10U Pitcher Feedback

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Jul 22, 2016
22
3
Nashville, TN
Here's some video of one of my 10U Pitchers. She's 10 years old and is an impressive athlete. She had some instruction about 2 years ago and pitched in a handful of games but was ineffective and opted not to pitch. I coaxed her back on the mound and have been working with her since July. We've come a long way. You can see from the video that her body still has some of that hello elbow tendencies which we are attempting to erase from her muscle memory. I'd appreciate any thoughts and/or suggestions on what to work on, tweak, etc.

 
Last edited:
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
This is actually a pretty interesting case study...No matter what you think you can't throw the ball HE style and have anything even resembling reasonable pitching acumen.

After looking at the first video I said to myself WOW we have to get rid of the HE style...but after looking at the second video the real answer is tell her stop STOP with the exaggerated follow through and let it happen naturally. Someone told her her hand had to tap her shoulder or elbow up to the pitcher or whatever just go to the IR in the classroom thread and see what a nice natural follow through looks like throwing underhand

Couple stills to illustrated then next post will break down a few things. The first you see the hand coming up HE style but in the second you see at release her hand is actually coming across with some IR.

HE.JPGHEnot.JPG
 
Jul 22, 2016
22
3
Nashville, TN
We've been working on stomping out Hello Elbow...And yes she was instructed to touch her shoulder. She knows what her body needs to do but muscle memory is taking over when she pitches competitively.
 

SB45

Dad, Coach, Chauffeur
Sep 2, 2016
150
28
Western NY
It's not too bad in slo-mo...she has some IR, has some external rotation coming into release. I wouldn't worry too much about verbalizing getting rid of HE. I would start with the drive foot...she jumps to an open position...she should drive towards home. Not forcing the hips to open, but let them open naturally by striding forward. REview the IR/brush interference threads and work on some of the drills to understand and feel what the brush should feel like. Not sure what she's been taught, but many people think you create the ever elusive whip by snapping your elbow & wrist as you release the ball. That's not whip, think about how a whip works. It's really kind of the opposite...the arm has to be loose...lead with the elbow into brush interference and let the hand go flying on its own. To help get this to the extreme..search for some of the videos of the Japanese men pitching...their arms look like they are going to come off.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
So first things first drive there is good info about drive mechanics in previous threads and hopefully someone can link you there but here is a four frame shot I tried to line up your player versus model of good drive mechanics.

She seems to start OK but then is just not explosive, which is very typical for younger pitchers. You would think the more bent over you are the more explosive power that would create but once the ball is at about 6 0clock you should be almost back to upright. The frames seem off but I think it is that her arm circle is fast and ahead of what her lower body is doing. You can also see her opposite leg never comes up much but goes out fairly quickly we need both up and out. All in all not bad for a 10U just getting back into it after some time off but something we can work on.

p.s. so reading [MENTION=15156]SB45[/MENTION] you can see what he means about opening early, with her foot on the ground still the girl in the first photos is closed, your player foot on the ground open already and my assumption is her arm is speeding up to stay in sync with her hips open

New Picture (26).jpg four shot.jpg
 

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Last edited:
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
At plant again not terrible but room for improvement, biggest thing is you can see her hand is not under the ball, again watch the IR drill in the sticky thread IR in the classroom to see what it is supposed to look like, her hand is also 9 oclock or farther, again I think her arm circle is quick but I would work on other stuff and my guess is it will simply fall in line.

plant1.JPGplant2.JPG

Next at release she does have a little lean but its not as bad as most at this stage, not much to worry about. She should also not be walking through at the end she should basically just stand up or if anything just come back down on her rear leg. Honestly she seems to have a lot of good going on for just having picked it back up and being 10...keep working with her I think she will be fine. The IR in the classroom thread is your friend (if I had not mentioned that already)

littlelean.JPG
 
Jul 22, 2016
22
3
Nashville, TN
Great feedback. I really appreciate all the effort and time spent. I have the IR in the Classroom saved to my hard drive as well as printed out (along with Java's Drive Mechanics thread). The concept of IR and more specifically Brush Interference clicked with this one about a week ago, so now we need to keep plugging away to get it right. But, you guys have given me a lot of other stuff to focus on as well which will hopefully make it all fall in line.
 
Dec 3, 2012
636
16
West Coast
Another idea is to throw some up together/down together practice in (both arms used together to balance the body's actions) along with working on developing a controlled palm up glove swirl.
 
Jul 22, 2016
22
3
Nashville, TN
Another idea is to throw some up together/down together practice in (both arms used together to balance the body's actions) along with working on developing a controlled palm up glove swirl.

Good point. We've done the Pulling Together Drill recently to work on adduction. Still more work to be done, but another thing on my checklist.
 

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