- Feb 28, 2010
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Pllease advice on her mechanics
- Thread starter Marisol95
- Start date
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Overall looks pretty solid. Assuming these are fastballs, she seems to be leaning forward and walking through her finish, rather than planting her stride foot hard and resisting. Maybe work on finishing tall and holding her finish.
Your DD tends to stride out of her powerline. She needs to work on her timing on holding her left side resistance and stand tall at release. She is very close to stridng outside of the width of the rubber which is illegal assuming this was a regulation 24" rubber. Seldom called, but more so lately. She steps back off the rubber, which is allowed in HS ball. Have her open more and less lifting the stride leg.(more out than up).I would suggest more explosion off the rubber and in the open position be more balanced and upright and this could help in correcting the lean going into the release ctfastpitch mentions in his post. This being said, she appears to have a lot of potential.
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She does come close to planting outside the width of the pitchers plate, but I think that is because she slides over and pushes off from the extreme left edge (sort of a Monica Abbott move). From there she is pretty much straight down the line. It does look, however, like she is closing her hip a bit early, and she has to pitch around it. The hip needs to follow the hand to a closed position.
Does she leave the ball out to the right a lot? I'm wondering if that is the reason she starts from the left edge of the pitchers plate. Pitching around her hip might cause her to leave it out to the right.
Also, her drag foot sweeps pretty far to the left. Not sure if this hurts her, but it is definitely notable.
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- Feb 28, 2010
- 4
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She had a PC that taught her that sliding move, she wanted her to have a locked elblow and a close position and that is when I decided to cancel her lessons. I am trying to help her until we find a PC that teaches the open style. Yes, there are days when she throws to the right a lot. Yesterday at practice she was throwing to the corners very well, but I still see her leaning. This is her third year pitching, but she was out for a while because an injury on her anckle, not pitching related. Please let us know any suggestion, she reads the site and is very excited about your suggestions....
Thanks Dana for your message.
Thanks Dana for your message.
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Marisol95, I am going to give you my impression, what I teach based on a lot of gleaning from coaches much smarter than myself and how it relates to how / what your daughter is doing as show in the clip provided. Please feel free to debate what I suggest, that is really what this forum is all about. A lot of what pitchers do up to the Super K position is style, as long as they get to the correct position it does not matter how they do it. That being said there are some things I don't like in your daughters mechanics up to that point which I think hurts her. I like the push off the mound to be driving straight towards the catcher, I like the stride to be like a sprinter coming out of the blocks and exploding out. If you watch your daughter's pivot foot it is pointing towards third base well before she gets her push off the mound. She is pivoting off the mound rather than pushing straight ahead. Also her arm motion seems to go sideways as she she winding up which causes her to lose some power going forward . Again I like to see everything square to the catcher as they are driving out. The opening of the hips and shoulders towards third(RH pitcher) occurs as the stride foot is coming down and is rotating from straight at the catcher to a 45 degree angle however as the foot is landing the hips are rotating back close to a 45 degree angle from almost completely open and then stop as the arm whips through release. Your daughter's does a nice job with her stride foot opening but then when she lands she is pointing her foot almost straight at the catcher which causes her hips and shoulders to close to the catcher too much. If you have access to RVP and the NFP pitchers you can see how they open and then load their hips by closing slightly and stopping. As I mentioned your daughter to my eye is too closed to the catcher at release. She needs to hold the angle of her shoulders and hips at 45 degrees rather than closing them before release. Her posture during her stride needs work. During her stride she needs to get a good lean forward to get a good push off the mound. she seems a bit upright. During her stride out she needs to get a little reverse posture so she can do what I tell my pitchers to do, is to stick the landing. If you see a vaulter lean forward as they land they go nose over toes, same with a pitcher with a aggressive stride. They need to get some reverse posture to capture the forward momentum. Also some reverse posture will probably cure the slight leap she has. That pivot foot is air borne during her stride but it is slight. I like her timing, she is at heel plant with her arm at 3/4 position or 9 o'clock. Also her shoulders are over the balls of her feet at release which creates the space she needs to whip her arm through she is just leaning forward too much at release for me. Some one else mentioned finishing tall, I agree. Watch Finch or Michelle Smith they both almost have a hop, they finish with so much energy coming up at the finish. Her hand looks like it is on top of the ball on the way down although the image is a bit blurred there. Find BoardMember's post on IR and be sure she and you understand and work on that part of the pitching motion until perfected. Really a lot of the little problems I see are during the first half of the motion, clean those up and I think you will get a jump in performance. I like the slide of the pivot foot across the rubber, it helps to create momentum. If she is pitching during the summer under ASA and other orgs, she needs to get both feet touching the rubber to be legal. How fast is she throwing now?
