Exploding off the rubber

[WillyT812]

For quite a while I worked with one of my girls on getting a better drive off the rubber. We did countless two-step and push-back drills, hopping up and down stairs, dragging a bag around the field, etc; with minimal improvement. I'd read and reread Java's Drive Mechanics and watched all the greats coming off the rubber trying to figure out what am I doing or teaching wrong. Why can't I get the results I'm after? After watching Monica Abbott in slow motion for the millionth time it hit me. The key isn't a better push with the drive foot but a better drive with the stride side. This is actually something I once read Nolan Ryan discussing for boy/men pitchers as well. Once we switched our focus to the glove side (stride side) it looked much much better and was a drastic improvement. Here's a video of IR2 just focusing on launching off the rubber with her glove side. Yes I know her foot leaves the ground a tad (will never be called) and she gets a little too upright at the attack position, but, the drive is looking a whole lot better. Please don't high jack the thread talking about her pony tail or something. This thread is about a good drive off the rubber.

 

[WillyT812]

This her 11 months ago. You can see how weak the glove side is coming off the rubber.

 

[MountainMan]

I love this. DD's new PC recently told her that the drive off is not just controlled by the drive leg but also by the glove side elbow thrusting upward and outward. I found that it also helped her stand up more straight. She used to suffer from leaning forward before that. It's hard for her to lean forward if her lead elbow is up.

One other thing I noticed as a difference between your two vids is that in the second vid the drive foot turns sideways before the push. The first vid it is straight. Giving her a much stronger forward drive. This is something my DD really needs to work on also.

 

[mothgirl]

I was pitching this week and I decided to focus on my stride leg, Getting good weight transfer and momentum, keeping it loaded, (heel down straight leg) for as long as I could, before I quickly pushed off with my drive foot. Then I started to focus on doing the same thing but really getting my stride knee into a good position and pushing off with the drive toe.

Doing that I threw faster then I ever have before. And it all started with me thinking of my glove side only. When I went out to work on my glove side I really didn't think I was going to see a speed jump! But I sure did and not only was it faster but it felt smooth and kinda easy? Like I didn't feel like I was pushing really hard I felt like my timing was on and my body was doing what it was supposed to.

Too often coaches want to fix the end result but the little details in the beginning are really what messing up the pitch.

Thanks for this post I Hope I hear more about it from the others.

Lots of good stuff going on with the drive so much so I'm kinda scared to say what I'm seeing, because I'm pro many wrong.

I think her hips are doing a great job of thrusting forward. head needs to be more forward, looks like she on an upward trajectory. Looks like she's opening a tad early. Not sure if she's getting good overlap? It looks like she is but then it also looks like her body moves forward when the arm gets to the top of the backswing? So body needs to move forward sooner.
looks like she's making much progress!


I hate tacos- said no Juan anywhere

 

[grcsftbll]

She looks great! I'll have to keep that in mind for when I shift to focus on drive, eventually. Maybe I'll go ahead and mention it as something she can be thinking about. Also, she has a really cute ponytail

 

[WillyT812]

We have a focus checklist that we use to do our work. We start doing ten reps focusing on one specific element of the pitch without much regard to ball location, I want complete focus on the specific element. First is overlap with a good attack posture. Second is drive foot straight, then glove side explosion, then firm plant, bringing the glove up - turn it over and back to hip, straighter arm from eleven through six (she tends to muscle the ball) and finally a totally relaxed whip. After we go through that progression we start pitching for location and spin.

One thing Mothgirl, I tell my girls to explode with everything on the glove side: knee, leg, hip, shoulder, arm....everything. The whole glove side of the body needs to be involved, not just an elbow or a knee or a hip.

 

[djcarter1966]

I'm not an expert but it looks like she is having a slight timing issue, it's probably just because she is adjusting to something new but at toe touch she seems faster now probably just some kind of trying to compensate thing maybe someone a little more knowledgeable can help. Also concentrating on the stride leg is good but maybe she just has not found the sweet spot between up and out, but looking at the pictures you can see she is a good 6+inches closer to home plate just don't break on thing while you are fixing another. I would really like to see the form in the first picture with the stride distance in the last picture. I'll let others who are much smarter rip me to shreds but that's my $.02

 

[WillyT812]

Thanks DJ, she definitely has to re-time her kinetic sequencing. Some of my videos she looks better than others, I just picked the last one and used it. Now days I looks to see if the thigh is level with the ground, if you see that there's a pretty good chance they're driving off the rubber with some force from the glove side. There's more to it than that though. Not only does timing need readjusting but exploding straight and then collecting all that new energy in a nice plant for front side resistance is key as well.

 

[djcarter1966]

Overall she is looking really good, hope you are enjoying your tour there (prior AF here, and was with my dad as a brat at Wiesbahden way back in the day). I'd suggest the Scarborough video but you've probably watched it a few hundred times, only other nit might be to load just a little seems like she does not really gather herself and load up all her energy at the begining

 

[STRIKE3]

[video]http://makegif.com/g1bIH[/video]

Would this drill help on this topic?

This was my first GIF I have ever made. Such a slow learner.....


*Edit, I still can't quite get it. Inserted the link in the insert video function and only the link shows up. Back to drawing board...