Looking for Feedback/Advice(1st year 10u)

[ornelas85]

I've posted videos in the past and have used yalls advice, Thanks.
Please let me know what needs to be worked on the most.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klRTJdInhcE

 

[djcarter1966]

I'm going to let the big guns critique this one, maybe I could find a nitpiky thing or two; at 10U I'm going to be honest she is probably got better mechanics than most 14U and 16U kids we see on this site...I'll put some more slo mo on it and see what I come up with.

 

[ornelas85]

Thanks for the compliment.
It looks to me at the 9:00 position her palm is not under the ball and she needs to lead more with the elbow.
Before we work on those 2 problems, I want to make sure they are indeed the problems we need to address.
Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[djcarter1966]

Without a better camera or angle can't tell for sure from the video...but amazingly enough it was close to something I almost mentioned but didn't and I think they might be related.

Her arm does appear to lock out as she comes down from 12 o'clock thru nine o'clock and beyond. I think the natural tendency is to not get under the ball when your arm is locked versus bent, go ahead and try it and have her do it see what feels more comfortable hold the ball palm under with a locked arm at nine o'clock and then put just a slight bend in your arm and feel the difference, with a locked arm you will want to naturally rotate it from being under the ball to relieve the tension.

I'm attaching two stills, using Amanda and your DD, one thing I do want you to notice is how well she lines up in posture and everything else...but for our purpose focus on the slight bend in the arm versus your DD more straight arm. Again a better camera and angle might be more revealing but I think it illustrates what I'm talking about. I think getting her to loosen up her arm a little will help with both problems you wanted to address. You should have a straight and locked arm until 12 o'clock then you should get that slight bend and keep it all the way through so you can get a better whip, the pitching sticky will have drills and probably explain it better but I think you get the idea.

 

[JJsqueeze]

she looks absolutely fantastic for her age.

As a dad a little further down the road than you I would advise you get her to feel her legs more and loosen up her arm to get more loosey goosey whip.

For the arm loosening it can be difficult because when you throw you feel the need to tense up and activate those muscles. A good trick is to focus on the glove arm. If you can loosen the glove arm then the throwing arm will mist likely go along for the ride because the body REALLY wants to use the bilateral mirror and it is easier to get a mental image of loosening the glove side since it is not throwing.

As for the legs, you really want to build a mental image of really feeling the ground and using your lower half to pitch. I would go so far as to work on getting her to think of pitching as a ground/leg activity first with the arm and upper torso being a secondary action.

These two tie together at the moment of truth in the pitch which is captured above. Amanda (a legs first kind of pitcher) has driven her legs/hips out in front of her torso. Your DD has her legs/hips slightly lagging behind the CG of her upper half. This does two things- 1) Amanda is gathered back and can throw all that weight into her front side by having her torso more back and 2)-The bend in the arm is easier to achieve because her torso came back WITH her arm so they are moving in the same direction. For your daughter, her legs and torso are driving out together and away from her arm so her arm wants to extend naturally. These two mechanics are intimately tied (legs driving out and overtaking the torso in the drive and drag part of the pitch and the ability to gather back and get a nice loose bend). All pitchers I see that drive everything out have that overly extended arm in the 9 o clock position and it decreases whip.

I say this as the father of a 14 year old that has these exact same issues and correcting them now is very difficult and i wish I had started with a much more drive first approach from day one. She has made great progress but it has been a long haul trying to improve this at this age.

To get a feel for what I am talking about, go do a crow hop outfield throw and feel how when you hop your body naturally loads back and you feel the need to get the CG of your torso behind that of your legs to gather back and then throw all that weight into the front leg when it lands.