I've scoured the net and tried several different things with none of them really helping. As with most "opinions" on technique, opinions vary wildly from site to site. I have grown fond of this site and love the wide range of experience and opinions here so I was wondering if anyone had any advice for improving the drive and extension in my DDs pitching motion.
My DD is 8 and began pitching 3 months ago as she has moved up to 10U. She has started taking lessons but this child is not patient enough to wait. Her biggest problem to me is her finish, its inconsistent with her arm and elbow all over the place from pitch to pitch. Shes working on it but really, really, really bugging me to help her figure out how to get more drive and power. We've played 4 games so far and up until this weekend the majority of the pitchers were at or close to the same level of consistency (or inconsistency) as my daughter. For an 8 year old she throws pretty hard, usually clocking 35-40 on her fastball and she was pretty happy with her progression by comparing herself to some of these 9 or 10 year old pitchers.
Saturday we played in a tournament and we faced an 11 year old (was still 10 on January 1st so still eligible for 10U) girl who was throwing 50 mph fastballs. When my daughter caught up to the fastball the girl hit her with the meanest changeup ive seen (lol, made her look foolish, lol). Where most of the girls in our league are just trying to throw strikes, this girl was painting corners and looked great. The problem is, my daughter has not shut up about it since and spent most of the day Sunday throwing into her net, was sitting on the porch with her ball and glove when i got home from my 12 hour shift ready to throw and at 7:45 on her way to school this morning had already called me to find out if i will take her to practice before her game at 6:00. This girl has always been the best player on the field and always loved putting in work towards her sports but damn. Seeing how a pitcher can completely dominate a game with very little help around her has lit a fire under my DDs rear and now she wants to be "that" pitcher at 8 years old.
Normally i wouldnt complain because i love the self motivation and drive but the reality is, i dont know where and how to help her. Her coach has made it clear that at this age her focus should be on her upperbody, lower body will come later but this is not an answer that my DD has accepted. Her exact response to her coach was hilarious, "if im going to do it, i need to learn to do it all right, not just part of it, isnt that what you told me"..........while funny, i dont think her coach was happy at all. My opinion on the issue is, i dont think it hurts to work on both, as long as one isnt negatively impacting the other.
Sorry, done rambling and on to the issue at hand. My DD wants to step and turn her hips rather than drive through the pitch, that combined with her inconsistent finish has a tenancy to leave the ball to the right:
1. Any suggestions on drills to improve leg drive
2. Her coach wants her to finish with her elbow pointing at the batter. In an effort to do this, her arm often kicks out to the right and then slides back in. She has a much higher consistency finishing across her body rather than elbow straight at target so my question is, is the "hello elbow" philosophy right or is it common to finish across your body in the natural motion?
below is the video, sorry about the quality but im new at this and figured seeing it might help more than me rambling about it:
My DD is 8 and began pitching 3 months ago as she has moved up to 10U. She has started taking lessons but this child is not patient enough to wait. Her biggest problem to me is her finish, its inconsistent with her arm and elbow all over the place from pitch to pitch. Shes working on it but really, really, really bugging me to help her figure out how to get more drive and power. We've played 4 games so far and up until this weekend the majority of the pitchers were at or close to the same level of consistency (or inconsistency) as my daughter. For an 8 year old she throws pretty hard, usually clocking 35-40 on her fastball and she was pretty happy with her progression by comparing herself to some of these 9 or 10 year old pitchers.
Saturday we played in a tournament and we faced an 11 year old (was still 10 on January 1st so still eligible for 10U) girl who was throwing 50 mph fastballs. When my daughter caught up to the fastball the girl hit her with the meanest changeup ive seen (lol, made her look foolish, lol). Where most of the girls in our league are just trying to throw strikes, this girl was painting corners and looked great. The problem is, my daughter has not shut up about it since and spent most of the day Sunday throwing into her net, was sitting on the porch with her ball and glove when i got home from my 12 hour shift ready to throw and at 7:45 on her way to school this morning had already called me to find out if i will take her to practice before her game at 6:00. This girl has always been the best player on the field and always loved putting in work towards her sports but damn. Seeing how a pitcher can completely dominate a game with very little help around her has lit a fire under my DDs rear and now she wants to be "that" pitcher at 8 years old.
Normally i wouldnt complain because i love the self motivation and drive but the reality is, i dont know where and how to help her. Her coach has made it clear that at this age her focus should be on her upperbody, lower body will come later but this is not an answer that my DD has accepted. Her exact response to her coach was hilarious, "if im going to do it, i need to learn to do it all right, not just part of it, isnt that what you told me"..........while funny, i dont think her coach was happy at all. My opinion on the issue is, i dont think it hurts to work on both, as long as one isnt negatively impacting the other.
Sorry, done rambling and on to the issue at hand. My DD wants to step and turn her hips rather than drive through the pitch, that combined with her inconsistent finish has a tenancy to leave the ball to the right:
1. Any suggestions on drills to improve leg drive
2. Her coach wants her to finish with her elbow pointing at the batter. In an effort to do this, her arm often kicks out to the right and then slides back in. She has a much higher consistency finishing across her body rather than elbow straight at target so my question is, is the "hello elbow" philosophy right or is it common to finish across your body in the natural motion?
below is the video, sorry about the quality but im new at this and figured seeing it might help more than me rambling about it:
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