Help with timing.

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Apr 28, 2021
17
3
My daughter is having a heck of a time getting her front foot down in time. The ball is at 9 o'clock (coming down the backside) when he foot lands. Seems simple but we are having a very hard time fixing this problem.

She is 11 years old, very small(4'6") and throws about 41 mph which I would be happy with but I can't help but believe their is a lot more there if we can get that foot down at around 12 o'clock.

Anybody have any experience with this or ideas on fixing it? Ive have some experience working with pitchers but Ive never had one with this problem or at least had one have so much trouble correcting it.
 
Apr 28, 2021
17
3
Here are a couple pics. One before landing and one at landing
 

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Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
Her timing may not be as far off as you think. As you know, the whole pitching movement is taking place in about 1 second.

By 12:00, she will have reached or driven out as far as she is going to and her stride foot will begin its descent to the ground. Usually, at toe touch, the ball hand is going to be somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00. A split second later, at heel plant, she is probably going to be between 9:00 and 9:30 with the ball hand.

Every girl’s timing is going to be a little different based on a variety of factors, but I’d say that if she is somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 at heel plant then she is probably fine. In that second photo, if she is just at toe tap (rather than heel plant)—it’s hard to tell—then I would agree that the arm is a little too far ahead in the sequence.

Other than speed, is there anything else in the outcome of the pitch that is leading you to think there is a timing problem?

I would also point out that she is 11 years old. As long as she is being taught solid mechanics and reinforcing them in practices, then a lot of this will just work itself out over time with quality reps.
 
Feb 11, 2020
66
8
My DD has been struggling w this as well. Loses a lot of speed bc at toe touch her arm is at 9 o’clock. She does better when she steps and pitches and not leaps...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Aug 8, 2020
10
3
She looks pretty good, fixing something that happens in 100ths of seconds is exceedingly difficult intellectually. Encourage rhythm and timing and feel, I’ve actually used a metronome on occasion, free guitar apps usually have one and played through a speaker loudly it can help. Two other points, glove control should get tighter and work to get more relaxed whip in her arm. In perspective it’s a relatively minor issue and as she develops and becomes more self aware will most likely self correct but Finch had very similar mechs her whole career and she did ok.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Apr 28, 2021
17
3
Thanks for the replies.

The speed is not actually what lead us to this conclusion. It was that she has such a hard time gaining a whip and pulling rather than pushing. I believe she is having trouble pulling with her front foot in the air. The screenshots were taken while working \ focusing on palm up and toe touch timing so both are better here than while she is pitching in games. It looks like to me most great pitchers(not Finch) have achieved toe touch by the time they reach the position my daughter is in the first screenshot. We try not to model Finch much and try to model smaller pitchers as that type of size is something she will never have.

Her struggles are brushing, palm up, and whip. The timing issue is what Ive decided is probably contributing to those issues. I know a lot of girls her age are not doing those things either but we have always figured if she is going to compete with girls way bigger than her she will have to do it with better mechanics so that is what we try to accomplish. So far she has been able to do that and then some but we are having trouble advancing her mechanics at this point. We are kind of stuck in a rut and can't seem to advance the arm whip.

We took this on ourselves a couple years ago because we couldn't find anybody in the area that wasn't obviously teaching wrong(hello elbow)
 
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Aug 8, 2020
10
3
Keep in mind she’s 11, the process is long one and some things cannot be rushed even when you identify it. Beyond drills with timing as the goal queue her by telling her to reach for her target, get her focused on that will often make that subtle change needed without having to think anything else through. I don’t think timing is the reason you’re seeing pushing rather pulling that’s more often confidence and experience ...pushing feels more accurate for them and when we’re too focused on results early on you’ll see that happening a lot she has to know it’s ok to let one fly occasionally, it’s all part of learning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Apr 28, 2021
17
3
Keep in mind she’s 11, the process is long one and some things cannot be rushed even when you identify it. Beyond drills with timing as the goal queue her by telling her to reach for her target, get her focused on that will often make that subtle change needed without having to think anything else through. I don’t think timing is the reason you’re seeing pushing rather pulling that’s more often confidence and experience ...pushing feels more accurate for them and when we’re too focused on results early on you’ll see that happening a lot she has to know it’s ok to let one fly occasionally, it’s all part of learning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
There is absolutely no doubt that with a team counting on her to produce she is very guilty of abandoning ship in games and going back to the way she knows she can win. I very much stress doing it right and being patient with the results but its hard for me to tell her to lose games she knows she can win.

This is no doubt a contributing factor. We work on whip all week, she never quite gets it, then comes the weekend tournament and she goes out and does what produces for her then we rinse and repeat.
 
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