Advanced Stone Skipping for softball pitchers to learn IR?

So I am desperate to find something to help my daughter understand this method. We are working on the IR drills, but she is still bowling or pushing the ball over. So someone mentioned stone skipping and I found this vid using High Speed and slow motion. We live right next to a pond and I am going to try showing her this and getting the whole family involved. Just thought I would share in case it would help anyone who is struggling like I am. I am not even going to mention pitching, just a stone skipping contest.

Not trying to cause a debate or provoke anyone. No this isn't exactly the same, but I am just hopeful that this will help her understand the motion or "feel" it better than I am teaching it.

A few years ago Sluggers mentioned doing this, I have not seen him recommend it lately. Maybe he has forgotten about it.

Sounds like fun!

I consider myself an advanced rock skipper and up to today, would have never thought there were so many similarities! Very cool! Thanks for the post!
-I/R: palm up to palm down
-upper arm pause
-firm front side
-slight rearward lean
-upright posture
-plant at 9:55

Watch out Amanda!

Since we're on the topic--here's a link to a post of older DD skipping rocks: http://www.discussfastpitch.com/sof...through-release-please-help-3.html#post200824

GatorGirl said:

So I am desperate to find something to help my daughter understand this method. We are working on the IR drills, but she is still bowling or pushing the ball over.

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I worry that this motion is actually a sidearm motion made necessary because the rock has to stay flat/horizontal..........

When I have a student that just doesn't/can't get it..........I work with her on staying INSIDE THE BALL, causing it to spin to the right while being thrown straight ahead...........This is an ESSENTIAL part of the early learning process...........

This is essentually what the rock thrower is doing. Spinning the rock to the right while throwing it straight.........

Until she can perform this, we do not move forward..........

BM, what does "staying inside the ball" mean? My daughter seems to whip her arm better with a full pitch and stay palm up longer--not as long as she should though. But when we slow it down and start the drills to fine tune it, they almost seem to get worse. Palm going down at about 8 o'clock with a super late release. Any thoughts anyone??

GG

GatorGirl said:

BM, what does "staying inside the ball" mean? My daughter seems to whip her arm better with a full pitch and stay palm up longer--not as long as she should though. But when we slow it down and start the drills to fine tune it, they almost seem to get worse. Palm going down at about 8 o'clock with a super late release. Any thoughts anyone??

GG

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Staying inside the ball means that at release the hand and fingers are literally more on the inside of the ball towards the body as opposed to outside the ball away from the body. as a bucketmom this is what you should see spin wise when this occurs



Seeing this spin is a BIG milestone IMO. When you start to see it consistently then it tells you that there are a lot of good things happening with her hand through release.

Ok. I see it now after reviewing Amanda's vid. Now the big HOW to teach that? I guess I am going to have to let this go and speak with her PC about this. I am going to ask him to show me what the full pitch motion looks like to make absolutely sure that his end result is the IR method and if it is, I am just going to let this go at his pace. I am driving myself and my daughter nuts in an effort to get through to her.

Actually no, I am going to email him right now!

GatorGirl said:

Ok. I see it now after reviewing Amanda's vid. Now the big HOW to teach that? I guess I am going to have to let this go and speak with her PC about this. I am going to ask him to show me what the full pitch motion looks like to make absolutely sure that his end result is the IR method and if it is, I am just going to let this go at his pace. I am driving myself and my daughter nuts in an effort to get through to her.

Actually no, I am going to email him right now!

Click to expand...

Teaching this feel is not that hard IMO. Just doing the lock it in correctly will teach it with a little feedback about the spin you see. As you do the drill give her feedback about the spin. If she has difficulty then let her just feel the ball rolling off of her fingers as opposed to her thumb or pinky side. Once she has the feel of the ball coming off her fingers and the feel of the lock it in, then the two will mesh and you will start seeing this spin. One thing I am curious about is whether you do the drills with her? I think it is highly valuable to learn how to pitch with her and kind of being one step ahead on every drill you give her so you know what to look for. When our PC gives dd something to work on, I do it too until I can get it, only then do I know that I can help. I feel like if I can't do it then I can't teach it.

Yes. You do need to let it go. Your DD will figure it out. Mine did and I had never even considered that her hand should be inside the ball. (She is 25.) When I did see pictures of her release, as digital cameras came along, is when I began to investigate it.