Pitching Instruction

[rdbass]

Having a place to use in the winter is key.You catching your DD while a instructor walks around observing is very helpful.Take advantage of the weekend work outs.Remember as your DD is learning so are you along with her.Listen to everything the instructor says to your DD.You will be your DD most usefull ''coach'' beings you will be with her the most.eg games and all the practice.Being the dad of a pitcher is a year round commitment if you want to continue to get mound time.Enjoy.

 

[sluggers]

Another thing I liked about this place is they have group sessions for just a few bucks on the weekends where the students (only students of their instruction) can come and work out.

In addition to having a place to throw, this is very good. Your DD and you will see pitchers much better than your DD, so you'll get a better understanding of what "good" means.

This sounds a lot like Ed Serdar's teaching approach. He used some of his students to help the beginners. He would go around and tell the kids what they needed to work on, and then one of his more advanced students would work one-on-one with the girl. If the girl needed more help, then he would step in. As the student became more advanced, he would work with them more.

His thinking was that younger girls could identify with his students better. Also, he was pretty blunt about pitching, and he didn't "coddle" the girls. So, some younger kids could be intimidated by him.

Ed produced many, many D1 pitchers--they pitched for DePaul, Stanford, Ohio U., and Illinois, to name a few.

 

[FrozenRope]

OK... so this is the way this went down. Facility was VERY nice. Multiple pitching stations set up with removable mounds for the various distances and a close up net position for throwing into the screen. Instructor started her off with some stretches and a warm up. She threw a few overhand tosses, then got into some hard overhand throwing, maybe 25-30 hard throws. Then she showed her the Grip, and since I worked with her quite a bit on that, she said her grip was fine. Then they went on to "pull down" and "realese point", focusing on the elbow leading, slightly bent. Explained the release point to her, and told her to imagine that if her pinky was sticking straight out, she would release the ball (snap through) at the point the tip of her pinky came in contact with her back thigh. After a series of 3:00 throws into a net, kneeling, then standing, she had her stand and do some 12:00 throws. She did great from 3:00, but not so good from 12:00. (Remember DD is totally new to this). The next thing they went over is the footwork. She demonstrated the bent knee, weight forward push off with the pivot foot to the open hips position, and told her to imagine her landing leg to act like a brake when it lands which will force her to keep her center of gravity back over her back leg. That's pretty much where it ended. She said to focus on getting her to "feel" the release point and showed her how to interpret the ball path as feedback to what she did wrong if the ball didn't project out to her target. She wants her to keep the throwing a footwork seperate for now. She doesn't want her throwing when she's doing her footwork practice.

She didn't want her to follow through on the throws just het. She said it's easier to "feel" the resease point if she just snaps and then stops. When I asked what the finish position should look like in the finished product, she said they don't recommend a forced position of any kind in the final product, since there are different follow throughs when she gets to movement pitches. But once she gets to the point where she can find the proper release point, she'll have her start following through on her straight pitch to the point where she's looking at her hand when she finishes. Not to the throwing shoulder, and not completely across the body, but an inbetween position. I played dumb and told her I saw some confusing info online about bringing the throwing hand up to the throwing shoulder and all she said is we don't teach that. We prefer it to come slightly across the body, but not to the opposite shoulder either.

Does this all sound OK, or is there anything I should be wary of. DD loved her! But need to make sure it's the right instruction.

 

[Perfect Circle]

She has to keep that glove up and index finger pointed straight at the ump until he makes the call, and the hand has to come across the body and into the arm pit. If she can't get the hand into the armpit, it is because she has dropped the glove to slap or swim for balance. So the power will leak to glove.The follow thru is ending with a block, Glove up to protect the face. Once she can keep the glove up, then she can move her wrist, like waving to distract the batter.The drag foot with tongue towards the target should be getting ready to strike the next kick...Hope that helps :{)

 

[Greenmonsters]

She has to keep that glove up and index finger pointed straight at the ump until he makes the call, and the hand has to come across the body and into the arm pit. If she can't get the hand into the armpit, it is because she has dropped the glove to slap or swim for balance. So the power will leak to glove.The follow thru is ending with a block, Glove up to protect the face. Once she can keep the glove up, then she can move her wrist, like waving to distract the batter.The drag foot with tongue towards the target should be getting ready to strike the next kick...Hope that helps :{)

PerfectC - Baby steps first! And you really should create a signature that warns noobs that you are DFP-certified "Crazy Pitcher Daddy"! IJS!

