- Aug 21, 2008
- 2,386
- 113
I'd be curious which of the millions of drills you plan do do. And I'm confused about the throwing shoulder below the glove shoulder thing. That's a new one to me.
Bill
Pitcher Needs Help
- Thread starter rdelawder
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I'd be curious which of the millions of drills you plan do do. And I'm confused about the throwing shoulder below the glove shoulder thing. That's a new one to me.
Bill
- Jul 14, 2008
- 1,798
- 63
While there isn't really clear enough information from the clips provided to make accurate recomendations.....using a little video filter magic by pulling up the gamma levels, we can see a little more then in the original clip.........
Attached is a capture of her at 6 (release). She is way, way on her left foot. Compare that to the photo of Osterman at 6.
"Turn and throws" and Carolina walk through are the drills that should do her some good.
These flaws in her motion are fundamental. She isn't going to progress until her motion is fixed. I'm not quite sure I understand how waiting is anyone's best interest.
"Turn and throws" and Carolina walk through are the drills that should do her some good.
These flaws in her motion are fundamental. She isn't going to progress until her motion is fixed. I'm not quite sure I understand how waiting is anyone's best interest.
This was the Million Drills i was speaking of.
The throwing shoulder imho should be below the glove shoulder on release. Jennie finch does this, Cat is more even with her shoulders.
I plan on working with her arm path with a touch, touch, touch drill. It's a drill where the arm goes straight back(on a pitcher that likes to go back to start her pitch, I know some like to keep it by their side and not give away pitches), it should lightly graze the hip, not enough to where it will 1. hurt after doing it a lot of times, 2. change the trajectory of the arm path. Then the arm again touches the hip coming back through on the windup(same 2 scenarios on the touch). And lastly touching the hip again on release. Now on the third touch I understand the Internal rotation theory in that the elbow almost needs to be in the side on the throw. I need her to have her release as close as possible to the hip and in front of it with her core being around 45degrees open and then closing after the release.
I'm also going to get her to be more fluent with her delivery. How is the million dollar question, what drills work best with that?
I also think she slams her land leg too hard and that could be because she raises her left leg way above her knee. Isn't the drive leg(Left Leg of a righty) supposed to not go higher than her push leg(Right Leg of a righty) knee?
She violently throws with her shoulder as you can see it comes straight up, and the elbow goes towards third. The arm shouldn't go that way after release.
Another thing she does in warm ups is she takes her core and drops it and her shoulder and arm brings it back up. I'm going to work basically on her posture, she should be tall throughout the pitch, Jennie F even points her nose in the air to achieve the tallness in her pitch.
Any drills that people suggest will be looked at to make her a better pitcher. She definetly has the It factor. She hustles, dives for balls, runs hard, works hard, she smiles when I talk to her. She definetly has potential.
Sorry for the long post, I just want to make sure I'm doing the right things, and looking at the right things.
I'm working on the fundaMENTAL
flaws now, I do agree that those can be fixed without a major overhaul. I don't want to completly break her down and then restart her during the season. I have her focusing on opening up to third and pushing back on the left leg so her weight doesn't go forward.
CoachFP I dont think so, she created most of these flaws in the back yard throwing into a Pitch Back Screen while I was working this past summer. She created a lot of this by practicing a screw ball and dedicating the 2009 summer at shortstop for her team in Ohio, while only pitching in 5 games at 14U and I believe threw 6 games for a 12U team in league play. I since eliminated the screw ball and then relocated to Arizona and she will work every day to get back on track because she wants too!! However all the recommendations on this post and with her Coach, hopefully we can fast track it and have her back to where she use to be by January or February at the latest.
First, a couple of comments:
(A) It seems to me that you are trying to work on too much. Her real problem is her arm motion (i.e., the chicken wing), premature closing of the upper body and her weight being over her front leg at release. Until those things are fixed, there is not much point in working on anything else.
(B) Focus on "the flow" and not the mechanical position of each body part during a pitch. (I made that mistake with my DD.) You do not want her thinking, "Do A, now do B, now do C." She should simply throw the ball.
Ultimately, using the hip as an arm guide will do more harm than good. If she gets in the correct position at the top of the circle, stays open, and keeps her weight back, the arm almost has to go in the correct direction.
As to drills:
My favorite drills for improving flow are "underhanded pitch and catch" and "rapid fire".
Underhand pitch and catch is just what it sounds like. You stand up and you play pitch and catch just like you would play pitch and catch overhand. No crazy windup, no getting setup, she just gets the ball and tosses it to you underhand.
"Rapid fire" is similar to pitch and catch, except that you do everything as fast as possible. She throws you the ball. You throw the ball back to her as quickly as possible. As soon as the ball hits her glove, she starts her throwing motion. The only way for her to do the drill without throwing the ball over your head is for her to minimize the extraneous movement.
She gets open. You stand behind her, put your right hand on her right shoulder and put your left hand against the left side of the back.
(A) It seems to me that you are trying to work on too much. Her real problem is her arm motion (i.e., the chicken wing), premature closing of the upper body and her weight being over her front leg at release. Until those things are fixed, there is not much point in working on anything else.
(B) Focus on "the flow" and not the mechanical position of each body part during a pitch. (I made that mistake with my DD.) You do not want her thinking, "Do A, now do B, now do C." She should simply throw the ball.
Ultimately, using the hip as an arm guide will do more harm than good. If she gets in the correct position at the top of the circle, stays open, and keeps her weight back, the arm almost has to go in the correct direction.
As to drills:
My favorite drills for improving flow are "underhanded pitch and catch" and "rapid fire".
Underhand pitch and catch is just what it sounds like. You stand up and you play pitch and catch just like you would play pitch and catch overhand. No crazy windup, no getting setup, she just gets the ball and tosses it to you underhand.
"Rapid fire" is similar to pitch and catch, except that you do everything as fast as possible. She throws you the ball. You throw the ball back to her as quickly as possible. As soon as the ball hits her glove, she starts her throwing motion. The only way for her to do the drill without throwing the ball over your head is for her to minimize the extraneous movement.
She gets open. You stand behind her, put your right hand on her right shoulder and put your left hand against the left side of the back.
