Our offseason begins... now to IR work

[MountainMan]

So, my DD's fall season ended Sunday and it's time for me to really start converting her to IR from HE. I've snuck a few things in already but I didn't want to screw her accuracy up too much while she was having to pitch in games. Anyway, I have been reading posts on this site for about a month now. I have compiled links to 17 videos that I believe are going to be extremely helpful. I really appreciate all the work you folks do on here. Please bear with me as I will surely be asking questions the next few months.

First question. Before I get too involved working with her on IR and BI, I have a couple of posture issues I need to address with her. She likes to get out over her stride foot and also has a little bit of a lean towards 3rd. Any suggestions on posture drills? All the links I spoke of earlier focus on IR and Drive Mechanics.

 

[DNeeld]

My suggestion would be if you are doing a complete rebuild, don't worry about her drive or lean right now.

Build the foundation of whip mechanics slowly. She shouldn't be driving out or doing full pitches during a rebuild anyway. You might be surprised that once she has the foundation of good whip mechanics and BI, previous problems with her stride foot and lean might be non-existent.

 

[BoardMember]

So many young pitchers use the legs to drive the shoulders forward, when in fact they should actually be using the legs to drive the hips forward. This is why most young pitchers develop a posture that puts the head/shoulders in front of the hips........Or over the front leg.

Focus on using the legs to DRIVE THE HIPS FORWARD not the shoulders.......

 

[MountainMan]

So many young pitchers use the legs to drive the shoulders forward, when in fact they should actually be using the legs to drive the hips forward. This is why most young pitchers develop a posture that puts the head/shoulders in front of the hips........Or over the front leg.

Focus on using the legs to DRIVE THE HIPS FORWARD not the shoulders.......

Excellent! Thank you for that tip. That is exactly the type of thing I was looking for to start chipping away at this posture problem.

 

[MountainMan]

So dumb question maybe but as I said, I have compiled a list of 17 vids from this site to help with my DD's IR training. I have noticed some people mentioning Boardmember's Bat Drill. Somehow I have missed that one. Anybody have a link to that one?

Thanks.

 

[Ken B]

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/15432-i-r-bat-drill.html

 

[MountainMan]

So, I'm a little frustrated but I wanted to check and see if my DD and I are in familiar territory or if some of the gurus on here had some advice.

I have been working with DD for just a tad over a month now on converting from HE to IR. It's cold here so almost all of our practice is done in the garage where she is throwing about 8-10 feet into a tarp/net. Watching videos of her from the past compared to now, I am pleased. She has stopped the lean forward and to 3rd that I mentioned in the beginning of this thread a month ago. She is (almost always) throwing with an IR motion as opposed to the HE style. Once in a great while though (like yesterday), we get a chance to throw the full 40 feet. She seems to be all over the place when we do that. Before the changes she was quite accurate but she was bending over and for the most part, bowling. I guess my question is after the first month of transitioning, is this accuracy issue normal? Are there any drills (or advice) on how to work this part out? Maybe it just takes more time.

 

[Mark H]

Mechanics first. Accuracy later. If she learns accuracy with half way there mechanics, she will have to relearn accuracy with the mechanics she ends up with.

 

[WillyT812]

To echo BM, you've got to teach them how to throw underhand before you can teach them to pitch underhand. Most girls when trying to teach how to throw underhand will immediately start trying to pitch. When we throw overhand we're not pitching. You'd never try to teach a boy to pitch overhand without first having a good overhand throw. Same with underhand. This drill here is to show the level of effort or relaxation is the same whether overhand or underhand. Watch the hips, arms, feet...everything is relatively the same. Just throwin' is all we're doing.

 

[WillyT812]

What's nice about the above clip is in sequence three, when I'm in front and up close, you can hear the whip.....pft...pft...