Movement Pattern Mystery?

[Blnfbbs]

Hi all, apologies for the long post, but I thought the history/details would be helpful.

I've been an avid reader of this forum for several years and have always enjoyed the willingness of so many of you to offer advice/feedback, it's wonderful to see. My daughter has been struggling with what we believe is a mechanical issue that I hope to get a fresh perspective on. She's a junior in HS (16 U) and has played pretty high-level travel ball since 10U. At the end of HS season last year (October 2022) she appeared to be at the top of her game. She's always had a few mechanical tweaks we've been working on, but her results were consistent for the most part so we didn't make any major changes. She would throw in the 60-63 range in games and have very good command and spin.

This past January she went to a D1 college camp and did very well and that school called her on Sept 1st so they must have seen something they liked. However, starting in mid-February, just a few weeks after the camp, she had a mechanical change seemingly emerge out of the blue that has become stubbornly engrained and has stuck around all year. Her command and spin regressed, and she lost 4-6 mph. Not surprisingly, her results regressed as well, and she lost playing time on her travel team this past season. Now we're in Sept. and despite countless sessions to work things out, reviewing 100s of videos and lots of lessons with our PC, we still haven't been able to make any progress.

There was no injury back in Jan/Feb to obviously explain this change as she was pain free. However, in an attempt to find more speed, I do think she started to manufacture forced forearm whip and that eventually led to forearm pain this summer. An MRI in July revealed a stress reaction in the forearm, and she was told to rest for 6 weeks. She has been ramping back up slowly now that we're in HS season again and for the most part the injury has improved, but she does report some mild pain on occasion while pitching or throwing overhand. She has been limited to around 40-50 pitches per week, so I don't believe this is a ramp up too soon or overuse type scenario. I also suspect she's still trying to force some whip again which might explain the mild pain. We always back off if she feels the mild pain as well.

I've posted three videos so you can hopefully analyze the issue; two videos show the issue in slo-mo, one from a perpendicular view during a recent game and the other from directly behind in practice. The 3rd video is an example well before the issue for comparison. I hope the videos are accessible, but let me know if they aren't. The problem seems pretty clear to me, between 11 and 9 o'clock she seems to straighten (almost cast) her arm and I believe that will prevent any natural IR whip she used to have. In older videos, she has a nice flex in that part of her circle, but now it's straight and her arm seems pushy approaching and through release. It's at release where I think she is trying to incorrectly engage the lower arm, but that is just a theory.

Like a lot of suggestions on this forum, we've tried to back chain since the issue may be caused earlier in the motion. We've focused on the leg drive, not opening too early or forcing open, the glove hand (still a prime suspect) and everything in between, but to no avail. I think I've reached the analysis paralysis phase. Every time I look at video, I see something new or at least I think I do so we try different things, but this merry go round approach isn't helping.

Sometimes when she just throws into a tarp, she can achieve the arm flex between 11 and 9 o'clock that she used to regularly have, but when there is a batter 43ft away the bad movement pattern takes over. She can't feel the difference between the slightly flex armed or the straightened arm so that doesn't help as we've tried to fix this. We're both frustrated at how this bad pattern just showed up and now we can't seem to get rid of it. I'm hoping that someone sees something in the videos or has experienced something like this. I really appreciate any insight you can provide. I have tons of video and can provide more if that would be helpful. Again, thank you in advance for your time.

 

[DNeeld]

The resolution of the stills isn't great, but her posture is significantly worse in the recent video than the old one. Though I will caution against addressing any issue on the basis of a single example.

She has also lost a bit of whip in her arm. The two issues often go hand in hand. Straightening the arm will often result in missing high, which in turn is often compensated for by hinging at the waist in an effort to keep the pitch down.

 

[Ken Krause]

The big difference I see is the loss of elbow bend down the back side of the circle. In the before example you can see some good bend in the elbow as she goes from 9:00 to 6:00. In the after example her arm is straight and it looks like she is maybe pushing it down a little too.

I would work on getting the elbow to relax and bend to increase whip. That would be a good starting point anyway.

