Initial lean forward/knee bend

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Oct 4, 2016
176
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Hi all - my daughter is in her first year pitching in on a U10 travel team. She has been doing way better than even her pitching coach expected as she strikes out about 60% of her outs. She throws in the low to mid 40s and has been clocked as high as 48 at her pc lesson. She has a nice flip change that is getting better and better as she gains confidence with it in games and her coach is slowly implementing a screwball as her third pitch.

One thing I notice is that in the beginning of her motion, when she's getting into a "track start position" she is more upright than what I have seen by some of the recommended videos/pics on this forum and I think she's leaving some speed on the table because of it. She appears to get good push off but I think if she were to bend her knee a bit more and lean a bit more forward she could get more out of her pitches.

I don't have any good vids right now but will post some ASAP. In the meantime, are there any drills you can recommend on helping her get that feeling of driving off the plate?

Thanks
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
DD has opposite Issue, she struggles when she does not get her wieght behind pitching plate and explode.

Would like to see vid.:)
 
Jun 18, 2010
2,624
38
For those that have been around DFP for a while, we had our crazy uncle here, his name was Hal Skinner. He had some interesting posts, and would get a lot of folks worked up, but there was never a dull moment when he would jump on a thread.

An oldie but goodie:

THE FALL FORWARD DRILL

This is one of the drills I used to convert a step style pitcher to leap and drag mechanics and to develop stronger push offs.

Have the pitcher stand on the rubber in the pitching position, ball of the pivot foot over the top front edge of the rubber, glove on but no softball.

Now you stand in front of her. Have her extend her arms straight out and place her hands on your chest.

Maintaining that contact, slowly back away from her keeping one of your feet ahead of the other for balance. Slowly back away to the point the pitcher’s body weight is pushing against your chest, good amount of pressure.

Now the pitcher will be on a fairly good lean towards you. Have her lift her stride foot just off the ground and do not let it back down, she is now leaning forward and standing on her pivot foot only.

Now, have her try and push you backwards using ONLY her pivot leg, not the arms, have her do this for three or four seconds. Then have her bring her stride foot back down and slowly back away from her.

This is the angle she wants to be at AND how hard she wants to push off from the rubber.

Now have her pick the ball up and assume the pitching position. Now, with a slight bend in the pivot knee, have her fall forward without moving her feet, to the point that if she does not bring that stride foot forward she will fall on her face. When she comes forward and gets that ‘I’m gonna fall on my face’ feeling, THEN push off as hard as she was pushing against you, she will be on that steep angle just like when she was pushing on you.

Push off just as hard as when she was pushing on you. Push off on that forward lean and when the stride foot touches down, be on a slight backwards lean with a slight bend in the stride knee.

Use this drill along with ‘Coach Hal’s Foundation Method’from my book. If her stride is now a little bit longer than that, go with the longer distance and note where the stride foot comes down

Start off doing a few slowly. It will only take a handful of tries before she can do this quickly and she will start to get that 'Explosive aggressive' speed in her drive forward..
 
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