- Dec 11, 2010
- 4,728
- 113
Need some help with this. DD is second year 12 and has shown a lot of improvement, especially in practice after an early 2014 muscle injury that caused her to struggle over the summer. It seems like by now she should have figured this out but it is dogging her.
She has trouble throwing to lh batters. In particular, does not throw her curve as well to them because it breaks toward the batter. Curve is one of her better pitches in practice, she has sometimes said it's her best pitch. It has been pointed out to her that her screw breaks toward rh batters and that doesn't bother her but she just doesn't throw the curve with confidence to lefty.
One of the things we have done to deal with it is I stand in the box lefty, and it takes a few pitches but she eventually throws it correctly. There has to be a better/another approach. I currently am considering this a mental issue more than a mechanical issue.
So that leads us to our next hurdle. What I am seeing is that she is bringing good mechanics into the game for the first few batters- then if she bangs one off the screen or gives up a walk, she slows down, her footwork changes and only God and good luck can get her out of that inning. Most of her fb misses are high. She by far throws best when she throws fast, nothing in reserve, snapping it off on the Banzai side of the scale. How do we encourage the all out attitude? It is my guess that she feels she is failing her team, failing personally and is trying to fix it. I sure can't blame her for that but slowing down sure doesn't fix it.
Would like to hear how the seasoned parents and pros handle this. Her PC is definitely on the "teach form and the results will take care of themselves" approach if that helps.
She has trouble throwing to lh batters. In particular, does not throw her curve as well to them because it breaks toward the batter. Curve is one of her better pitches in practice, she has sometimes said it's her best pitch. It has been pointed out to her that her screw breaks toward rh batters and that doesn't bother her but she just doesn't throw the curve with confidence to lefty.
One of the things we have done to deal with it is I stand in the box lefty, and it takes a few pitches but she eventually throws it correctly. There has to be a better/another approach. I currently am considering this a mental issue more than a mechanical issue.
So that leads us to our next hurdle. What I am seeing is that she is bringing good mechanics into the game for the first few batters- then if she bangs one off the screen or gives up a walk, she slows down, her footwork changes and only God and good luck can get her out of that inning. Most of her fb misses are high. She by far throws best when she throws fast, nothing in reserve, snapping it off on the Banzai side of the scale. How do we encourage the all out attitude? It is my guess that she feels she is failing her team, failing personally and is trying to fix it. I sure can't blame her for that but slowing down sure doesn't fix it.
Would like to hear how the seasoned parents and pros handle this. Her PC is definitely on the "teach form and the results will take care of themselves" approach if that helps.