 

[JAD]

Good pitching coaches do not need to advertise to keep their schedules filled......

 

[FrozenRope]

Well, of course my DD can't follow instructions very well, and I guess I'm the guilty party for allowing her to throw with the footwork. I was actually pretty shocked at how it looked. I'm SURE the experts will find a million and one things wrong with this (Assuming this video link works), but I thought it was pretty good after 1 lesson. I showed her some stuff from reading this site over the past month, but she didn't really practice, or really get what I was telling her. I didn't drill her too hard as I didn't want her to get bad habits from my know little instruction.

After First Lesson

 

[FrozenRope]

She has to keep that glove up and index finger pointed straight at the ump until he makes the call, and the hand has to come across the body and into the arm pit. If she can't get the hand into the armpit, it is because she has dropped the glove to slap or swim for balance. So the power will leak to glove.The follow thru is ending with a block, Glove up to protect the face. Once she can keep the glove up, then she can move her wrist, like waving to distract the batter.The drag foot with tongue towards the target should be getting ready to strike the next kick...Hope that helps :{)

Wow... I hope they teach that in lesson 2 because that was greek to a 40 YO dad, nevermind a just turned 10 year old!!!! LoL

 

[Screwball]

OK... so this is the way this went down. Facility was VERY nice. Multiple pitching stations set up with removable mounds for the various distances and a close up net position for throwing into the screen. Instructor started her off with some stretches and a warm up. She threw a few overhand tosses, then got into some hard overhand throwing, maybe 25-30 hard throws. Then she showed her the Grip, and since I worked with her quite a bit on that, she said her grip was fine. Then they went on to "pull down" and "realese point", focusing on the elbow leading, slightly bent. Explained the release point to her, and told her to imagine that if her pinky was sticking straight out, she would release the ball (snap through) at the point the tip of her pinky came in contact with her back thigh. After a series of 3:00 throws into a net, kneeling, then standing, she had her stand and do some 12:00 throws. She did great from 3:00, but not so good from 12:00. (Remember DD is totally new to this). The next thing they went over is the footwork. She demonstrated the bent knee, weight forward push off with the pivot foot to the open hips position, and told her to imagine her landing leg to act like a brake when it lands which will force her to keep her center of gravity back over her back leg. That's pretty much where it ended. She said to focus on getting her to "feel" the release point and showed her how to interpret the ball path as feedback to what she did wrong if the ball didn't project out to her target. She wants her to keep the throwing a footwork seperate for now. She doesn't want her throwing when she's doing her footwork practice.

She didn't want her to follow through on the throws just het. She said it's easier to "feel" the resease point if she just snaps and then stops. When I asked what the finish position should look like in the finished product, she said they don't recommend a forced position of any kind in the final product, since there are different follow throughs when she gets to movement pitches. But once she gets to the point where she can find the proper release point, she'll have her start following through on her straight pitch to the point where she's looking at her hand when she finishes. Not to the throwing shoulder, and not completely across the body, but an inbetween position. I played dumb and told her I saw some confusing info online about bringing the throwing hand up to the throwing shoulder and all she said is we don't teach that. We prefer it to come slightly across the body, but not to the opposite shoulder either.

Does this all sound OK, or is there anything I should be wary of. DD loved her! But need to make sure it's the right instruction.

I have several issues with this approach. Too many to list.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Wow... I hope they teach that in lesson 2 because that was greek to a 40 YO dad, nevermind a just turned 10 year old!!!! LoL

This ^^^^ is you now. Perfect Circle is you after 6 months on DFP. He really does need a noob warning.