Slow Mo of my daughter pitching ( first year 14U )

[SLAM96Coach]

Howdy,

I stumbled upon this forum and it looks like the best one on the net for fastpitch technical details.

If you have time, could you comment on my daughter's pitching form. She's 5'8, 125lbs, turns 13 in October. ( DANG! I HAVE A TEENAGER! ) She throws her fastball around 46-48 which is not fast enough. Need some more MPH!

Also, just for fun, because I know you are all nuts like me and can't get enough fastpitch, check out a highlight vid from last weekend for our team. We played like poo on Saturday so ended up in Silvers but played a good game in the silver title...


Thanks for your feedback on my daughter.

/\/\ike

 

[cshilt]

I'll comment more later, but for now it looks like she has arm circle issues. Her arm wraps too far around her body during the "rocker" start and is, as a result, too far away from her body the rest of the circle.

Also, the finish doesn't look explosive enough. There doesn't seem to be enough leg drive.

 

[elizabeth]

video

That video is just awesome. What Kind of software do you have to have to edit videos? Thanks
Elizabeth

 

[SLAM96Coach]

Video Software..

I have a Sony High Def camcorder that I strap to the backstop and I use Sony Vegas editing software. ( I pray to god that a foul ball doesn't hit the camera lens )

 

[sluggers]

We need the side view of your DD pitching. So, this will be very incomplete.

Her circle is really messed up. That is, the arm should be moving in a vertical plane that goes from the middle of second base to the middle of home plate. Her arm looks to be making an angle of about 30 degrees or so with that plane.

During her backswing, the ball should be pointing directly at 2B. It is pointing to right-center.

In this picture, you can see that her arm is at a 30 degree angle with a line running from home plate to the pitchers mound...which is what you would expect, considering how messed up her backswing is.

The next picture shows her feet pointing way, way out of the plane.

It looks like she is dragging the arm with the body, but I can't be sure without a side view.

There is some loss of efficiency, but the real problem with her speed is that she has to slow everything down in order to get the ball near the plate. If she tried to really throw the ball, she would be lucky to hit the backstop.

 

[SLAM96Coach]

Thanks!

We had her pitching along a wall on her right side and got her to keep her shoulders square on her backswing. Looking better. Will update you in a few weeks with front/side views. Thanks again.

 

[sluggers]

A real simple thing to do is draw a five or six foot line in the dirt from the pitching rubber pointing at home plate. Then, tell her to land so that her left foot lands on the line or to the left of the line.

Usually, in order to correct this problem, you have to tell the pitcher to land with the foot to the left of the line.

 

[Hillhouse]

If I may make a different suggestion: First, slugger's idea is good but often when pitchers do this they tend to LOOK at their feet instead of where they should be throwing the ball. They concentrate so much on landing on that line that they often throw everything else off. So, my advise would be to put a mirror on a door (full length mirror). Get a cheap one from Walmart. Put a piece of masking tape in a line in front of the mirror and have her throw socks into the mirror. In her reflection, she will see where the line is and have her target. This is a much better option than having her look at the ground. Her reflection will give her the target that her feet should be "aiming" for. This also allows for them to watch their drag foot and ensure it's dragging straight, not side to side. Ideally, we want to drag our tip toe in the ground, shoe laces pointing the catcher. This assures that we have the LEAST amount of foot dragging as possible, hence less anchor weight and more drive forward.

Depending where you live, this could be your only option anyway unless she's going to practice this in the snow very soon.

Bill