Good vids that breakdown throwdown mechanics?

[justanotherguy]

That’s great glad to hear she is pain free.... I will have to check the Marshall mechanics out.... Never heard of it before.

You made me go down memory lane and go back and watch some old videos. She played 14u rec baseball when she was 11 and 12. She mowed kids down with the junk she could throw. Anyhow, Marshall mechanics is a somewhat hot button topic in the baseball world, at least it was. In short, Mike Marshall, 1974 Cy young winner, pioneered a new throwing motion designed for safety. No one has doubted the safety aspect of it, just the ability to throw as fast or faster than traditional mechanics. However, some of his work has made its way into almost every mainstream mechanic approach out there. All the big names in baseball pitching training have taken some of his theories and applied them to their program. I'd say the largest is pronation. Pronate every pitch you throw. Suppination is the devil. Now, my DD isn't a model example of his teaching. Her very high "over the top" arm slot and visible pronation are a direct result of his teachings though. The only time in her life she's ever had pain was purely muscle soreness and she pitched A LOT.

 

[DRDRODD]

You made me go down memory lane and go back and watch some old videos. She played 14u rec baseball when she was 11 and 12. She mowed kids down with the junk she could throw. Anyhow, Marshall mechanics is a somewhat hot button topic in the baseball world, at least it was. In short, Mike Marshall, 1974 Cy young winner, pioneered a new throwing motion designed for safety. No one has doubted the safety aspect of it, just the ability to throw as fast or faster than traditional mechanics. However, some of his work has made its way into almost every mainstream mechanic approach out there. All the big names in baseball pitching training have taken some of his theories and applied them to their program. I'd say the largest is pronation. Pronate every pitch you throw. Suppination is the devil. Now, my DD isn't a model example of his teaching. Her very high "over the top" arm slot and visible pronation are a direct result of his teachings though. The only time in her life she's ever had pain was purely muscle soreness and she pitched A LOT.

Yes you are correct.... I was going to mention that she is getting pronation with the arm which will save the elbow and that is great but didn’t want to sound to technical


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[TexAg1998]

You can “mechanics” this thing to death and still not gain much time. What worked best for my DD was working on getting rid of the dang ball faster. We drilled for weeks to get her release time down to 0.65-0.7 range consistently and we still drill to keep it that way. What made the biggest difference for us was the mentality of using the mitt to just redirect the ball into her throwing hand instead of catching the ball and then digging around in there for it.

Seriously, I’ve seen kids who can throw the ball 60+ mph and still have a 2.1-2.2 pop. They hang onto the ball for what seems like an eternity and then rely on their howitzer arm to get runners out. Then they wonder why the base thief was safe. Your DD’s mechanics don’t look bad to my eye. She just appears to be holding it too long. Just create a sense of urgency in her to get rid of the ball and see if her pop time doesn’t get a couple of tenths faster.


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[justanotherguy]

Yes you are correct.... I was going to mention that she is getting pronation with the arm which will save the elbow and that is great but didn’t want to sound to technical

That's the #1 place Marshall lost people, along with most of his teachers. He refused to use common terminology. Everything was broken down into near medical speak. If you wanted to really learn what he was talking about, you had to have a copy of a human anatomy book on hand. LOL (Kind of like stepping into the batting technical forum... )

 

[justanotherguy]

You can “mechanics” this thing to death and still not gain much time. What worked best for my DD was working on getting rid of the dang ball faster. We drilled for weeks to get her release time down to 0.65-0.7 range consistently and we still drill to keep it that way. What made the biggest difference for us was the mentality of using the mitt to just redirect the ball into her throwing hand instead of catching the ball and then digging around in there for it.

I was watching a video today showing that same idea from analyzing Molina. Showed he was already moving before he even caught the ball. At this point I think that's a little more advanced but I totally agree with you. Once we can make her throwing motion "correct" and in muscle memory, we'll get to this.

 

[625ender]

Use the balls momentum to transfer. Transfer happens crossing the chest, ball is at the ear once the back foot hits the ground, ball starts to launch once the front foot hits the ground

Be very very careful teaching a player to throw from their knees/ Especially from the internet "gurus". It looks cool, but it's an excellent way to destroy a arm

 

[Eric F]

No worries, there's more than one way to skin a cat!

