9YO DD's pitching

[Axe]

Would love some feedback on this sequence of my 9YO DD's pitching. This is from a recent game. I know that video would better but this is what I have. She's very small but pretty athletic and has worked hard.

Any thoughts would be great. I see the glove swimming off toward 1st base in 5&6, are we losing speed there?

 

[quincy]

Am I following these pictures correctly, she releases the ball then immediately pulls her arm back and does not have any follow thru with her body or arm?

 

[Axe]

She follows through in frame 8 but then yes, she seems to recoil. That's why I thought this was interesting to see what she actually did in a game on a ball that was put in play. The right side definitely never comes through. We've worked to change from more of an open door/shut door style and we may have overdone it on staying open.

 

[Axe]

FYI, she has pretty good control but not surprisingly at her size we are always looking for more speed.

 

[quincy]

Just a bucket dad, smarter people then I will respond.

Frame 5: She looks like she is stepping towards the 1st baseline and not down the power line. As you mentioned she also starts swimming. From that frame on she looks like she is falling over.

Have her get her plant foot going towards home, down the power line. As long as you are working on that you should also see if you can stop her swimming. Hopefully that will keep her body in balance for the rest of the pitch.

Frame 8: Have her finish the pitch and not fall forward. Her falling forward tells me she is applying energy towards 3rd instead of towards the plate. The follow thru should be relaxed, once the ball is released let her arm go where it wants to, do not force it.

It is hard to tell in the pictures if she ever cocks her wrist or if she is just throwing with her arm.

Also she is squatting down when she pitches. Look the front leg in some of the model pitching thread.

 

[Axe]

Thanks quincy, that's helpful. I see what you mean about stepping towards first somewhat, seems like we need to work on getting everything moving toward home together.

Some of the squatting in the last two frames is the result of her trying to move to her right to field the ball. We'll check out that front leg though.

She just finished fall season so we are taking stock of how she can get better during the winter.

 

[gvm]

she is leaning to her right side a little bit. and see in frames 7 and 8? in 7 she is about to throw the ball and her throwing shoulder is moving down in the right position to throw? but in 8 she has pulled it up? her throwing shoulder should be lower. (get a piece of duck tape 8 " long. and tape it to the bottom of her shorts. tape a little then tape it back to itself) so it should be hanging there by itself on the bottom of her shorts? kinda sticking straight out? go easy, but on her backswing her hand/wrist should brush off the tape, and then when she comes around to do an arm circle? make sure she lowering that shoulder to brush off the tape. lower the shoulder, don't lean.... ok?

 

[marriard]

<insert standard forum advice>
Get the Hilhouse DVD "Building the House" and check out his videos on FastpitchTV (Fastpitch TV – free fastpitch softball videos, fastpitch softball training, fastpitch softball clinics, softball bat reviews. - episodes 89-91 should be hugely enlightening). More importantly what he has to say is really, really easy to implement - and more importantly if a player has any sort of natural talent she'll do a lot of the basics fairly naturally.
<close>

Stay open. The open/shut thing doesn't matter. You release open and your momentum should carry you through into an end fielding position (her back leg figure fouring behind her stride leg is not helping either - it should be dragging forward). If you concentrate on a 'snap shut' all you end up doing is sometimes 'snapping shut' early and the control goes out the window.

Hard to tell form photos, but in a lot of the photos it looks like she is off balance or fighting for balance. It also looks like she is actually going backwards at the end. I am not sure how that is even physically possible. Frame 12 looks like she is back at the pitching rubber so she has to be losing power as she has to be using energy going away from home plate. By the end of the pitch she should be in a fielding position significantly closer to the batter

She will benefit big time from the Hilhouse videos. If she has good control with what she is doing now she is going to be dangerous when she is balanced up and throwing naturally.

 

[Axe]

She's going backwards at the end because she's chasing a ground ball to her right.

We have the Hillhouse video which is part of the reason she stays pretty open. Sounds like we really need on staying in balance and keeping things moving straight toward the catcher

 

[marriard]

She's going backwards at the end because she's chasing a ground ball to her right.

We have the Hillhouse video which is part of the reason she stays pretty open. Sounds like we really need on staying in balance and keeping things moving straight toward the catcher

That makes sense. Be good to see even cellphone quality video since stills can lie.

Balance - yes
Straight at catcher - yes (especially dragging the back foot rather than getting in the figure four back leg)
Swim glove - yes

Follow though - big yes. If she is recoiling at release regularly then she is losing power. Also a good follow through will naturally flow into closing the body or at least finishing in a good fielding position. I almost have them following through to their opposite shoulder area - whatever is comfortable for them.

Up-down drill is awesome for most of this.
Having them pitch into their glove will help with the swimming glove hand (over the quick and dirty 'wall method'). Great thing with this drill is they can do it themselves inside with some sort of spongy ball - my daughter has one of the Jugs Lite-Flite sting-less balls she uses

One last thing (and this is hard to tell from stills). She seems to be be going WAY back on her initial start to her pitch. Is she using a lot of energy this way and how fast is she going. A lot of this is style, but if it is putting her out of position at the beginning of the pitch, that can make the rest of the pitch an exercise in correcting the beginning. It also adds nothing to the pitch since it is going away from the batter. My DD works best with a back slow and smooth motion - small thing and for most 95% style but in a long game or tournament, saving energy that is being wasted is worthwhile.