Fighting the bowling urge.

[coachbob]

DD (13 y.o. RHP), when under pressure or tired (or lazy) has tendency to rotate forearm early so that ball is facing anywhere between 3rd and second at 9 o'clock. She has only been working the I/R pattern for about two months, and this still unconsciously creeps in often enough. Doing palm up drills regularly, but still not sure she has a good self correction cue for this. Correct mechanics are yielding a good increase in her speed, but the stinker pitches are obvious. PC isn't concerned and says she will hold palm-up more and longer as she goes along, but am wondering if the DFP wizards of windmill have any tricks up their sleeve for preventing this dreaded whip killer. I admit that PC is right about it occurring with less frequency as she keeps working, but dad's in a bit of a hurry to fix it now.

Thanks
CB

 

[Sparky Guy]

I admit that PC is right about it occurring with less frequency as she keeps working, but dad's in a bit of a hurry to fix it now.

Learning to pitch is a marathon. It can only be done one step at a time. Your DD is two months into a large change in her pitching style. If there was a magic potion I would have patented it and made millions.

From your own description it sounds like she is progressing well. The key word is patience dad. It takes time to be the pitcher she wants to be. The best thing you can do is to focus on the things she is doing well and not dwell on the mistakes.

I have girls who've started with IR who will struggle with their mechanics from time to time. Especially if they are tired.

If it was easy everyone would be a pitcher.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Just keep practicing consistently and with good mechanics. The improvements will come in bursts. Do not expect improvement to be linear and gradual. You will bang your head against a wall over how to get some points across and then one day it will
Click for her and you will see improvement. DD was throwing gas last night, she broke 50 for the first time, and some of her flaws were nowhere to be found, I have no idea why. I can only assume that some of the drive stuff is clicking. This is after 4-5 months of no noticeable improvement and working diligently on a few flaws
That just would not go away. This is how it happens. You work work work and then all of a sudden things click.

 

[Rocketech1]

CB - I assume you are doing T drills and what I call "45 degrees" where she stands 45 degrees open to home plate and only does her windmill motion (no leg action). Work on getting her palm to catcher at 12:00 and palm to sky at 9:00. In these drills she should be getting good 12-6 rotation on the ball, if not she is doing the drill wrong. As we discussed before, her PC may not be emphasizing palm up at 9:00 for the drop ball (aka the four-seam fastball) so it could be an uphill battle with that pitch. With the other pitches, I think your PC is spot on. Good luck, you have a big tournament this weekend

 

[coachbob]

CB - I assume you are doing T drills and what I call "45 degrees" where she stands 45 degrees open to home plate and only does her windmill motion (no leg action). Work on getting her palm to catcher at 12:00 and palm to sky at 9:00. In these drills she should be getting good 12-6 rotation on the ball, if not she is doing the drill wrong. As we discussed before, her PC may not be emphasizing palm up at 9:00 for the drop ball (aka the four-seam fastball) so it could be an uphill battle with that pitch. With the other pitches, I think your PC is spot on. Good luck, you have a big tournament this weekend

Thanks Rocket. We are going to discuss the palm-up peel tomorrow; she knows I don't like the way she teaches that pitch and scrapped it. Anyway, yeah, she gets 12-6 or 1-7 on the good drill reps (85% or so), and 10-4 on the bad ones. She has picked up several mph when she has the good release and drive mechanics. We are close to that 12u typical goal speed on her best days and pitches, but drops off to mid 40's on her weaker ones (huge). Her in shoot runner seems to have the tightest spin and is her best pitch btw. Yes, our first tourney of the season this weekend. We scrimmaged a local team and did well winning a DH, but both of us are probably on the weaker side of the spectrum this year. I think you guys will go very far this year.

 

[LeftiesDad]

DD (13 y.o. RHP), when under pressure or tired (or lazy) has tendency to rotate forearm early so that ball is facing anywhere between 3rd and second at 9 o'clock. She has only been working the I/R pattern for about two months, and this still unconsciously creeps in often enough. Doing palm up drills regularly, but still not sure she has a good self correction cue for this. Correct mechanics are yielding a good increase in her speed, but the stinker pitches are obvious. PC isn't concerned and says she will hold palm-up more and longer as she goes along, but am wondering if the DFP wizards of windmill have any tricks up their sleeve for preventing this dreaded whip killer. I admit that PC is right about it occurring with less frequency as she keeps working, but dad's in a bit of a hurry to fix it now.

Thanks
CB

What helps with my DD is remembering to keep her posture. As she gets tired (or not motivated) her shoulders will start to come forward. For my DD it is important to keep the shoulders strong (strong core, stomach in, chest out, shoulders back) to get proper "brush" and whip.