Hitting the stride leg

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camibrian

Sponge of knowledge
Jun 2, 2016
22
0
Southern Arizona
Is it common to occasionally throw the ball off of your stride leg? DD does this at least once or twice every few throwing sessions. Is there something specific that I should be looking for in her mechanics that may be causing this? Stepping across the power line perhaps?


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Chris Delorit

Member
Apr 24, 2016
343
28
Green Bay, WI
camibrian,

The short answer is no, it shouldn't be common. The stride leg normally won't cross the released ball path.

Without video, I'll speculate. This can be pretty common in youth-level pitching, having witnessed it a couple times. ;)

In most of those cases, the pitchers are typically landing with the stride foot well beyond a 45-ish degree plant angle. The plant, hips and torso will move synchronously. The farther open she becomes, the more inefficient her mechanics will generally become. When pitchers get closer to, and sometimes beyond 90 degrees open, the likelihood of losing contact (brush) increases because the backside and pivot leg have to follow an excessively ruddered pivot foot. This can promote a release point that's in "open air", or seperated from the pivot leg.

So it can become a double whammy as you've set your stride leg in a plant position to become more prone to becoming an obstacle, and the non-contact (brush) ball release has to compensate a bit more in angle with home plate.

If she's stepping across the power line as well, that's likely adding an exclamation point to the issue.

Chris
 
Last edited:
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
I've seen this a few times.... and when it happened it was a result of having the elbow too far out in front of the ribs... this causes a breakdown of the mechanics, and is a culprit for several things. Film her in slo-mo to double check this. Her upper arm brush contact needs to be directly south of the armpit. (or slightly towards the back, never out in front)
 
Last edited:
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
It should be a really rare (never) unless she is having a lot of trouble gripping the ball. Did she just change to a bigger ball? In this case she might be losing her grip somehow. But mechanically it's just not likely if you are doing everything correctly.
 

camibrian

Sponge of knowledge
Jun 2, 2016
22
0
Southern Arizona
camibrian,

The short answer is no, it shouldn't be common. The stride leg normally won't cross the released ball path.

Without video, I'll speculate. This can be pretty common in youth-level pitching, having witnessed it a couple times. ;)

In most of those cases, the pitchers are typically landing with the stride foot well beyond a 45-ish degree plant angle. The plant, hips and torso will move synchronously. The farther open she becomes, the more inefficient her mechanics will generally become. When pitchers get closer to, and sometimes beyond 90 degrees open, the likelihood of losing contact (brush) increases because the backside and pivot leg have to follow an excessively ruddered pivot foot. This can promote a release point that's in "open air", or seperated from the pivot leg.

So it can become a double whammy as you've set your stride leg in a plant position to become more prone to becoming an obstacle, and the non-contact (brush) ball release has to compensate a bit more in angle with home plate.

If she's stepping across the power line as well, that's likely adding an exclamation point to the issue.

Chris

Thanks Chris....I hadn't thought about the landing angle as being a possible cause, however that is something I can definitely see from the bucket and will pay attention to. It doesn't happen frequent enough to catch in slo-mo, so I haven't actually caught it on camera to identify a cause.


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camibrian

Sponge of knowledge
Jun 2, 2016
22
0
Southern Arizona
It should be a really rare (never) unless she is having a lot of trouble gripping the ball. Did she just change to a bigger ball? In this case she might be losing her grip somehow. But mechanically it's just not likely if you are doing everything correctly.

Although her hands are smaller, I don't see a grip problem when she is throwing unless it may be overgripping. She is 9 and using the standard 11 inch ball. During these occurrences, it definitely doesn't seem to be a grip issue, cause she whips the ball pretty hard into her knee or just above and the immediate pain can be heard through the immediate "OUCH" that comes from her



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Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Although her hands are smaller, I don't see a grip problem when she is throwing unless it may be overgripping. She is 9 and using the standard 11 inch ball. During these occurrences, it definitely doesn't seem to be a grip issue, cause she whips the ball pretty hard into her knee or just above and the immediate pain can be heard through the immediate "OUCH" that comes from her



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It does just seem really odd...would be interesting to see her mechanics and if her stride leg crosses the power line...my guess would yes but again this is a pretty odd one for me maybe seen it a couple times once was just ball slipping out of grip other was just a weird out of sorts mechanics thing were you could tell something really weird happened (not my pitcher the other team) but to answer your original question this happening once or twice a session is VERY odd the body does just have this sixth sense thing of not wanting to hurt itself.
 

bmd

Jan 9, 2015
301
28
When my dd was younger she would hit the inside of her stride thigh on the upswing not at release. Our issue was timing and forcing open....
 

shaker1

Softball Junkie
Dec 4, 2014
894
18
On a bucket
Seen my kid bang a ball directly off her stride knee, a couple of times when she was 1st starting IR. Looking back at her pictures I can see why. Lol. Make sure she's not over rotating her shoulders at release. Combine this with crossing over the power line or a funky release ever so often could sure do it.
 

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