New Video Camera 11 Yr Old Video

[DB1]

Finally nice enough to get outside and pitch. Have a new video camera and had my 7 year old video a quick pitching session. It's amazing what you can see on video slowed down. Looking for comments to help improve.

Thanks

 

[Bucketrider]

Two quick things I noticed as a long suffering bucket rider. One, her arm is always bent. I had a horrible time getting my daughters hand from going over her head on the wind up. I believe her speed and consistency will improve dramatically with the are being straightened a little more. Also she seems to have most of her weight forward instead of keeping her weight back and behind the ball. have her shorten her stride to maybe five of her shoe lengths instead of the seven she appears to have. My daughter thought she was being faster by the larger stride and instead started crow hopping and getting called. We brought in her stride and low and behold, the ball started cracking in the glove again!
I am by no means a professional, just a fellow bucket rider such as you.

 

[Coach JV]

I have never been a big fan of the glove hand going behind her
after presentation. I prefer hands to be separate going into windup.
Again-my opinion

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Her glove hand is ala- Hillhouse.

She isn't bad and is better than most her age. I don't see a problem with her arm circle.

If you are able to stop frame by frame and print the pics out for her, she can see that she is cheating "getting open." I really stress that the entire body is on the power line and facing third. Watch her shoulders and hips, and have her over exaggerate getting open.

Check the front foot. Is it landing toe first and at a 45 degree angle. (You might be the first in your neighborhood to mow the grass.)

How is her overhand throw? And does she practice the stork drill to keep her weight back?

 

[starsnuffer]

Her arm circle is good, her arm is bent (this is a GOOD thing, extending fully is bad), the Hillhouse presentation actually helps the pitcher keeping from locking out the arm, so this is working for her. There's not a lot of arm whip, but there are issues with the stride that should be addressed first. Make sure she keeps that elbow leading the pitch just a tad longer and she'll get a good IR movement before release. She has the idea, it's just spread out over too long a time period at the moment.

Her footwork is weak, she's stepping, not leaping. She needs to step higher and use her ball and glove hand to "throw" her body forward, keeping all her weight behind her bellybutton. She's landing with a very soft front leg, which is robbing her of a lot of energy and power and probably causing the pitches to go high. She needs to land with a 45 degree angle like Amy mentioned and treat that front leg like it's a pole vaulters pole, like she's hitting a brick wall when she lands. The foot needs to land flat, not toes first, she's a pitcher not a ballerina.

It looks like she's pitching across the power line a bit from the second video, IE her stride foot is crossing too far to the right. That could cause some issues.

-W

 

[dbias]

Her glove hand is ala- Hillhouse.

She isn't bad and is better than most her age. I don't see a problem with her arm circle.

If you are able to stop frame by frame and print the pics out for her, she can see that she is cheating "getting open." I really stress that the entire body is on the power line and facing third. Watch her shoulders and hips, and have her over exaggerate getting open.

Check the front foot. Is it landing toe first and at a 45 degree angle. (You might be the first in your neighborhood to mow the grass.)

How is her overhand throw? And does she practice the stork drill to keep her weight back?

pretty much same thing I saw. The front foot needs to not point so much toward the catcher and a little more toward third. The opening up of the front foot is leading to the left arm flying open. She needs to work on keeping her momentum from leaking over the front leg and redirect the energy into the throwing arm by keeping her chin behind her bellybutton. I also have my DD, who follows Hillhouse's methods, to "peek" behind the ball as it is thrown. In the begining she was letting her head pull over to the left side of her body and by pretending to peek over to the right and see more of the third base side of the ball as it is thrown helps keep her upper body over top of and in control of the whip/snap at the release point.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

My question to you is why are you setting her up for failure? Pitching is hard enough without putting obstacles in her way. The first thing you need to do is get her a proper pitching area to pitch from. Never have her pitch without a pitching plate. Never have her pitch on grass. It looks like you have a fairly large property. Put in a pitching plate, put down some infield mix, dirt, etc. the length of her stride, measure off the distance to home plate (40ft?). The dirt is especially important so she can get used to properly dragging her pivot foot and also so she can draw her powerline which is critical for new pitchers. Anything less than the above and she and you are wasting your time.

 

[starsnuffer]

Looks like you would be able to put down a pitching mat on your driveway and pitch the other direction too. You can buy or make these (you can buy the rubber on the roll at lowes or home depot and attach a 1x6 board for the rubber) and that would save you from having to dig up your yard. It's not as good as dirt, but the problem with grass is that it's very difficult to do a proper toe drag, and that could cause all kinds of problems later on. Once she starts landing properly, you're going to get big holes in your lawn from her stride foot landing, which she can twist her ankle in.

-W

 

[Strike3dad]

My question to you is why are you setting her up for failure? Pitching is hard enough without putting obstacles in her way. The first thing you need to do is get her a proper pitching area to pitch from. Never have her pitch without a pitching plate. Never have her pitch on grass. It looks like you have a fairly large property. Put in a pitching plate, put down some infield mix, dirt, etc. the length of her stride, measure off the distance to home plate (40ft?). The dirt is especially important so she can get used to properly dragging her pivot foot and also so she can draw her powerline which is critical for new pitchers. Anything less than the above and she and you are wasting your time.

Thats good info.PLus it is inexpensive to complete. Dont forget to invest in a tamper to maintain the ballfield dirt in your pitching area,its a must.

 

[DB1]

Thanks for the replies. I agree with the footwork as that is something that we currently have changed. She is working through trying to get more from her lower body and making the appropriate adjustments with her upper body. We just started throwing as it has been very wet, cold spring. For her, this is an improvement in getting more from her lower body and is something we will continue to work on to fine tune and try to make more consistent. I appreciate the comments.

Typically, we go to the diamond to practice, but we had little time to throw due to a school function so the front yard had to work. Starsnuffer, that's a good idea for the times when we can't make it to the diamond and will also keep the wife happy not destroying our front yard. Thanks for taking the time to comment.