Help with DD Push/Drive

[Ken B]

What do you guys see as her biggest problem and maybe the easiest thing to fix as well as the most important thing to focus on in her motion?

I wish there was an easy answer for this, but time, commitment and hard work are her best bets. It’s much easier when you have a few months to work on form prior to a season. Once a season starts and a kid is needed to pitch, changes are hard to make permanent. Control is clearly one of our long term goals, but for a new kid, or kid making major mechanical changes, it is not a short term goal. The priorities for me are:

-Develop good form (speed is a natural byproduct)
-Practice good form (control is a byproduct of practicing good form.)

Like mentioned previously, help her to play underhand catch with whip and a natural follow through. The IR threads offer an easy progression. Meanwhile, the Drive Mechanics thread has some great tips for helping her iron out her drive.

Like i said in my original post, i've always felt that part of the problem was my DD forcing her arm to finish or move in an uncomfortable motion but who am i to disagree with the coaches who get paid to do this? She has seen two very different coaches so far, the first one is the assistant HC for the JC Softball team here and the other is just a PC but both taught the same method. Why is it that what they teach, you dont see from elite pitchers when you watch their videos, particularly the finish?

Another tough one to answer. Sadly, so much of the instruction out there does not match what we see from slow motion video of great pitchers. Even at the highest levels, you’ll find PC’s that teach things like wrist snap and palm down at 9 o’clock. I think it would take a major study by a respected entity to clear up some of the misinfo, but even then the trickle down can take years.

 

[Ken B]

Crap... JJ beat me again...

 

[JJsqueeze]

Crap... JJ beat me again...

but you are more articulate...

 

[okie]

Thanks.

I know her mechanics are rough but its amazing to watch her throw at the net or to a coach in practice, so much confidence. Shes not consistently accurate by any means but most everything hits the net or can be caught by the coach from the bucket. Everything changes once a batter steps into the box and then she starts burnin worms or throwing them really high.

So do you guys basically agree with our philosophy that we want her to continue to focus on the mechanics and just throw hard rather than worried about the end result? Ironically, she gets in trouble when she throws a ball, then tries to aim the next pitch to get back to even or ahead in the count. Unfortunately, this causes her to slow down her arm, changing the release point and its often downhill from there. Our constant emphasis was to just keep throwing hard, dont change anything. Agree or disagree?

On my end there is no rush for her to produce results. Im fortunate enough to have two other pitchers on my team who can consistently throw strikes. They are meatballs and somedays look more like soft toss rather than fastpitch but in 10U rec ball here, you just gotta get it over the plate and you have a chance. Id rather her learn the right way, even if it doesnt show results now, i've just got to get her on that same page.

 

[Ken B]

but you are more articulate...

I use eht spelcheker.

 

[NorthMS]

Thanks.

I know her mechanics are rough but its amazing to watch her throw at the net or to a coach in practice, so much confidence. Shes not consistently accurate by any means but most everything hits the net or can be caught by the coach from the bucket. Everything changes once a batter steps into the box and then she starts burnin worms or throwing them really high.

So do you guys basically agree with our philosophy that we want her to continue to focus on the mechanics and just throw hard rather than worried about the end result? Ironically, she gets in trouble when she throws a ball, then tries to aim the next pitch to get back to even or ahead in the count. Unfortunately, this causes her to slow down her arm, changing the release point and its often downhill from there. Our constant emphasis was to just keep throwing hard, dont change anything. Agree or disagree?

On my end there is no rush for her to produce results. Im fortunate enough to have two other pitchers on my team who can consistently throw strikes. They are meatballs and somedays look more like soft toss rather than fastpitch but in 10U rec ball here, you just gotta get it over the plate and you have a chance. Id rather her learn the right way, even if it doesnt show results now, i've just got to get her on that same page.

Don't have her to throw "softer" just to throw strikes. If you have someone available when you are practicing at home that could stand in the box, that would help a lot. I've placed garbage barrels in the box to simulate a batter. She'll get it. Good luck.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Thanks.

I know her mechanics are rough but its amazing to watch her throw at the net or to a coach in practice, so much confidence. Shes not consistently accurate by any means but most everything hits the net or can be caught by the coach from the bucket. Everything changes once a batter steps into the box and then she starts burnin worms or throwing them really high.
So do you guys basically agree with our philosophy that we want her to continue to focus on the mechanics and just throw hard rather than worried about the end result? Ironically, she gets in trouble when she throws a ball, then tries to aim the next pitch to get back to even or ahead in the count. Unfortunately, this causes her to slow down her arm, changing the release point and its often downhill from there. Our constant emphasis was to just keep throwing hard, dont change anything. Agree or disagree?

On my end there is no rush for her to produce results. Im fortunate enough to have two other pitchers on my team who can consistently throw strikes. They are meatballs and somedays look more like soft toss rather than fastpitch but in 10U rec ball here, you just gotta get it over the plate and you have a chance. Id rather her learn the right way, even if it doesnt show results now, i've just got to get her on that same page.

See the bold above-

If her misses are in line but in the dirt or over the catcher's head this is a bad sign, it indicates that she is either bowling the ball or using I/R but completing it too early so that at release she is directly behind the ball. Good misses at this stage should cause some bruising on the right handed batters. By good misses, I mean, misses that indicate that she is using I/R and release at about the right time. Typically this means low and inside and high and away. This is because during a good release the pinky is actually leading as the forearm and hand internally rotate. You can tell a good release by the spin, 11-5 ish is bad (hand outside the ball), 12-6 is less bad (hand behind the ball), you really want an off axis 12-6 where the ball is spinning 12-6 but it is tilted slightly towards the batter. there is a gear gif floating around I will try to find for you that shows what you should see fro the catcher's perspective. This spin indicates good hand position at release. You will also notice that the low inside misses are faster than the high and outside, this is because she is "catching the whip" better, usually if the ball is high then she has missed the timing on releasing with maximum velocity. THESE ARE GOOD THINGS and are mile marker 1 on the correct road, the correct road being "throw hard with good mechanics and accuracy will come, and when it does, look out league"...

As for aiming, it is the kiss of death. Aiming gets you tight and all in your head, pitching is a loose whippy activity and when a girl is int he zone she is just feeling it. You get this feeling with reps and reps of throwing with good mechanics without caring about accuracy.


here is the gear gif...credit BM with both the gif and terms like "catching the whip" etc.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Isn't the pinky leading external rotation?

Try throwing a pitch with your pinky leading and you will answer your own question.

 

[JJsqueeze]

My elbow leads down, then the heel of the hand and then the first finger comes up at release. If I do the pinky it comes out with the hand leading (change up) or bullet spin. I don't get the pinky thing.

try the feeling of the pinky leading right to the point of brush interference (or if you prefer, when the hand is about even with the rear thigh), then let your hand do what it wants to do naturally (internally rotate), the actual release will occur right as the pinky is rotating inward. the cue of lead with the pinky is good because it helps developing pitchers avoid early internal rotation.

 

[knightsb]

Best pitching video clip ever... IMO.