Slowly making progress. Help?

[Ken B]

Which brings up the fact that I have a session scheduled with Rich Balswick on Friday. I'm really looking forward to learning some new insights. Might even bring my daughter.

. .
. . . . . Dewd...!

 

[Ken B]

Here is Michele Floyd, one of my least favorite arm circles/hand positions etc. She does a whole lot before finally getting to a good position at the end.
See how the path of the ball has a whole lot of in and out variation?

Try it some time. It's definitely not optimum, but it makes sense when you feel it.

 

[BoardMember]

Rich says good things about you. I'd love two spend a couple weeks with you two...

And I have the utmost respect for him. He's truly a class act.

 

[SBmom8992]

She is a box of parts right now, she just needs assembly.
Step 1: Stop with any more mechanics suggestions until she develops some feel. I see a girl TRYING to do too much stuff. SO less mechanics, more throwing.
Step 2: Underhand catch ala the IR thread drills. Get her FEELING a good underhand throw from non full circle positons. Emphasize the correct spin like an unforgiving spin NAZI and a loose arm, the rest will take care of itself.
2A) Make sure her throwing from these positions is natural, by that I mean look for signs of rigidity in the arm, leaving her rear foot planted and not following through naturally, poor weight shift into the front side etc. It is hard to explain but it should just look smooth and natural.
Step 3: Progress to a full arm circle but without the full leap. We use what we call "glove up/ball down" glove starts at the chest, ball starts at 6 oclock, This is to act as a bridge to the full circle and leap, it helps synch the timing between the bottom and top, look for degradation/over leaping (which your DD looks like she does) incorrect weight shift when leaping- by this I mean that the leap is not a clunky leap ONTO your front foot, it is a strong smooth glide on your rear foot until you land naturally and resist with your front...should not have a lot of UP but should have a lot of OUT. Concentrate on correct top/bottom timing.

STEP 4: full on pitch....now look for timing degradation from step 3 it will be there, just encourage her to not throw any harder and to focus on the correct feeling she had in the previous steps. You don't care where the ball goes at this point, just a smooth motion and good spin and pitching in the upper range of her speed. If she is doing it right she will mostly miss low and in and high and outside to a RHB. Encourage the low and away and tell her that the high and away has got to go and go now.

STEP 5: repeat above until the timing looks smooth, the spin is right and the high and away is gone. 2 weeks to 3 months depending on the kid and the practice quality and frequency.

STEP 6: Get rid of the low and in and start squeezing the zone until she is a strike machine. Figure another 1-3 months. Then add in a changeup-another 3 months to be able to throw consistently and voila, an assembled pitcher.

Easy stuff really, not sure why everyone doesn't do it.

I totally agree with this progression and believe me, your daughter won't like it at first. The last thing my DD wanted to do was spend an entire practice on drills but it was clear that she wasn't ready for a full pitch using IR mechanics when we started out. She would try the full pitch but would lose the mechanics and revert to more of a push so it was clear we needed to master the lock it in, unlock, liberty drills (Boardmember's terminology) aka 8 to 4, 9 to 3, show it drills (Javasource - my DD's PC - terminology). If DD moved to the next drill, for example from 9 to 3 drill to show it drill, I would give her a limited number of throws (3 usually) with incorrect form before going back to the 9 to 3 drill. For a 10 YO, it was incentive enough to focus and not rush through the drill.

I also recommend that you sit to the side of you DD and watch her throw from that angle in order to clearly see what her arm is doing throughout the drill. DD throws into a big mouth bownet in the basement and I sit to the side feeding her balls from a bucket.

 

[JJsqueeze]

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. . . . . Dewd...!

I know right! I was trying for a double whammy to get time with BM as well to really hit the pitching jackpot but he is going out of town.