11 YO (12u team) - Looking for advice/suggestions/comments

[Jeff_H]

When doing the circle drill, have her put her stride foot on a block 4'to 6' high. This will help her keep her weight back. She gives up a lot of left side resistance by forcing her right side forward. She has a tendency to bend at the waist and lean forward. She has a lot of moving parts at release that is not necessary and will interfere with control and generating speed. Her leg kick is more suited to a screw ball. Have her drag the toe towards the plant foot heel and this should help alleviate some of the leaning to the side and aid her in standing tall.Don't force the elbow bend on follow through. Let it happen naturally following release. I will comment further. All the time I have right now.

This is some of the best advice you will ever receive.

I notice some influence from the head of the organization that you play for, would be interested if she has taken lessons from there. Not entirely a bad thing, but your daughter currently lacks the physical attributes to pull it off. Tojo was right way to many moving parts going in different directions, the mind is contorting the body to achieve throwing strikes. A major concern for me is her front knee, with the weight out over the front leg and the foot closed so much as she gets bigger and stronger you run the risk of straining the MCL.

After the initial drive forward, she loses the momentuem from her lower half. Watch the stripe on the side of the plant leg, there is very little hip rotation. This may also help with keeping her "tall" as she drives forward and rotates her hips into foot plant. A que that may help her is to think about driving the rear hip under and through the front hip.

If you need professional help with her I would highly recommend Andrea Scott to channel all of her motion directly at the plate. She worked wonders for my DD and made her a pitcher instead of a thrower.


Go back and read Boardmembers Internal Rotation thread, more great information included in there.

 

[TeNeetKeeMom]

Thank you for the replies!

Jeff, yes the head coach of the organization is my DD's PC. Interesting is that the screwball was one of the PC's best pitches. Also, interesting is you talking about the knee or potential problems with my DD's knee - though it is not her front knee but rather her drag knee. I took her to a local Ortho doc and she was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter Disease (hopefully she will fully out-grow this once she physically develops more) - she wears a patella strap on her knee now. Again, it is her drag knee so I don't know if this is associated with any of the bad mechanics she currently does? We constantly remind her to use her legs/hips to get the power/speed. She has always been a powerful thrower and throws overhand very hard. All through 10u ball (using the 11 inch ball and pitching from 35ft) she was always able to get a way with "muscling" the ball for VERY fast speed on the fastball. She was one of the fastest 98 pitchers around NE Oklahoma playing 10u. So, now it has been kind of hard for her to fully grasp (both mentally and physically) the mechanics of pitching (resulting in great speed) versus muscling the ball. We will keep working with her, helping her get to where she wants to be - a successful pitcher.

Thanks again for the responses.

 

[Jeff_H]

I'm not a big fan of the style, there are alot of inefficiencies in the motion bleeding power, but that is just my personal opinion.


I'm not sure if it is now a fashionable diagnosis, or better understood but that is the third Osgood-Schlatter diagnosis I have heard about in the last 2 months. A cheerleader, dance team, and now your SB player. Might check on a second opinion.

I have the same opinion of the wrist snaps as Bill Hillhouse, to me they are a wasted drill. I think of the release as the cracking of a bull whip. Look up Paul Nyman's Setpro site and check out his analogy of a buggy whip in the throwing motion and his Bow-Flex-Bow description.

I would love to really see her get her hips rotated. In her arm circles have her try to use a little bit of her lower half.

Dad better start gearing up pretty soon, those one hoppers are killer.



<a href="http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2700601380101921655MXdjkN"><img src="http://inlinethumb55.webshots.com/41270/2700601380101921655S200x200Q85.jpg" alt="pitchspeed4"></a>

One of my favorite memories, from a few years back