DD pitching...please offer opinions

[greg99]

Hello all. I finally got around to posting the vids I took with our new camera of my DD pitching. I would like some feedback on what you see, both good and bad. I see a few things I want to work on, curious to see what everyone else sees.

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The camera is a Casio Exilim EX-FH25. So far I really like it.

 

[mrslug01]

She's going to get really tried squatting before each pitch

 

[3DD'sDAD]

I would think that she is losing a lot of her leg power simply by straightening up. Less bend down and more push out. At 1:17 I thought she was in a good position, but her glove hand looked to be swimming a bit.

 

[starsnuffer]

pre-pitch motion aside, she doesn't look too bad. She's bowling though, and not getting any benefit of internal rotation on the foram. She's leading with her hand on the downswing where she should be leading with her elbow. One thing to try here is to have her "pull" the ball down when it's behind her and then release with the fingers inside the ball inline with the middle of her front thigh, not her hip.

The second thing I noticed was that she's closing her hips too much and too early. You can see this with the high shoulder on the pitching arm and the follow through out to her right side. This is probably why she is "swimming" with her glove hand, to offset everything that's going on off to her right. If you can get her to focus all that energy towards the catcher instead of out either side, she'll throw a lot harder. Again, releasing in time with the front thigh, not the rear, will help with this. Her right foot is far to the right of the powerline which may be causing her to make her entire pitch at an angle. Try having her center it a bit more and put a powerline on that pitching mat for visual reference. You can practice "elephant trunk tosses" to get the motion down (stand sideways with both arms out, and just drop the arms and let the ball and glove hand come down naturally with gravity), this is the most economical movement.

I like the way she's starting and finishing with her weight back, she looks a lot better then other girls here, however, she is bending at release (see around 1:18) when she should be keeping her weight back, and this is robbing her of some speed/power as well.

Overall she's in a great spot and everything I mentioned shouldn't be too hard to fix, just take it one thing at a time. Kudos to you.

-W

 

[sluggers]

(A) On pitch #1, she uses the "elbow pointing at catcher" release. On pitch #2, she uses IR, but cuts off the follow through (she pulls her hand down after release. On pitch #3, she does something really odd...is she trying to throw a change? Anyway...she needs to work on her release. Go with IR, and forget the "elbow pointing at catcher.
(B) She is squatting, and then standing up. At some point in her pitching career, she isn't going to weigh 75 lbs dripping wet. So, she should forget the squats, or she should start doing a 1000 deep squats each day.
(C) She swims a little.
(D) I can't tell if she is getting any arm whip. If you could should the video directly from her side, it would help.
(E) She should be covering up the ball with her glove. She is good enough so she needs to start paying attention to the little things.

 

[Goobie]

Gotta be really hard to catch her when she is wearing that shirt! My daughter had a shirt with a big yellow softball on it. Hated catching for her when she wore it. It was one of her favorite shirts, but my eyes would always lose track of the real ball. Funny... that shirt disappeared one day.

 

[Lozza]

Sorry, I just can't get past the squatting. Why has she been taught to do that? What purpose does it use?

 

[greg99]

Thanks for all the input. She has been playing around with her pre pitch motion, she stills squats some, but not as much as in the vid. She has been trying to get the feel of "arm whip" over Christmas break. Its funny, when she whips it through, her speed and spin are faster: when i tell her she really fired that pitch, "Dad,it didn't feel fast to me" she says. She is trying to get the feel of arm whip...can't wait till she gets the hang of it on all her pitches.

3DD'sDad, I like her postion at 1:17 & 1:18 as well. I like 2:331 a bit better though, her throwing shoulder seems to be moving in a better plane in the last pitch.

Starsnuffer, shes been working on pulling the ball down, she will get there, shes starting to understand that pulling it down will allow her to really whip her arm through. I agree that her right shoulder could be better, its what jumped out at me. I'm not sure if its becuase of her hips though. I have looked at the vids a few times this morning again and i'm not sure she is closing to ealry with the hips. I do think her shoulders are closing wrong but i think thats because her weight i a bit forward and not back. She needs her nose behind her belly button more IMO.

Sluggers- She is starting to break her habbit of pulling her arm down, she used to do it on every pitch. Shes getting better but still needs work. on pitch 3 it looks like she gets some good arm whip, not sure why she did pull back moveafter the pitch, maybe trying keep her weight back and pulled back since she was over her toes? Pretty sure she was throwing all fast balls in the vid. Do you mean she should cover the ball longer on her pre pitch motion? I will try to get some video directly from the side, might have to shoot threw the netting though.

Thanks for all the input, it really helps hearing everyones opinion. With any luck i can get some more video soon to see her progress.

 

[Coach JV]

I would like to see less squatting and see her
square her hips a bit better after release

 

[Lozza]

Thanks for all the input. She has been playing around with her pre pitch motion, she stills squats some, but not as much as in the vid.

Glad to hear that. I still think any squat is a complete waste of time though. It's not a matter of style, she's using up valuable energy. When she's in the seventh dig, after a long hard game, she needs to be using all her energy on pitching the ball. My game on the weekend, I pitched seven digs in 99 degree heat and was lucky enough to be batting before a girl who hit three home runs. So getting into that last dig I was exhausted and grunting with every pitch just trying to get that horrible thing across the plate and in the strike zone. The one thing I had to focus on was keeping my delivery exactly the same. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was squatting before every pitch. Very few pitchers could.

The pre-motion is all style and adds nothing to how fast the ball goes. So the squatting is taking valuable energy that will be needed later in the game, for no bonus whatsoever.