Follow through
- Thread starter gaddis
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- Apr 25, 2010
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In my opinion, it's something she needs to make her primary focus for a little while. She should just relax and let the arm move smoothly. I don't know if she's jerking it over across her stomach or not. For a week or two of practice, maybe she should try to just focus on fixing that one little thing. We had to do that my dd because she was closing too early, so she focused for two weeks on keeping her throwing shoulder back.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
- Nov 29, 2009
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The first thing you need to make sure of is that her arm circle is correct. If she's letting her arm come up over the top of her head instead of keeping it in front of her the hand path will not be correct. Then you have to try and determine if she's slowing down at the end of the circle trying to aim the ball by cutting her arm circle off and short arming it.
If her arm circle is good you need to have her do this drill. Have stand about 30' from you. Have her in the fully open position. Feet slightly wider than the shoulders, knees slightly flexed with more weight towards the balls of the feet and balanced. Now have her do full circles with her arm making sure she follows completely trough and extends the finger tips towards the catcher. What I tell the girls is to imagine they are reaching out trying to tickle the chin of the catcher with their finger tips as their hand comes up. Then I make them keep their arm moving all in one motion and bring their finger tips up and touch them to the top of their forehead. They do not step or close when doing this drill. It's not about speed or accuracy. What it does is do is force them to exaggerate the finish of the pitch and to rely on trusting their wrist snap to throw the pitch. After she becomes comfortable with it you'll find the speed and accuracy will increase on their own.
- Apr 25, 2010
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You are assuming that they use that style of pitching/follow through. My dd finishes diagonally across her body to her opposite shoulder (a' la Hillhouse) and it sounds like that is this girl's natural tendency. If it is, I stand by my previous post. Just have her focus on touching her opposite shoulder on the follow through for a week or two and see if that helps.
- Jun 20, 2008
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Without seeing the pitcher it is impossible to tell if this is a problem or not...with my pitchers, what they do after releasing the ball is of little concern, as long as they dont bring the arm to an abrupt stop...
- Nov 29, 2009
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I'm always VERY interested in the finish because it tells where the arm came from BEFORE the release which effects what happens to the ball.
As you stated the abrupt stop is always a very bad thing.
In my experience when a girl is stopping her arm it is because she is trying to "aim" the ball and not "throw" it. Have he set up in front of a fence of net or heavy blanket hung from the ceiling only about 15 feet away. Have her pitch as hard as she can and focus on "showing her elbow" to the catcher. We have had pretty good success with that.
