Pitcher #3 -- Front/Side/Back Slow Mo...

[SLAM96Coach]

This girl is a gamer. She's the kind of girl who throws 3-4mph harder in the game than you can ever get her to do without a batter. She has a lot of intensity to her. Too much at times. She has developed more control or her stuff but at times was my higher risk/higher reward pitcher last year. She threw some absolutely dominating games...she sometimes could have very rough 1st innings -- too much adrenaline.

She's about 5'8/5'9...a well built girl. 13 years old.

The main things I worry about are an excessive / unnecessary windup, and a left side lean. We've tried some different windups with her, but haven't made the leap to change it out. Perhaps now is the time to do it.

In practices/etc she's 53/54, but in games, I would not be surprised to see her throwing harder than that. She's a two pitch girl right now -- fastball and knuckle change.

Thanks for your feedback. She's had a few coaches. She's been going to a family friend for the past year who's coached his own daughter to the point of being recruited....she's 16 on a 18u-gold exposure team. Coach is a former men's fastpitch player.

Thanks.

 

[sluggers]

I like this girl a lot. With a couple of tweaks and, of course, a lot of work on her part, she can easily hit 60.

Ask her to go stand by a fence and hold her hands over head for 15 minutes. Because, when she pitches a 7 inning game, that is about the amount of time she is going to have her hands over her head.

Pitching is about efficiency of motion. As to efficiency of motion, pitching is the same as the hurdles, long distance running, or sprinting. The pitcher should be trying to always get the most energy into the ball using the least amount of my body's energy. So, her "pre-wind up" is a big energy sink hole.

Her body is ahead of her arm--meaning that her body position is slightly ahead of where it should be relative to the position of the arm. This problem ripples through her motion, ultimately leading to a reduction of speed.

There is a capture of her at 12 and there is one of Osterman at 12. Note that Osterman's plant foot is off the ground 3 or 4 inches, while Nicole's foot is on the ground. Her body has already shifted forward. This ripples through her motion, so that at release you can see that her upper body is not over her right foot at release instead of behind the right foot.

The easiest way to fix the problem of "the arm is ahead of the body" is to have the pitcher slightly delay the start of her arm movement. For her, this is going to be a bigger problem because of her windup.

You can also see that she isn't dropping her right shoulder. Look at Osterman's left shoulder compare to her right.

 

[cshilt]

...Her body has already shifted forward. This ripples through her motion, so that at release you can see that her upper body is not over her right foot at release instead of behind the right foot.

The easiest way to fix the problem of "the body ahead of the arm" is to have the pitcher slightly delay her arm movement. For her, this is going to be a bigger problem of her windup.

You can also see that she isn't dropping her right shoulder. Look at Osterman's left shoulder compare to her right.

Her stride may be a little too long, as she is stretched out so far that she can't keep her weight back. She needs to keep her center of mass in her hips by keeping her upper body back longer. In the clips compare Nicole's upper body to Cat's and you should see the difference.

 

[jtat32]

The easiest way to fix the problem of "the body ahead of the arm" is to have the pitcher slightly delay her arm movement. For her, this is going to be a bigger problem of her windup.

I'm not arguing with you here, my DD has the same issue, and slowing down her arm at the start seems to help, but not sure why. If the body is already ahead of the arm, how does delaying the arm action help?

 

[sluggers]

S**t...I'm sorry. I said it backward.

The arm is ahead of the body. You correct that by delaying the start of the back swing while doing the weight shift. It isn't going to take much. If she got rid of that crazy windup, she may not have to do anything.

She should also do drills designed to get her accustomed to having the left foot off the ground when the arm is at 12. Actually, she should be doing these drills anyway. These drills teach body control during movement at high speeds. They also strengthen the stabilizing muscles in the ankles.

The drills:

(1) The stork-- have the pitcher get open. Have her raise her left foot off the ground and raise her arm to 12. Then have her throw the ball "hard" without lowering her left foot.
(2) Three pump--have the pitcher get open. She raises the ball over her head, and touches the toe of her left foot to the ground. She then does three rotations. With each rotation, she lifts her left foot off the ground when her arm reaches 12. On the third rotation, she releases the ball.
(3) The notorious "Carolina Walk Through"--she does a walk through, except after she throws the ball, she keeps her *right* foot off the ground until the catcher returns the ball to her. Right now, she won't be able to do the drill.

 

[drc9805]

Sluggers, It seems like her body is ahead of her arm and she would need to speed her arm up or just keep her weight back. Please explain.

 

[Darrick Brown]

I don't like her feet. She preturns the push foot and drags it sideways until the heel touches the ground. She also lands on her toe at foot strike which causes her body to hunch and lean to right. I can see a possible acl or back injury here. Look at the pic of Cat that sluggers posted. Cat has flex in the push leg and her heel is up. That is a healthy way to pitch. Also not a big fan of bringing the hands up way over the head. Keep it simple!

 

[RayR]

I don't like her feet. She preturns the push foot and drags it sideways until the heel touches the ground. She also lands on her toe at foot strike which causes her body to hunch and lean to right. I can see a possible acl or back injury here. Look at the pic of Cat that sluggers posted. Cat has flex in the push leg and her heel is up. That is a healthy way to pitch. Also not a big fan of bringing the hands up way over the head. Keep it simple!

Along your thoughts - I wouldn't call it a foot issue.

To me it is a lazy rear leg. She is dragging like an anchor and it is killing her potential for speed. Look at the direction of Cat's knee in the first clip compared to the 2nd one.

How do you think Cat gets to the 2nd clip position and why doesn't Slam's pitcher get to this position.