Looking for help and suggestions with 12 Y/O DD

Long time reader first time poster on the boards. Long time baseball coach making the transition to softball and working with my daughter.

I have been working with my 12 year old daughter for a couple of years using information from this board. We have gotten a couple of lessons but have decided to move on because IR and Brush Interference were not being discussed. She tends to throw the ball with bullet spin but it has been getting better in the last couple of weeks with about every 4th or 5th pitch with 12-6 rotation and actual downward bite. However, we will mix in some BAD misses 4 or 5 feet inside on her throwing side occassionally. She has also started to mix pitches where she throws them straight into the ground.

The other issue I have is that she throws much harder in her drill work than she does during full reps. Just looking for suggestions on how to translate the velocity form the 2-step drill into her actual pitching.

Here is a few clips from the end of our last session.
https://youtu.be/G8Du3rC8Foo
https://youtu.be/cDWSOUcmQo8
https://youtu.be/pbSAvRZx3uI
https://youtu.be/wmBhu--qZck
https://youtu.be/_25rQ9pWhe0
https://youtu.be/iYQ4-tI4jKI

Any suggestions would be very appreciated thank you.

Her arm
Disclaimer: I am no expert.
In this still, notice the arm circle. Seems to he behind her head. Another observation is that her hip hasn’t even begin to rotate, which tells me the arm circle is off....and it could use some bend to help with the whip.


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Notice her back hip. It appears that she is pushing the back hip behind her. Possibly to avoid brush? I am thinking this is more of a result of something else but I will let the experts handle this part.


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The back view


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Don’t mind me, I am just thinking to myself, out loud, on an open forum. Definitely a great place to ask questions. Best of luck to you and your daughter.


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The hips pushing out is something we are working on. Definitely not easy to fix, it doesn't show up in our drill work.

ockerj said:

The other issue I have is that she throws much harder in her drill work than she does during full reps. Just looking for suggestions on how to translate the velocity form the 2-step drill into her actual pitching.
.

Click to expand...

Lots of good here.

Some things:

- She doesn't get very open. Her shoulders are almost square to the catcher through the whole motion. Her front foot lands pointed directly at the catcher instead of somewhere near 45 degrees. Because she doesn't turn she has to find a way to get her body out of the way of the arm circle. It also why her trail leg kicks off so far to the side. It is her body basically counter balancing.
- Drive that knee up and out. Get turned. Land near 45. Be loose and athletic.
- The end of the pitch looks good, but the arm circle looks really straight. Even in the frames Crystal posted you see what appears to be a very locked out straight arm. She should be a lot looser and the arms should almost look like a 'W'. The unlocked arm is part of creating that large whip effect as you come down. Do you have a full side view?
- It does look a little stiff and forced. When you are stiff and forced you tense up and lose speed and whip. My DD went through that when she was younger because she was trying so very hard to get her mechanics right - we actually introduced a 'faster ball' into her game plan which is just a whole lots of having fun and throwing it hard inside and not worrying about her mechanics.

I always go back to the Amanda Scarborough slow motion video on YouTube because despite a couple of things I don't like she just gets so much right and it is just so cool to watch her motion. Look how high her stride knee gets as she goes out. Look how loose that arm is through the whole circle. Watch her foot land at 45 degrees and the body resist against that leg. Watch how open she is when her front foot lands.

She does get open there at about 9:00 but seems to close really quickly, before release (in some of the videos).

Overall looks really solid to me. I'm no expert.

Her drive foot seems to be moving a lot. Is this a drill or how she pitches always. It might be illegal if it's not starting on the rubber.

Crystal Brown said:

Click to expand...

There is something that sticks out to me in the picture that is very telling. (This is my attempt at not giving an answer but helping people look for it. Not just trying to say I see something you don't)

On another note:
You can also see that she is open in this frame. So when we say she is not open is should include the whats and when. There's a difference between opening the shoulders, hips, and what I'll call legs meaning getting into a fielding position or holding the pose. And at what point are they getting open or not getting open or not staying open or not closing enough. It has recently come to my attention that the drive out is what opens our hips, the arm circle opens our shoulders, and FSR keeps those still through release.

Rosey said:

There is something that sticks out to me in the picture that is very telling. (This is my attempt at not giving an answer but helping people look for it. Not just trying to say I see something you don't)

On another note:
You can also see that she is open in this frame. So when we say she is not open is should include the whats and when. There's a difference between opening the shoulders, hips, and what I'll call legs meaning getting into a fielding position or holding the pose. And at what point are they getting open or not getting open or not staying open or not closing enough. It has recently come to my attention that the drive out is what opens our hips, the arm circle opens our shoulders, and FSR keeps those still through release.

Click to expand...

The natural rotation of the shoulder would open the hips...at least from my limited knowledge. But hey, I am open to learning.


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