Still struggling to work through drive mechanics

[jryan15]

Think everyone is right about the big step. Kind of what I've been seeing as well. A lot seems to go back to lack of strength and struggling to find the explosiveness out of that leg.

Watched the pushback drill video again the other day. I don't recall hearing something on leaping off of that leg, but it does seem to apply. One thing when I work on pushbacks with her, I make sure her heel isn't hitting the ground, but the video is more specific in keeping the foot as a rigid level. I think we can do better on keeping her rear foot rigid. I think we can work on this.

Regarding leaping off of the stride leg before the drive foot activates... Is this correct? It feels like this will further promote stepping forward with the drive foot instead of having it drive rearward into the pitching rubber. We can work on this, but I want to make sure that leaping off of that leg is the way to go.

 

[Ken B]

Regarding leaping off of the stride leg before the drive foot activates... Is this correct? It feels like this will further promote stepping forward with the drive foot instead of having it drive rearward into the pitching rubber.

This sounds good. I think the key is to jam the drive foot down and back into the rubber, just like you did with the stride foot but into the ground. The slide/paw can help keep things under control.

 

[Rick Pauly]

Two suggestions:
1. As JJ suggested earlier....get the push foot more centered on the body.....right now she is basically pushing out of balance/just one side of the body.
2. This may sound a bit radical but it changed two of my college pitchers from potential third stringers to team ace. How about having her use a premotion such that she doesn't take the ball out of the glove until 3 o'clock (aka, men's style). It performs wonders for connecting the upper and lower torso. It appears you are currently stuck in the "insanity mode".....focusing on the same thing over and over expecting different results.....precisely where I was with the two college girls.

Relatively speaking your DD's forward drive energy is not nearly as big an issue as her disconnection. Her drive mechanics are a bit suspect and I think these two suggestions are worth a try. When she first trys the "out of glove" motion she will tell you it is uncomfortable and that she can't throw as fast.....don't give into that....both college girls I mentioned increased their speed after the switch.
What she needs to correct will not happen over night....there are some major muscle firing patterns to change....not easy.

 

[Dial]

Rick,

My daughter does something similar to jryan's DD. Would you suggest doing your above suggestion with the quick-quick drill and the natural-open drill that Crystal Brown posted?

My DD's pitching coach puts a hurdle in front of her, about a foot from the plate, to get her to raise the knee to get over the hurdle. She does that drill very well, but when the hurdle goes away the side ways pushing starts again.

 

[Rick Pauly]

Dial
I am a little confused by your question....sorry.
If a young lady is going to do an arm backswing then the "quick-quick" drill is very good for learning to keep the shoulders parallel (reasonably parallel) with the rubber...it also creates a natural cross stretch from hips to shoulders which is what happens in a good forward drive/arm circle.

Again, for a pitcher that does an arm backswing I really like the "Sprinters Split Jump" drill.....I think you can really isolate the key critical movements for a good forward drive.

Back to my earlier post......eliminating an arm backswing and simply keeping the ball hand in the glove until both reach 3 o'clock is a very effective way to achieve the desired drive timing and opening/closing timing.....not to mention it tends to help keep the upper and lower torso connected eliminating the dreaded "butt out" posture.

Hope this answers your question.

Dial Quote
"My daughter does something similar to jryan's DD. Would you suggest doing your above suggestion with the quick-quick drill and the natural-open drill that Crystal Brown posted?

My DD's pitching coach puts a hurdle in front of her, about a foot from the plate, to get her to raise the knee to get over the hurdle. She does that drill very well, but when the hurdle goes away the side ways pushing starts again.[/QUOTE]"

 

[jryan15]

Two suggestions:
1. As JJ suggested earlier....get the push foot more centered on the body.....right now she is basically pushing out of balance/just one side of the body.
2. This may sound a bit radical but it changed two of my college pitchers from potential third stringers to team ace. How about having her use a premotion such that she doesn't take the ball out of the glove until 3 o'clock (aka, men's style). It performs wonders for connecting the upper and lower torso. It appears you are currently stuck in the "insanity mode".....focusing on the same thing over and over expecting different results.....precisely where I was with the two college girls.

Relatively speaking your DD's forward drive energy is not nearly as big an issue as her disconnection. Her drive mechanics are a bit suspect and I think these two suggestions are worth a try. When she first trys the "out of glove" motion she will tell you it is uncomfortable and that she can't throw as fast.....don't give into that....both college girls I mentioned increased their speed after the switch.
What she needs to correct will not happen over night....there are some major muscle firing patterns to change....not easy.

Thanks for the advice Rick! I always felt like she was disconnected because her drive mechanic is slow. We backwards chain your brush interference drills regularly with great success. She does very good until we add the drive mechanic, and she become disconnected.

She's got a few more games this week, but hopefully we'll get to workout this weekend. I've got a growing list of ideas to tryout, and this will definitely be one of them. FWIW she used to throw without a backswing so it shouldn't be too hard.

I can see the centering move is a must do, so hopefully the issue will be gone forever soon.

Thanks!