Hip or Knee issue when pitching

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Jun 23, 2021
6
3
How deep do the holes get from her drag foot? She may be leaving too much weight on the drag foot - the hip/leg/knee are trying to pull the foot sideways into a kind of scissor-kick finish, but it's instead acting like an anchor, causing the leg to almost buckle inwards like you're seeing.

ETA - Otherwise, mechanics looks pretty good for 12U!
The drag marks do not strike me as particularly deep. They do extend, in my opinion, too far toward 1st base. When she first started we fought the "bowling" leg or monkey butt issue and have tried to rein the drag foot back toward the powerline.
 
Apr 5, 2009
748
28
NE Kansas
Is this basically saying, "keep your butt tight" through the landing/FSR portio
She never fully extends her hips to the catcher when driving forward. There is a small turn of the foot when her hips say no more. Get those hips loosened up, have her drive over her toe completely which will help teach her glutes to fire more fully, and she will be able to drive into a better landing posture including fsr. The drive mech thread is your friend. All the exercises and everything needed is in it.
 
Jan 6, 2009
6,591
113
Chehalis, Wa
I think I see 3 different drives? Is it just me or is the motion different in the 3 clips?

Maybe it’s just me.
 
Last edited:
Sep 25, 2022
2
3
OK, got to qualify this. I’m a long time baseball coach, and a noob softball coach.

The side by side videos are a great idea.

The viewing angles are a little different, but from the comparison, both pitchers seem to be finishing with the right foot to the left of their pivot foot but there are a couple differences.

However the bottom pitcher seems to be striding more or less straight to the catcher, while your daughter seems to be striding well to the right of the catcher.

Another difference is the bottom pitcher is firing her hips counter-clockwise toward the catcher while your daughter’s hips seem to be locked up.

Not sure about how much that would affect accuracy, but pretty sure it results in a loss of power, and maybe potentially stress/strain injury.

Like I said, I’m way behind the power curve of learning softball, so I may be totally off base.
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
You said it recently started. Do you have a video from before it started? I'd be curious to see what her mechanics looked like overall before.
 
Jul 15, 2019
14
3
She seems to be turning her drive foot first, instead of keeping her drive toes at the target. Intentionally trying to open as opposed to driving out hard and letting the inevitable happen(opening). Should help with the posture (back shoulder drop, leaning too far back at release) as well. Posture is bent when open. Fix the drive.
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
She seems to be turning her drive foot first, instead of keeping her drive toes at the target. Intentionally trying to open as opposed to driving out hard and letting the inevitable happen(opening). Should help with the posture (back shoulder drop, leaning too far back at release) as well. Posture is bent when open. Fix the drive.
Agree. When all is said and done, fixing the drive is still the answer. She's too vertical as she leaves the rubber, to start. That alone will cause serious problems. Been fighting that one with my own kid.

I'm curious to see what it looked like before. I have a feeling she was opening early before as well and has just developed that additional flaw for whatever reason. If that's the case, it may be a blessing in disguise, as it's an opportunity to correct what was already a pretty significant flaw. Interestingly enough, unlike most pitchers I see doing a forced opening, she actually doesn't do a terrible job of getting in a decent position for the release.
 

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