seen quite a bit of leaping this weekend

[bpeck]

Hey everyone. We played in a tournament this last weekend at the 16U level, and in most of our games we seen at least one pitcher on each team that would leap with that drive foot, so I was watching our pitchers more carefully and I noticed ours do it once and a while as well, not every time, but still enough that I would like to help them fix it. what do you guys believe is the best way to attack that? I know there are drills like trying to drag the string or stuff like that, but I would think there would just be something mechanically that causes them to leap.

thanks

 

[Traps71]

I would recommend a lot of dry pitching (without the ball). It is amazing what this approach can help clean up. Requires consistency. I would suggest, as part of their warm up, throwing, say, 10+ full pitches without the ball at progressively higher levels of energy. Have them focus on dragging their “toenails in the dirt.” I would maybe add 10 more of these dry pitches at the end of practice. After dry pitching, you could also do the same drill with an underweighted ball (Jugs lite flite for example) before progressing back to the standard softball.

One other thing: I would make sure they are really focused on pushing off with their drive leg and taking their stride leg knee straight toward the catcher rather than reaching out or kicking out with their stride leg. I think the leap can be caused by “overstriding” and thinking too much about going up and out with the stride leg. Not sure her experience level, but she doesn’t need to stride really any further than 6” more than she is tall. It is about how fast you get off the rubber rather than how far you go.

 

[MadBandit22]

I would recommend a lot of dry pitching (without the ball). It is amazing what this approach can help clean up. Requires consistency. I would suggest, as part of their warm up, throwing, say, 10+ full pitches without the ball at progressively higher levels of energy. Have them focus on dragging their “toenails in the dirt.” I would maybe add 10 more of these dry pitches at the end of practice. After dry pitching, you could also do the same drill with an underweighted ball (Jugs lite flite for example) before progressing back to the standard softball.

One other thing: I would make sure they are really focused on pushing off with their drive leg and taking their stride leg knee straight toward the catcher rather than reaching out or kicking out with their stride leg. I think the leap can be caused by “overstriding” and thinking too much about going up and out with the stride leg. Not sure her experience level, but she doesn’t need to stride really any further than 6” more than she is tall. It is about how fast you get off the rubber rather than how far you go.

Have the girls try pitching in an old pair of socks so they can feel their drag or lack there of.
I would tend to disagree with traps on length of stride. You want an explosive stride as long as possible. I don’t believe you need to have your stride leg real high in the air as I believe this may throw off balance.
Just a long low stride where you can see the bottom of pitchers cleats will suffice.
The longer your stride the closer you get to the plate the greater velocity you should have. Of course you need good arm whip as well but a long explosive move/stride is key.
In young pitches you want their stride to be at least as long as they are tall. They will lengthen it out a bit more as they progress and get stronger.
A good starting point is to have the girls step heel to toe for six steps from the rubber and mark that as your goal.