Advice Needed

So....13 y/o DD converted to IR about four months ago. It's been a rough go of getting her to "SELL OUT". The light has been slow to come on. Asked her on the way home from tourney Sunday what she thought she needed to work on. Almost instantly, she says: "My Drive Mechanics, Dad." My question: I have noticed a LOT going on in her pitching motion that needs work; drive mechanics being at the forefront. DO I SHUT HER DOWN COMPLETELY AND NOT LET HER THROW FULL PITCHES??? The reason I ask is that I want her to really focus on what it is she feels she needs to fix, and I don't want to let her throw full. I am afraid that all the crap she has been taught prior to learning IR will creep back in...I feel that rebuilding from the ground up will take longer but the end product will be sooooo much better, and I don't want all the parasitic crap her previous HE PC's have taught her raring it's ugly head. I feel that drill the proper way repetitively is a far better teacher; "One done right is better than a hundred done wrong".....Afraid of teaching her to run without first teaching her how to crawl--->>walk. Just want to help The Kid get where she needs to be. Any advice is appreciated.

My best advice would be to get a pitching mat and a tarp. Have her throw into the tarp for the winter months. This allows both of you to focus on her mechanics. You will be able to watch her instead of worrying about catching the pitch and she will be able to focus on her mechanics instead of worrying about the results of the pitch. It is a win-win. As an added bonus you can usually do it in a basement or garage since you only need @ 20'.

DD likes to pitch which is why she practices. She is far from perfect but I am OK with that and do not say anything during games.

If she wants to shutdown for a while, fine but I would let her make decision. She is never going to be perfect.

Dang it DD just hit another batter on 0-2 count.

Get the video of Amanda Scarborough (1000 FPS available on YouTube, this site, just google it) and ask her if she pitches like that. Double down and record your DD's pitching motion and put them side by side.

Results will not be overnight but at least she will understand the goal. Don't shut her down; the only way to Carnegie Hall is to..

DO I SHUT HER DOWN COMPLETELY AND NOT LET HER THROW FULL PITCHES???

Click to expand...

(I thought about discussing "Zen in the Art of Archery", but decided that would probably be little over the top.)

The goal is to teach your DD how to *pitch* not how to do drills.

The most difficult aspect of pitching is "putting it all together", not doing each part of the pitching motion. Anyone can do BI with the body stationary. The trick is doing BI with the body going 30 MPH and the hand going 60+ MPH.

So, you should have a checklist of everything she should do when she pitches. Arm positions, leg positions, stride, IR, BI, and on and on. For each item on the checklist, you have a drill or plan for reinforcing that item.

In practice, you focus on one thing at a time. You do a mix of drills and pitching.

You do a drill addressing a specific mechanic a few times, and then have her throw a pitch. If she correctly incorporates the mechanics shown in the drill, then you have her throw some more. She increases the effort in each pitch.

If she can throw at maximum effort but maintains the mechanics she was taught, then move on to the next item in the list.

When she fails to correctly do one of the items on the list, you tell her the problem. If she can self-correct, then forget it and move on. If she can't, then do a drill for the specific mechanic she can't do.

So, she is always building a pitching motion. You sometimes have to go back and work on specific mechanics.

JAD said:

My best advice would be to get a pitching mat and a tarp. Have her throw into the tarp for the winter months. This allows both of you to focus on her mechanics. You will be able to watch her instead of worrying about catching the pitch and she will be able to focus on her mechanics instead of worrying about the results of the pitch. It is a win-win. As an added bonus you can usually do it in a basement or garage since you only need @ 20'.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea. I switched my 12 and 14 yr olds completely to IR. We were just talking on Sunday on how hard it is for me to see them while catching them and that we need someone else to catch them. When 1 is throwing, the other is hitting and vice versa during these workouts. So catching each other really isnt an option

I would say in my opinion that pitching full motion vs. drilling both have their plusses and minuses and you will find people that support one or the other or a combo of both - but I would NOT have her pitching in games for a while. There is where they get competitive and in survival mode kicks in and they immediately go back to what they know instead of what they are trying to learn.

The right answer is probably a combination of both full motion and breakdown drills. Make sure they understand the goal of the new movements in drill, and try to roll it into some full motion. I have come to like drills in progression, where you gradually build up to full motion. During any change, it is critical to focus on the process, and not the results. This is where JAD's advice to throw into a tarp will help. In any evaluation process, where you want to gauge progress, it's natural instinct to use results rather than the actual performance of the skill. This is a recipe for failure in my experience. The toughest hurdle to get over when introducing change is that the student has to buy into the fact that they are investing in "down the road". In almost every scenario imaginable, they will be able to execute more effectively using what they know, as opposed to what they are striving to get to. In other words, they will get worse before they get better. Believe in the concept of 2 steps back to take 5 steps forward. Managing frustration is important... for student AND teacher. Oh, and I agree with 2020 in that there can be no live pitching.

Good Luck
~FR

DD started practicing 'proper' IR mechanics last year. it was towards the end of the season and during the off season, she did a lot of tarp work.
She did good with the tarp, but when full-pitch w/o live batters, not so good.

when tournament time rolled in this year, she was like the pitcher of old, IR mechanics was almost nowhere to be found.
Tried to get her to do what she practiced (IR) during a tournament proved disastrous so i had to leave her to do her survival mode (right on, 2020).

There was a silver lining though, towards the end of this season, there was a marked improvement in her mechanics compared to earlier this year.
Compared video from early this season and end of season proved that.

So we're trying again this year. Tarp work for the next month or so, then full-pitch outside, but there's still no guarantee that the old mechanics will rear its ugly head again, hopefully, not.

Baby steps....
Take JADS advise and use a tarp or bow net etc.
Focus on how to pull the arms down together. Keep the points of the elbows oriented inward, this will reinforce adduction of the abdominal and Lat muscles. If they point behind her, the shoulder muscles will engage. (This is more than just the rotation of the shoulder, this is correct and efficient pitching mechanics thatll utilize the whole body and how to transfer the energy. And not create energy solely with the shoulder muscles) Keep the hips and chest locked down very still and only use the arms....over and over and again. Take this opportunity to reinforce brushing. When I say locked down, I'm referring to her body being at an appropriate 45 degree angle. Listen for a slight brush of the thigh in the release of the ball. This should be her daily routine for a month, at least 100 ball a day. NO FULL PITCHING!!!