on the right track?

shaker1 said:

Click to expand...

I think she looks much better here. One thing that stands out to me, that should be an easy fix, is her landing. I think she's trying to hard to come down on the front of her foot (toes), and it's overly cushioning her landing. I feel with this particular set of drive mechanics that I'd have her try to get more of a mid-foot landing (think more like flat-footed). And, in doing that, work to get that front leg to firm up just a tad more just prior to release.

Also, while her arm is bent at the elbow going into release, she's not really feeling the full extent of the whipping action of the forearm. She needs to feel the brush interference a bit more. It would help her get her upper arm fully stopped for a split second to intensify the pendulum action of the forearm and end of the whip (i.e., the hand).

Thank you for everyone's posts and suggestions. Enough overlap and proper timing seem to be the biggest challenge in consistency right now.
She's pulling alot of things together very quickly and those detailed suggestions will definitely be a focus moving forward.
Back to work. I'll update progress and continue to highlight those changes.

On a separate topic, what suggestions on a repeatable Change-up does anyone have. I know it's a matter of choice- virtually hundreds of styles,
but in your experience, are there any that your pitchers really latched onto or found to be easier to master?

The circle/horseshoe/cup-o-water change is probably the easiest. Think about splashing the catcher with a cup-o-water and the ball comes off the ring/pinky fingers last to add drop spin.

Great illustration. thanks

FSR requires time to establish, relative to the timing of the circle.

As I waited for the gif of her to load, it made it easy to see how off her timing is in that video. A movement becomes efficient because of when it occurs, which is why some with lesser mechanics get more out of their pitch at times.

Her arm is at 3 and her drive knee is still bent... which significantly limits FSR time. IOW, she's still pushing when her circle is half completed.

This is a sequencing/muscle-firing issue, so creating the right association is the only way to fix it. FWIW, I have much better success fixing these things by going after drive explosiveness over delay in circle... but both might be tried at some point.

To help her understand better, have her watch the right/drive knee... and ask her what the role of the knee is from 6 to 3... is it to support the stride legs effort, or to drive forcefully into extension?

Hope that helps... as timing of movement is the glue that makes everything better. For this reason, I wouldn't address the core stability issues I see until the timing of movement is available for her to leverage.

But, I do believe her understanding of brush-assisted whip could be thoroughly enhanced.

Best, ~JS

JAVA

What specific drill are you using to improve this.

Or are you just using awareness as a tool?


Also on the change up what is the action of throwing a cup of water? Is that more like a shove?

This pitcher doesn't seem to get the arm turned around early. Doesn't seem to get the thumb to the hip early. Seems to impart spin and slow the ball down pretty late in the arm circle. Any advice here is helpful also

Java
She's been using the pushback and 2 step drills in order to better understand the feel of proper drive while overlapping with a pronounced rearward arm swing. The timing was actually much further ahead of the Gifs before we started. Was close to 9 at toe touch. The most recent gif shows the drive foot detaching from the plate w/ and arm position closer to 130. Getting closer to where she needs to be. In your opinion, should she continue to focus on the 2 step and push back help feel and understand a more explosive drive or would you recommend a different approach toward gaining more explosiveness = which if I understand will allow the arm circle better sync? (the faster you can straighten and detach will actually slow the arm swing into the circle) We've been attempting to do both; delay (overlap) the rearward arm swing and get to 3 as the drive foot detaches from the plate. Also would delaying the left foot extending (keep under the stride knee) until the drive foot detaches also aid in keeping the stride foot lower and allow the stride foot to get down quicker into a plant and stronger FSR? This obvious stride leg dominance was pointed out earlier in the thread by Doug. Thanks

6TO4TO3 said:

JAVA

What specific drill are you using to improve this.

Or are you just using awareness as a tool?

Click to expand...

This is a GREAT question. Love the awareness part... as without awareness, we might as well turn the lights out and pitch in the dark.

If you all think about what was just asked... it's truly magnificent. How futile is asking a kid to fix something if she has absolutely no awareness of what you are asking of her? Awareness is your best tool.

