Zombie Drill Tips

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Aug 20, 2017
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OOOOOOOH, ok. I thought it was open casting for the Walking Dead.
Instead of questioning the drills I do, why not give some feedback? I’m not a professional pitching instructor. I do coach softball, travel and high school. I treat every player like my own. I’ve posted videos of my players here before. I’m not a pitcher so I have to look at the evidence of what elite pitchers are doing and try mold my players and my DD
 

NBECoach

Learning everyday
Aug 9, 2018
408
63
Please be kind as I do some thinking out loud as I am NOT a pitching coach but speak with a paid one (sometimes I think they are stealing the pay) frequently.

What is the purpose of pitching softball/baseball drills? Well I think it is to physically change some movement or to reinforce the current correct motion. So if there is a change (in the opinion of the player/coach/instructor) you fix it by:

1.-addressing that part of the motion causing the issue with drills until the change occurs. OR
2.-explaining/showing the solution to the problem and having the pitcher go through the entire motion noting the change so that the entire body understands the correct feel.

Outcome:
1.- Eventually you may get it but your timing is at risk since you segmented the motion. OR
2.-I know what to do and how is should feel. Its a matter of practicing my entire delivery correctly.

If you are sharp enough to determine the problem, the correct path to the solution seems evident, so what am I missing?
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
Instead of questioning the drills I do, why not give some feedback? I’m not a professional pitching instructor. I do coach softball, travel and high school. I treat every player like my own. I’ve posted videos of my players here before. I’m not a pitcher so I have to look at the evidence of what elite pitchers are doing and try mold my players and my DD

Fair enough.

Here is the feedback:

She has excellent front side resistance and internal rotation. The ball is behind the hand at 12 and under the ball at 9. The ball explodes from her hand.

The flaws I see from the video:

1) She is not using her glove arm effectively. She should be bring her glove down to the inside of her left thigh when she throws. This is Monica Abbott and Adam Folkard.

abbott1.JPGfolkard-release1.JPG

Here is a video explaining bringing the glove down...which is known as adduction.





2) She *MIGHT* be over striding. I can't be certain because this is a drill. There might be some problems with her leg drive, but it is impossible to tell without seeing the whole motion.

3) She looks very, very good.
 
Mar 20, 2015
174
28
Cornbread she looks good. Did the drill improve her mechanics before vs after or did you see any improvement in results
My DD was having issues with timing I think. She was basically throwing with all arm. Her ball was at 1:00 (she’s a lefty) when her stride foot started to descend. Her drive foot knee was getting real low to the ground during the move out and the stride leg was lagging way behind her. She wasn’t detaching from the rubber until about 12:00. She wasn’t getting good drive leg extension either. We have incorporated this drill into her full motion. I could post that video with a before and after. I’ve been around long enough to not just do drills lol. We have began doing this drill, and two others prior to pitching. Bill, we did up together down together throwing into her glove focusing on whipping elbow when she first started pitching. Did that along with BMs internal rotation stuff. Folks that watch her pitch think she has put in a ton of work. Honestly, she hasn’t worked on pitching near as much as others her age/ability. I attribute that to us focusing on doing the “right drills”. She did one lesson with a HE guy and that’s the only lesson she’s ever had. Through the contributions of folks on this board, I’ve built her from scratch.
I think it would help to show us the before after if you can. From looking at the drive mechanics thread, your description and video, it appears the drill was successful in helping your DDs timing. I am curious to know if the better looking mechanics translated into better on field performance? My DD has some of the same issues in her drive mechanics. I sometimes I wonder if I should just let her pitch and her athletic ability will take over.
 
Aug 20, 2017
1,475
113
Fair enough.

Here is the feedback:

She has excellent front side resistance and internal rotation. The ball is behind the hand at 12 and under the ball at 9. The ball explodes from her hand.

The flaws I see from the video:

1) She is not using her glove arm effectively. She should be bring her glove down to the inside of her left thigh when she throws. This is Monica Abbott and Adam Folkard.

View attachment 16904View attachment 16905

Here is a video explaining bringing the glove down...which is known as adduction.





2) She *MIGHT* be over striding. I can't be certain because this is a drill. There might be some problems with her leg drive, but it is impossible to tell without seeing the whole motion.

3) She looks very, very good.

Agree on all parts. I posted a thread with Her full pitching video from a few weeks ago. It’s down the board some. Point number 2 is why I’m doing the zombie drill. My goal is to get her stride leg out quicker in an effort to get her legs out in front of the ball. I’m hoping this will help get her stride leg down sooner to allow for the appropriate transfer of energy from the ground up.

