Looking for opinions on what to work on at this point.

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Jan 25, 2022
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I take that to mean keeping the glove more in front of her. Eliminating or at least lessening the amount of swim she has with her glove arm.

My opinion is you want no swim at all, and I've never seen anyone say some level of swim isn't a big deal...but maybe I just haven't watched enough videos. I guess it would depend on what point in the act of swimming that it meets a person's definition of swim. I tell mine "the glove goes up, the glove comes down." I was taught the glove should be at 2:00 when the ball is at 12:00, and should be at 3:00 when the glove arm is at 10:00. I believe that's Sarah Pauley in armwhip's shared video. If you do some quick pauses, you'll see she hits those exact positions during the motion.

Some people never raise the glove arm above 3:00, and I don't know enough about mechanics to say what does or doesn't happen between 3:00 and 2:00 to make one better than the other, or if it's just preference or for timing.
 
May 13, 2021
643
93
My opinion is you want no swim at all, and I've never seen anyone say some level of swim isn't a big deal...but maybe I just haven't watched enough videos. I guess it would depend on what point in the act of swimming that it meets a person's definition of swim. I tell mine "the glove goes up, the glove comes down." I was taught the glove should be at 2:00 when the ball is at 12:00, and should be at 3:00 when the glove arm is at 10:00. I believe that's Sarah Pauley in armwhip's shared video. If you do some quick pauses, you'll see she hits those exact positions during the motion.

Some people never raise the glove arm above 3:00, and I don't know enough about mechanics to say what does or doesn't happen between 3:00 and 2:00 to make one better than the other, or if it's just preference or for timing.

I don’t like excessive glove swim and I think hers is excessive. If you search on this forum you will find quite a few statements along the lines of, not to worry so much about it, or it is not that big of a deal.
 
Jun 22, 2019
258
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I understand what you are saying about getting that front shoulder open. Would like to see a video of that. To see how that foot drags. Looks like she is leaping also.
That’s just a pic off the internet. I honestly didn’t even look at the feet. Just look at the top half.

Your daughter’s foot drag is good. She’s up on her toe and is finishing nicely. She will get lighter on the foot and more explosive as she matures and getting her shoulders open won’t have an impact on this.

Shoulders open will create a more consistent windmill and will improve lateral accuracy.
 
Apr 12, 2015
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If she doesn't drive hard off the right leg and drive the left knee forward, she won't open up. If she's doing it correctly she won't even need to force the opening. It'll just naturally happen.
The second part is true, but the first part is not. I would be amazed if an 8 year old had the combination of body awareness and core strength to drive hard enough to achieve the "weightless" effect AND maintain decent posture and mechanics.

The body will open just fine - both the shoulders and hips - even if the pitcher just steps out. In fact, this pitcher's hips are open just fine. Its her upper body that is the problem.

Glove swim is a symptom, not a problem itself. In this particular case it is caused by the way the pitcher is utilizing her glove side shoulder (really neither shoulder is working correctly). Its another fairly straight forward correction. Simply have her concentrate on trying to keep the ball in the glove until she is at 1 o'clock or so. From there, focus on adduction both elbows into the body. This will create the "glove swirl" effect that Pauly teaches and will correct the torso rotation as well. To get a feel of how the shoulders should work, simply stand straight, nothing in your hands. Bring your left hand over to your right shoulder and your right hand over to your left shoulder so your arms are kind of crossed in front of you. From there keep rotatings your hands until they are above your head, then drive your elbows to your sides on the way down. Think of standing in front of a huge window and washing it with great big circular motions. That's how the shoulders should work in a pitching motion.

I also agree with Shawn. Just have her step and correct the upper body before moving to the lower body. A lot of her problems, to my eyes, stem from the fact that she looks like she's trying hard to drive out to some arbitrary point. When young kids put extreme effort into one part of their body, in this case the lower half, they tend to clinch and tighten up their whole body.

Personally, I'd focus solely on getting this correct in totality before worry about anything to do with the lower body: 1663566734047.png
 
Last edited:
Mar 19, 2009
946
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Southern California
Her glove position is not as bad as I first looked. Thr shoulders need to rotate open more. Nice job of starting with the hips and shoulders straight.
 

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