Still struggling to work through drive mechanics

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Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN
Been a busy spring season. Baily pitched most games for her 8th grade team this spring as well as our TB team played in 6 consecutive tournaments. She didn't pitch a ton for me in TB, but still added another 30+ games on top of school.

I made a couple GIFs from pitching yesterday against a strong middle school team. She pitched well all things considered. Using the video, I estimated her throwing just above 50 yesterday.

She still tends to float a lot of balls high especially as the day wears on. I am still thinking her drive mechanic is leading to a situation in which her arm is ahead of her legs. I think her release is happening as she is finalizing her front foot plant as opposed to releasing against a solid front leg plant.

Baily_20150518.gif



Here is a side by side against Monica. I think this shows how Monica is driving off of her drive leg where as DD is more "stepping through". I am very happy at the forward lean DD's been getting into. Just wish we could get more drive out of it. When I "holler" :) at her to drive, we just get a faster step through and arm circle.

side-by-side.gif





Here is a cut out of her release. She has a lot of backward lean which puts her upper arm past vertical into IR. I do think this is a symptom of her drive mechanic though. Since she steps through and reaches out with her front leg, I think it naturally leads to this leaning posture. I really feel like if she were driving from her drive leg behind her, she'd be more vertical automatically.

I welcome anyone's feedback. I've been really focused on drive mechanics, but I could easily be missing the forest for the trees.

Baily_release.gif



It's been a long season so far. Hard to get in extra workouts. DD has just been beat up. She did 3 weeks of RedCord and worked 2-step early spring until she got to a point that her Quads were sore constantly. We dialed it back, stepped up protein intake, and she's about fully recovered.

We could use some guidance moving forward.
 

JJsqueeze

Dad, Husband....legend
Jul 5, 2013
5,436
38
safe in an undisclosed location
So much looks good here. I only see a little bit if "heavy drag foot" and a "lean and clear" at release instead of a "stay balanced and brush". If she can improve her posture at release and allow some brush to happen that high miss will take care of itself.
 
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
A metric I use for young pitchers in assessing a good drive from the plate is: does the back foot separate and drag away from the plate *before* front foot plant? And how far?
In the case of your DD it looks like it does. Sure, there is a lot of room for improvement, but so far so good.
Further evidence of this is that her push/pivot foot makes continual forward movement up to and through release.
In other words, the back leg isn't being left behind.

I agree with JJ - looking pretty good.
Wonderful palm-up position at 9:00 with a decent bend in the arm.

Fixing that 1B lean (as a lefty) would be my next battle to pick.

What does she look like head-on or straight from the rear?
It looks like her lower arm might be outward from her body at release?
In other words: good upper arm brush, but zero at the forearm.
Just a hunch...
 
Last edited:
Apr 5, 2009
748
28
NE Kansas
I think her glove finishing out to the side could be creating a pivot point which her body can't move forward of. Mine did the same backwards lean and she is now working on full motion, full speed glove snaps and with her glove going forward now, she is much more upright. Reverse chaining from glove snaps is is how we approached working the glove.
 
Jun 18, 2010
2,624
38
Without reading the OP, just looking at the pitch, I asked DD to give me an analysis.
DD said:
She's got good IR and arm whip.
She's just taking a big step.

I asked her what would help with the drive.
DD said:
Have her do fast walk throughs with a pitchers plate timing her drive foot to drive down hard and out hard.
With the above walk through have her try to get up and out as high and far as she can. Then try to keep the drag foot barely on the ground.
 
Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN

Thanks knightsb. I didn't dig out the original clip to do that comparison, but it it similar to what I expected might be happening. Her rear foot just seems to be along for the ride instead of an active participant.

The little one had practice till 7:30 today, but somehow I got them both out after our late dinner...

That side by side and the clip that you posted really hit home. This was where we ended after just a couple pitches re-focusing on what needed to be done. I think it cleaned up more than just her drive. Her body position during release looks much better to me too. I'm guessing that added energy was over whelming her plant as she kind of just blew right through it. Maybe this will be the next area to work on.

baily_051915.gif



If there were a rubber, she would have got very far off of it this time. I added a red line about where she started.

off_plate.jpg



She's got a game tomorrow against another tough school. I'm anxious to see if this translates into her game mechanic quickly. Will try and get more video to post back with.
 

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