I thought this forum was for pitching questions, advice, tips, and information. I’ve been on here for a few years. Maybe I’m different but if I don’t have anything helpful to post here or any other forums, I don’t post. The methods for pitching that are here work! My DD is living proof. God has blessed her with talent. Many people that read these boards haven’t been here for years. If you have something that might be helpful, post it. If you don’t have something helpful but still post, well...
 
Aug 20, 2017
1,475
113
Cornbread she looks good. Did the drill improve her mechanics before vs after or did you see any improvement in results

I think it would help to show us the before after if you can. From looking at the drive mechanics thread, your description and video, it appears the drill was successful in helping your DDs timing. I am curious to know if the better looking mechanics translated into better on field performance? My DD has some of the same issues in her drive mechanics. I sometimes I wonder if I should just let her pitch and her athletic ability will take over.
We just started doing this drill a couple days ago so haven’t been able to see any results in games yet. I definitely think it’s helped with the issues she has! First is a few weeks ago in tourney:

Here is after doing drill
 
Aug 21, 2008
2,359
113
Instead of questioning the drills I do, why not give some feedback? I’m not a professional pitching instructor. I do coach softball, travel and high school. I treat every player like my own. I’ve posted videos of my players here before. I’m not a pitcher so I have to look at the evidence of what elite pitchers are doing and try mold my players and my DD

First of all, the walking dead thing was humor, learn to take a joke, even ones not directed at yourself. If all my jokes were hilarious I wouldn't teach pitching for a living.

Second, why not give some feedback??? are you serious?? I think I offer a lot of feedback on this board. Some solicited, sometimes not solicited. Am I not allowed to question things? I asked about this drill you had your kid doing because I didn't understand it and was trying to figure it out. And I DID provide feedback earlier in this thread about it as I was also asking my questions. I am not above saying I can still learn things from others, but I'm also not going to pretend that something makes sense and is helpful when I'm not so sure it is. Or am I supposed to like what I see even if I don't understand it's purpose?

It's been hours now and nobody has given me, what I would call a satisfactory answer as to what this "drill" is supposed to do? Moreover, nobody can justify to me why you'd neglect other essential parts of the pitching wind up when doing this So rather than just doing something because you saw someone else doing something, why not tell me what your kid is working on here? Moreover, tell me what was broken that this drill is going to fix.

Bill
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
Moreover, tell me what was broken that this drill is going to fix.
Bill

We know you have shared a lot of your knowledge.

@Hillhouse : The OP said in a different post, "My goal is to get her stride leg out quicker in an effort to get her legs out in front of the ball. I’m hoping this will help get her stride leg down sooner to allow for the appropriate transfer of energy from the ground up. "

Bill probably has better advice than me about this particular problem.
 
Aug 21, 2008
2,359
113
We know you have shared a lot of your knowledge.

@Hillhouse : The OP said in a different post, "My goal is to get her stride leg out quicker in an effort to get her legs out in front of the ball. I’m hoping this will help get her stride leg down sooner to allow for the appropriate transfer of energy from the ground up. "

Bill probably has better advice than me about this particular problem.

Ray, the time stamps of the OP's and my messages almost overlap. So I didn't see "goal" until after I had posted what I did in response. I'm not looking for a pat on the back or even acknowledgement of the "knowledge" I've shared. But I disagree that I didn't provide feedback.

Sometimes emails, texts, and forum posts can leave an unintended "tone" of anger, sarcasm, or something else. I felt none of those things in my last post, I was just correcting a mis-statement about the feedback.

Bill
 
Aug 20, 2017
1,475
113
Ray, the time stamps of the OP's and my messages almost overlap. So I didn't see "goal" until after I had posted what I did in response. I'm not looking for a pat on the back or even acknowledgement of the "knowledge" I've shared. But I disagree that I didn't provide feedback.

Sometimes emails, texts, and forum posts can leave an unintended "tone" of anger, sarcasm, or something else. I felt none of those things in my last post, I was just correcting a mis-statement about the feedback.

Bill
No worries Bill! My assumption was that many others on here have done this drill with their DD. I thought this drill was a commonly used drill to address timing issues. I’ve always used Java’s stuff as my go to for drive stuff. Her ball passes her hip before the stride knee (bad timing imo). In watching other high level pitchers the stride knee gets out ahead of the ball, which I creates more whip. I understand that drills can be over emphasized or used to correct issues that don’t exist.
 

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