Short arm help.

Check out this video I made with Coach's Eye: https://www.coachseye.com/v/7e3a052089864fc0968217f2e9514545
I really need some experts on this one. My daughter is a pitcher that is having trouble bending (short arming) her pitching arm. When she does walk ups or just steps she is fine. It is only when she engages the legs. She can't seem to get the glove arm up either. I need some drills before the season rolls around again.

Her arm circle is pretty good and any attempts to achieve a straight arm will produce negative results.

Is there a reason you want a more straight arm or her glove to come higher?

From behind her pitching arm is bent out when starting her circle. Her college coach wants the glove hand up more and a larger circle.

mountyfan said:

From behind her pitching arm is bent out when starting her circle.

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It should be bent and her circle actually looks very reasonable. At no point once you get into your arm circle do you want to lock out your arm or take bend out. It should be loose. Unless we are talking about some sort of elbow out-chicken wing which I don't see.

Her college coach wants the glove hand up more

Click to expand...

Glove up is an easy enough fix. Hillhouse's up together/down together drill does that. Basically focusing on having everything up (knee and both arms) and then everything down

Or a simple drill... just stand in front of her with a high hand for her to hit. Or inside you can hang a piece of rope at the height you want for her to hit with her glove when pitching. Right now her glove arm is straight out and if she can loosen it up she should be fine in getting this done without effecting anything else. Unfortunately the glove arm is often a symptom of something else - good athletic pitchers often use the off arm to basically balance - so when you force it do something different you may see something else go adrift.

and a larger circle.

Click to expand...

You are going to have a problem. Her college coach doesn't understand how pitching works.

BTW - the other thing I notice is the hello elbow forced follow through. You can absolutely see that your DD wants to throw with a full IR follow through - but someone has been on her to jerk her arm up and point her elbow at the catcher. It looks like it is costing her some speed.

mountyfan said:

Check out this video I made with Coach's Eye: https://www.coachseye.com/v/7e3a052089864fc0968217f2e9514545
I really need some experts on this one. My daughter is a pitcher that is having trouble bending (short arming) her pitching arm. When she does walk ups or just steps she is fine. It is only when she engages the legs. She can't seem to get the glove arm up either. I need some drills before the season rolls around again.

Click to expand...

I see what you are saying and you are correct. Sorry to disagree with the other posts, but her arm circle is VERY short arm all the way around. I can't do a slow mo screen catch with Coaches Eye like I can in YouTube so I may not be able to pinpoint as well as I wish I could but you do have the issue diagnosed very well. Just need to figure out what is causing it. She only goes about forehead high on her arm circle which means the arm is bent way to much. Yes, we want a bent arm PULLING down the back side and somewhat bent on the front side but not this bent. I repeat somewhat on the front side. I will try to look at a way of producing some slo-mo tomorrow or over the weekend on your vid in an effort to help. But the pics below is what we are aiming for and I know you already know it. I just need to see it in slo-mo to provide some guidance...




S3

I would assume image #1 is the one that the coach has a problem with and what leads to the short arm belief. While this isn't ideal, it isn't necessarily the end of the world. She gets into the classic K position in still 2, has a good lag position leading into release at still 3, and has a decent brush/whip action in the final still.

Is she losing power and/or accuracy? I can't see any timing or balance issues in the series of throws posted. If her power and accuracy are fine, I'd concentrate more on the lower body action than the upper body.

In my opinion this "short arm" issue is pretty much non-existent. It is the first frame as she goes over, well more beside, her head that colors the perception.

All that said, if this is really something you want to spend time "fixing", simply change her pre-motion to a rock-the-baby type motion and have her keep the ball in the glove on the up motion longer. This will "solve" both the low glove and the early pullback near the head.

Wow - the power of screen capture. Good job DNeeld. When I look at the GIF produced above there is NO WAY I would say she gets her arm like in the photo #2. I think GIF's drop several screen frames off but not sure. Anyway, photos show a higher arm than I could see before so thanks for pointing that out!

I still want to see slo-mo and will try to figure that one out this weekend.

S3

I think her arm circle from 10:00 to 6:00 looks great. I'd bet it's the upswing that her coach is wanting fixed. Use the verbal que "bicep to ear"... this will satisfy her coach and reduce stress on the shoulder as she comes over the top. If I worked with her, it'd be a lesson on arms and legs adduction...and maybe a bit on drive mechanics. Overall... not too shabby
I spend 75% of my time with students trying to get their arm to whip like your dd's....

Really good stuff overall. What is it that you or the PC trying to correct? A result, or a perception of what perfect form should look like? Is she inconsistent with control or not getting the speed you’d hope for? I might have her play around with starting with a feel of being a little longer on the upswing.

My primary focus would be on her drive. I wouldn’t be surprised if her arm circle improved as a result of a better drive.

Accuracy is not a problem at all. Her speed does seem to be down though. Maybe I should look at the drive mechanics to improve the beginning of her circle. She says that she can't feel herself doing it. (Bending the elbow in the upswing.) When doing walk ups or standing in a open position the arm gets long and loose. Her speed is probably 4-5 mph faster. I believe this is what her coach is trying to achieve. Here are the differences.
Check out this video I made with Coach's Eye! https://www.coachseye.com/v/c8076be239a9448487ba81c58b73a0cb
Check out this video I made with Coach's Eye! https://www.coachseye.com/v/a7864b131956420c8813156357ad84e1