10 Y/O Picher Struggling

[BT3100]

Hi,
Wanted some honest feedback about my 10 year old daughter as she is struggling with her control. Here is some basic information. She is 10 (soon to be 11 in a few weeks). She currently plays for the majors (12U) as well as 10U select. She played only one year of minors (kid pitch) and was asked to play up this year. She has been pitching for about a year seriously and about 18 months total. I have a glove radar and she averages 42-46MPH with a top speed of 48. She has a pitching coach who she has been seeing once per week for about 8 months. She is tall for her age (about 5' 2) and pretty strong.
She is a great hitter and above average fielder but really wants to continue to pitch. In practice she controls the ball well, but in games she will own the first hitter then walk the next two and follow that up with a strike out of the next two. It seems like she is changing her mechanics almost with each hitter and the ball goes very high or rolls up to the plate. Her adjustments are too overcompensating which causes her to change her delivery.
The last game she almost cost her team the lead as she walked the bases loaded then worked her way out of it. I don't expect her to be 1-2-3 each inning but it is frustrating to see her control her pitches with one hitter then lose it with the next.
In this video I stacked up a couple of buckets to indicate the plate. In the first pitch she looked ok, then by the 4th pitch she rolled the ball up there. I don't know what to do as she is now beginning to doubt her abilities and I am having a hard time understanding her issues as I am her catcher during her practice and I am more focused on catching the ball then seeing the motion. Sorry for the audio on this clip I was using a GO Pro and it picked up my panting. Any help, advice, feedback or direction would be greatly appreciated.

05/04/2014 14:30:56 - Coach's Eye

 

[coach james]

Your video doesn't load.
The fact she's only 10 and in her first year speaks volumes! She needs to practice with batters. Focus on mechanics and staying loose. At this age, when they see real batters for the first few times they tend to tighten way up and steer the ball.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Hi and welcome. I have to answer quickly, because I have lessons to get to. My first thought is that the pitching instructor is doing your DD (darling daughter) and injustice. She looks to me, like she has never had a lesson before. She is "nose over toes" and leaning in towards the batter, on every pitch.

With her seeing so many coaches, they should have corrected this on Day 1. I would assign her Stork Drills to correct this lean.

Also, she is stiff arming the pitch. She has no bend in her elbow and there for no "whip" can occur. It also appears that her hand is behind the ball, instead of between the ball and the hip, like it should be.

Hopefully, someone else will be able to show you some still pictures of your video and you will get more advice then. You have come to the right place. She is a tall athletic girl that is probably struggling to get this right and she hasn't been taught how.

 

[sluggers]

In order for a pitcher to be accurate, she has to have as little extra movement as possible.

There is a thread entitled "Basic body-arm synchronization"...take a look at that thread.

Your DD's basic problem is that 1) her windup is crazy and 2) she is moving toward the catcher after release.

Two drills:

A) Pitch and catch. You stand up. She throws to you underhanded, without the crazy windup. You toss the ball back to her, just like you and her were playing pitch and catch overhanded.

B) Walkthrough. This is the "drill of drills"--the alpha and omega of pitching drills. Your DD cannot do this drill enough...my DD started doing this drill when she was 10YOA and still does the drill 24 years later before she pitches batting practice to her HS team.

Look carefully at the movement of Amanda after she throws the ball. Is she walking toward the batter after release? *NO* Does her right foot go in front of her left foot after release? *NO* Where is the position of her right foot relative to her left foot after the pitch? Her right foot is *BEHIND* her left foot.

Now look at your DD...she is walking toward the batter after release.

[video=youtube_share;r7o7MC1XX5k]http://youtu.be/r7o7MC1XX5k[/video]

 

[BT3100]

Thanks very much for the feedback! Also received a few PM's as well, thanks for those.
Sluggers appreciate the recommendation for the walk through drills. Out of all of the drills she was taught to do those were the one that she did not like doing. I am guessing that this may be why she is struggling. She did have two games today and pitched very well. We were able to get her to stop moving towards the catcher. In the first game she got two quick outs then on the third batter she actually hit her left knee with the ball right before the release. This is clear evidence that her mechanics are off. There is no way she could hit her left knee if she is on her stride line.

 

[sluggers]

Out of all of the drills she was taught to do those were the one that she did not like doing.

Of course she doesn't...she can't do them. Being 10YOA, she would rather whine than do something difficult. (...maybe it isn't age related. I'm going to start whining about going to work on Monday.)

In the first game she got two quick outs then on the third batter she actually hit her left knee with the ball right before the release.

This is one of those areas where you have to be careful. Of course, you don't want her hitting her leg when she throws. But, don't over correct it. She wants the inside of her right arm to "brush" her right leg when she throws.

 

[NVfishing]

At 10 girls will struggle. Pitching is a different motion and it takes time for the mind and body to sync the movements together plus factor in the challenge it presents to a 10yr olds mind when they are facing competition. I consider my 10yr old to be a good pitcher but there are times she will struggle. She walked 3 in a row for the first time this year on Saturday all on full counts. Was nerve racking. Something I haven't seen her do in a couple years.

 

[vcackerman]

Hi and welcome. I have to answer quickly, because I have lessons to get to. My first thought is that the pitching instructor is doing your DD (darling daughter) and injustice. She looks to me, like she has never had a lesson before. She is "nose over toes" and leaning in towards the batter, on every pitch.

With her seeing so many coaches, they should have corrected this on Day 1. I would assign her Stork Drills to correct this lean.

Also, she is stiff arming the pitch. She has no bend in her elbow and there for no "whip" can occur. It also appears that her hand is behind the ball, instead of between the ball and the hip, like it should be.

Hopefully, someone else will be able to show you some still pictures of your video and you will get more advice then. You have come to the right place. She is a tall athletic girl that is probably struggling to get this right and she hasn't been taught how.

Nose over toes was my first thing I saw.

What she is doing well at least in the choppy video (I love coaches eye but some of their videos do that) was she gets closed - open- closed pretty well for a younger pitcher.

 

[BT3100]

Wanted to thank everyone on the board who responded here and via PMs. It was a hard decesion to change PC's as the woman we were working with had a nice connection to my DD.
In June we did change PCs and what a difference. DD spent the summer working each day on drills, form and location. She looks like an entirely different pitcher. In late August she tried out for 4 travel teams. We set up 4 teams as we were worried that she would not make a 12U team. To our surprise and pleasure she carried a very high level of confidence into the try outs. Her hitting, fielding and speed are top notch and I do think that this also helped build her confidence as she saw that she could compete with the girls at these sessions.

She pitched so much more accurate and in control than we have ever seen. When she made a mistake she immediately corrected it, where in the past one high pitch would start a chain of high pitches. After the try outs were were thrilled that she received an offer to pitch from all 4 teams. Three of the teams were "C" level and the 4th was a "B" level. It was a team with mostly 12 year olds and returning players. They were only adding one new player as they lost their #1 pitcher to a 14U team.

We pondered the decision for a day and in the end allowed DD to choose what team she wanted to join. She chose the "B" team. They practiced the last two days and have their first round robin this weekend. DD will be starting game #1. I know that the coach just wants to see what he has in her as he knows the other pitchers well. In my opinion she can hang in there with the others
She has a ton to learn but I can't begin to thank you all for helping us see that she needed a new PC and more work on her mechanics.
Will keep you posted on our peaks and valleys going forward.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Post some video, before/after DFP videos are fun to watch.