- Oct 16, 2014
- 333
- 0
My DD does this, as just about EVERY other pitcher I see in her age group. Some more, some less, but I see it in like 90% of them. My kid is 11. She's not perfect and I know she will change a bunch in the next couple of years so I don't harp on her too much but we do work on it. I am ALSO a firm believer in trying to do things as close to "right" as we can get, because with each pitch she throws she's engraining muscle memory. And if she's doing something "off" then why throw 1000's of pitches every month like that. Sigh it's always something isn't it?
Anyway, I too worry from an injury perspective. When my DD turns her foot when launching off the rubber it does a chain reaction sort of thing. It makes her knee turn out so now she's using more of her inner thigh muscles to push off. Then she launches and gets open. toe is ok right up until her plant foot lands. Once she plants she is now dragging the "inner" side of her toe instead of being more "laces down". This causes her drag leg to get stuck sort of too straight sometimes. which then makes her swing her drag leg way behind her plant foot before finally finishing knee to knee (kind of like a big swoosh). It looks like extra movement that could "possibly" be slowing her down. "possibly" because when we get her to pitch with a more "laces turned down" form she slows way down because she's thinking about it. So would she be faster if she corrected this? I don't know. And if so how much? Again maybe barely noticeable but again I don't really know. The one thing I DO notice is the times her drag leg gets way swung behind her that puts her hips in a position where she gets barely any brush, or brushes too far forward on her hip. THIS is my biggest reason for trying to correct this. To work on that Her PC has her do a "progression". She will start about 12 feet from her catcher and pitch at like 50% while solely focusing on her drag toe and turning the laces. After about 10-15 of those she moves back a few feet and repeats. She continues to throw a set, focusing on the toe, and moving back a few feet unitl she is all the way back at the pitching rubber. Then she will go full pitch and try not to hyper focus on her toe anymore. Its a muscle memory thing just like everything else. One of these days she will be older, more mature and more in tune with her body and can try to focus on it with every pitch. She has to be concious of it and want to stop doing it before she will really stop doing it.
Anyway, I too worry from an injury perspective. When my DD turns her foot when launching off the rubber it does a chain reaction sort of thing. It makes her knee turn out so now she's using more of her inner thigh muscles to push off. Then she launches and gets open. toe is ok right up until her plant foot lands. Once she plants she is now dragging the "inner" side of her toe instead of being more "laces down". This causes her drag leg to get stuck sort of too straight sometimes. which then makes her swing her drag leg way behind her plant foot before finally finishing knee to knee (kind of like a big swoosh). It looks like extra movement that could "possibly" be slowing her down. "possibly" because when we get her to pitch with a more "laces turned down" form she slows way down because she's thinking about it. So would she be faster if she corrected this? I don't know. And if so how much? Again maybe barely noticeable but again I don't really know. The one thing I DO notice is the times her drag leg gets way swung behind her that puts her hips in a position where she gets barely any brush, or brushes too far forward on her hip. THIS is my biggest reason for trying to correct this. To work on that Her PC has her do a "progression". She will start about 12 feet from her catcher and pitch at like 50% while solely focusing on her drag toe and turning the laces. After about 10-15 of those she moves back a few feet and repeats. She continues to throw a set, focusing on the toe, and moving back a few feet unitl she is all the way back at the pitching rubber. Then she will go full pitch and try not to hyper focus on her toe anymore. Its a muscle memory thing just like everything else. One of these days she will be older, more mature and more in tune with her body and can try to focus on it with every pitch. She has to be concious of it and want to stop doing it before she will really stop doing it.
