10u pitching mechanics feedback welcome.

[coachdan]

Pitcher is 10 yrs old and has been pitching for about a year. She has very good speed for her age upper 40's with pretty good control. She is one of the top 10u pitchers in our area. She can still play 10u next spring. I would like some feed back on what we need to work on ths winter.

What I see in the video is a wrong ball position on the back swing causing her arm circle to be off. She has not always done this it is something she has just picked up recently. We are alos working on getting some bend in that elbow so we can get more whip.

Please give me you feedback good or bad.

thanks in advance

 

[crystlemc]

The one thing that stands out most to me, is that she is getting quite a bit of air under her pivot foot that should be getting her called for illegal pitches. I also see what you're talking about with her hand position. However, that doesn't seem to be affecting her a whole lot.

I've gotta say, for a girl who is still 10u eligible next year, she is doing a fantastic job! Can't wait till you post video of her in a couple years!!!! Great job.

 

[Quake Softball]

She looks really good. The only thing that I saw was like crystal said, make sure she keeps her drag foot in contact with the ground and it looks like her nose is getting out in front.

 

[CoachAl]

I wouldn't worry too much about the ball position....the easiest way to correct this is to have her keep her wrist loose and just the ball face toward her body on the backswing (not ball facing the catcher like she is bowling). This will take a lot of tension out of arm during the windup.

I agree with the others the leaping will be more of an issue and this is one bad habit that becomes very difficult to correct if it goes unchecked.

You could also work on having her keep a straighter back on release but over all she looks great for 10u! She really knows how to kick that front foot out - something my daughter is struggling with right now and she is 10u also!

 

[flamethrower]

She looks pretty good to me. I am much more concerned with the UFO hovering behind the tree line.

 

[sluggers]

I'm not as crazy about her throwing motion as everyone else.

<a href="http://share.ovi.com/media/ratwod.softball/ratwod.12512"><img src="http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/lt/2633/5797ce2bfec3460e9f5c46aa0814236f.jpg" border="0" title="bri-motion - Share on Ovi" alt="bri-motion - Share on Ovi" width="560" height="154" /></a>

The first problem is the arm.

You can see that her right arm at 2 has bent at the elbow. At 12, she has straightened the arm. From 12 to release, her arm remains straight.

So, she has the "bend sequence" backward. The arm should be straight from the backswing all the way to 12. At 12, the arm should slightly bend at the elbow. From there, the elbow leads the arm until release.

The second problem is her body position.

Attached is a shot of Jenny Finch at release. Note that her torso is centered between her left and right foot at release.

Bri's torso is completely over her left foot at 9. At 12, she is "too far forward"...that is, she standing on her front foot at release. This is a bowling posture, not a softball pitching posture.

She needs to work on keeping her weight back and a correct arm position.

Drills for body position:

(A) "The stork"--She needs to gets open, lift her left foot, and throw, and never let her left foot touch the ground until the ball is returned to her. It takes a lot of practice.
(B) "Carolina walk through" The pitcher starts about two steps behind the mound. She walks over the mound and throws. After she throws, she is not to lower the right foot until after the ball is returned to her.

Finally, she is closing too early. You can see that her hips are closed at released. This isn't going to bother her at 10. But, when her hips spread at 12 or 13 YOA, it will be a big problem.

 

[go4fpsb]

I certainly don't disagree with Sluggers, she needs to work on her posture, the positive at circle start, the negative at toe touch and returning to neutral at release. Actually if she got a bit of reverse posture that would help get her pivot foot on the ground. Her timing is really pretty good, arm at 10 -11 o'clock at toe touch. Yes, I'd teach her to stay more open at release, balance beam drills would help that. But what I see and I don't think you can teach is her "live arm". She is in every position you can be in during her arm circle. At one point or the other she has the ball pointed at every base and still gets some IR in the motion. She pushes the ball at the start, bends her elbow big time and points the ball at first then makes an unbelievable move and gets it pointed at third, then gets her hand on top of the ball and finally goes to the "hold the glass of water" position which gets her some IR movement and whip through release. Wow! I've never seen someone gyrate their arm quite like that. BoardMember can correct this if I get it wrong but just have her pull the ball up on the front half of the arm circle, either have her show the ball to the catcher or a bit towards third at the top and then have her pull it down on the back side of the circle(thumb on top of the ball). Simplify it for her and see if it doesn't help.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Bri's torso is completely over her left foot at 9. At 12, she is "too far forward"...that is, she standing on her front foot at release. This is a bowling posture, not a softball pitching posture.

The reason she's leaning forward is, even though she's closing early, she's not finishing with the hips. They completely stop at a 45 degree angle and never finish. The right toe is pointed backwards and doesn't come forward passed the body to move into the fielding position. This is causing her to have to try and control the finish momentum with her upper body and the only way to do that is to lean.

So, she has the "bend sequence" backward. The arm should be straight from the backswing all the way to 12. At 12, the arm should slightly bend at the elbow. From there, the elbow leads the arm until release.

The reason for this is she is lifting her hand at the front of the circle instead of swinging it. This is causing her to be late at the top of the circle. At the 12:00 position the ball should be facing away from her towards 3rd base. Getting there will allow her to be able to flex the arm slightly to get the good whip action out of it.

All of the rest of what Sluggers lists is spot on.

 

[splinterpicker]

I personally think the feed back is great. If it was my dd at 10. I would address all the above, but I would start with her snap. The video dose not show me a full snap. Just my opinion.

 

[starsnuffer]

She's smiling, which is key, and is awesome.

Does she have a pitching instructor now? If so, what is she focusing on?

If not, now is the perfect time to get her one. She will have to begin again and be built back up with proper mechanics, and this is something that's hard to do during a regular season, as it will take several months of lessons and practice.

She's doing a lot right, but it looks like she's trying to "look like" a pitcher without ever being taught how and why each movement is actually made. I think that this is important, and it will help her help herself as she moves forward.

Keep her smiling!

-W