12U Pitcher- Accuracy

[softballdad#16]

My DD jut turned 12 May 31 and has been pitching for about 3 months now and her accuracy doesnt seem to be getting any better. She is about 50-60% with her FB. She will throw 3-4 strikes in a row and then may miss 3-4(usually low and inside or high and away to a righty). Is there any accuracy drills we can do? There must be something quite not right with her arm circle or release. She always looks really good in warm-ups. (stationary, half motion, walk through). Then once we do full motion from the mound her accuracy starts slipping. I don't understand and she is getting frustated beacause she is throwing 5-7 days per week. She has good speed at 49-52 MPH and we have recently added an off speed pitch. I think she has good potental but she is getting discouraged. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I will see if I can post a video her pitching, soon.

 

[Ken B]

3 months, 50 MPH and some inconsistency isn't a bad mix. Video will help if her form could use some tweaking, but hard work and patience might be the best bet.

 

[JJsqueeze]

video will help a lot but it sounds like these are pretty good stats for 3 months of pitching. My DD has the same misses, low and in and high and away. We tracked it down to the release point as the forearm fires. A little early=down and in and faster a little late and she's high and away and slower. I don't know of any way to address it specifically, not sure if I want to because I don't know that it is a bad thing. We are just doing reps with the hope that she narrows down her release to a more consistent place and gets the feel for it. I was tempted to get her to have a more "fingertips' scraping the ground feeling during release but I don't want her gravitating to a push instead of a fire so we are living with it for now. This stuff takes a lot of time and patience and immediate results are not to be expected frequently. I am eager to hear what others say about this but keep an open mind because at three months she is not going to be fast and accurate and fast is better than accurate at the beginning.

 

[Dave619]

Okay Dad #16, what I am telling you is what I learned from working with my DD and what I learned from the good people on this board.
1) All girls progress at different rates. 3 months in not even a drop in the bucket...think long term development.

2) I would not get into off speed, or any other pitches until her mechanics are good (not great, just good and fairly consistent) then work on locating her FB

3) Does she have a pitching coach? A high quality PC will spot things on your DD that you will never pickup. Your DD sounds like my DD about 6-7 months ago, very inconsistent...new PC within 10 minutes of first lesson said DD had an arm circle issue. Took about 2 months...no more problem with arm circle.

4) Be patient with her and don't show frustration with her. It is obvious she wants to pitch if she throws 5-7 per week. I would maybe keep it to 5 for her...gotta have a little down time and rest the body.

If you can post a video of her from multiple angles. These guys on here can get you going in the right direction to help you help your DD.

 

[softballdad#16]

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kuZZmEtF0&feature=em-upload_owner&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DH0kuZZmEtF0%26feature%3 Dem-upload_owner[/video]
Here is a quick video of her throwing last night

 

[halskinner]

Her stride foot is landing at / about 90 degrees. Start with that and get it to land at 45 degrees consistently. Get that fixed and then re-assess her overall and her accuracy.

 

[JJsqueeze]

The biggest improvement she needs is the catchers arm . She's awesome. I tried to capture the video and look at it in slow motion but it was really blurry so I couldn't get a sense of the release etc but she looks really powerful. As Hal said her foot lands a little close to square but I see more like 70deg instead of 90. I can't imagine that is going to affect accuracy that much, but come to think of it my DD is close to this position at landing as well so maybe Hal is on to something.

 

[Ken B]

I'm going with 55 degrees.

 

[softballdad#16]

Catcher's View

 

[Ken B]

JJ wins...