11 yeat old DD has too much height in her stride kick. Tried just telling her to push towards the catcher instead of kicking so high, but muscle memory is making this a difficult transition. She is directing power up rather than towards the catcher and thus losing speed. PC says the problem is usually the other way around and doesn't have a fix yet. Anyone know a drill to help keep the stride foot lower?
Stride leg kick too high
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halskinner
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- May 7, 2008
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What is her stride length and what is her height?
I always told students to pretend they were wearing a roller blade on the stride foot, never let it get any higher than that.
Have an ankle weight you can strap on that leg?
I always told students to pretend they were wearing a roller blade on the stride foot, never let it get any higher than that.
Have an ankle weight you can strap on that leg?
Last edited:
Carly
Pitching Coach
First check the direction of her push-off. Is she pushing straight up off the rubber, almost like she wants to jump up? Sometimes the high stride is a symptom of that. Make sure she's pushing forward toward the catcher, using the rubber like a starting block in a race.
If it's completely a stride leg problem and the muscle memory is just so strong she can't break it, have her put the ball down and mime the motion. Chances are she can make any change she wants when she doesn't have to throw the ball. Alternate throwing and not throwing until the two motions become the same.
If it's completely a stride leg problem and the muscle memory is just so strong she can't break it, have her put the ball down and mime the motion. Chances are she can make any change she wants when she doesn't have to throw the ball. Alternate throwing and not throwing until the two motions become the same.
- Jun 18, 2010
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How high do you like to see the stride foot?
halskinner
Banned
- May 7, 2008
- 2,637
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I should have already asked,, does she stride as high when she does the run through drill? The answer to this can tell me alot.
Carly
Pitching Coach
About this high:
I'm not going around measuring though. As long as it isn't causing a problem, it's OK.
The timing of this thread is ironic... I literally just had a new pitcher leave my house and we had the exact same problem. Her old pc had her jumping over a bucket and conversely, she now has a huge leap( pivot foot comes off by 3-4") we focused on keeping the pivot foot straight on the drive and more bend in the hips and drive knee. By simply adding more body lean towards the catcher in the drive, the stride foot stayed lower and the drag never came off the ground.
This question is not directly related to the original question but is a "push/stride" related. My DD has begun to "anchor" her drag foot almost to the point of her ankle coming in contact with the ground. We pitch indoors on one of those power line pitching mats. She knows when she does it, she knows its not good and when she doesnt have a ball in her hand she doesnt do it (dry pitch). Are there any drills we can do to break her of this? It is my fault for not working on this sooner as it has become progressively worse. Thanks......
She strides about 6-8 inches less than she is tall. We did notice that she was pushing up more than towards the catcher off the rubber. Her stride height is lower during the run through drill than real pitching. I created the problem while trying to fix something else. She was bending over too much at the waist towards third during the delivery, so we focused on staying back, which caused the stride leg to come up too much. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
Carly
Pitching Coach
Best success I've had fixing this issue was by pitching without the ball. Chances are she can do it right that way. She should do that about 50 times, then go through this progression: 3 pitches without the ball, one pitch with the ball, over and over. When that one pitch is right every time, do 2 without, one with. Then alternate one without, one with. Once the two motions become the same, have her pitch as many in a row as she can without going back to the anchor foot. If she does go back, have her pitch 3 times without the ball and try again. You can make it kind of a game, where she tries to break her record of number of pitches thrown in a row where she doesn't have to go back to miming the motion.
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