Increasing speed for leap and drag

[Sponge]

Im not obsessing her high school coach is. She wants more arm speed
from the beginning of the pitch all the way through. We have discussed that.

She is 15.....at 14 she was clocked at 54 in Nationals about a year ago. We were moving from a step syle to the leap n drag discussed here. Her control went and her speed went down. Hit an injury in the spring in another sport and she is not working on control and her speed is 50 - 51. She is now 15.
Working on the arm whip and she is frustrated....all of this was exptected. I just like to make sure what I tell her is correct and she is not feeling the whip but we are working on it.

 

[sluggers]

I understand now. My apologies. The real goal is to increase her pitching speed. The "arm speed" is something the HS coach thinks is the key. What kind of injury was it? Arm or leg?

My absolute favorite way to increase speed is to set it up so that she can see her pitching speed. Find a baseball or softball academy with a radar gun so that she can see after each pitch how fast she is throwing. You then encourage her to beat her last speed. Some baseball/softball instructional academies have that set up.

Additionally, have her do long tosses. Have her pitch from second base.

the other thing to do is to have her get in an open position, and do three circles and then release the ball on the third circle.

You should get some other ideas.

 

[Mark H]

I understand now. My apologies. The real goal is to increase her pitching speed. The "arm speed" is something the HS coach thinks is the key. What kind of injury was it? Arm or leg?

My absolute favorite way to increase speed is to set it up so that she can see her pitching speed. Find a baseball or softball academy with a radar gun so that she can see after each pitch how fast she is throwing. You then encourage her to beat her last speed. Some baseball/softball instructional academies have that set up.

Additionally, have her do long tosses. Have her pitch from second base.

.

Exactly. The thing is learning depends greatly on immediate objective feedback. This is what the gun or the long toss provides. On the long toss, follow Jaeger's long toss protocol which you can find on youtube.

 

[cshilt]

We have a SpeedTrac X at home we like to use from time to time...

SpeedTrac X Radar Gun Hands-Free Speed Gun

This can be set up to provide instant feedback for the windmill, overhand throwing, bat speed, and hit ball speed.

 

[Sponge]

It was a hip injury. where muslce attaches to the Iliac Crest. Same thing as Osgood Schlauter in the knee except it was in the hip. All will go away when her growth plates close. She may play with a little pain but it set her back on the learning develipment phase. We wanted to get her whip going then work hard on movement speed etc. She really wants to feel that whip, and gets frustrated ......

Thanks for all the great advice as usual. Im still building this PC to accept video and Ill drop soemthing out here as soon as I do. Just need a video card is all that is left.

They do have a radar gun at school Ill have to check to see if I can get ahold of it. Yet I like the display shown in one of the posts..she can see it for herself then....

 

[Sponge]

This original post was in response to another thread (No leg drive slow motion). Not sure how it would up as another Thread.....Operator Error Im thinking. Looks like you guys already figured that out.

On the same note I am trying to keep her focused on mechanics and improving form before addressing the issues the HS coach has.

 

[calgofo]

Exactly. The thing is learning depends greatly on immediate objective feedback. This is what the gun or the long toss provides. On the long toss, follow Jaeger's long toss protocol which you can find on youtube.

I agree with this. You could also look up some pitchers on the internet and show the coach that arm speed in and of itself may or may not lead to an increase in ball speed. There was a kid at the regionals last year in the college playoffs that I watched on TV and if you looked at her mechanics in isolation, you would swear she was slow as Christmas. She barely moved away from the rubber and for 75% of her arm circle it seemed to me it was in slow motion but when they would show the gun speed on TV she was consitently clocking 68-70 mph. I was so interested in what this kid was doing that I flipped on the DVR and recorded it. After the game I started looking at what she was doing in slow motion and what I found was that from the 9 to 6 oclock position it -as a blurr. Her timing was perfect and she was able to transfer all of her energy to her fingertips in the last 25% of her circle. Unfrtunately for her and her team, she didn't seem to have any other pitch but still it was an excellent display of timing. In the interest of full disclosure, she was 6'5" and looked to be pushing 300 lbs. but never the less, I had never seen a kid look that effortess and throw at that kind of speed.


In regards to the gun, I would offer my experience with my DD. In her case, every time I gunned her, she would throw slower than she normally did. There was some psychological aspect about being gunned that made her tighten up and throw slower than she normally did. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, for a realtively short kid (5'5"), she was naturally fairly fast. She was throwing in the low 50's when she was in 10U. By the time she got to HS she had plateaued at about 59-61. One day, at the local fields, I was gunning her and we were having a what I like to call "father daughter day out", read frustrating and on the verge of mutual shooting one another, when the local parks and recreation guy,who was mowing the fields, stopped and came over. He said he ahd been watching and had some suggestions. H also said he had been pitching for the Australians mens fastpitch team for several years. I digress but anyway, he showed me and my daughter long toss. Through work and diligent effort, over the next couple of years, she was abe to reach 63-64 and with a good tail wind 65. Now a couple of mph may not seem like much, I can assure you the old guard pitcher dad's here will tell you that that is a pretty significant increase.


So, yes do long toss.

 

[Mark H]

They do have a radar gun at school Ill have to check to see if I can get ahold of it. Yet I like the display shown in one of the posts..she can see it for herself then....

YES! The more immediate and objective the better. The quicker she associates the result with the "feel" of the last effort the better.

 

[Mark H]

In regards to the gun, I would offer my experience with my DD. In her case, every time I gunned her, she would throw slower than she normally did. There was some psychological aspect about being gunned that made her tighten up and throw slower than she normally did.

Occasional use of the gun will do just that as they try to do more than they can. When the gun becomes old hat and boring, they generally won't.

I digress but anyway, he showed me and my daughter long toss. Through work and diligent effort, over the next couple of years, she was abe to reach 63-64 and with a good tail wind 65. Now a couple of mph may not seem like much, I can assure you the old guard pitcher dad's here will tell you that that is a pretty significant increase.


So, yes do long toss.

Yeah they rarely try to muscle up long toss and everyone can afford it. I love it. DD did it and it helped but that skinny little arm was never going to throw 60 short of Bonds' nutritional program. Luckily she was fast on her feet.

 

[calgofo]

Occasional use of the gun will do just that as they try to do more than they can. When the gun becomes old hat and boring, they generally won't.



Yeah they rarely try to muscle up long toss and everyone can afford it. I love it. DD did it and it helped but that skinny little arm was never going to throw 60 short of Bonds' nutritional program. Luckily she was fast on her feet.

The Clear FTW . Well, as you know, fast on her feet and my DD's name were never mentioned in the same sentence.