9 Year Old Pitching Advice

[covrec1]

We have been working hard on mechanics to increase speed and throw more accurate. Any suggestions on what they see wrong that we can work on? The one thing she does is when she practices her pitching to me or her catcher she throws more accurate and harder but when she gets in a game she tends to slow up a little bit.

http://www.coachseye.com/v/BCd2

 

[Doug Romrell]

Any other format you can post that clip in?

 

[GatorGirl]

Having one that just turned 10 myself, how realistic are your goals? For someone so young, I think she looks pretty good to start. Everyone can improve, but having such a open ended goal of faster and more accurate is the equivalent to Mt. Everest for such a young pitcher.

Right now, we are working on just the mechanical things, glove high, elbow bent, no leaning etc....and know that once we get these along with a much needed growth spurt, speed and accuracy will come. We celebrate all the super small victories.

What I see is the glove hand is not getting very high--I tell mind a bird can't fly with one wing. I also see that she is really clutching or holding back the follow through at the end, she needs to give it a good whip. Plus, about half her pitches are illegal-from what I understand of the rules. She can't step back off the rubber with that back foot and she does on about half. They won't get called this early on, but it really can give you a lot of momentum. If she starts depending on this now, it will hurt her when they start calling it as illegal.

Here is a before and after of mine from the beginning of the season and this past Saturday. Notice the glove hand and the slight bend in the elbow difference. Def. more to work on, but for us, huge victories.

Best of luck!

 

[Doug Romrell]

From what I see in your DD, GatorGirl, because I've heard the big experts tell me, is that she (your DD) needs to have popped her hips a bit more open by the time she has the ball overhead. While they start their drive out square, they should be fully open when the arm reaches 12:00. Just a thought. But, hey.... your DD looks like she's really coming along.

 

[GatorGirl]

Def. don't want to highjack, but we know we do have tons to work on, but have found when we work on too much, we get nothing accomplished. We backed way off and only work on 1 or 2 specific things each practice, mostly with her eyes closed so she can "feel" it rather than watching where the ball goes. This is how we finally got rid of the darned lean. Now mostly the glove high and bending the elbow. We are extremely happy with our progress and won't try and fix much else until we have these two becoming automatic every time like the "not leaning" thing. Def. a marathon and not a sprint.

To the OP, also, do the experts here think the major drag to the side might be slowing her up? We haven't focused much on drag per say, but your DD has a very pronounced one. This might be a factor in slowing her down.

 

[covrec1]

Here is Amanda Scarborough looks like she has a major drag but I have seen also leaps and drags that are straight. Her follow through also whips but stops after the whipping action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzojfAUcGEI

 

[GatorGirl]

She has a bit of one, but it doesn't swing her body to the side like your DD. This really shows what I mean: Softball Power Drive - mechanics in slow motion 1000 frame per second - YouTube

They were just observations that I saw. I am sure you will get lot and lots of feedback. Overall, I think for 9, she has a lot going for her. Keep up the good work and best of luck!

 

[GatorGirl]

Check out this thread for what I mean with pulling back. Sluggers says it perfectly.

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/19348-my-dds-follow-through.html

 

[covrec1]

Crazy I have been coaching High School Softball for years and now I get to coach my U10 daughters team and make her into a pitcher. My stress level just hit the top!!

 

[GatorGirl]

It can be very, very stressful. You probably will still do this, but try not to research too much and try and work on too many things at once. Read a bit, see what applies and only work on or towards 1 or 2 things. at 9 she has many years ahead of her. I spent too much time comparing mine to others on here and the youtubers. All we can really do is try and be better than "we" were yesterday. All those little improvements add up a lot quicker than you would think.

Best of luck to you!