Help with DDs mechanics

Why does her drive leg follow the stride leg so quickly? How do we fix that? I know there are some issues in this video that I'm already aware of. In hindsight I should have taken video towards beginning of practice. This is an hour in and her mechanics have broken down due to being tired. FYI she is fairly new to pitching.

Things I'm aware of
1)Negative movement needs to have immediate weight transfer to back foot and to watch for foot aversion
2) her hips don't completely open before releasing the ball causing her to guide the ball instead of whipping it across the body.
3) FSR isn't stopping her forward momentum after release.
4) not staying back far enough during release
5) the drive foot doesn't glide and closes in to quickly

What can we do to fix her stride and glide? Is she not driving out far enough?

Here are two links to the same video. One is regular the other is slow motion.

Slow mo
[video]https://youtu.be/hxLpCRe1i1M[/video]

Regular
[video]https://youtu.be/zluEhKROCFE[/video]


Thanks all.

My .02.... looks like she may not be driving her hips out under her shoulders enough to get her top half stacked over her bottom half correctly. Sometimes I tell them to reach with their landing foot just a tad more, that puts them in a better position to “hit the wall”. I’d definitely fix3&4 and the slight bend in her posture. Some girls don’t have enough trunk strength to really stay back but most just just need to learn to “hit the wall” with good FSR. I put a rope or something out at a 45 degree angle at the end of their stride length and have them leap and stage to that spot without a ball or arm circle. Then I leave it there for a while even after we start throwing again. Seems to work well for us. Hope this helps.


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StormChase said:

Why does her drive leg follow the stride leg so quickly? How do we fix that? I know there are some issues in this video that I'm already aware of. In hindsight I should have taken video towards beginning of practice. This is an hour in and her mechanics have broken down due to being tired. FYI she is fairly new to pitching.

Things I'm aware of
1)Negative movement needs to have immediate weight transfer to back foot and to watch for foot aversion
2) her hips don't completely open before releasing the ball causing her to guide the ball instead of whipping it across the body.
3) FSR isn't stopping her forward momentum after release.
4) not staying back far enough during release
5) the drive foot doesn't glide and closes in to quickly

What can we do to fix her stride and glide? Is she not driving out far enough?

Thanks all.

Click to expand...

Slow down. You are getting the horse way, way ahead of the cart.
You can't fix every little problem with her pitching motion. You have to prioritize.

No FSR is the #1 problem. There is no point in even addressing the other points until after she gets FSR.

The fix is a simple drill. She does a walk through...she starts two steps behind the pitching rubber, walks forward and throws.

After she releases, she is to keep her right foot off the ground until the catcher throws it back to her. So, she throws the ball, and she is to be standing completely on her left foot after she throws, with her right foot up in the air. She is not to lower the right foot until *AFTER* she gets the ball from her catcher.

Fixing FSR will probably take 3 or 4 practice sessions to fix.

The other issues:

1)Negative movement needs to have immediate weight transfer to back foot and to watch for foot aversion. Not worth worrying about for a few weeks.

2. her hips don't completely open before releasing the ball causing her to guide the ball instead of whipping it across the body. ??? What do you mean "whip it across the body"? The hand is supposed to continue in a straight line toward the target.

The solution is a drill called "turn and throws". She does the same pitching motion, push off, etc., except she does *NOT BRING HER RIGHT LEG AROUND AT ALL*.

4) not staying back far enough during release This is part of the no FSR problem. Fixing FSR will fix about 90% of the problem

5) the drive foot doesn't glide and closes in to quickly Worry about this later.

She should be doing these two drill about 50 times each every parctice:

IR Drill

Amanda Scarborough Walk Through

Why does her drive leg follow the stride leg so quickly?

Click to expand...

Honestly, you do not want to fix the speed. It's where it is going that is an issue. The drive leg should run into the stride leg, along with FSR, causing the ball to whip. Your daughter doesn't let her legs touch. Instead, she squares up her shoulders and walks out of the pitch. Except, on the 'stay behind the belly button' pitch. Did you notice her legs actually came together? Because of her propensity to square to the plate with her shoulders, she did a pirouette (her hips followed her shoulders) at the end of the pitch. I believer her biggest issue is squaring her shoulders to the plate on the pitch. If her shoulders remains angled, her hips do too. The will create more FSR, and it also will allow the arm to whip through. It looks like she has muscle memory of 'slam the door' pitching style.

.02 from a bucket dad

Walking through the finish of the pitch/no FSR and no brush interference are the two biggest issues I see. If she develops front side resistance it should put her right hip/torso in a position to receive the throwing arm. She then also has to resist turning her torso towards home, stand tall, shoulders back, chest out. I explain that to my dd we need to resist and not walk through and no butt out so the throwing hip is "in the way" for contact with the arm and "throw right off of it." She gets it but see what words work for you guys. Just another opinion from a dad with some years on the bucket.

Thanks guys. As I said im aware of most of the issues from the video regarding hip position, BI etc. She was doing fine in the early part of practice till she got tired. The only thing she was doing both at the beginning and end of practise was her drive leg coming through too quickly which drives her momentum too far forward after the pitch. Walk throughs did help her get a better feel of the rhythm of the pitch so we will keep going with those and emphasize more on the "chin over top and slightly behind her belly button" and to really push for her to stop all of her momentum with her FS.

She started pitching last season but does very minimal practise while at home. I keep pushing to get her to practise but with turning 12 she's at a very hormonal stage in life and I don't wanna push to hard in fear of releasing the beast lol with the few innings she pitched last season and what we've practised recently she's only got maybe 10 hours of pitching in total. I don't wanna push to hard too fast on the other points as I feel her natural abilities in life will allow her to catch on quickly once she develops her front side more.

Thanks for the input!

https://gph.is/2RR5zEW

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Man10 said:

My .02.... looks like she may not be driving her hips out under her shoulders enough to get her top half stacked over her bottom half correctly. Sometimes I tell them to reach with their landing foot just a tad more, that puts them in a better position to “hit the wall”. I’d definitely fix3&4 and the slight bend in her posture. Some girls don’t have enough trunk strength to really stay back but most just just need to learn to “hit the wall” with good FSR. I put a rope or something out at a 45 degree angle at the end of their stride length and have them leap and stage to that spot without a ball or arm circle. Then I leave it there for a while even after we start throwing again. Seems to work well for us. Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Agreed. Of your list some items (#3 stands out to me) are much more important to get right.

Take your time, go slow. This stuff takes a long, long time to get right. Expecting too much, driving too hard... that won't go well for either of you, as I believe you recognize from what I see reading your other posts.