Too young to explode off mound without a developed core?

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StormChase

3 Daughter's, 3 Athletes
Jan 21, 2019
30
8
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Hey everyone

I've been teaching my 11 year old daughter to pitch over the last 6 months and she shows major potential. She's a natural with everything she does. Her IR is decent and she has a pretty good understanding of the mechanics. Even Rep coaches have commented how good she is for how short of time she's been pitching. I've been trying to get her to be aggressive on the drive and it's forcing her glove hand to swim, front side collapses and her stride turns into more of a leap. I've noticed with the other girls on my team that they do the same thing when I try to get them to be more aggressive on push off

My question is...is it ok to put "aggressiveness" on the back burner and to allow them to just step off the mound while they focus on the rest of the mechanics until their cores develop a little more? Or should I keep pushing them to explode while fine tuning their mechanics to suit their less stable cores?
 
Apr 12, 2015
792
93
Telling a young athlete to be explosive, aggressive, etc is often pointless.

Instead, do about 50 three-step walk-throughs every practice. This will develop the muscles they need while also teaching them to be explosive and aggressive.
 
Nov 27, 2012
197
18
The problem with young pitchers is they don't really understand what "exploding on the mound" is. In their mind they think they are leaping off as hard as they can. It will help them if you can give them some visual clues to help them realize what they are doing. You can have them mark off 7 shoe to shoe steps and see if they reach the mark when they push off. You can also take a video and show them how far their push off leg is gliding off the mound before the stride foot hits the ground. The hardest part is getting them understand aggressive push off, especially when they think they are doing everything correct.
 
Sep 19, 2018
928
93
My DD is 9. She started pitching last spring. She was only stepping off the mound, no leaping. She started working on the push off/ leap in July, after the season was over. She was walking off 4 of her feet as a target landing spot (about 3/4 of her height). Much beyond that and she was having the same issue as your daughter. She started with a pitching coach in Dec and is now pushing/leaping (whatever the proper term is) longer than her height. When they do focus on extending that leap even further the same issue you describe often shows up.

My DD does get frustrated when she is not around the plate. The PC has her throw into a hanging tarp when doing the explosive drills, or trying new things. There is no "that was a terrible pitch" feedback when throwing strikes is not something she is worrying about.

Don't give up on explosiveness, but perhaps work on that separately like throwing into a tarp. Then at full distance dial it back just a bit to where she has better control but still leaping.

Oh, have her do core work too! At that age, strength comes quickly with much less work that we'd need to put in.

cmn
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
Being "explosive" will come with time and development. However, the sequence of the load, overlap, detatchment, and the 4 points of resistance are all absolutes... These are not variables like a grip preference or a loading style for example. Put the ball and glove down! learn the Rick Pauly drill called "sprinters split jump" as well as Javasources "two step" drill.
Its like the Bible parable of the men who built their homes... one on sand and the other on stone! You must have a solid foundation first. The points you're teaching should NOT be taught... these things will happen naturally if she has the ball oriented between 3rd base and the sky at 9:00. As well as her shoulders slightly back (chest puffed outward) at 9:00. If these two thing happen, she will in fact achieve solid brush with an I/R release.
 

StormChase

3 Daughter's, 3 Athletes
Jan 21, 2019
30
8
Vancouver, BC, Canada
[video]https://youtu.be/DLxiG9RPK9Q[/video]

Here's a slo mo video of her pitching. Again were only a few months in...i can see that her front side needs to be more firm which will allow for her to stay back and stand up tall during the whip. Her glove hand swims far out collapsing the throw zone and causing her to try whipping around her torso. Figure the core is the issue with not being able to "apply the brakes" with the plant foot
 
Last edited:
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
Watch the 8 to 9 sec. mark
This is my point of the foundation collapsing. See her butt push outward, avoiding brush, and weak resistance?
It's like when throwing a stick into the mud... a firm rigid stick will really "stick" and a soft bendable stick will just fold over like a soft taco.

Her core (while could always be stronger) is not the problem here. Its primarily a posture issue. Get her to bring her hips under her ribs, and feel stacked up right. And quit shying away from some brush!!! Brush is VITAL in achieving speed and accuracy

I'd also address some overlap into her motion. Load the ball back AS the front leg is engaged in its forward motion. (remember this "ball moves back as the body moves forward")

Try to stay a bit more closed until 3:00... this will sync up some timing to achieve some legs vs. torso overlap at 9:00
 
Last edited:
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
Some great advice above!!
A few things I have found. For the first 2 years (before I found this site) my DD was not pushing off with her drive foot. She was just carrying it along for the ride. Her PC's fix was to set a cone and have her stride it to and she would push it further away as DD hit that target. All that did was mess with her mechanics and timing which weren't that good to begin with at that time.
New PC told us to get the "Power Drive" device. We got it and it worked pretty well. But what worked the best was the drills above and we picked up an 80lb elastic band and waist harness and set it on a fence, had DD walk till it just started to resist then drive out over and over. 3-4 weeks later she looked much better. Then we took the same belt and had her pitch from circle while we pulled the belt as she began her motion. Worked well also.
Here is what we used.

https://www.amazon.com/Victorem-Str...s=resistance+band+waist&qid=1548166861&sr=8-6

Good Luck
 

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