 

[Mike-Coach Q]

i also see better FSR in the older video. The current video her body breakdown going in to and after the snap. In still photos it looks ok but in the video you see no firming up of the torso and shoulders.

 

[Cannonball]

Ken's analysis is exactly what I saw.

 

[Blnfbbs]

Thank you very much for the replies and I agree with the feedback. The difficulty she seems to be having is feeling the difference between a slightly flexed arm from 9 to 6 vs. not flexed. I've tried quite a few tricks to get her to "feel" it, but it hasn't happened yet. IMO, she has always not taken full advantage of FSR either, that was one of the tweaks we were working on prior to this issue cropping up. I do think the hinging has gotten more pronounced because she's trying to generate speed any way she can (even if highly inefficiently) without the proper whip.

One of my current theories is she is rotating her shoulders too early (or not getting them quite open enough) which inhibits the normal arm path from 11 to 9 and therefore takes away the flex. I see this in the view from behind where her arm appears contorted to a slight degree approaching 9. My thought is the glove hand/shoulder is initiating this premature shoulder turn. Does anyone else see that or am I seeing ghosts?

 

[Sonerai]

I empathize with your situation. This can be so frustrating. It can be hard to work on the cause and not the symptom. I like what Ken had to say. If you haven't already maybe have her work on this while throwing into a net at a closer distance. Sometimes it can be hard to work on something like this and also trying to throw around the strike zone. This could take that out of the equation to allow her to focus more on the feel. Also I think the posture is something to focus on as well. Good luck with this.

 

[steve1244]

In the video you shot before the issue came up, she seemed to be getting more drive from both legs and a more horizontal shin angle than in the video you shot after the issue came up. In the more recent video, she looks like she's striding hard off the rubber, but not really driving with both legs. In the earlier video, the leg drive seemed more intentional and violent. It's hard to tell from a sample size of just one, but are you sure the root of the issue is upper body and not lower body?

 

[Fluid Fastpitch]

Ken's spot on. Also, the glove arm as you mentioned.
Elbow leads the arm down the circle. Elbow to hip; then the whip.
Might try that old 'inhale up, exhale down' exercise with the arms, focusing on relaxing and having the elbow lead down the circle. That should help her remember what if feels like to relax. Also may fix the glove arm out of sequence.
She's started trying to muscle it. Needs to find the relaxed whip again.

Before:


After:

 

[ArmWhip]

I agree with most of the opinions on her mechanical flaws but the I feel that the heart of the issue stems from another source. Often times when I do the velocity part of a practice I will see pitchers use an aggressive shoulder turn in an effort to add more speed, essentially they are 'forcing' arm/hand/ball. In makes sense, when you want to make a long, hard throw overhand you use an aggressive shoulder turn to load the arm, unfortunately it doesn't work in softball pitching, it inhibits the IR/whipping arm action.

Changing a heavily ingrained motion can be very challenging and often requires some 'outside the box' thinking. I would start by going back to sling shot (K-position, butterfly, whatever) and try to reconnect to the natural arm whipping action. You should set the overall tone of her rehabilitation by telling her that everything she does will be loose and whippy, to not apply any force or effort. When you think she is whipping the ball loose and easy in sling shot you can move to something with an arm circle, from a static position or step or small leap, whatever she normally does in her warmup cycle. Hopefully she can transfer the whipping arm action from sling shot to the circle, if not you need an externally cued drill to effect the change. My favorite is the 'small ball circle'. Ask her to focus on the ball as it moves around the circle, then ask her to reduce the size of the circle, to shrink it. This will force her to flex/bend her arm and bring back the whipping action. In cases where they don't quite get it I tell them to make the tiniest circle they can, that usually does it. When you feel that she is whipping the ball in the circle you can move to a full motion. Here again the tone needs to be easy, loose and whippy. If she reverts back to her, turn the shoulder, straight arm move, then go to the small ball circle as way to counteract it. When you feel that her arm action is solid and it's time to go to full game motion you'll need a few mental reminders to keep her from trying to force the ball. My favorite is 'let the whip do the work' or 'trust the whip'. Ramp it up slowly and hopefully she will regain her old form. I always use my I-phone to take video and check on the arm action. I show the pitchers what they're doing too.