Close the door

[Isalileri]

New to the site. Looking for a little help.

I am the father of a 12 y/o pitcher. She has been pitching for a couple of years. She has one bad habit that I can't get rid of. She bends at her waist at release.
Her bend happens after her front foot hits the ground and her arm is in its downward path to release.

Recently a friend suggested that she "shut the door." He explained that his daughters pitching coach suggests that she closes her hips at release. Her hips close from facing third to facing home. We are working through the IR in the classroom drills and added one movement to her hips just after release. She can't close her hips and bend at the waist so in the "show and throw" drill she stays standing unbent. She says that it feels like she is throwing the ball with her hips.

This seems like success but I want the opinion of others on closing the hips. Closing her hips gives her a better chance of brush interference. Am I creating one bad habit to get rid of another?

Thanks.

 

[JAD]

A video of her pitching from different angles would be helpful to diagnose the problem.

 

[grcsftbll]

My DD does this too. We've been working on it a couple of ways. If she leans forward I make her throw the next few pitches landing on her front foot without dragging the back, so she has to balance on the landing foot. If she leans, she falls over. I'll have her do that just a few times, 3 or 4 pitches, and usually the next real pitch she throws she won't lean. This is a process we have to repeat frequently since the leaning is fairly ingrained right now.

At our last lesson the pitching coach told her to focus on bringing her drag foot up to meet the front foot really quickly. It ends with closed hips (after release) and her standing tall. This one works too when I can get her to do it. She tends to leave her drag foot behind her and I have to hit her over the head with this one to get her to do it. But both have been helpful in reducing the number of leaning pitches we get.

In our case, at least, the leaning is because she's thinking about location. She leans towards the target feeling like she's more likely to hit it that way. I have her pitch into a big net about 25' away a lot. No glove target, so she doesn't have to even think about accuracy. That way we can focus only on her mechanics, and a "good pitch" is one where she gets all the major points, regardless of where it goes. With the big net you can't really tell if they're strikes or not and in those practices, it doesn't matter to me. I was worried this might screw up her accuracy (which at least right now is her strong point, her speed is average) but it didn't. When we do regular practice with me catching she's still accurate only now she's getting the right muscle memory.

 

[knightsb]

2nd what JAD said.

From my limited experience bending at the wast is a byproduct of an open stance bowling type motion similar to this:

You'll notice how the front leg firms, but that does not translate to the upper half of the body. The back side seems to get left behind. The hips close very little if at all.

 

[grcsftbll]

Yep! when my DD does it, it's when she leaves her drag foot behind like that. It's not quite as much as she's doing but enough that it lets her lean.

 

[sluggers]

Recently a friend suggested that she "shut the door." He explained that his daughters pitching coach suggests that she closes her hips at release. Her hips close from facing third to facing home.

Your friend is clueless, and so is his pitching coach. A short list of great pitchers who do not "shut the door": Cat Osterman, Jenny Finch, Lauren Haeger, Sarah Pauley, and Amanda Scarborough.

Here is one: Lauren Haeger. Do you see her closing completely?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c8lbimt0Ac4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Bending at the waste is a different problem.

 

[wjdempkowski]

I had a similar problem with one of my pitchers a few years back. She would lean at release. She went to a pitching coach and I wasn't overly impressed with her progress. I respected the parents, and I didn't want to create internal turmoil in my pitcher.

I watched her pitch a few in practice. I asked her how she felt about her strikes. She felt good she said. I reinforced that it was great location. I then told her that when she pitched that strike, her body didn't look confident. I explained to her, that her body position told me she was unsure if it was going to be a strike. We then had a conversation about pitchers and batters, and how she needed to be "proud" of her pitches. Stand up tall and let everyone know she threw a good pitch. Not because the umpire said so, but because her body said so.

To me, it was the quickest way to get her to fix her balance issues. She focused on posture by herself, because she felt better about what she was throwing. It wasn't that she lacked confidence in her pitching ability, it felt more like she was unsure what the result would be and it was reflected in her posture. We didn't change anything about her mechanics she was being taught by her pitching coach. All we did was bring to her mind, looking proud and confident when she releases the ball.

I felt this was the best way to tackle a difficult situation with Coach/Pitcher/Pitching Coach.

 

[JAD]

Your friend is clueless, and so is his pitching coach. A short list of great pitchers who do not "shut the door": Cat Osterman, Jenny Finch, Lauren Haeger, Sarah Pauley, and Amanda Scarborough.

Here is one: Lauren Haeger. Do you see her closing completely?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c8lbimt0Ac4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Bending at the waste is a different problem.

The pitch being thrown can have an influence on the closing of the hips. A screwball or inside fastball (to a RH batter) will require the pitcher to stay open longer to be effective.

 

[Isalileri]

2nd what JAD said.

From my limited experience bending at the wast is a byproduct of an open stance bowling type motion similar to this:

You'll notice how the front leg firms, but that does not translate to the upper half of the body. The back side seems to get left behind. The hips close very little if at all.

I don't have the ability to record and post right now. I will soon.
This GIF looks just like her old pitching motion. So you can see the need to correct.
Are you saying that closing the hips during the pitch is wrong and I should stop? She doesn't close before the ball leaves and doesn't close completely. I just don't want to make a mistake. She is in a transitional period and changes are being made. Don't want to create more problems for myself.

 

[knightsb]

Isalileri,

What do you see?