- Jul 14, 2008
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Your DD has a pretty severe loop in her stride. Probably caused by her posture adjustment when she takes the ball back. She turns her pivot foot a bit too far, which opens her hips early (pre-stride). And she "sits" a bit too much into her pivot leg, causing a bend at the waist from which she never recovers.
Because her hips are open SO early, her stride leg moves too far across the line to the inside, then loops back over the line to the outside. A little bit of this move is ok. A LOT of this move is NOT ok.
This move is "kicking her rear hip" severely open and throwing her pivot leg/foot behind her, or what I call "Knifing" the back foot. The severe bend in the waist combined with the rear hip kicking out behind her (Knifing) is causing an "abreviated" arm circle.
If I were working with her, I would stop her from turning open her hips prematurely with such a severe turn of the pivot foot on the mound. Keep her MORE upright with very little bend in the waist. And get rid of the big loop in her stride leg. All of this will create a better arm circle that isn't so abreviated.
Here is a comparison to what I'd like to see:
Notice the upright posture, and pivot foot open only slightly on the mound. This will create a straightline push, vs. a sideways push with a "knifing" pivot foot. The hips WILL open as the stride leg reaches out, NOT before. And keeping the goal of landing 45 degrees to the target will keep them open until plant.
Then a straightline drag, then the drag behind as the hip squares back a bit, pulling the rear leg up behind, vs. the "kick out" knifing of the rear hip/leg.........Also, notice the upright posture throughout the circle.......
That's what I would START WITH if she were working with me.......
Because her hips are open SO early, her stride leg moves too far across the line to the inside, then loops back over the line to the outside. A little bit of this move is ok. A LOT of this move is NOT ok.
This move is "kicking her rear hip" severely open and throwing her pivot leg/foot behind her, or what I call "Knifing" the back foot. The severe bend in the waist combined with the rear hip kicking out behind her (Knifing) is causing an "abreviated" arm circle.
If I were working with her, I would stop her from turning open her hips prematurely with such a severe turn of the pivot foot on the mound. Keep her MORE upright with very little bend in the waist. And get rid of the big loop in her stride leg. All of this will create a better arm circle that isn't so abreviated.
Here is a comparison to what I'd like to see:
Notice the upright posture, and pivot foot open only slightly on the mound. This will create a straightline push, vs. a sideways push with a "knifing" pivot foot. The hips WILL open as the stride leg reaches out, NOT before. And keeping the goal of landing 45 degrees to the target will keep them open until plant.
Then a straightline drag, then the drag behind as the hip squares back a bit, pulling the rear leg up behind, vs. the "kick out" knifing of the rear hip/leg.........Also, notice the upright posture throughout the circle.......
That's what I would START WITH if she were working with me.......
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Dana,it appears that you are getting some good advice on ways to better your DD pitching mechanics. If you could provide more footage, I'm sure that members would be able to help even more.
I see a timing issue with the arm circle caused by the stride going up allowing both feet to be off the ground at the same time. This is what BM refered to as a loop in the stride. I would work on getting the stride/leap going toward the catcher. this should help with the timing issue. A drill that could be used to correct this is to make 3 arm circles and each timeyou make a circle the front foot goes up with the arms and comes back down and touches the gound when the arm circle is on the down swing. As Hillhouse says legs and arms go up together and down together.
Tojo
Think you got a bit confused. I sent Marasol a PM. She was thanking me for that in her response.
I do agree that I would like to see some additional footage.
Dana.
Think you got a bit confused. I sent Marasol a PM. She was thanking me for that in her response.
I do agree that I would like to see some additional footage. Dana.
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