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Jul 12, 2008
159
0
Tuscola, IL
sluggers, you are absolutely correct, and thanks for the comparison picture one of the big things has been her right shoulder, she always seemed to force the shoulder through at release, she is aware of this and she is getting better, but it is not going as quickly as we would like. Any advice on how she can "feel" what is the correct way? Thanks for an excellent post.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
First, she is doing really well for a 13 YOA girl. She has got it going.

You use a drill which is similar to slingshot pitching, except the pitcher starts already open. In the drill, the pitcher stands facing third base, right foot on the rubber. She swings the right arm back and up and then pushes off and pitches.

Have her exaggerate moving her waist back, her left shoulder down and her right shoulder up when she takes the ball back and up. The ball should go back over her head so the ball is slightly closer to home plate than her head. This will require a bend in the elbow. She should feel her right side tightening up like stretching rubber band. Then, she pitches, again emphasizing the right shoulder going down, the left shoulder going up and the waist going forward.

She can close or not. I've seen it done both ways.

When you are teaching her the drill, face her and put your right hand on her waist and move it to your left and use your left hand to lift the right shoulder. To show her the motion you want, push down on her right shoulder.

As I'm sure you know, the arm acts as a whip when you throw a ball. The amount of speed generated is due in part to the length of the whip. By using the shoulder, you increase the length of the whip by several inches, resulting in more speed.

She should start feeling her body as more of a stretched rubber band that is released. At this time, her arm is acting more like a series of levers than a whip.

Notice that she is controlling her wrist during the follow through. Her wrist is tight, resulting in a loss of speed. At her stage of development, her wrist needs to be really, really loose. The wrist should be flopping around all over the place.
 
Jul 12, 2008
159
0
Tuscola, IL
sluggers, thanks for the detail, it makes perfect sense, hopefully I can explain it to her as well as you did to me. Once again thanks for the feedback. As far as the wrist goes, she was taught early on a violent wrist snap, of course since I have been coming here and learned, we dumped her pitching instructor and reworked everything. we are getting there but I feel we have a long way to go. I have made mistakes along the way but am learning more and more everyday. We will work on this tonight and when I think she is improving I will post another video if you don't mind. One more question if you please... do you think she is bending over to far prior to her drive out? Do you think she could benefit if she had more of a lean as opposed to a bend? Thanks.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
IMHO, you've done a lot of great work on her body position. So, now work on the arm. When you have the arm working correctly, then work on the body some more.

If you look at her arm, she is guiding her wrist and arm into a particular position. What that means is that she is tensing her wrist and arm before and after release to make sure it goes into the "right" place. Tension in the wrist and arm slows down her arm.

As to the wrist snap--at her level of development, she needs to start thinking of her wrist differently. Her wrist transfers the energy generated by the body into the ball. She isn't going to make the ball go faster with her wrist muscles. (The wrist and fingers put spin on the ball) After release, the wrist and arm should be totally relaxed because all of the energy was released into the ball.

Does she ever do speed work? That is, does she ever simply throw the ball without worrying about form? Put up a speed gun with a digital display, and let her see how fast she is throwing with every pitch. Let her do whatever she can to increase her speed.

When you are done with speed work, then you go back and work on her form some more.
 
Jul 12, 2008
159
0
Tuscola, IL
We do speed work but not with a gun, but we will get that taken care of, I am glad you mentioned he guiding her arm and wrist, we will be working on this for the next couple of weeks, thanks for the advice.
 
Jul 12, 2008
159
0
Tuscola, IL
new video

well time for another video post, she has been working on getting that right shoulder down and finishing high with the arm, she is getting there and has improved in tha past 2 weeks. Thanks for all the advice. We changed a couple of things most notably she is trying to get more of a lean instead of the bend at the waist. Anyway here is a video from today.

YouTube - ErinSide2
 
May 13, 2008
831
16
Looks real good. At this point in her motion it looks like she is swimming out with her glove just a little. Hard to tell from the side view, though.

cshilt-albums-cs-pics-picture34-erin.png


Try to keep the glove from swimming out as it may affect accuracy and speed.

Compare to Jennie (since we've already done that in an earlier post):

cshilt-albums-cs-pics-picture35-jennie-footplant-rise.png


Also note the ball position. Erin @ 11 o'clock. Jennie @ 8:45-9 o'clock. Arm speed.

Other than that the mechanics seem to be coming along very nicely. As she gets more comfortable work in speed drills. Long toss, long toss, long toss.
 
Jul 12, 2008
159
0
Tuscola, IL
New videos

1st off it has been awhile since I have posted anything(too much softball? never). Before I post the videos I want to thank everyone here for the outstanding comments and constructive citisism they have given. My DD has improved a great deal since the video I posted in January, she still fly's out with the glove side often but the elbow comes back to where I think it should be. We are still working on that part. But the way she was using her shoulder is much better, a long loser arm and better resistance from her front side has picked her speed( she is holding the 53-54 area pretty regularly). But what I have noticed the most is the movement on her ball, the arm whip is adding to this? Anyway thanks for all the advice, and we know she is no prodigy but she is improving weekly and LOVES to pitch, so we will continue to work at it.

Last week we decided to start to work on the rise, does it rise? no it doesn't but hopefully before she gets to High School it will, we have another year for that. And yes I did order Bill Hillhouse's Rise ball video but it has not arrived yet. I am sure she is doing many things wrong at this point, but any feedback on her body positioning and hand at realease would help alot. And yes I do realize her shoulder still needs to be lower at realease and are always working on that. As soon as youtube gets them up I will post them. Thanks again for this site and all the knowledge.
 

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