My 14U daughter and her lack of drag foot. Help!

She hasn't pitched in 2 1/2 years. She has been focusing strictly on basketball. I posted her as a 10U 4 years ago and got a lot of great feed back. She throws hard with just her arm. When she "dry" pitches, she drags perfectly, but when she goes live, she reverts back to the bowling leg? Any suggestions would be if great help. Thanks

Isn't her left foot more of an issue? Her left foot coming back off the rubber and behind it is the first thing that needs to be fixed.

In Arkansas, you can "rockback" meaning you don't have to start with both feet touching the rubber. In league she will have to start with both touching the rubber to start. If you notice on the video, it sounds like a car or truck squealing tires with her drag foot. She can pitch either way. Any and all feed back on the whole motion would be appreciated. She's 5'8 and a 150lb 8th grader that hasn't touched a softball in 2 1/2 years. Thanks in advance.

I'd suggest giving the 2 step sequence a try:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfxecAGYoi5Hav_GIfV47yA

The step back may be perfectly legal, but I think junkball's advice will help her get into a more efficient position to drive.

If you look at the mark-ups below, Amanda has a lot of mass and momentum in front of her push-point at "go." Your daughter is limited to just stepping out. The 2 step will help get her mass moving and get into a better position to drive into the front of the rubber instead of stepping/pushing.



Love this example showing drive sequence:

Certainly no expert but this looks very similar to DD early last year. Ignoring the step back it appears she is prematurely and forcing the hips open from which there is no recovery and stays completely open rather than getting the hips back to 45 degrees allowing for good brush and proper drag. Staying completely open and avoiding brush leads to the bowlers kick. With DD I just repeatedly explained do not try to open it will happen on its own as well as to paraphrase one of the real pitching gurus on here "drive off like you are trying to chest bump the catcher". Once this concept caught on the drag and hip angle fixed itself.

Kevin Burt Lasiter said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E10K1gXv6Qw&feature=share

Click to expand...

First off, I absolutely love the last 1/4 of her arm circle.... i.e. the release. She's in a very powerful lag position here, where the elbow is leading the ball. I would expect her to be able to put a good bit of velocity on the ball as is. The good news is, she's not even close to tapping her full potential.

Here's her opportunities, as I see them.
1. She isn't using her legs at all. That's a very lackluster stride off the rubber. She needs to learn how to explode off the rubber.
- Ken hit the first part of it. She gets no forward lean prior to push off, but before I focus on that......I will add 2 recommendations that may help her auto correct that starting position.
--First one is easy. Visually record where she strides now, and then add a good foot and a half to that and mark the ground with tape and tell her that's her new landing spot for her left foot. This should be thought of as a drill, as opposed to live pitching. If she's naturally athletic... she'll likely self correct the staring position. Don't worry about accuracy here... it will likely be in the crapper as all of her timing will be thrown off. Also, move that mark in a little closer to the power line ... she's stepping a bit too far left in an effort to clear her hips. Bringing that stride in about 6 inches will help her posture, which is a concern, but there are other areas to focus on that may self heal that problem.
--If you don't already... add walk through pitches to her warm ups. And encourage her to be aggressive and really "jump" off that right foot to get a lot of momentum toward the catcher.

2. She needs to get that glove arm elevated. She will find more power if he can learn to pull both arms into her torso as opposed to just her throwing arm. She does a real nice job of "pulling" the ball down the back side of the circle. She'll find even more power if she learns to use the glove arm to pull against.

Looks like a strong young lady. With a bit of work, I'm thinking she can be a hell of a pitcher.

~FR

junkball said:

Isn't her left foot more of an issue? Her left foot coming back off the rubber and behind it is the first thing that needs to be fixed.

Click to expand...

Depends.... Not in LL or High School.

I wish I could explain this better as it is the question of all questions IMO.....next to IR. Drive mechanics are much more difficult than they should be but they are. I have seen so many posters on this site for years including myself that struggle with this and who are trying to find the right answer. In the next week or so I plan to post a comparison of 2 different pitching drives that I see most often. I feel many girls try to implement both sets of mechanics which is what screws everything up. You are either one or the other and that it that. If you read Java's drive mechanics then you are well on you way but you need to be able to digest alot and re-read several times to understand all that is offered there. It is truly the bible IMO.

With all that said, sometimes you need to just know what the easy fix is.....if one even exists. My simple recommendation would be to have her turn her foot over (heal over toe) and once she does this driving the drive knee forward is so very simple. She obviously leaves it behind and that is the problem. Take a look at the following youtube that a member here posted (TXnick). If you simpley took the the drive foot over the top and pulled the drive leg forward it should take care of itself. So easy to type this but so hard to explain......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npmL4d1lYyo

Hope it helps and doesn't confuse.....

S3

i would work on her push off foot/leg. make sure she pushes off completely and not complete the stride by pulling with the left leg.
my DD has a similar issue when pitching from the mound and we're working on this.