Drills to do with an injured foot

[CoachHarley]

So my youngest (10yr old, Right handed) has had an injury in her left foot for a while. She has been in and out of a boot for the past couple months. The doc says that this time she needs to take 3 weeks off of running, sports, etc.

Well, since we are in our preseason wind up now, she is my starting pitcher, so we are going to miss some valuable pitching practice. Any suggestions on some drills that she can do that would not involve using her feet. She does pitch from her knees from time to time, but that is the only drill I know that does not use her feet. just trying to keep her arm moving during the injury break.

She throws a 2 seam fastball, 4 seam fastball (not sure if that's the official names, but the grips, speed and rotations are different), and a change up, so maybe I could work on a new pitch with her from her knees so she can concentrate on the grip and arm movement?

 

[CoogansBluff]

... so we are going to miss some valuable pitching practice.

I'm not necessarily against any suggestions that might be forthcoming, but as a father of a 15-year-old and thinking back to when she was 10, I don't think these three weeks of practice are as valuable as you might think. She might be fresher and more eager to play for having rested and kept the ball on the shelf for three weeks.

But if she just can't wait to do something in the meantime, I'm sure there will be some good suggestions. Video might be one, if she's someone who has the patience for watching instead of doing.

 

[Classof2020]

When my DD has a foot injury at 11 it was in March/April and was pretty critical that she keep up her stamina so she continued to work a lot of drills on one foot and on her knees. Sounds like CoogansBluff might have something here with being the time of year when she could probably get away with resting if you choose.

There are quite a few things you can do from her knees - 9:00 drill for example. Pitching drill from right foot only keeping core strong and weight back. Mine worked on strength things also like push ups from her knees, crunches, and light weights from a sitting position. And it's never to early to work on rise ball spin into a blanket, etc.

 

[Jojo]

I always tell my pitchers never look at injuries as set-backs. Think of them as just going in another direction for awhile. For most injuries we allow this time to just focus on spins, but in your case, she's 10. So my best suggestion is that she could probably work on the drop spin. I have some of mine actually sit on a bucket with a little bit of an angle making it more comfortable. The drop spin is great because I just have them roll the spin on the ground.

 

[CoachHarley]

Thanks for all suggestions.

She will be ridiculously bored and I will probably have to wrap her in duct tape so she won't want to be running around and full pitching at practice. We just got off a 2 week break from Christmas/New Years, so another 3 weeks would make 5 weeks off. With her, 2 days off of pitching and she is driving me nuts about going outside to throw. Too cold for the both of us.

So working with spins, which is better to start with, the rise or drop. I am by no means a pitching coach and have no idea how to start teaching her those spins. I just learned the basics for fastball. Her change up that she throws she flips her hand and releases the ball with her palm down. With what I think is probably a pretty inaccurate app on my iphone, I timed her fastball at 45 to 48 and her change up at 22 -26. Its some app where you input the pitching distance and then hit start on release and stop when caught.

 

[riseball]

Make her watch some games on espn3 or where ever. That would be the most productive thing. (A tip: Don't mention 2-seam 4-seam fastball--always a sign of a newbie. Just say fastball, and if you need an adjective, with natural movement.)

You can practice change up "spins" into a bucket, but I would have the kid sit with the feet staggered or if they can stand, get in an athletic position that mimics their legs/body position in a real pitch.

One of the real skills in softball is learning to sit on the bench, watch others while doing nothing or less, take time off, rest, etc. I would teach it now.

Asserting that there is no difference is a sure sign of ignorance.