Video of DD. Need help

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sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
She has a lot more speed to get.

1) She is not closing at all. When a pitcher starts out, they usually way too much. So, the PC usually says "stay open". The pitcher's hips should cose to about 45 degrees at release.

2) She has no brush interference. That is, her arm never contacts her torso when she throws.

These are all world class pitchers. Note that their arms all contact their hips prior at release.
View attachment 12040

There is an entire "sticky thread" at the top of the forum discussing BI (brush interference).

Your DD "monkey butts"--she sticks her rear end out so that her arm does not contact her hips. She needs to stand up straight and allow the arm to contact the hips.

The teaching point is to tell her to bring her body to the arm. Do *NOT* tell her to make her arm touch her body.

3) She needs to bring her glove down so that it contacts the inside of her left thigh.

4) Her lower body mechanics are a little messed up. Check out the thread on drive mechanics.
 
Last edited:

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
Good point by FFS...she is stepping to the left when she throws. She is probably trying to avoid hitting her hip.
 
Mar 20, 2015
174
28
IMHO although the whip or IR looks Ok on the surface, if you look closely you can see she is closing her arm too early which kills the speed almost like a changeup. This could be related to the above comments about her body and front foot being too open at release so she is closing her forearm and hand early to compensate and keep the ball from being too far inside the plate. Have her throw max speed but it is ok and even good to miss to the right until she catches the whip. Also ok to initially throw bullet spin. Once she feels the power she can adjust her hip alignment and timing to throw strikes and get better spin. Read IR in the classroom https://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/10321-i-r-classroom.html It helped my DD.
dfp pitch.jpg
 
May 25, 2018
43
8
IMHO although the whip or IR looks Ok on the surface, if you look closely you can see she is closing her arm too early which kills the speed almost like a changeup. This could be related to the above comments about her body and front foot being too open at release so she is closing her forearm and hand early to compensate and keep the ball from being too far inside the plate. Have her throw max speed but it is ok and even good to miss to the right until she catches the whip. Also ok to initially throw bullet spin. Once she feels the power she can adjust her hip alignment and timing to throw strikes and get better spin. Read IR in the classroom https://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/10321-i-r-classroom.html It helped my DD.
View attachment 13483
The pc says palm up to her all the time. Is this what your referring to with her?
 
Mar 20, 2015
174
28
The pc says palm up to her all the time. Is this what your referring to with her?

She looks really good with palm up at 900. However the key is right before the release at 600. The video is blurry but it looks like she is squaring her hand to the target at about 730. This does not seem like much but considering that the release of the ball occurs in about 1/100 of a second that is an eternity. You can see in the Scarborough gif she preserves the hand pointing toward third base (leading with the pinky) until the very last moment of release. Of course she has trained her arm through practice to have perfect timing with this when moving at 70 mph but this is IMO what to strive for.

As a part of every warm up I have my DD just throw (not pitch) underhand to get this timing down. She usually starts off missing right and slowly brings it in. The good news is that its a feeling and once they get it down it comes natural just like throwing overhand. My DD is about the same age as yours, loves pitching and will be second year 12U this coming year.
2ngjj9.jpg
 

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