Any miracles? Hitting hip: good pitcher to poor pitcher in 2 weeks

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h8weakness

Bucket Dad
Jan 9, 2019
35
8
Mishawaka, IN
My 12 y/o DD has been hitting her hip consistently the past two weeks rendering her almost un-pitchable. Her coach that we've worked with was unable to see anything wrong with her arm path in videos. Yesterday, I was able to get video of her actually hitting her hip with her forearm. She's hitting her hip bone pinky side about 3" down from her elbow. We've had an x-ray and has been looked at by 2 doctors to rule out a serious injury. all signs point to a deep muscle bruise.
Now, she's unable to pitch more than 10 balls without hitting at least once and it ruins her. She's gone from a good pitcher to a girl who can't pitch. ANY ideas or things to try would be greatly appreciated.

Hope these work....

Here she is actually hitting her hip. You can see the difference in her arm speed now that she's hitting. :(


here are a few videos of normal pitching...





Any thoughts on how to fix her new issue?
Thanks in advance!
Sincerely,
Ross Signorino
 
Nov 8, 2018
774
63
In her latest vid there is no deceleration of the upper arm. Watch her former pics. Her elbow brushes and her elbow pops out on contact. You see a deceleration of the upper arm. That is the biggest difference I see.
In recent vid she is just slamming into and thru her hip.
Now she has a bruise and is tentative and is losing all form.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
This might sound weird but focus on a better straight leg drive. Right now she leaps to the side pretty significantly, think about this as she leaps to the side the angle she is at leaves her back hip in her arm circle if she were to throw it at the plate from here of course she has to compensate for this and does but sound mechanics do start from the bottom up. I'm probably not doing a good job of explaining myself wish I could show you what Im talking about.

Look at the picture below if she keeps her body in this position (focus on hips) where will the ball go. About five to ten feet left of home plate, so now she has to start compensating and all sorts of odd things will start happening. Also if she comes down here and throws home what is blocking her way...her hips. She needs to get that brush feel but her leg hip and body are not in the right position. Anyway just my two cents, I'm not a professional coach.sideleap.JPG
 
Last edited:
Apr 5, 2009
748
28
NE Kansas
This might sound weird but focus on a better straight leg drive. Right now she leaps to the side pretty significantly, think about this as she leaps to the side the angle she is at leaves her back hip in her arm circle if she were to throw it at the plate from here of course she has to compensate for this and does but sound mechanics do start from the bottom up. I'm probably not doing a good job of explaining myself wish I could show you what Im talking about.

Look at the picture below if she keeps her body in this position (focus on hips) where will the ball go. About five to ten feet left of home plate, so now she has to start compensating and all sorts of odd things will start happening. Also if she comes down here and throws home what is blocking her way...her hips. She needs to get that brush feel but her leg hip and body are not in the right position. Anyway just my two cents, I'm not a professional coach.View attachment 14437

Are you referring to RH batters box when speaking of 5-10 left of home plate?
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
Her arm is supposed to brush her body. In advanced pitchers, the arm strikes the upper body. Sarah Pauly wears an elbow guard due to her arm hitting her body. Attached is a picture of Monica Abbott. You can see how her arm is hitting her body.

On the basic level, pitching is about getting the body and the ball moving in a straight line toward the target. For some reason, your DD is all over the place. Your DD seems to be doing all kinds of crazy stuff to avoid hitting her body. She seems to have developed some weird habits.

a) Your DD is doing a Figure 8 with the ball. The ball is on the *LEFT* side of her head on her backswing. (How does she do that???) She need to take the ball straight back.14439

b) Her whole body needs to stand up and move toward the catcher. The body and ball all should be moving in a straight line toward the catcher. Look at her left foot. She starts to the left of the power line, then swings her left foot to the right of the power line, and then swings her left foot farther to the left than when she started.

14440


c) And, of course, she has the monkey butt going. She needs to stand up straight, and get her rear end under her shoulders when she throws.


14438
 
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
The hip-elbow thing is always a near miss. There are a couple of things I would look at. Her posture is angled forward a bit too much at release, staying angled back a little at landing will give her a little more room between the hip and elbow leaving more margin for error. But I think the real problem is that she is coming out of her armwhip early causing the forearm to lead the upper arm into the contact. She's omitting the brush contact, which allows the forearm to slid around the hip.



Check out Amanda Scarborough at 27 seconds and 38 seconds
 
Apr 12, 2015
792
93
Are you referring to RH batters box when speaking of 5-10 left of home plate?

No, the left. He's talking about the angle her hips are setting by her overstride to the left.

14441

I've always found this thread helpful for Brush issues related to drive problems:

She would also benefit from some glove side work to help keep her body in line where she wants it to go:

 
Last edited:
Mar 20, 2015
174
28
Sorry to hear your DD is having this problem. My DD gets a lot of brush contact and had some trouble with this in the past and you have to stop pitching to let the bruise heal before starting up again. The other posts are on the mark but its true that the contact is a near miss that happens in a split second so very hard to diagnose using these videos. Things to check:
-Looks like she is wearing one of those elastic belts with metal adjustment on one of the sides. Can't tell but the adjustment clip might be under the pant loop. If this is the case this little metal clip will definitely cause bruising of the elbow area but not the hip.
-For my DD the final fix was making sure that at contact the bicep is facing third base not behind third base. My DD was always late with IR with the point of the elbow contacting the side of the hip first. This may not be the case for your DD but its a split second timing thing and the upper arm has a pause as it rolls or rotates past the hip.
-My DD no longer uses padding but yes after it heals to be safe use an elbow sleeve. Look for a thicker one as some are just compression sleeves and will provide no protection. Also can try a gel hip waist belt that they sell for volleyball players for diving for balls. DD hated this but it works and can wear under the jersey. Hope this helps.
 
Jan 28, 2017
1,662
83
DD just turned 13 and changing has something to do with her hitting her hip a few months ago. We were working more on speed a d she started hitting her hip. Finally noticed she would get open and then use her hips to much to throw hard.
 

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