Bullet spin???

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May 3, 2016
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I’m teaching my 10yo how to pitch. We’ve started working through the i\r thread and are only going to the 9 o’clock drill. But about 2/3rds of her pitches are bullet spin. Is she staying inside the ball too long? This is the first time I’ve had to try to stop bullet spin both of my older girls never had this problem.


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Jul 14, 2008
1,800
63
If your 10yo DD is throwing with bullet spin and not losing it too far inside, or on the ground, then you are on your way towards developing a speed-baller. Let her throw with bullet spin as a 10yo. The speed she develops with keep her hooked on pitching, until it's time to teach her movement pitches like drop/rise/change and curve.
 
Jul 14, 2008
1,800
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You guys are to kind. I miss this place but work has been killin me for more then a year now. I’m heading for retirement in a few years so I can’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
 

Chris Delorit

Member
Apr 24, 2016
343
28
Green Bay, WI
4dds,

It's a fine line at your daughter's age. While you don't want to discourage the fun of competing in the backyard with friends in neighborhood home run derby, you also don't want to encourage too much of a delayed development of a mechanical baseline through a level of training and/or travel ball. So, keep it fun but introduce good technique opportunities through the journey.

As far as her bullet spin, there are obviously contributing factors. A couple questions. Are her hands small yet on a 11" softball (where is her thumb in relation to the rest of her fingers)? Does the softball have a slippery cover? Does she have any sort of grip relative to the seam orientation of the ball? If her fingers are perpendicular to either two or four seams and her thumb as far to the opposite site as her guide, my experience with her age group is that she's probably just pulling off of the inside of the ball at release, where her seams are spinning more east to west (less benefit), rather than north and south (more benefit).

So, she'll have some posture issues you can take a peek at. You may wish to take a look through her footwork because a poor linear drive, subsequent plant angle and following drag can create hip impedement and a complimentary series of inefficiencies all the way up through follow-through. Ideally, the goal with the release of a drop/fastball with 12-6-ish rotation is good contact (BI) at the throwing thigh where the wrist is posture stabilized, primary fingers behind the ball with the thumb over the top as the guide. The results will speak clearly as she gets better with posture and mechanics, where the ball should begin to roll more linearly off the backside fingertips in the path toward her target. Remembering that it takes a concentrated effort to do so.

Don't forget video w/slo-mo and examples.

Chris
 
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