My daughter had a noticeable drop of power, control and movement during the summer travel season. She was the clear number one on her club team up to that point. With so many practices and games, it was difficult to spend enough time with the pitching coach to diagnose and fix the issue.
This was her process (simplified):
1. Take the signal
2. Bring hands up to her chest & shift weight to the back heel
3. Drop arms and backswing (*)
4. Quick weight transfer to launch position (*)
5. Launch & rotate upper body to the “K” position
6. Land & release pitch
During steps 3 & 4 she was twisting towards the throwing arm side 20 to 30 degrees. This caused left to right control issues. She has always had impeccable control, but she was having difficulty hitting her spots. She’s right handed and she often missed the target inside to a right handed batter. Her speed was down. And while I could see the release was reasonably good, her pitches didn’t have the bite they once had. With the twisting, it seemed like she was coming around her hip with the ball, instead of going straingt through with a pure arm circle. The twisting was getting her out of sorts She was pretty bummed and was starting to not feel good about what she was doing.
We focused on the twisting. But even reviewing the video and working a lot without the ball, she still couldn’t completely stop it. She made some improvements, but she grew tired of me pointing it out. It was pretty maddening and frustrating for the both of us.
That’s when I realized it was all being set up by the right foot twisting 20 to 30 degrees. After watching a video of her practicing, I noticed the foot was the first thing that rotated.
We went back to practicing. We stopped throwing so much and focused on drills without the ball. We worked on not turning her right heel. We talked about it. I pointed it out. We couldn’t figure out how to completely evict this troublesome process.
She said she couldn’t feel that she was twisting her foot during steps 3 & 4. I thought if she can’t feel the foot, maybe she could feel a more noticeable joint. I asked her to not think of the foot, but to concentrate on the right knee pointing towards the target. If the kne is pointing to the target, the foot has to be straight.
The results were immediate. She picked up speed, accuracy and movement. A sharply descending drop ball is a beautiful thing. Everything was again lining up.
Eden Phillpotts (English author and playwright) said, “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” I just wish I could have grown sharper much earlier.
She was turning the right heel 2 inches, and it took several months of working together to understand how to fix it.
I have heard batting coaches say to work from the ground up. It seems to have applied in this situation.
This was her process (simplified):
1. Take the signal
2. Bring hands up to her chest & shift weight to the back heel
3. Drop arms and backswing (*)
4. Quick weight transfer to launch position (*)
5. Launch & rotate upper body to the “K” position
6. Land & release pitch
During steps 3 & 4 she was twisting towards the throwing arm side 20 to 30 degrees. This caused left to right control issues. She has always had impeccable control, but she was having difficulty hitting her spots. She’s right handed and she often missed the target inside to a right handed batter. Her speed was down. And while I could see the release was reasonably good, her pitches didn’t have the bite they once had. With the twisting, it seemed like she was coming around her hip with the ball, instead of going straingt through with a pure arm circle. The twisting was getting her out of sorts She was pretty bummed and was starting to not feel good about what she was doing.
We focused on the twisting. But even reviewing the video and working a lot without the ball, she still couldn’t completely stop it. She made some improvements, but she grew tired of me pointing it out. It was pretty maddening and frustrating for the both of us.
That’s when I realized it was all being set up by the right foot twisting 20 to 30 degrees. After watching a video of her practicing, I noticed the foot was the first thing that rotated.
We went back to practicing. We stopped throwing so much and focused on drills without the ball. We worked on not turning her right heel. We talked about it. I pointed it out. We couldn’t figure out how to completely evict this troublesome process.
She said she couldn’t feel that she was twisting her foot during steps 3 & 4. I thought if she can’t feel the foot, maybe she could feel a more noticeable joint. I asked her to not think of the foot, but to concentrate on the right knee pointing towards the target. If the kne is pointing to the target, the foot has to be straight.
The results were immediate. She picked up speed, accuracy and movement. A sharply descending drop ball is a beautiful thing. Everything was again lining up.
Eden Phillpotts (English author and playwright) said, “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” I just wish I could have grown sharper much earlier.
She was turning the right heel 2 inches, and it took several months of working together to understand how to fix it.
I have heard batting coaches say to work from the ground up. It seems to have applied in this situation.
