- Jul 17, 2009
- 32
- 0
There's a 16yo girl who I've seen play for four season. She has had the ability to pull the outside pitch but the ability to do it consistently has diminished to the point where her average has dropped off significantly. She has pretty consistently had all the bad things happen that happen when you try to pull the outside pitch.
I've coached her for a couple of seasons and this past weekend I worked with her because her frustration and discouragement have gotten bad. Her highschool coaches, travel coaches, and stepdad have focused on her mechanics. I wasn't going to give her any more/conflicting advice about mechanics but wanted to focus on her vision.
We first established that she was same side dominant and what that meant. I then had her stand at the plate in front of a pitching mat that had a marked catch pouch. I had her get in her stance and watch pitched balls all the way into the pouch. We did this for about 60 pitches and then she called out whether she believed the pitches were inside or outside before they got there and continue to follow the ball into the pouch. This gave her immediate feedback on her location identification. She saw virtually everything as inside unless it was well off of the plate. The lower the pitch the more accurate she was. I was doing a fast front toss from 20-25 feet.
She is also a catcher and it has seemed to me that at times she was reaching for the ball before it got there. I'm really not sure where to go now. I thought about having her hit front toss with an eye patch and see if we can gather any more info that might give us clues as to what's going on. There are no sportsvision clinics in our area. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I've coached her for a couple of seasons and this past weekend I worked with her because her frustration and discouragement have gotten bad. Her highschool coaches, travel coaches, and stepdad have focused on her mechanics. I wasn't going to give her any more/conflicting advice about mechanics but wanted to focus on her vision.
We first established that she was same side dominant and what that meant. I then had her stand at the plate in front of a pitching mat that had a marked catch pouch. I had her get in her stance and watch pitched balls all the way into the pouch. We did this for about 60 pitches and then she called out whether she believed the pitches were inside or outside before they got there and continue to follow the ball into the pouch. This gave her immediate feedback on her location identification. She saw virtually everything as inside unless it was well off of the plate. The lower the pitch the more accurate she was. I was doing a fast front toss from 20-25 feet.
She is also a catcher and it has seemed to me that at times she was reaching for the ball before it got there. I'm really not sure where to go now. I thought about having her hit front toss with an eye patch and see if we can gather any more info that might give us clues as to what's going on. There are no sportsvision clinics in our area. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.