Pitching Drills Help

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May 7, 2008
9
0
Hi Everyone,

Does any one have any suggestions for drills to have a pitcher use more of her legs and hips to generate velocity instead of using all arm?

Thanks,
Coach CJ
 

halskinner

Banned
May 7, 2008
2,681
0
Need more data

Hi CJ. Need more info to make an intelligent choice here.

Is she a step style or leap and drag style pitcher?

How tall is she and what is her stride length? (Front of the rubber to the tip of her stride shoe).

Does she have a slight bend in the knee when the stride foot touches down?

Do her hips open to around 45 degrees when pitching?

Does her entire body have a forward lean as she is pushing off?

Until her mechanics are correct, you really dont want to do drills as this only re-enforces bad mechanics. Does she have a pitching instructor?
 
May 8, 2008
10
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Without knowing the details of your pitcher, here is one thing you can do: Have her stand on the mound without the ball and glove. (Assuming she is right handed) Have her stand on the mound with her right foot only and jump out toward the plate as far as she can. Don't have her do her motion or anything, just jump for distance. When she is pitching from the mound, this is where her stride foot should land. It ensures she is using her push foot as much as possible. Hope this helps. -Heather www.2MinuteRecruit.com
 
May 7, 2008
442
16
DFW
Firm front leg

Along with what Heather suggested above make sure she is landing on a firm front leg with her motion. I often see pitchers who do not do this at the younger levels and end up going Nose over Toes because the have leaped out too far for them to be stable when they land. The forward momentum causes the front knee to bend to much and then they loose balance and stability. DO NOT have them lock out the knee when landing. It must be a firm front leg. Not a firm front knee.

Elliott.
 
May 7, 2008
4
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I have them stand on the pitching rubber, and put a theraband or something semilar. It needs to be about 4 or 5 feet long. Put it around her waist and hold the ends of it together behind her. Have her drive worward as hard as she cat. This will strengthen the leg and teach her to drive off fast each time she goes of the pitching rubber.
Ernie
 
May 7, 2008
9
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Thanks for all the replies with great information. Here is more information about my pitcher.

She is a leap and drag type of pitcher with a stride about 3 1/2 feet. She is 14 and is about 4' 10" less than 100 lbs. Her mechanics appear okay to me with her hips slightly opening up (not always 45 degrees) and does have a firm front leg when landing.

The couple things I see is sometimes she has too much of a forward lean and her arm circle is not a consistent speed. She starts of slow until she reaches the top of her arm circle and then generates more arm speed as she is coming back down to release the ball.

Her pitching accuracy is good. I am asking because she is having a lot of shoulder pain after each inning. She has gone to the doctor and PT and all say there is no damage or anything wrong with her shoulder. Yesterday she could only last 1 inning before I had to remove her because of the pain.

She did take pitching lessons over the winter. But that is all she did was for an 1 hour a week went to her pitching lesson and not work on anything outside of that lesson to build up her shoulder muscles.

-cj
 

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May 7, 2008
109
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Coach,

I hope you take this in the spirit it is intended!

1) She's 14 and TINY
2) She has shoulder pain when she pitches
3) She doesn't practice

Given those facts...you do not have a pitcher.

It's not too late to change focus to another position. JMHO

Keith
 
May 7, 2008
235
0
Coach:

If she is experiencing pain, something is wrong with her mechanics. My daughter has pitched for four years, practices out in the yard 3x-4x week, plays travel ball (usually 5 game guarantee, but team usually wins some and plays 6 or 7) and usually pitches 3 out of 6 or 7 games in addition to some relief innings, and she has never complained of arm or shoulder pain. She may be working too hard on speed and throwing with all arm instead of pushing off with her legs. If she doesn't practice, she may not really want it. Pitching is a huge investment in time and money...if it is not driven by passion, she may wind up injured. Robin (my athlete) asks my husband to come out and catch for her. He never demands or pushes her. We had to deliberately reverse that. Now every week she submits a schedule to him on which days she wants to practice and what pitches or drills she needs to work on. She self-evaluates her performance from the weekend (she had to be taught self-evaluation, too). The sooner you give her more responsibility for her sport, the better athlete she will become. I have watched parents struggle with their child's position, but we can't go out there and do it for them. The key is passion and the coaching (whose job it is to help an athlete tap into that passion and bring them to their fullest potential). It also helped to learn my daughter's learning style and what coaching style best suits her. She is a visual and kinesthetic learner. She learns best when standing behind her instructor and going through the motions while watching her. Bill Cowher (former coach of Pittsburgh Steelers) once said, "You coach the athlete, then the sport. Some athletes need to face adversity and some need words of encouragement."

It may not be the position she is playing, but she may discover her passion in another sport. 14 is a great time, through school opportunities, to discover other sports. My daughter also loves volleyball, as long as it doesn't interfere with her softball :)

Ang
 

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