Feedback for my 14y/o.

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Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
Not too bad. There are a few suggestions...
1. needs more drive out of her right leg.
2. try to establish more of an overlap in the ball loading back as she's in the forward drive
3. IR isn't bad, but room for improvement
4. start getting some brush contact at release for a consistent trigger to aid in accuracy
5. stay behind the front leg to resist all forward momentum and don't allow a lean at release
6. stop all rotation of the torso and hips past a 45 deg angle
these are just a few basic suggestions based off of one pitch. study these threads... drive mechanics, front side resistance, and brush contact. Make some adjustments with baby steps, then repost new video next month. good luck, james
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113

Watch from 3:20 to about 5:45 don't focus on the hello elbow talk but focus on what he is talking about as far as throwing around your hip.

Kinda hard to tell from the video, but it looks like her biggest issue is with never really opening up completely. Little things can be worked on drive is OK but looks like it could be a little better, looks like she is leaning forward a little, also looks like she has a slightly awkward finish/follow through. I would really like to hear what other say and maybe a better angle or lighting would help but that is the first thing that jumped out at me.
 
Last edited:
May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
Fix one thing at a time. Have her reach out with her toe, instead of landing flat footed. I would like to see if that improves her overall posture.
 
Jun 14, 2016
270
0
Thank you for the responses. What would probably be the biggest priority to work on with her? After reading the IR threads, I noticed that her palm faces more to 3rd base then up at 9:00. Should this be a concern. She has decent speed of mid to upper 50's and her control has been much better.


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sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
IMHO, your DD looks to have the potentially to be really good.

So, I've got to ask some questions:

Why do you think she throws in the upper 50s? Who told you? Does she go to a PC? If so, who? If not, why not? Does she pitch on a TB team? How often does she pitch? How many walks is she giving up during a game?

Your DD needs to do walkthroughs...about 100,000 should do. (I'm not really kidding about the number. My DD was doing it her senior of college. There is a video of Osterman doing it as a pro.)

Amanda Scarborough was kind enough to do this video for us. Walkthroughs are the single most important drill your DD can do. Notice *carefully* the position of her feet at the end of the video. Note that her weight is all on her left foot, and that none is on her right foot. Notice how balanced she is and how effortless she was. Amanda probably threw the ball 55MPH, and used 10% of the energy your DD did.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r7o7MC1XX5k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Attached is an image of Amanda's legs at release. Notice the left leg...straight as an arrow. Now, look at your DD's. Your DD is bending her leg at release. That means that your DD is losing speed. She needs to fix this.

If your DD is throwing in the upper 50s, then she fixes her leg and gets a little more drive, she will easily be hitting 61 or 62MPH.
 

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Jun 14, 2016
270
0
She was clocked on radar a couple of weeks ago at 58 but I think her game speed is maybe a little slower. I'm looking to get a pocket radar so that I can clock her in a game. She goes to a pitching coach once a week but I had never heard of IR until I joined this forum. I have never observed her doing what y'all call HE. She plays travel ball and will be playing high school ball next year as a freshman. At her last tournament she averaged 1 walk a game and was only giving up an average of 1 hit. Her whip was 1.25 for 4 games she pitched. Her best pitch is a curveball and she does a good job of locating her pitches. She is working on her riseball but we need to get tighter spin on it so she is using a double ball to help her with that. I asked her pitching coach about IR and she didn't seem to know what I was talking about.


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Jul 14, 2008
1,800
63
Very nice overall. If she came to me here's the only things we'd be working on mechanically.

1.) Woking on keeping the maximum hand/wrist rotation over the top and down the back to ball facing out to up vs. turning it down then back up.

2.) Keeping her hips and shoulders closed (sideways) to the target longer to encourage more adduction and a throw that is into and across the hip line vs. how open her throw is. Her plant foot and knee is almost facing forward. The human anatomy isn't made to create resistance to forward momentum when the knee and foot are directly facing the force vector.
 
Jun 14, 2016
270
0
Thank you for the advice. I am new to this board and to be honest it has been info overload. I knew that there were some mechanics that she needs to work on just needed to know what was the most important. What drills would be good to help her stay open longer?


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