My dd doesnt use lower half

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JJblume

Banned
Jun 6, 2017
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Hello

My daughter sticks her but out and kind of leans and doesnt quit get her hips to a 45 until after release. She over rotates shouldrs a bit and throws massive curve ball spin.

Her curve ball is pretty amazing honestly. It actually does move. Her game cruise spedd is 55 plus. She has not yet hit 60 in practice.

I have no problem with the spin but when the arm comes around and shoulders fly open that speed drops to 53 or so.

My first obstacle is what drill can i use to stop that lower half from sticking the butt out and get the lower half involved. We tried the knee to gut and she was late with driving the knee, kind of a false add on. This really affects her posture and see her throwing uphill. I am going to try to use bands on the ankles and see if that helps at all. Im thinking this is a hard case to crack.


Info: She is 12 and she is very strong. 5'7 very athletic build.

I am thinking if she involves her lower half we can crack that 60 mark


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and this site has my ears smoking trying to digest all of the information on here.
 
Last edited:
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Honestly gonna have to see video to pass judgement on what to do. Sounds like she really needs work on drive to front foot sequence. She needs to be straight and squared to home as long as possible basically through release of drive foot then open naturally landing with plant at about 45 degrees. No need to even use a ball she can practice in the house...also need to make sure she is standing tall while staying square no hunching over...she can even video herself to make sure she is doing it right.

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JJblume

Banned
Jun 6, 2017
41
0
Honestly gonna have to see video to pass judgement on what to do. Sounds like she really needs work on drive to front foot sequence. She needs to be straight and squared to home as long as possible basically through release of drive foot then open naturally landing with plant at about 45 degrees. No need to even use a ball she can practice in the house...also need to make sure she is standing tall while staying square no hunching over...she can even video herself to make sure she is doing it right.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

No hunching over. I teach her to lean forward in a sprint position
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
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I know you might be apprehensive but we don't bite, post a video and after a day or so of comments you will see a consensus around the big two or three things she should work on take the constructive comments and moved forward...although I saw some things that looked like Lowary could improve on tonight and she was lights out...lol

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Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
Did all of this. The arm is fine

Apologies for not clarifying what I hoped you'd get from JS's video. I think that working towards an the optimum release starts with back-chaining posture that the above video and this one from Coach Balswick emphasizes:



From there, I like to include adduction of the thighs and dragging into toes-down/heel up as they work on whip progression. Everything goes together. Teach posture and adduction at the beginning so it's there as you amp up to drive mechanics.

Once she can walk into the whip and posture demonstrated above without butting out or muscling with the shoulders, I'd move into the 2 step/pushback sequences:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gUkiavW-o4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufRaP2LkbGs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBvFc-8wWLU

I hope that's more helpful.
Ken
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
No hunching over. I teach her to lean forward in a sprint position

The hunch over comment was for closer to release...again can't really tell what we are talking about so I'm just guessing but if you are stating her butt is sticking out that usually mean in relation to something; usually its not just a magic butt sticking out, it looks like its sticking out because the upper body is leaning over it is REALLY hard to stick your butt out if your lower back and and shoulders (think a line basically running through your spine) are perpendicular to the ground. Once the arms hits about 3 o'clock you really should not see the upper torso leaning either forward or side to side it might not be perfect but should be really close to perpendicular . Try it for your self stand with you upper torso perpendicular to the ground and make your butt stick out it just does not work. So if your cue is her butt is sticking out I'm guessing she is leaning over some how in some direction but without looking I don't know what you are talking about.
 
Last edited:
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
In this drill (assuming it's a drill versus her full motion) her back leg is really acting as an anchor holding everything back.

she could really benefiting from getting her back heel off the ground work on getting a push off that looks something like this and then focus on keeping just that toe dragging the ground and the heel either just doing a quick tap or bounce off the ground or not even touching the ground at all. She actually per your previous post appear to her some bend in her arm and ball almost completely up and some whip going on now we just need her bottom half to cooperate. My guess is she was taught doing drills throwing basically sideways to emphasize release point but when incorporated into full motion does not let her body naturally close but instead tries to stay open.

gooddrive.jpggood bend.JPG
 
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