Help Needed - PLEASE

[nikkilugi]

My DD turned 11 in March. She has been taking pitching lessons for 2 years now. She learned to pitch the HE style. My DD joined an 04 - 10U team the fall of 2014. They had to move up in the fall of 2015 to a 12U team due to the number of 04 birthdays on the team. We decided to move our daughter with the team since she loves everyone and especially the coach. My daughter is a decent size for her 05/11 yo age. She stands approximately 5' 1'' and weighs over 130 (although it is hard to tell that when looking at her). She is not quick footed and she tends to power everything with her upper body including her swing and her pitching. Haley was a great 10U pitcher and could throw fast for her age, however, moving back 5 feet and pitching with a larger ball she is now the slowest pitcher on her team. She is very accurate with the lowest walk numbers but she also can't strike anyone out for the most part. We have a Ball Radar Pocket Coach and it consistently reads her fastball at 38. That is it - 38 and that is when we practice. When she gets in a game I swear she slows down even more. I haven't clocked her in a game but I bet it is more like 36. So.....

I am trying to help her learn IR myself to try and increase her speed. After reading through some of the threads and watching some of the excellent videos that have been posted by members of the board I was able to start by helping her with the arm motion. She does a lot of slow motion circles while watching the ball to help reinforce the ball up/side position. We play underhand catch. I took a video last night of her pitching and now I need to know what I need to focus on next. I don't like her bent over style and I don't know how to stop her from doing that. I have asked her to squeeze her "cheeks" in - to push her chest out but she just instantly reverts back to hunched over.


I am not sure how to imbed the video on my post - if anyone can do that I would appreciate it. Any tips - drills - links to videos would be great. I will admit I have tried to read through the IR and drive mechanics posts over and over and I still feel like a lot of it goes over my head. I was not a softball player - bball was my game - so I need laymans terms when trying to figure this out please.

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TIA

 

[4KidsDad]

I think if you focus now on Brush Interference as much as you put in to IR, things might work themselves out.

To get proper BI, she has to have good upright posture.

 

[sluggers]

For the "bent over" problem, try these drills:

1) Walk throughs. This is the "drill of drills". This drill is done by everyone...from 8U pitchers to Olympic pitchers.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r7o7MC1XX5k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For your DD, do this modification: After she throws, she is to keep her *RIGHT FOOT* off the ground until the catcher throws the ball back to her. She will look like a drunken sailor for a while. If she bends over, she won't be able to do the drill. So, this teaches her to stay upright when she throws.

2) Three pump--She will absolutely hate this drill. Have her get open (facing 3B). Have her lift her left leg until she is balance on the ball of her left foot and her right foot. Have her point the ball at the catcher. Then, she does three revolutions of her army as fast as she can, and releases the ball on the third revolution. Your DD will look like a reciprocating saw when she does this drill--her upper body will go forward and back with each revolution. A skilled pitcher won't move back and forwards an inch.

3) The stork--This drill sounds impossible, but it isn't. Your daughter, gets open. She lifts her left foot off the ground, so she is balanced on her right foot. She throws the ball *WITHOUT DROPPING HER LEFT FOOT*. She keeps her left foot up until the ball is returned to her. I know it sounds hard, but advanced pitchers can do several of these in a row standing on their right foot without every dropping their left foot.

 

[JJsqueeze]

You kid is missing the whip. She does some things reasonably well in the beginning and then just blows past the whip and releases too late because she looks like she is aiming and guiding the ball and not trusting it, she looks like a young "just throw strikes" pitcher. We want her to be a young "just throw hard" pitcher.

DD JJs prescription is to stop pitching the full motion and get her doing Ks and walk throughs. Do the Ks to get the right feel for posture and release without the complication of the full motion and then do walk throughs to check if she can maintain the posture under a higher force situation, Do all of this without any focus on accuracy, just mechanics and speed. If she can feel the whip and how to catch it (release at the point of maximum velocity) then a lot of the bad things you see happening will go away since most of them happen after she should have release the ball.

If you need to, blindfold her to get her to stop aiming the ball and just feel comfortable throwing. The goal here is SPEED not accuracy. Install the engine then figure out how to keep it on the road later.

 

[4 girl's dad]

On the downswing, she is pulling, then pushing, then trying to whip/aim the ball and leaning over and losing a lot of whip. Agree with above thoughts. Get taller, keep the ball up longer and use a little elbow isolation get some brush.

 

[djcarter1966]

Actually kind of interesting how she looks OK in slo mo until about 8 oclock and then everything just completely breaks down. Posture, posture, posture and whip, whip, whip if you can focus on those two things you will get more than halfway home.

