Looking for feedback on mechanics

[coachdan]

Posting for a friend that is looking for feedback on daughter mechanic and suggestion on how to increase speed. Pitchers is 15 yrs old and currently throw in the upper 50's with good control but always looking to get better. Any feedback would be great.

CIMG0512 - YouTube
CIMG0513 - YouTube
CIMG0514 - YouTube
CIMG0516 - YouTube

 

[Ken B]

This kid has a lot of potential to improve. So many areas she could tweak to improve her performance. I'd suggest taking her to a PC and taking it one piece at a time.

For starters, check out the "I/R in the Classroom" thread and learn how to whip. Eventually, she'll need to revamp her drive to work on a better load, drag and posture at foot plant. I think she'd benefit from having a good PC facilitate this. If she's able to pitch well given her current raw talent, every dime spent on some instruction will be well worth it!

 

[JJsqueeze]

I see three biggies:

Hand and elbow position at the top-the palm facing first with the elbow pointed to third looks like a speed killer and an injury risk increaser. If you hold on the this position then your shoulder would lock up eventually. So it has to slow down to allow these forces to release, with this kid, it makes a quick transition to the ball facing third and the elbow facing first with her hand on top of the ball. Which leads to the second part of the big issue, the ball on top of the hand is robbing her of IR speed during release.

The last speed killer I see is that her drag foot appears to stop and restart mid way so it does not look like her forward momentum is contributing much to her speed, that coupled with the walk through release and forward bend means she does not have much front side resistance to pitch against and I doubt she is getting much pitch speed out of that leap.

Take all of this with a pound of salt-I am just a bucket dad and not a PC. some of the experts on this board with chime in so throw my input away if it does not jibe with theirs.

 

[JJsqueeze]

there are two threads that would make all of what I said very clear to her dad- the "IR in the classroom" thread and the "dd arm circle improvement" thread. These issues are discussed in detail there along with drills to fix them.

 

[JJsqueeze]

I played around with the video a little to see if I could show some of the issues I talked about.

take a look at the pictures that show the drag foot stops while the stride foot is still in the air. This is while the arm is near the top of the circle, its does not move again until she starts the release phase, this is where she starts trying to compensate by moving her whole upper body forward to get more power.

Also notice the X pattern the ball makes during the arm circle. This seems like really bad juju to me. Not only does it increase the actual distance the ball is travelling around the circle (thus reducing speed for a given arm circle time) but I have to believe this makes accuracy more difficult. The two lines at the top show the transition points from the glove side palm with elbow pointing outward to the opposite with the hand on top of the ball and the elbow going more towards first.

 

[Etdad]

What type of camera did you film this with

 

[coachdan]

What type of camera did you film this with

used casio F1 @ 300fps