Pitching problem - Glove path

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Nov 14, 2011
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I will do my best to explain to everyone what my 13 y.o. DD is doing. I hope you understand.

During her pitching sequence she strides from the rubber by pushing her glove towards the catcher, but when she is pulling her glove down it casts away from her body and around to the back of her. What drills, tips, suggestions do you have to keep her from doing this? Her old pitching coach let this go for over a year and now that we switched coaches it is a bad habit to fix! Telling her not to do it isn't working. She is having a difficult time with this change. She is losing a ton of power with the "casting" problem.

Here is a video of someone else doing it. It is the first part of the video.

"Solving Pitching Problems" - Kathy Van Wyk - YouTube


Interested in hearing any suggestion you may have that will help with this problem. Like I said it was a bad habit that she acquired from her last coach that pretty much let her do anything (that is why we left). Now we need to progress to the next level and step up her game.

Thanks in advance!

MS
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Have her pitch in to her glove... So full motion but instead of pitching to a catcher she needs to release it into her glove.

You can't swim your glove out when you need to put it into a spot to catch your own pitch. Do 50 of these for a week and the glove will come back in line.

This is less mean and hurts less than the wall method (which also works)
 
Oct 22, 2009
1,781
0
I use a variety of drills for pitchers with this problem, all the ones listed above. I like the wall drill and that is one I try and get them to do at home. I'll also stand next to them and have them pitch 1/2 & 3/4 speed and they'll brush me with their glove and know it's out too far.
I also do a "glove up" drill where I make them raise up the glove and hold the glove up while they finish their motion without bringing the glove down letting them focus on keeping the glove in line. The younger ones like this drill because it actually gets them to throw more in control, but don't let them do too many or they start trying to leave it up all the time. I only let them do about 10 in each lesson, and tell them only about 10 at home as well.

Edit...Sometimes with the girls that bring their glove down behind their leg, I'll have them get their glove back up in a defensive position quickly and they can tell right away how far away their glove was.
 
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May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
I have ran a string line up next to the glove side, before. If they swim, they hit the string. I use 2 fiberglass rods, that I got in the contractors sections of Lowe's, to string the line.
 
Jul 14, 2008
1,800
63
Understanding the underlying or "root" of the problem will go a lot farther toward repairing the problem, then putting a band-aid on it........Kathy completely MISSES the issue and offers a bandaid IMO........

Both of these pitchers move the lead arm into the shoulder line by 12:00........But the first 8 frames show an underlying problem......

Cat's shoulders are opening then entire time even during the "reach".......The other girls shoulders are closing then opening during the reach......

Cat's shoulders are aligning with her lead arm......The other girls lead arm is aligning with her shoulders........

So is the problem her torso/shoulder line mechanics?....And is her lead arm simply an "effect" of this underlying problem?....

Or is it her lead arm actually "creating" the problem?......I think not..........

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Perhaps thinking of aligning the shoulders with the lead arm will fix the problem.......

And is it really a problem at all?

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Should someone tell Michelle she needs to be more like Cat?

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If it needs fixing........I'd look upstream of the effect before you decide it's a cause........
 
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Jul 26, 2010
3,567
0
Use the glove as a pointer to where mechanical issues may be. Do not try to simply "fix the glove hand".

The glove is moving around because the pitcher is using it to balance themselves through their motion. If the glove is erratic or off plane, I can guarantee you that something earlier in the chain is the cause. Usually it starts with the pivot foot and the toes pointed towards third base at stride and degrades from there.

-W
 
Nov 14, 2011
446
0
We left our last coach after being with him for a little over 16 months. During this time she developed many bad habits. Our new coach attacked this one first. She claims that it is robbing my DD of power as the glove hand should be traveling down towards the left leg which pulls the pitching arm through the pitching path quicker. She used the analogy of trying to do a one armed jumping jack. Very difficult to do and nearly impossible to do at speed unless both arms are in sync. I agree with her thought process and am looking for a way to re-train her glove arm to go back to where it was before we went to the last pitching coach.

Thanks for all the advice thus far. I have a few things that we will be working on over the next couple of weeks to help with this problem.
 
Jul 14, 2008
1,800
63
She claims that it is robbing my DD of power as the glove hand should be traveling down towards the left leg which pulls the pitching arm through the pitching path quicker

With that said.......As long as you are "pulling the left arm down to the left leg"........What difference does is make where it's coming from?.......I know a heck of a lot of really high level pitchers who pull the glove down to the left leg from outside the powerline......Way outside..........

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Just food for thought.......... ;)
 

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