Frustration with Glove Swim

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jul 15, 2016
115
18
Just as the title says...total frustration with glove swim. DD is 2nd yr 12u and a pretty good pitcher. Walks almost no one, throws about 75-80% strikes and locates well. The issue is, shes frustrated because shes looking for more speed. Her PC (who teaches IR) has reinforced what we already thought. Glove is swimming, pulling her "closed", in turn leaving no hip to brush against. Without the hip and the brush...no whip.

Un-doing the muscle memory had proven to be quite a monumental task. Any tips for her?

Thanks!!
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
Swim itself is not usually a concern and shouldn't affect her posture and brush. Without video, my guess is there are other things going on that are affecting posture. Fix those things and you might see a change in the glove action.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Just as the title says...total frustration with glove swim. DD is 2nd yr 12u and a pretty good pitcher. Walks almost no one, throws about 75-80% strikes and locates well. The issue is, shes frustrated because shes looking for more speed. Her PC (who teaches IR) has reinforced what we already thought. Glove is swimming, pulling her "closed", in turn leaving no hip to brush against. Without the hip and the brush...no whip.

Glove swim is a often a symptom of other issues. Basically it is her body using her arm to counter-balance something else happening in her motion which makes sense - when you are unbalanced the first thing you do is use your arms to try to regain balance.

Pitching into her glove is a drill that may help correct it, but it is worth trying to find out what is causing it.

Video would help.
 
Oct 10, 2012
502
16
Oklahoma
Take a look at her arm circle. Is she wrapping her head? When my DD was starting out, she wrapped her head and her glove arm mimicked the ball arm. Boardmember told us to fix the arm circle and the glove swim would take care of itself. Well, he was right. Also, lack of core strength is probably the most common reason for glove swimming. A stronger core will come with age but something to be aware of. I'll try to find the thread and post it on this one. Oh and FYI....your video link says unavailable.
 
Last edited:
Apr 23, 2014
389
43
East Jabib
Just a note not related to glove swim. As your daughter moves up in age you might want to see the strike % drop to around 66%. Throwing too many strikes leads to hits as she faces bigger and stronger hitters. You will get girls to chase balls when ahead on the count. If you’re 0-2 you don’t want that ball near the white at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
Just as the title says...total frustration with glove swim. DD is 2nd yr 12u and a pretty good pitcher. Walks almost no one, throws about 75-80% strikes and locates well. The issue is, shes frustrated because shes looking for more speed. Her PC (who teaches IR) has reinforced what we already thought. Glove is swimming, pulling her "closed", in turn leaving no hip to brush against. Without the hip and the brush...no whip.

Un-doing the muscle memory had proven to be quite a monumental task. Any tips for her?

Thanks!!

Not sure I follow.... having a bit of closure will get the hip in position to brush.... staying sideways (open) will negate the brush???
 

shaker1

Softball Junkie
Dec 4, 2014
894
18
On a bucket
Just as the title says...total frustration with glove swim. DD is 2nd yr 12u and a pretty good pitcher. Walks almost no one, throws about 75-80% strikes and locates well. The issue is, shes frustrated because shes looking for more speed. Her PC (who teaches IR) has reinforced what we already thought. Glove is swimming, pulling her "closed", in turn leaving no hip to brush against. Without the hip and the brush...no whip.

Un-doing the muscle memory had proven to be quite a monumental task. Any tips for her?

Thanks!!
Video is key here. It will show you exactly what's happening and what's not. If she missing the hip, or getting no brush, I would look into posture and a bending issue. Gonna throw this in for a talking point, the hip doesn't have to be involved for whip, upper arm contact here. Notice where whip happens, the stabilization of the upper arm
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,477
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top