My 13 y/o DD has been told she should take pitching lessons. She's big for her age and has a powerful arm. I don't know the first thing about teaching pitching. Where do we begin? How long until a new pitcher is game ready? DD already practices on average 2 hrs a day hitting, throwing and catching, not sure she can handle another position. May have to forget catching if she takes the plunge.
So she may want to pitch. Where to begin?
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JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
I am just a couple of steps ahead of you on this path and this is how we got there.
1) Practiced with daughter on the general pitching motion with no knowledge of what to look for or teach.
2) DD showed some aptitude-meaning she could throw the ball towards the plate and seemed to be about as fast as the other pitchers in our league.
3) Spent hours on web looking at videos that all seemed to contradict each other or made no sense to me- I could not figure out how you throw underhand that fast much less try to get movement.
4) Discovered a Rita Lynn Gillman video that showed cracking the whip-I began to see how it could be done.
5) Googled more and found Bill Hillhouse videos on youtube and everything started to make sense.
6) Found this site and Board Members IR in the classroom thread
7) Told daughter that everything I taught her was wrong and started practicing drills from IR thread.
8) Two months later she was the best 10U pitcher in the league and at four months was the starting all-star pitcher. Luckily we have a really small rural league.
9) Recently interviewed pitching coaches and was able to confidently weed out ones I thought were going to take my precious child and destroy her motion. Found a good one and we start getting serious this week.
I suggest you skip to 5 and 6 from the beginning so you don't have to do 7
. I felt a lot more confident in choosing a pitching coach having spent a lot of hours trying to learn the basics myself so unless you know for sure you have a good PC that will teach her right then I would hold off until you are confident in what you are looking for and can do some comparison shopping. FYI- DD was a catcher up until this point but she does not miss it.
1) Practiced with daughter on the general pitching motion with no knowledge of what to look for or teach.
2) DD showed some aptitude-meaning she could throw the ball towards the plate and seemed to be about as fast as the other pitchers in our league.
3) Spent hours on web looking at videos that all seemed to contradict each other or made no sense to me- I could not figure out how you throw underhand that fast much less try to get movement.
4) Discovered a Rita Lynn Gillman video that showed cracking the whip-I began to see how it could be done.
5) Googled more and found Bill Hillhouse videos on youtube and everything started to make sense.
6) Found this site and Board Members IR in the classroom thread
7) Told daughter that everything I taught her was wrong and started practicing drills from IR thread.
8) Two months later she was the best 10U pitcher in the league and at four months was the starting all-star pitcher. Luckily we have a really small rural league.
9) Recently interviewed pitching coaches and was able to confidently weed out ones I thought were going to take my precious child and destroy her motion. Found a good one and we start getting serious this week.
I suggest you skip to 5 and 6 from the beginning so you don't have to do 7
. I felt a lot more confident in choosing a pitching coach having spent a lot of hours trying to learn the basics myself so unless you know for sure you have a good PC that will teach her right then I would hold off until you are confident in what you are looking for and can do some comparison shopping. FYI- DD was a catcher up until this point but she does not miss it.
Thanks for sharing your DD's pitching journey, JJ. I will try to not make the same mistakes you have and will get right to the good stuff, provided DD wants to go through with it. Good stuff, there.
I second the above advice. For the most part, avoid Youtube, websites, videos and books. Bill Hillhouse has some good stuff on both DVD and Youtube. He also has several good articles and some video on his website.
The "I/R in the Classroom" thread is a great place to start. Start with whip, add an arm circle, then put it together with a strong drive. It's ok to work on drive while learning whip, but I just wouldn't put the two together until she has whip down. I also like teaching the whip into a net, backstop, tarp, matress etc. (Trying to hit a glove during the early work is distracting and leads to aiming.) 2+ months to put both together AND get the ball in the vicinity of the plate. Many take more, some take less.
Last thing, JJ mentioned weeding out PC's. IMO, 1 in 10 can teach the basics well. Many more can teach pitching, but few understand the basic form. Spend some time learning about whip and drive here, then look for a qualified PC.
Welcome to pitching,
Ken
The "I/R in the Classroom" thread is a great place to start. Start with whip, add an arm circle, then put it together with a strong drive. It's ok to work on drive while learning whip, but I just wouldn't put the two together until she has whip down. I also like teaching the whip into a net, backstop, tarp, matress etc. (Trying to hit a glove during the early work is distracting and leads to aiming.) 2+ months to put both together AND get the ball in the vicinity of the plate. Many take more, some take less.
Last thing, JJ mentioned weeding out PC's. IMO, 1 in 10 can teach the basics well. Many more can teach pitching, but few understand the basic form. Spend some time learning about whip and drive here, then look for a qualified PC.
Welcome to pitching,
Ken
Thanks, Ken. Out of the three PCs she went to two years ago two of them tried to teach her the entire sequence at once, and one of them was just concerned about taking pictures of her in various sequence positions for her to study! I can't believe the crap that is out there and those who consider themselves "experts."
I've already opened a dialogue with Boardmember and have begin studying the "I/R in the classroom" thread. If DD wants to, we will start with the "lock it in" drill, thrown into the bow net, of course.
Ask around and find a good pitching instructor in your area. Get her one or two lessons so she can start out with proper mechanics. After the pitching lesson work with her @ 4 days/week for 30-45 minutes working on her mechanics. Do not worry about pitch speed or location. If you need to let her throw into a tarp @ 20 feet in front of her. Is she shows an aptitude for it, and does not mind working 4 days a week outside of her regular hitting and fielding practice, then you should continue to encourage her. If she does not want to put in the extra work, cut your losses and focus on hitting.
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