DD Video

[Dave D]

Shot some video of DD last week and am trying to link it. Here are some known issues that we're working on. 1. head tilted back during delivery--working to get her canted forward at the waist a bit to drop her throwing shoulder down at release. 2. Trying to find a comfortable backswing. I didn't think she went this far back until I saw the slow clip. I'm sure there's more.

I'm fishing for comments--tell me what you see and some things we might do to continue progressing.

14 yo HS freshman--excellent control pitcher who cruises around 56. Occasionally pops a drop or FB up closer to 60. breaking pitches (curve, drop) have consistent movement, changes speed well, too.

Anyway, here it is (I hope) pitch clips on Ovi by Nokia

 

[ArmWhip]

I think that dropping her throwing shoulder will help, I don't think that focusing on 'canting forward' will accomplish that. If you look you will see that as she comes into the release area her upper arm gets trapped behind her rib cage and her IR or armwhip take place 'around' her torso. In effect she is blocking or short circuiting her arm circle as she implements her IR. Ideally you want to add the IR to the arm circle. You are right to key on the throwing shoulder, it is a little higher and this limits the clearance that is needed for the arm to continue it's circle. Getting the shoulder down and tilting a fraction toward 3rd base should help free up the arm in the release area. Overall though a strong athletic motion.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

A couple of things I noticed is that a) she seems to stop her stride abruptly before her foot plants (i.e. she is not getting full extention on her stride) and b) her glove hand at release is stuck out in front of her body too much and not countering the push off with the glove hand. At the very least it should come down somewhere near her left thigh.

Question - what is the rationale for the big dip down to the floor as she starts her motion? I would imagine that this cannot be good for the lower back after pitching 4x a week in practice plus tournament games, year round. It just seems like mechanically it adds very little to the pitch other than maybe a little distraction to the batter.

Overall, she looks pretty good thanks for posting.

 

[go4fpsb]

Stride

Perhaps your DD could gain some velocity in her stride. Look at Amanda in this clip around the 32 and 112 sec mark. Watch how she stiffens her stride leg and bends her pivot leg to produce a good positive lean and strong push to start the stride. Hope it helps.

 

[sluggers]

Click on the image to enlarge.

<a href="http://share.ovi.com/media/ratwod.softball/ratwod.12516"><img src="http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/lt/2726/ae74e4120c8d49c6b78dffbaeacaca1b.jpg" border="0" title="dd-31296 - Share on Ovi" alt="dd-31296 - Share on Ovi" width="280" height="141" /></a>

(1) She is shifting her weight forward too early. At 3, you can see her body is slightly ahead. At 12, her left foot is down, and her torso is in the middle of her body. At 9, her torso is about 75% over her left toot. Then, at release, her weight is fully over her left foot.
(2) Her arm is not bent at all at 3. You can see that your DD's arm is straight as an arrow. That means the whip is not as good as it can be.
(3) In the release picture, look at her shoulders. They are level with the ground. Look at Finch's. Her left shoulder is quite a bit higher than her right shoulder.
(4) Her head is bending to the left rather than the right.

She needs to work on keeping her weight back.

 

[Dave D]

Thank you all for the feedback. I totally agree about getting full extension on her stride leg. Seems like we've been working on that forever, and she always seems to chop her step down about a foot short of where it looks like it's heading.

As for the deep bend, she's been searching for a backswing motion that feels comfortable for a long time. After doing some starting block work to build explosiveness at the start of her motion, she arrived at this one. She throws consistently, and hasn't had any trouble with her back or flexibility, but it's definitely something we're aware of.

Finally, my comment about "cant forward" seems to be saying the same thing as you mean, ArmWhip--I was talking about her leaning out "nose over toes," or however you might describe it--in her open position-- to create some space for her arm circle. Didn't mean to imply leaning forward toward the plate. She definitely arches her back--too many years of focusing on "staying straight and tall" in order to keep from leaning forward as part of her delivery.

Again, thanks to all of you who have offered your observations so far. Bailey and I look forward to hearing more.

 

[Lozza]

As for the deep bend, she's been searching for a backswing motion that feels comfortable for a long time. After doing some starting block work to build explosiveness at the start of her motion, she arrived at this one. She throws consistently, and hasn't had any trouble with her back or flexibility, but it's definitely something we're aware of.

Yet.

I've had friends that have done this motion. They pitched every day all year round. Never had problems as teenagers. Now we're all in our late 20s? Their backs are horrific. One of them lives with constant back pain and has been to every doctor under the sun.

For your daughter's future health, please stop her doing that motion. It might be comfortable now and it might work for her, but it will ruin her back.

 

[Goobie]

One thing I noticed is that it appears that she is not getting a good forward push with her pivot foot. She bends forward, fires up and kicks her stride foot out and then appears to use that to "pull" her body forward and her back foot off the rubber. I believe that is why she stops a "foot short of where it looks like it is heading." She simply runs out of forward momentum.

If you can find a copy of the video that the pictures of Finch above are from, if I remember correctly you will see that her drive / pivot foot actually glides about a foot or more forward while her stride foot is still in the air. She gets a great push from behind. IMO that is why she can keep her weigh back so well.

btw... my DD used to look exactly like yours with regards to legs when she pitched. I guess that is why I focused on it. She has been working hard on getting a better push off the rubber. Trying to get her to think of "Pushing" her body forward with her back leg instead of "Pulling" her body forward by kicking her stride foot out. PC has had her doing a bunch of walk through's to get the feeling for the push. Looks good sometime, but reverts to what she is used to if she doesn't focus.

 

[stv]

In Dave D DD Video. What about her glove hand? It looks like it stays straight and she pulls her elbow to the body. It also looks like it allows for the glove to be higher up. Rather than girls slapping their thighs with their gloves. Glove finishing down. I'm thinking it would help keep girls from swimming with the glove arm, pulling their shoulder off line.
Any thoughts on this?
Could someone start a thread with some videos of best glove arm motions
Thanks

 

[lhowser]

Sluggers sez:

She needs to work on keeping her weight back.

I agree and you used the same side by side of Finch to make the same suggestion on my 10U DD. Quick question. Do you think Finch is thowing a rise here. I would hate to make that my posture model for a fastball if she is. Thoughts?