Consistancy and accuracy

[laser]

I know every pitcher is different in coming into their own fruition. My daughter who is 10, has been pitching for about a year now. She has two pitches off speed and fast ball.

I work with her four to five times a week, prac15 minutes a day on throwing the ball in the glove (Hillhouse's method) .

The problem is (It's me for sure, I don't know crap about this stuff) is her consistency with accuracy. Some evening's she hits every target I give her. Other evenings she cant hit the broad side of a barn.

Her best game so far in Summer League has been one game where I did tell her to slow her velocity down and she had a great game. Now the other team did hit off of her well that night but our defense cleaned all that up.

It just seems like she is at a plateau and is ready to go to the next level, but that has not happened yet.

I'm sure it's a process thing plus not getting her to a real pitching coach, which I'm pretty gun-shy with after seeing most of Hillhouse's comments about coaches teaching them bad habits.

Here is a pic of her fastball grip

Will upload a vid of her this evening to show her mechanics

Hopefully yall can point some areas out we need to work on.

Thanks

 

[sluggers]

It takes forever for the kids to get consistent. My DD didn't get consistent until she was 14YOA. She didn't become "consistently good" until she was 16YOA.

We played against this one pitcher at 12U who was going to be a great pitcher. But, lucky for us, she couldn't find the strike zone that day. She was walking everyone. Seven years later, she was pitching for Stanford.

So, be patient. Keep practicing.

Wait until her body starts maturing...she won't be able to hit a barn from six feet.

 

[laser]

So what your saying sluggers, is that I'm going to be completely bald in the next 4 to 5 years?

She has been playing on a team now for about three years and I cant believe how addicting this sport is to me.

 

[halskinner]

Laser,

please understand that the vast majority of the time it is the stride cinsistency that will screw up EVERYTHING ELSE. If the stride length and speed is not consistent, NOTHING ELSE will be either.

Once it is consistent,

Have her practice with wiffle balls, the kind with the holes in them. Hold the ball with the fingertips and do not let it touch the palm of the hand.

The first few will go sky high, then she will bring them down. Then move the target around in the zone. It will not take long at all for her to figure it out.

Then give her back the regular softball. The first few will go in the dirt and then she will bring it up to the target.

Too much of the time pitchers are taught to let the weight of the ball do their thinking for them. Take that weight away and all you have left is fingertip control and accuracy. That control and accuracy will transfer to the regular softball with a little practice.

Many instructors will call a peel drop grip a fastball grip. I aint on of em because I know bette.

Make the old peace sign. Put the thumb straight out and grip the ball like that. Dont let the ball touch the palm. Release the ball in front of the hip and point that peace sign right at the target with the palm up. The hand will be down kind of low but stop it with the palm up and peace sign pointing at the target.

That is a fast ball grip and it is extremely accurate with a little practice.

Or you can use other methods and , well good luck with those.

 

[starsnuffer]

The problem with consistency at her age is that she is more then likely trying to get better. She's doing what she can to throw faster and more accurately. She's also growing. When you consider all of those variables, its pretty easy to figure out why she isn't consistent.

What she needs to learn how to do is self-correct and be consistent THAT DAY. She probably made some adjustments between monday and friday, and on Saturday when she has to pitch in a game she hasn't shifted gears to game mode.

Try to get her to understand how to find her breaking point THAT DAY. Increase her velocity in warmups to the point of failure, and then take it down a notch or two so that she's hitting her spots. Then she needs to take a mental snapshot of what she's doing that moment, and repeat it for the rest of the day. She needs to learn to avoid "trying harder" during the game when she's in a rut, and instead to sit back, let her brain go off in a mental corner and read a book, while her body just pitches. Consistency is about repeating what worked. Trying harder to make a pitch work better or be faster is not going to happen.

-W

 

[Boomers2012]

Consistency is about repeating what worked. Trying harder to make a pitch work better or be faster is not going to happen.

-W

Great advice.

 

[WaSpeed02]

I heard a girl talk about how she started pitching at age 11. She practiced a lot, but only had one pitch: a very hard fastball. She worked at it until she was able to hit her spots every time. She didn't develop another pitch until she was able to have perfect control of her fastball. That took her 4 years to accomplish. At age 15 she began to work on movement pitches. Eventually she perfected those as well. Today she is the idol of many young pitchers, including my DD. Her name is Keilani Ricketts.

 

[laser]

Sorry it took so long guys and gals, any criticism or help is much appreciated. thanks

Hope this works
annapitching_zpsc99e7b91.mp4 Video by mcamaples | Photobucket

One of the things I did notice was the glove swimming at times.

I do not condone making fun of anybody but my eight yr old filming repeated something a coach was telling his player on anther field, my apologies.

 

[Ken B]

Using a striped ball as a reference with a 3 finger grip, I'd like to see the middle finger and thumb on the stripe. With smaller hands, the thumb should be placed as close as comfortably possible. I'm curious to know if others suggest the same?

 

[laser]

I should have also mentioned she is 10 and will turn 11 in January, so she could actually play either 10u but we moved up to 12u. The transition from the 11" to the 12" ball was quite a change. She has been throwing the 12" ball for about a month now.