6 y/o wants to learn to pitch

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Mar 22, 2016
505
63
Southern California
Hi -

My 6 y/o daughter currently plays t-ball in Little League with the boys (and a handful of other girls). She's really good. She really wants to play with other girls (got a taste of it with AYSO this past fall) so we occasionally talk about getting her involved with softball. Last night I was asking what her favorite positions to play were in baseball when she told me she wants to pitch in softball.

Let me just say I'm a baseball guy. I can work on anything that I learned and can study related to baseball. But for whatever reason, fast pitch softball pitching scrambles my brain. I'm wondering if there any resources for teaching a newbie (my daughter) the basics so we can start working on it for fun.

I want to teach her the right way, so she can develop a strong foundation in case she's actually any good or loves it.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Seth
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
If she wants to pitch, hillhouse Dvds are a good resource.

I would watch and pitch yourself, throwing into trap or something.

We have some cost friendly clinics around my area, just need to look around.
 
Jan 22, 2011
1,610
113
Take a look at the stickies in this forum. Take a look at Javasource's videos on youtube and hope he gets the Fastpitch Foundations website up soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T4Jd7GKg5Q

Some Bill Hillhouse clinic information on youtube-
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=jlYLTMlhyNs
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=voej31jtlbw&t=590s
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=v2E4rlUNiBI
https://www. youtube.com/watch?v= v2E4rlUNiBI
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=uPoBBuvdRT8
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=-JlxPmklJDs
 
Jan 22, 2011
1,610
113
I grew up about 3 hours east of Javasource, so one of these visits to my mom my daughter and I may disappear for about 12 hours.

I also spent half a practice near the end of 6u teaching the basics of what Bill teaches.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
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bmd

Jan 9, 2015
301
28
If I could do it over again my dd wouldn't have started pitching till she turned 12 or 13.
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
I want to teach her the right way, so she can develop a strong foundation

Some areas to consider:

- teach her how to throw underhand, properly;

- understand the difference between "internal rotation" and "hello elbow" pitching mechanics;

- plead with the moderators to fix Boardmembers "IR in the Classroom" video clips. They are gold and the first place I would start for learning how to throw underhand, properly.

- don't do isolated wrist flips (at best it's a waste of valuable pitching time and at worse it teaches bad mechanics);

- read and understand the ASA pitching regulations so you teach your DD legal pitching preliminaries and mechanics;

- teach her proper "leap and drag" mechanics from Day 1. This will save her and you years of correcting illegal and less effecient mechanics;

- for the first year, teach only 4-seam fastball. Once she is somewhat proficient with fastball control, introduce the change-up. This is all she will need, at least through 10u. Fight the urge to teach movement pitches for several years;

- you want the pitching arm to lightly contact the thigh (brush interference) many pitching coaches teach erroneously to "clear the hip" as the arm passes the body.

- find a good pitching coach, many in SoCal, who understand arm whip mechanics;

- I'm a firm believer that you cannot dabble in pitching. You either are all in or find another position as it's a lot of work to do it right;

- make it fun, it really is a journey not a sprint and is going to always be a work in progress.

Lastly, read anything printed here by Boardmember, Java, KenB, Hillhouse, and Rick Pauly. There are others but you can't go wrong with the wisdom from these guys, real students of the game and an unbelievably valuable resource.

Good luck!
 
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