What I've seen with kids transferring in front of the chest is that the unnecessary travel presents itself in a much longer throwing motion. Glove to ear, when done properly, keeps the catcher compact and brings the ball to the ear (release point) more efficiently. The only movement in the receiving arm is the forearm pivoting at the elbow, snapping the mitt to the ear.

Here's DD hosing a kid at 2nd who left early at Don Battles On:

https://youtu.be/M4WuOqPYV2A

Damn, dude. She's got a cannon arm!! Nicely done. Was that BLD Perris? We were stuck in Lake Elsinore for Don Battles.

When I look at her transfer, I would consider this in the zone of "in front of the chest" because her hands are close to the centerline of her body. The rotation of her body, with her head still looking at the target also puts her hands near her ear, which also looks like "glove to ear". Interesting how we interpret words differently when it comes to discussing body movements. When I hear "glove to ear", I imagine pulling both hands across to the right side of the body (I've seen this taught). In reality, as demonstrated by your DD, the hands are both in front of her chest and near the ear for the transfer. Regardless of what cue is triggering her movement, she looks really good.

On another note...I'm not a fan of her throwing hand being up and exposed like she does. Gwen Svekis (Oregon) did that, too. It scares the hell out of me.

 

[Eric F]

Use the balls momentum to transfer. Transfer happens crossing the chest, ball is at the ear once the back foot hits the ground, ball starts to launch once the front foot hits the ground

Be very very careful teaching a player to throw from their knees/ Especially from the internet "gurus". It looks cool, but it's an excellent way to destroy a arm

The sequence of movements in the video I posted from Jen Schro is a good template to make sure the girls are using their body properly to contribute to the throw, and it's not just the arm. Body rotation, and the left knee driving forward are critical components to a good knee throw. The video #10 posted of his DD is a great example of those mechanics in action. That said, if your player can't already make consistently strong throws to 2B from their feet, they aren't ready to learn how to throw from their knees. IMO, a well-trained catcher should be comfortable and competent throwing from both knees and feet to all bases. Let the situations dictate which method you use.

 

[#10]

The sequence of movements in the video I posted from Jen Schro is a good template to make sure the girls are using their body properly to contribute to the throw, and it's not just the arm. Body rotation, and the left knee driving forward are critical components to a good knee throw. The video #10 posted of his DD is a great example of those mechanics in action. That said, if your player can't already make consistently strong throws to 2B from their feet, they aren't ready to learn how to throw from their knees. IMO, a well-trained catcher should be comfortable and competent throwing from both knees and feet to all bases. Let the situations dictate which method you use.

+1 on having throws consistent standing before doing it out of the crouch! The bouncing out of the stance in the Holcombe video I posted was priceless in DD's development in terms of staying compact and exploding into the throw. The same coiling effect came naturally when dialing in the throws out of a crouch at age 11-12. Pitch location, more often that not, now dictates whether she throws down standing or from the crouch, with the plant leg drive crucial to either style.

 

[DRDRODD]

OK, I have to ask this question and it is one of the biggest problems I have with my DD and I am not sure on what to do about it. What are you all teaching/taught/teach about recognizing a would be base steal'er? I find that a lot of catchers do not notice when a runner is attempting a steal and causes them to be late throwing the ball. This is one area that I find baseball catchers have a huge advantage over softball catchers. Baseball can have a running start so to speak (like the video JAG talked about in his earlier post) since the runner can leave whenever they want, the catcher can see the runner break first so they already know before the pitcher even releases the ball that they are throwing. I know that in an ideal world teammates/coaches/fans would yell out something but I find a lot of the time this just isn't the case. Are lets say it is during a very noisy game and the catcher can't hear. Does anyone have anything that they teach regarding this? May be a way to use their vision differently are subtle cues to look for? I just see a lot catcher's sticking a pitch with her eyes focused on the glove/ball and the runner is well into the steal. This is one thing that working on the transfer time cannot help with. A girl can have a .5 second transfer time but if she doesn't recognize the steal early she has not shot at getting her out.