Rather than say "do this" or "do that", we should recognize that in order to improve mechanics, the process happens quickest when the athlete has:

1. Cognitive Understanding - they are aware and understand the task
2. Association - You give them something (an action/drill/etc) that actually works, so they can apply their understanding to the movement
3. Autonomy - they do it a gazillion times and it becomes muscle memory, or automatic

Although I'm certain a few jaws will drop, start throwing expletives, or just be speechless by my response... you asked:

What specific drill are you using to improve this?

Click to expand...

Because the leg is sequencing incorrectly... I typically sit them down and show them an EXTREME example of the knee extending between 6 and 3:



This allows them to now have "Eyes to See" what I see... and I follow that with the question I asked early:

When you watch yourself pitch, what is the role of the right knee from 6 to 3... is it to support the stride legs effort, or to drive forcefully into extension?

They see what they do, then they see what I mean with the other example.

Then I show them the rest of the clip (here comes the shouting):



After watching this, I explain to them WHY a crowhop is illegal... showing them that a forceful push that leads to a replant... then a push again, from a much closer distance is a SERIOUS advantage... hence, illegal.

If however, we could take from what gives crowhoppers an advantage, and tweak it so that it is not illegal, WE have the advantage. We must realize the strength in crowhopping... and that crowhoppers have zero issues with lower half explosiveness... they use their legs twice as much as the legal ones (literally).

So, I ask them to watch it again, this time noting how the right foot pushes, and lands BEFORE the left foot.

I then ask them to take the rubber, and hop off the right foot as forcefully as possible, while landing on that foot BEFORE the left foot comes down. Before they do this, I tell them they are not allowed to turn their laces to the side, the shoe laces must stay facing homeplate.

One they have explosively hopped correctly three times, I ask them to do the same thing three times, with a little hop, and a little toe drag. If they do this successfully three times, I then ask them to do it three times with all toe drag.

They most likely will fail at this third version, going back to what they looked like, so I have them go through the three progressions again:

1. Right leg explosive hop
2. Right leg explosive hop with a lil drag
3. Right leg explosive drag (perfectly legal and lethal)

Then... I start having them do all three progressions with a circle, and without a ball.

Then... with a ball.

Within a half hour, the kid is well on her way to overcoming the timing issue, better speed, and much better posture. Voila.

Let the screaming begin...

javasource said:

This is a GREAT question.
Although I'm certain a few jaws will drop, start throwing expletives, or just be speechless by my
response... you asked:

After watching this, I explain to them WHY a crowhop is illegal... showing them that a forceful push that leads to a replant... then a push again, from a much closer distance is a SERIOUS advantage... hence, illegal.

If however, we could take from what gives crowhoppers an advantage, and tweak it so that it is not illegal, WE have the advantage. We must realize the strength in crowhopping... and that crowhoppers have zero issues with lower half explosiveness... they use their legs twice as much as the legal ones (literally).

So, I ask them to watch it again, this time noting how the right foot pushes, and lands BEFORE the left foot.

I then ask them to take the rubber, and hop off the right foot as forcefully as possible, while landing on that foot BEFORE the left foot comes down. Before they do this, I tell them they are not allowed to turn their laces to the side, the shoe laces must stay facing homeplate.

One they have explosively hopped correctly three times, I ask them to do the same thing three times, with a little hop, and a little toe drag. If they do this successfully three times, I then ask them to do it three times with all toe drag.

They most likely will fail at this third version, going back to what they looked like, so I have them go through the three progressions again:

1. Right leg explosive hop
2. Right leg explosive hop with a lil drag
3. Right leg explosive drag (perfectly legal and lethal)

Then... I start having them do all three progressions with a circle, and without a ball.

Then... with a ball.

Within a half hour, the kid is well on her way to overcoming the timing issue, better speed, and much better posture. Voila.

Let the screaming begin...

Click to expand...

Love it! That's thinking outside the box!!!