Drills to fix glove swim

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Jul 8, 2020
54
18
No, here is a pic i found. will try to find one of my dd. Essentially the glove finishes towards first base vs. reaching towards home plate the entire time. 1595951269815.png
 
Feb 10, 2018
496
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NoVA
What sort of pre-pitch motion does she use? My DD has struggled with glove swim, though we have been slowly improving it. In her case--and in judging from the picture above--one thing it causes or at least exacerbates is shoulder and hip over rotation. These additional moving parts cost her speed because her resistance is not as good as it could or should be. Basically, the hips and, then shoulders, should find the angle of her stride foot and stop as the arm then whips through.

We transitioned from a sort of half-assed double pump pre-pitch motion (a poor girl's version of the motion Jennie Finch made famous) to a single rocker style, where the glove follows the ball to the ball side hip as she goes into her backswing. The key is to take the glove hand straight up the spine rather than having it split immediately across the body. We did a lot of work "dry pitching" without a ball, just focusing on the motion of her glove hand. You will still have glove "whirl," which most girls do, but you just don't want this extreme "iron cross" type action with the glove hand. I tried at times to use physical obstacles--like a wall or fence--to prevent the more extreme action of her glove, but never particularly had any success with it.

For other reasons, we are actually thinking about moving to an "out of glove" style to just reduce the number of moving parts in my DD's pre-pitch motion and to, at least in theory, increase her deception by not showing the ball to the batter until she is already at 12 o'clock. Something to think about.

Another thought: If this issue is not really hampering your DD's effectiveness as a pitcher (is it?), it might not actually be worth worrying too much about. I agree it is less than the ideal, but if it is working for her, maybe don't be in a rush to change it. My DD is not a hard thrower, so I am trying to smooth out every mechanical flaw I can to try and find additional mph.

p.s. your DD has a great bend in her arm
 
Jul 8, 2020
54
18
currently do the single rocker style as you mention. Tried the physical obstacles for a little bit, seems temporary and reverts back if we don't use it. When the glove does not swim, she throws harder and is more consistent so trying to fix. We've tinkered on the wind up. maybe it is a lot of dry pitching repetition. Giving her a break with season done and will start back up in August.

the pic wasn't my daughter, one i found to try to illustrate. :)
 
Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
In the end, you are trying to rewire a circuit that has already been built, which is why they revert back to it when the energy and intensity go up. You have to create a new circuit that is stronger than the old one. My experience has been that it takes many, many quality reps doing it the new or correct way to overcome the old way. It has further been my experience, that this work needs to be done deliberately and mostly without the energy/intensity of full pitching until the new circuit starts to get grooved in. That is, it is a grind, which is why most sane people would never get into pitching!


the pic wasn't my daughter, one i found to try to illustrate. :)

Well, kudos to that girl and her arm whip, whoever she is. LOL.
 
Dec 17, 2020
6
3
My daughter just turned 11. She started pitching around 8 or so, and I wish I knew then what I know now with mechanics. She has several issues. She has trouble dragging over toe and her glove flies out. It wouldn’t bother me so much on the glove but she leans to the right when he glove is in the air. It’s not a balance thing for her. I have tried everything I can think of...she will fix it for a while and then once she’s not thinking about her shoulders are uneven and she’s leaning with the glove out again. I am so frustrated that I am not sure what to do next!

 
Apr 12, 2015
792
93
She has trouble dragging over toe and her glove flies out.

Her drag and glove swim are symptoms. She is trying everything possible to avoid brush contact, essentially trying to clear her hips so her arm can pass though unobstructed. Until she can retrain her muscle memory to set up in the correct position to achieve brush, her shoulders will continue to rotate her shoulders and her hip won't be in the proper position until AFTER the ball has been released. You can see you have spent some time in working on her dragging over her toe, because she fights to achieve this position almost as soon as the ball has been released. Unfortunately, this is only a visual fix, as when her arm is coming into the release zone, she is trying very hard to move her hips out of the way, probably not even aware she is doing so. Notice how in this still her hips are moving away from the ball (monkey butt posture)? Has she hit her hip hard before?

1609232667610.png

The shoulder shrug, the drag, the glove swim, and the posture are all just symptoms of her trying to clear her hips.

Regardless, the answer to fix all these symptoms is the same: You must retrain the posture and so the arm properly slots into the side and good brush contact is achieved. The quickest and easiest way to do that is to run through the basic IR drills about 10,000 times:


Notice none of these drills utilize the full pitching motion.
 
Last edited:
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
A different camera angle might help but I don't see that as glove swim, look at post #3 in this thread for comparison. She pushes off the rubber OK, a lot of pitchers don't go laces down until later in their motion, look closely at Amanda Scarborough's foot and you'll see that. Your daughter drags the bottom of her cleats so I'm wondering if at one time there was an emphasis on not leaping. She also looks like she has a lot of shoulder tilt. There is something going on but without video from a different angle and a little closer view I'm not sure what to suggest.

 

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