Pitcher's toe drag

[osagedr]

...now only if we could get rid of the glove swim.

DD is dealing with this as well. Used to resemble Superman in flight after releasing the ball. We just focused on "glove in front" or "glove up, glove down." IMO it's a good idea for some of these things to work without a ball to help muscle memory - just focus on technique. Do hundreds of reps...glove up, glove down. Then when you re-introduce a ball, do the pitches at a very, very slow speed which focuses on good mechanics. The muscle memory eventually sets in!

The upside to all of this is that there will be a velocity and accurace improvement as a result. A key to fixing the swim is to get the arm and hips in good sequence together...my little "swimmer" has struggled in this regard a bit. With the swim the hips were closed to the plate THEN the arm was coming through, and her "miss spot" was thus to the right side (from the pitcher's view) of the plate. With better timing this doesn't happen but when the body first explores these new mechanics the arm might fire the ball to the left as the timing gets better - then it's just an adjustment back.

 

[Crystal Brown]

This should help you to understand a little more...A lot of times when learning to pitch, girls like to open by stepping open instead of allowing the rotation to naturally open. When stepping open, you will see the drag most common in what you have mentioned.
<div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-mtTuM4NnIg?ecver=2" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Ask her if she throws overhand, like that. My guess is that she does not. Tell her to keep them both the same, as far as toe drag.

 

[Playaction]

This should help you to understand a little more...A lot of times when learning to pitch, girls like to open by stepping open instead of allowing the rotation to naturally open. When stepping open, you will see the drag most common in what you have mentioned.
<div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-mtTuM4NnIg?ecver=2" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Exactly-Quit trying to force the opening and let it happen naturally. GO STRAIGHT. We have a high school pitcher that lands on the right side of center with the big toe pointed in somewhat. Her foot shifts in the dirt as she closes on every pitch. That torque has to take a toll on the knee.

 

[Ken B]

Bump......

 

[Hillhouse]

Dear iheartsoftball,

Without sounding as though i'm trying to disagree with Mr Tincher, I think reducing the explosion is the LAST thing a pitcher wants to do. If you believe, as I do, that pitchers (softball and baseball) get power from the leg drive, then subtracting that would be counter productive in the long run. the trick is to change this muscle memory habit without changing how she pitches, only to make her RELEARN it again later when she wants/needs the explosion to throw hard.

Yours is a common issue and it can be fixed rather easy by remembering that pitching practice is like a bank, you get out what you put in. She needs to do this exercise daily. Get a full length mirror and a long piece of masking tape. Put the tape down so she can see her feet in the mirror. Then pitch. In a perfect world, she should see her shoe laces drag to the catcher (or mirror). Laces dragging anywhere else is a no-no. She can break it down by doing K drills, then sideways circles. Whatever. It doesn't really matter. What DOES matter is she goes slow enough to drag her tip toe on the masking tap with her "laces" pointing forward. She needs the arm to go THROUGH the hips, so make her brush her stomach or close to it with her forearm. Then the leg follows the ball on the tap so the hips CLOSE and she has the least amount of toe on the ground. Go slow with that for awhile and the muscle memory will set in for sure. This picture is what we're looking for: Good luck, Bill https://houseofpitching.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hillhouse-Toe-Drag2.jpg

 

[Ken B]

. . . . . . . .

 

[Hillhouse]

Ken, What a stunning pitching motion. That guy is gorgeous.

Bill

 

[Ken B]

Hilli Manilli



Just in case anyone wonders how this image popped into my head:
https://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/23849-ir-vs-bullet-6.html#post324515

 

[Man10]

I have a 10 year old daughter that is leaping and then turns her foot and drags the hole thing sideways. Someone on this board had posted a very good suggestion. It was to drag her toes in the dirt like she was trying to wipe off a really bad toe nail polish, she got this. I also took some slow motion video of her leaping so she could see for herself what was going on. She had no idea her foot was coming off the ground that far. We worked on it just about every night for about 5 minutes for a couple weeks and she has just about trained her foot to stick her toes in the dirt and drag. I was a little surprised how hard it was to fix, muscle memory can be a tough thing to change. now only if we could get rid of the glove swim.

My DD had a terrible issue with swim. One offseason next to a wall on her glove side fixed the issue.


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