped her spin immensely. He also has her throwing like this into her own glove, like this first then with full motion. She will GET IT, have her do this everyday for at least 10-15 min. Keep telling her to keep her upper body LOOSE!!! Good luck!

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Big Papapump, I think you're going to be ok. You're doing the right thing building from the ground up. Your DD will buck you from time to time as they want to rush into pitches and feel "waiting" is for us old folks. But waiting until we are ready for the next step is required.

You will have to acquire patients too, and I'm glad you had the "two steps forward" talk. There will even be days you will take 5 steps back, just the nature of the beast.

My best 2 cents is that pitching is a journey and that we never really reach a destination. It's an art, an oil painting we splash colors on daily but never truely finish. I've pitched a good portion of my life as others on here have. At 39 I still learn something new probably on a weekly/monthly basis.

Have fun and enjoy this road with your DD, always end on a good note during drills or practice. Best of luck and keep us posted in progress.

 

[CLM265]

Look at the first one and watch her arm release then the next two she stops her arm abruptly at th hip and her shoulder goes up. I would keep track that she is relaxed and letting the arm go through it's full motion.

 

[sluggers]

I second Carly. She is rotating her lower body too much at release. She needs to make sure the arm passes the hip and the ball is released before she rotates her lower body. (She shouldn't be rotating much at all in this particular drill.)

The rotation is causing her to have her weight over her left foot at release. So, she needs to "stay back".

 

[slingnit]

What I think would be a good drill would be to snap into her glove. Bill talks about in his clinic, it is at about 5:45. And he does a much better job explaining than I would.

Pitching Clinic Part 2 - Bill Hillhouse

 

[nanotech14]

First get some sidewalk chalk and make her a power line. I also agree with Carly and slugger. I also would have her finish by over exaggerate the pitching hand going to her glove arm shoulder, for awhile. Bill had my dd do that for awhile. It helped her to finish the pitch and remember the hip only follows the arm after release, have her practice in front of a mirror a full size mirror, wal mart sells a cheap on for around $10. Put tape on the floor and roll up some socks to throw. Every night before she goes to bed have her throw for at least 15mins in front of that mirror.

 

[humpty]

Have a look at IR thread especially ball and hand positions at different check points thru out ARM circle. When doing this drill up together down together both arms.