DD Needs More Power - Is a Backswing needed?

[bmd]

It takes time to make the slightest of corrections. Just when you think that you have corrected a flaw it creeps back up in a game as they start to get tired. Just relax and work hard...it will come together. To this day, my dd can go out and practice in the yard and be looking great then we start imaginary game situations and she sometimes looses it.

I think a good cue for fixing the lean at release is keep the nose up....Its really uncomfortable to lean forward with your nose up...

 

[nikkilugi]

It takes time to make the slightest of corrections. Just when you think that you have corrected a flaw it creeps back up in a game as they start to get tired. Just relax and work hard...it will come together. To this day, my dd can go out and practice in the yard and be looking great then we start imaginary game situations and she sometimes looses it.

I think a good cue for fixing the lean at release is keep the nose up....Its really uncomfortable to lean forward with your nose up...

My dd has a crazy bad lean and this is what I tell her - nose up. Her pitches tend to go up at the same time so then I have to remind her - nose up and release at brush/leg and then she will do better. We are also working on a firm front leg and pushing back at landing - it is hard but she throws better with that better posture.

 

[NVfishing]

Ahh, now I really see the leaning forward in her pitch. WAY forward in comparison to where she should be. That gives us a good direction for practice this week. She doesn't have another game until this weekend so we really need to spend some time on this in the hopes she will be comfortable with it before then!

Thank you all for pointing out what seems to be so obvious (except for me!). Once we have this aspect down we'll work on a better drive.

When girls lean forward they tend to release the ball late. The bent stance keeps it down. When they go upright the pitches may be high due to the muscle memory of late release.

 

[grcsftbll]

My first thought before reading the responses was the lean (I'm proud of myself for picking that out. Yay for DFP teaching me things). My DD did that really bad for awhile. We seem to have finally broken her of it and her speed definitely made a jump. Once we fixed that then we moved on to drive, which has also helped. The lean was SO HARD to get rid of. It finally mostly went away when she started recognizing it herself. She'd throw a pitch and immediately tell me, "I leaned that time." Once she identified it herself it wasn't a problem much longer, I guess because she knew what to look for.

 

[cbombdad]

So I told my DD we were given some great advice on the forum and she wanted to read it for herself. Her first reaction was amazement because so many people took the time to watch her and try to help! So thank you for that!

It was a tough practice since we just recently started our focus on I/R and now we know we really need to focus on getting rid of that lean. Many things to do. So we went through the lock it in drill, 9:00 drill, etc, for the I/R practice and then worked our way up to a circle so we could do a little work on the lean.

Here is how she was looking today. She seemed to be really trying to focus on getting rid of the lean. We are also trying to stop her drag leg from going behind her, which I am hoping will get better by working a little more on actually leaning backward like Rick Pauly instructed.

Since I am not the greatest at looking for the key aspects I should be, is she headed in the right direction for improvement?

Circle without push off
[video]https://youtu.be/FdcWCRRQYSk[/video]

Full Pitch
[video]https://youtu.be/QVQCNKLj0BI[/video]

 

[DNeeld]

We are also trying to stop her drag leg from going behind her

I'm not sure what you mean by this. In the video it looks like she is forcing the leg to stay back. This is improper. She needs to finish knee to knee, with the drag leg knee just slightly in front of the stride knee.

Anyway, as others have said earlier this is a marathon. It will take a good amount of time to see positive change.

 

[grcsftbll]

For us it felt like the lean and the drag leg staying behind went together. You can't stand up tall with that leg sticking out behind you. We would focus for awhile on bringing her drag leg up quickly. We also pitched slightly downhill some- if they lean forward they'll fall over.

 

[cbombdad]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. In the video it looks like she is forcing the leg to stay back.

What I mean is that most times her trailing foot points to the left after the pitch, kind of how a bowler would finish. Looking at the dirt trail after she pitches an inning you can clearly see the drag mark running from the rubber towards the 1st base line.

For us it felt like the lean and the drag leg staying behind went together. You can't stand up tall with that leg sticking out behind you.

Yes, I think you are correct. She is working on not leaning forward, but I have to find a way to get her to actually lean back. I can't see how the trailing leg could go bowling if she leaned back. It all seems to go back to that lean!

 

[grcsftbll]

Wait till you get that fixed. It's very exciting! She'll look like a different pitcher.

 

[djcarter1966]

Keep up the good work I see improvement already.