You can tell she was drilled "get the ball over the plate" (which is great for 10U and that 's all) and it basically ruined everything or anything good she was doing forcing her to feel like she had to aim the ball, it is going to take time but the blind fold thing is not a bad idea to start so she understands where the ball goes at first does not matter proper mechanics is everything, I would also say get a bucket of balls and just set up the batting net and anything that gets into the net is a strike but again if she breaks form it does not count she as to be standing tall at the end of the pitch and the arm as to whip through NO aiming only throwing. Think about it you don't aim the ball when you throw overhand you just throw it and know where it is going, get her to understand that it exactly the same feeling she should have throwing underhand

 

[chrispots]

My DD turned 11 in March. She has been taking pitching lessons for 2 years now. She learned to pitch the HE style. My DD joined an 04 - 10U team the fall of 2014. They had to move up in the fall of 2015 to a 12U team due to the number of 04 birthdays on the team. We decided to move our daughter with the team since she loves everyone and especially the coach. My daughter is a decent size for her 05/11 yo age. She stands approximately 5' 1'' and weighs over 130 (although it is hard to tell that when looking at her). She is not quick footed and she tends to power everything with her upper body including her swing and her pitching. Haley was a great 10U pitcher and could throw fast for her age, however, moving back 5 feet and pitching with a larger ball she is now the slowest pitcher on her team. She is very accurate with the lowest walk numbers but she also can't strike anyone out for the most part. We have a Ball Radar Pocket Coach and it consistently reads her fastball at 38. That is it - 38 and that is when we practice. When she gets in a game I swear she slows down even more. I haven't clocked her in a game but I bet it is more like 36. So.....

I am trying to help her learn IR myself to try and increase her speed. After reading through some of the threads and watching some of the excellent videos that have been posted by members of the board I was able to start by helping her with the arm motion. She does a lot of slow motion circles while watching the ball to help reinforce the ball up/side position. We play underhand catch. I took a video last night of her pitching and now I need to know what I need to focus on next. I don't like her bent over style and I don't know how to stop her from doing that. I have asked her to squeeze her "cheeks" in - to push her chest out but she just instantly reverts back to hunched over.


I am not sure how to imbed the video on my post - if anyone can do that I would appreciate it. Any tips - drills - links to videos would be great. I will admit I have tried to read through the IR and drive mechanics posts over and over and I still feel like a lot of it goes over my head. I was not a softball player - bball was my game - so I need laymans terms when trying to figure this out please.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qj3fj3-ftkw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

TIA

Work on this for a while...



Focus on keeping upright and having a soft elbow from 3 o'clock through just before release. Start these from about 20' away and work back to 40'

Her posture goes to hell because she still feels like she needs to create space for her arm...this is because most HE coaches I see promote the notion of having to twist the whole body open to create clearance for the arm...head tip towards 3rd...butt pops out to 1st...CP

 

[nikkilugi]

Haley and I have been working hard trying to clean up her pitching. I am constantly reminding her about posture and trying to describe what I mean. I think she is looking a lot less bent over but I still don't think she is getting enough brush interference. She was taught before to let her arm clear her hips and it is hard to have her unlearn that motion.



I want to say a HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to Doug Romrell for all of his help. He broke down the drive mechanics for me to understand and try and help Haley get those legs going in a more productive way. I know her "h" isn't that great yet but I am already pretty happy with the progress in just a week. She pitches tonight in league games which is perfect before her tournament this weekend - this is a fairly low stress situation for her to (hopefully) apply what we have worked so hard on this week and see if she can maintain the new changes.

Any comments or tips to help some more would still be very appreciated. We both just want her to get more competitive and she has proved that she is committed with the amount of practice she has put in this last week. Both at the facility and at home.

 

[djcarter1966]

Great improvement in such a short time. Keep working posture, she is doing good about not collapsing or folding forward over her front foot but is still bent over slightly at release. It looks like she might be compensating by leaning sideways instead over forward. I'll post two stills to show you model finishing position, it might be helpful to take a quick video from behind as well posture is both directions she should being standing tall and straight from the side and behind. Obviously still lots of work to do but I'm really liking the few improvements so far.

 

[chrispots]

Haley and I have been working hard trying to clean up her pitching. I am constantly reminding her about posture and trying to describe what I mean. I think she is looking a lot less bent over but I still don't think she is getting enough brush interference. She was taught before to let her arm clear her hips and it is hard to have her unlearn that motion.



I want to say a HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to Doug Romrell for all of his help. He broke down the drive mechanics for me to understand and try and help Haley get those legs going in a more productive way. I know her "h" isn't that great yet but I am already pretty happy with the progress in just a week. She pitches tonight in league games which is perfect before her tournament this weekend - this is a fairly low stress situation for her to (hopefully) apply what we have worked so hard on this week and see if she can maintain the new changes.

Any comments or tips to help some more would still be very appreciated. We both just want her to get more competitive and she has proved that she is committed with the amount of practice she has put in this last week. Both at the facility and at home.

Get that right heel off the ground to increase her shin angle...better drive...brush will come with posture...see my earlier post with Rick and opening naturally...brush will occur in this drill naturally...CP