help with "partial sidearm"

[Sparky Guy]

FP91,

The place where I see the motion falling apart is at the back toe. What she is doing is turning her foot over and dragging the top of her back toes. When she does this it allows the hip to come forward and start to close too soon. As the hip is coming forward she collapses the back side of her body aiding in letting her hip come forward. In the first video look at the hips, toes and knee at the 23 & 32 second marks. What I see is her trying to keep her arm away from her hip thinking she is very close to her hip. That is why everything is going off into the RHB batters box. I bet she went through a period during puberty when she was hitting her hip with her arm.

There are a couple of drills that can help this. She'll say they feel funny. But you have to make her do them.

The first is the Wall Drill. Find a flat, smooth wall that is tall enough so she can fully extend to the top of her arm circle. Have her step to the wall facing it, feet slightly wider than the shoulders and her toes 2" from the wall. Now have her go through an arm circle without a ball. The feet do not move. There are no steps taken. The hand should barely touch the wall. The body can not lean backwards away from the wall. She should be able to operate is a space that is about 18" wide. What will happen is she'll drag her arm hard against the wall at first. After a several hundred of these over the course of a week or so have her do some with her eyes closed. She should be able to feel the motion.

Once she is not dragging the wall giver her a ball, whiffle, rolled up pair of socks or something like that to throw. Then have her throw the ball as she does the arm circles. Do this for a few days. This should help with muscle memory getting her arm circle back into the correct plane.

The next thing is to get the hip mechanics straightened out.

 

[Rick Pauly]

I really prefer to look at things starting at the 12 o'clock position. Just about everything prior to that is not a huge factor in performance------I say this 'cause most pitchers can throw 90% of their top speed when starting at this position (slingshot).
In trying to simplify a correction for this young lady I'd say: Just stand taller at release. Note that at the 12 o'clock position she is in pretty good shape. It is when her landing foot plants when the problem begins---her upper torso collapses significantly toward third base which puts her in a "super clearance" position.
So simply getting the upper torso to be more vertical will get the throwing arm nearer the thigh.
By the way, all the world class pitchers I video have a significant "interference brush" of the lower throwing arm with the thigh. Partially this can happen because they do get hip rotation and are relatively verticle with their upper torso.
I don't think this young ladies hip rotation is a major problem-------as a matter of fact if anything she could rotate just a little earlier to get the hips to 45--50 degrees of the powerline at release.

Couldn't see this real well, but it appears she loses her arm whip just prior to nearing the release area---seems to be trying to throw with a straight arm---not good.

 

[ifubuildit]

Rick I would agree about the straight arm. I would disagree with you about the prior to 12:00 comment but I understand where your coming from with it. If you watch her she takes her ball hand from her right side over to her left as the glove and hand come up. This puts her hand and ball behind her head at the 12:00 position as she comes down with it. This will affect her accuracy without a doubt.

She has to get that windmill fixed or she is going to throw everything inside on a RHB.

Good to see you posting again.

Dana.

 

[fastpitch91]

Couldn't see this real well, but it appears she loses her arm whip just prior to nearing the release area---seems to be trying to throw with a straight arm---not good.[/QUOTE]

thanks rick - the straight arm was what we wer working arm when things went kaflooyyy- working to get a bit more elbow lead and whip. see my posts below about actionplan.

 

[fastpitch91]

action plan

hey folks - thanks for all the fedback and those who have replied private with other ideas.

here is where I am in diagnosing this and what we are doing.

root issues ( perhaps not in order but the issues)

1. the glove above the shoulder seems a root cause driving her throwing shoulder down - equal and opposite reaction kind of thing. driving that back shoulder down makes it real easy for the arm to move out wide.
2. body twist - her body is twisting to the left pulling her hips closed too early or at least fighting them stayin open. hips are marginally open at release despite this but fighting all the way against the body twisting open to far to early.
3. over the head arm circle - everyone commented and she has a arm circle out of the vertical plane that moves the arm away from body.

so add these three things up and each moves the arm away from the body and the total is what we see in the video.

so given the root causes, here is what i am doing (with input and ideas from here)

1. "glove drill" 30 times per day no - throw - full motion up to 12 oclock or just past position. keep doing the HIllhouse cradle but on the forward movement keep hands together focussing on seperation of glove and ball in front of her nose (9 oclck) on upswing and and keeping glove hand below shoulder height.

2 wall drill - full motion working from slow to faster speed to build memory. start 4-6" from wall on glove side (just far enought to get glove back and forth between thigh and wall) and cradle and execute full motion but not throwing the ball, working on continuing the glove drill and getting the arm circle vertical with the wall as "helpful" reminder. I tell her "see the wall" to focus on being all the way open. 50 times - full motion no throw

3. pitch on the wall - after the above I wanted her to pitch for real on the wall, if she can find a wall that ends so a net can be set in front 30 times per day. No catcher just working on motion and building memory and confidence

4. pitch no wall but with guides. after the above muscle memory drills - 30 pitches off a rubber .... wearing the unicorn hat ( helment with vertical noodle on top to provide reminder of hand position should it drift back over her head) and with a vertical noodle planted on her right side replacing the wall but again providing feedback should her arm drift right. ( noodle ideas thanks to Dana) 30 pitches per day.

I told her for 2 weeks not to worry about anything except doing these drills and working to break some habits. 30-40 minutes with these drills.

Since she is pitching in winter ball - I advised her to do her best to pitch with the new glove hand approach but if she walked every batter that was OK as she was going to suffer some setbacks to get to her long term goal.

hopefully will see progress....