Some help with 14 yr old

[3DD'sDAD]

I have read other members who have posted vid's of their DD's for comment. I think I have this video thing figured out, at least to point to utube. I haven't figured the posting of actual video here yet. Anyway, the URL below takes you to a video of my 14 yr old DD taken Jan 14 this year which runs at 42% real time speed. Any comments related to her form/ style would be appreciated. She sees a PC in the spring and gets some tune ups during the season, but for the most part her PC is me after attending a number of lessons etc with her.

As I said, any comments would be greatly appreciated as we are working indoors right now and I would like to get her ready for the upcoming season.

Thanks in advance.

YouTube - spitfirejan14.mp4

 

[BoardMember]

Here you go:

 

[Mark H]

I'd like to see the hip lead more.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Pulling the ball up over her head like that, is a killer on the shoulders. It adds nothing to the pitch. It is an absolute that I mentioned as things "not to do", on a previous post.

I would work on getting rid of all of that pre-motion and just pitch the ball.

 

[sluggers]

Your DD has a "plain vanilla" case of having her weight forward at release.

(A) Your DD's upper body is moving forward, resulting in her having her weight transferred to the left foot too early. So, her timing is off. Compare your DD at 2 with Osterman at 10. Notice the position of your DD's upper body relative to her right foot. You'll see that her weight has already transferred forward. Now, look at Osterman. Osterman is "closer" to releasing the ball than your DD, and yet your DD's upper body has moved forward significantly. The end result is a loss of energy transfer efficiency, meaning that your DD is losing MPHs.

The drill to do would be "three tap". In "three tap", the pitcher points the glove at the catcher, puts her weight on her right leg, and touches her toe on the ground. Each time she makes a revolution with her arm, she taps the ground with her left toe as the arm goes by 6, and then lifts it up.
The third time through, she throws and does a normal follow through.

She will look like a reciprocating saw the first time she does the drill, with her upper body moving back and forth. A good pitcher won't even move the upper body, even though the arm is spinning like a propeller.

(B) She appears to be "chicken winging" the release. It is hard to tell from the side. If you could get a shot behind her it would help. Check out the thread "teaching internal rotation" for some pointers on fixing her release.

 

[Jojo]

She definitely needs to work on getting her weight back. At no point in her pitch is her head ever behind her hip.
I like sluggers drill, you can also try some break down drills I use. One is a balance drill, where I have them stand like they are going to pitch then pivot to a sideways position with stride foot in the air, so they are now balancing on one foot sideways arms are up in the air above the head, from this position they then push off working on leading with the hip, you can also add them stopping at the 1:00/3:00 position to check where the weight is distributed, then finish.

 

[Mark H]

She definitely needs to work on getting her weight back. At no point in her pitch is her head ever behind her hip.
.

I would view that as something her hip needs to do in terms of movement rather than something her head needs to do.

 

[halskinner]

The timing of the where the ball is in the circle at landing foot touchdown is excellent.

All that pre-motion is strenuous and adds nothing to the pitch. HOWEVER, she can go straight from the glove, no raising her hands up first and do that ALSO. It will mess the batters timing up and take them by surprise. Make them wait or hurry them up, always keep them guessing on the timing.

Her stride foot appears to be coming down at an exaggerated angle, turned too far to the right. That will contribute to her trying to walk through the pitch.

Once you get her strife foot at a better angle, extend her stride length and try for a little backwards lean at landing foot touchdown and see if her speed doesnt pick up.

That little forward dip bend at the waist will eventually strain her lunbar spine. Try to get the entire body on a forward lean at push off, like a 2x4 standing up but falling forward. Get the center of her body weight well out in front and THEN push off, got to do it quickly.

Hal

 

[Mark H]

I think Hal, Jojo and myself all see the same problem. Just describe it differently and Hal and Jojo can speak to how to fix it. I don't try to instruct pitching. The point is, the problem has been diagnosed unanimously. It's just going to take understanding it, hard work and some ideas from people like these two to fix it.

 

[3DD'sDAD]

Thank you - more to work on

Thanx Jojo, Hal, Ray and Mark for your input. We will be back inside this Thursday. Will work on Sluggers' drill then. If any difference will shoot some more vid. BTW sorry for the quality of the video. It is shot at 30fps but with a very low end camera. I must say though that whoever directed readers to the Kinovea site, what great software - free as well!