My ten year olds first year pitching. Would love any advice.

[Amber Wheeler]

My daughter just turned 10 ifeb. Before this spring she pitched one game. I was floored how accurate She was. She had no formal training. Just really slow .
So she has pitched a total of two games w no coaching . just videos and practice. This was the second pre game practice:: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n6id...at can she work on? Advice? Thanks!!!

 

[xygent1]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n6iduE0CNBg. looks naturally very good time to look for a good pc.

 

[Amber Wheeler]

Wow!! Thank you so much for taking the time to help out. I will pass this all along to my hubby!

 

[Amber Wheeler]

The raising the hands high deal is purely her. I have no idea where she got this from! The pros and cons of watching video after video and other players game

 

[Cowdogz]

The raising the hands high deal is purely her. I have no idea where she got this from! The pros and cons of watching video after video and other players game

I have a guess:

 

[JJsqueeze]

Amber- she looks good for such a novice pitcher. I am glad you found this site, looking for good info on teaching my novice daughter is what brought me here two years ago. In that time I have not found a better resource for pitching instruction than this forum.

To answer your question about whether to invest the time I say go for it. if your kid likes pitching and you want to help her get better then dive in. It is not particularly easy and you have to wait for results for months sometimes, but the rewards are great and it is really fun watching your DD grow and put her skills to use in games.

As for what to work on, there is a thread in this forum that is stuck to the top called "I/R in the classroom" this is a great place to start a beginner. It gives drills for teaching proper arm whip. When that is achieved then you can move on to the Drive Mechanics sticky thread to learn more about how to build a powerful drive.

I looked at the links OILF provided and I do not recommend spending $99 on an instructional video just yet and if you do then please look into Bill Hillhouse and Rick Pauly. Both are nationally renowned pitching coaches and they have various instructional videos for sale that I trust more.

The other links she provided have a lot of misinformation so I would steer clear of those too.

 

[Amber Wheeler]

Okay . great! This is a challenge for my hubby and I as we have no idea about pitching,He is an amazing baseball player but not so much fastpitch ha! As for me I tried showings er how I wanted to do something only to find out Its much harder than it looks as well as she is better than me. More coordinated. Frustrating. We are trying to get more power she cab throw strikes like it's her job. Any advice?

 

[Rocketech1]

She looks great for a beginner. My recommendation for you is the same as JJSqueeze, have her do the drills in the "I/R in the Classroom". I cannot tell how important this is for the beginning pitcher to really learn good arm whip mechanics.

I have all of the Hillhouse DVDs and they are a good starting point but really the best thing you can do is find a reputable pitching coach and practice 3x a week, every week for as long as she wants to pitch. When my DD just started pitching, I built a simple pitching area on the side of my house. If you have the room, measure off 35 feet, buy a pitching plate and home plate and you are good to go. The reason this is important is you want to make it as easy as possible to get in your 30 minutes of pitching practice, 3x a week. If you do it right from Day 1, you will have yourself one heck of a pitcher a few years from now.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Please point out the misinformation. I pointed out I don't like the figure 4.

What is wrong with the others? Some of the videos deal with specific things--I am not saying every single thing somebody says has to be followed, just the linked item.

Hillhouse is great but he is well enough known, and he does not having a lot of reading material; he does not go over legs that much. The Kempf information can be gotten for less, by used book and I am not sure where $99 came from. I just linked to that one because it was easiest. Coach at a click have several free short videos. Whip mechanics mean nothing without legs, and if you do it that way, without learning resistance, it leads to arm and elbow issues from overuse, and overthinking in the kids and their parents. Most kids have natural whip and that can be worked on once a full body foundation is set. This kid's needs are with other things at this point.

Let the parent decide he or she likes and not force them to join a cult.

The Rita Lynn Gillman video demonstrates a sideways push. I cannot understand why she would try to teach a leg drive from a completely open position like this. It is a very weak drive position.

The Fastpich Power article basically guides pitchers away from recruiting the power in their rear foot by focusing on the front leg only. You have two legs, why would you not recruit the rear leg to get a running start into the front leg load?

As for a cult, we are a pretty good one, we don't require followers to give up their possessions and last time I checked our body count was still 0.

 

[JJsqueeze]

here is one of my favorite threads that involves a pitcher your DDs age..

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/15097-dds-arm-circle-hopefully-better.html

Pay particular attention to how this girl is pulling the ball down the backside of the circle and whipping as opposed to how your daughter is pushing down the circle and "bowling". This is the #1 speed adder. Pull and whip=fast, push and bowl=slow.

Her accuracy will drop off while she learns this but she will be much faster. Try it yourself and you will see the power difference.

The pitching motion is very close to the mechanics of skipping stones on a lake, it is not related to the bowling motion at all.