Plateau frustration...What are we missing?? video included

[djcarter1966]

I really like the back views you can tell they complement exactly what I was showing from the side at release she is leaning left and forward. As you have stated if you can get that posture straight from the back brush interference will happen naturally, correcting it straight instead of forward against a firm front side will help stop her leaking forward and losing power. Now comes the hard part having her work that out mechanically. Again I think we could all agree she is doing a lot right and you don't want to mess that part up; I don't think it is going to take a lot of instruction on your part just showing her the pictures will probably be enough then she needs to work out for herself what pitching the ball with correct mechanics feels like and then replicate that muscle memory. This will not happen overnight; it takes time to develop correct muscle memory but once she feels it she should be able to give herself some cues for when she knows she is throwing correctly and when she is breaking form.

 

[Cardinal]

This will definitely be the hard part. If her mechanics get "tweaked" and she's not hitting spots, she starts going back to what "works". Reading this (and illustrations) should push her to get over that part. Practice tomorrow, looking forward!
I'll hold off for couple weeks for update video....even though this has already proven extremely helpful. DFP RULES!!

 

[sluggers]

Brush does add speed, but additionally brush is critical for control. If she doesn't brush, she will never have good control.

Why?

The brushing sets up a reflex reaction in the arm. The brushing signals the arm to begin the release phase of the pitch.

If she doesn't have brush, she has to "guess" when to unfold the arm. Her arm speed varies slightly from pitch to pitch, thus causing her timing mechanism to be thrown off.

 

[bmd]

What do you mean by "unfold the arm"?

Brush does add speed, but additionally brush is critical for control. If she doesn't brush, she will never have good control.

Why?

The brushing sets up a reflex reaction in the arm. The brushing signals the arm to begin the release phase of the pitch.

If she doesn't have brush, she has to "guess" when to unfold the arm. Her arm speed varies slightly from pitch to pitch, thus causing her timing mechanism to be thrown off.

 

[sluggers]

"Unfolding" is my shorthand of describing everything that happens from brush to release. There are lot of things that happen from brush to release.

1) The forearm pronates
2) The arm straightens.
3) The fingers begin decreasing the force on the ball.
4) The wrist and fingers begin to "spin" the ball.

All of these actions have to be coordinated in a very short time span. The hand is moving at about 1000 inches per second during the release phase--or the hand is moving at 1 inch per millisecond. A variation in release position of only one inch has a dramatic affect on ball location at the plate. Good pitchers are trying to place the ball in a 3.5 inch frame that surrounds the strike zone.

You put all of that together, and it is impossible for a person to consistently, pitch after pitch after pitch, put the ball into that frame based simply on vision and her internal clock.

A well-renowned pitching coach and former college coach told me that if he doesn't see brush, he will not even consider recruiting a girl for college. The more I watch pitchers with and without BI (brush interference), the more I see control problems associated with lack of BI.

 

[Mike-Coach Q]

Looking at the pictures, it looks to me that she doesn't have adequate separation between the upper half of her body and the lower half. The legs don't have time to get set and brace for the whip and snap of the arm and ball. The hand is too early going around and the harder (mph) you try and throw the worse it gets and the posture suffers. Sorry, I don't know how to create the awesome visuals to support my view. I agree in addition to all the wonderful comments and fixes, I would look into improving the separation of the upper and lower half of the body.

 

[Mike-Coach Q]

Another thing to look at is the hips. Boardmember said the purpose of the stride was to move the hips forward. That statement help me to look and see if my pitchers were efficiently moving their hips forward through the stride. It made sense in the overall picture of the pitching motion. She has a good push off the plate and gets off quickly but the hips don't move forward and the legs don't finish or get set in time for the whip and snap. I think I see a little of a push with the ball at the end. I think a few small adjustments will pay off nicely. Good luck

 

[go4fpsb]

All good advice. Another position in her motion you may want to look at is how the back swing and her stride leg are timing. Right now she pauses when her arm reaches the farthest point and then she starts to move the stride knee out in sync with the arm when you really want to get the stride knee started out sooner. Take a look at this vid of Cat starting at about the 25 sec mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsbV1G37LiQ Note the position of her stride knee getting out while the ball in still behind the drive leg. This a part of Drive Mechanics that I really missed until Java pointed it out to me with my student at the clinic in Indiana.

 

[djcarter1966]

All good advice. Another position in her motion you may want to look at is how the back swing and her stride leg are timing. Right now she pauses when her arm reaches the farthest point and then she starts to move the stride knee out in sync with the arm when you really want to get the stride knee started out sooner. Take a look at this vid of Cat starting at about the 25 sec mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsbV1G37LiQ Note the position of her stride knee getting out while the ball in still behind the drive leg. This a part of Drive Mechanics that I really missed until Java pointed it out to me with my student at the clinic in Indiana.

Not sure I would 100% agree with this but it's possible, I just think focusing on one thing at a time is best and right now getting her posture correct will fix a lot. I'm not sure her timing if that far off. I took stills, it's a little hard because the angles are different the first stills are timing just as drive leg comes forward and it looks like their arms are fairly similar (cardinals dd arm is blurry because of vid quality but looks really close). The other is at the point when her knee stops its upward component at which point you arm comfortable hangs extended between 4 and 5 o'clock (righty) so 7 and 8 (lefty). All that to say I think her drive portion seems OK what happens past 12 as she finishes is not OK with the lean forward and sideways.

 

[Ken B]

I like the timing and mechanics in her drive. It's the whip and posture that I believe need work. Clean that up with some easy, underhand catch then progressively add more umph with her legs until she can stick it doing walk-throughs.