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Feb 7, 2013
3,188
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Having gone through this with my DD from age 6 - 17yos:

1) Find a reputable pitching coach that teaches Internal Rotation (i.e the proper and ONLY way to produce good arm whip), a good drag, Brush Interference, and see him/her reguarly (once a week, twice a month, monthly, whatever you can comfortably afford)

2) Read everything written on this site by Boardmember; Javasource; and KenB. These guys 100% get it, the vast majority do not.

3) At your house create "real" pitching area where your DD will pitch from a pitching plate (rubber), measure out 35 feet (whatever distance she pitches from), put down an actual home plate; buy a bucket with a comfortable seat.

4) practice at least three times a week with proper warm-up everytime before pitching.

5) She has to want to practice and improve, if she is just not committed, that's ok, but you might as well find her another position to play as one cannot dabble learning how to pitch windmill style, these pitchers flame out quickly as the batters get better and the pitcher does not improve with them.

6) Pitchers need to pitch in real games, so make sure she is on a team where she gets plenty of opportunity in the circle.

7) Slow and steady year round worked well for my DD. She never was injured pitching and I attribute that to her being in good pitching shape every month of the year.

8) Very important: Ice is for injuries ONLY; being a little sore after pitchinig is normal and no reason to ice a shoulder or elbow. Do not do it! Complete waste of time and could actually hamper the normal recovery of muscles. My DD pitched for 11 years, 1,000 innings in several hundred games and we only iced her shoulder one time (after an idiot coach had her pitch in 3 back, to back, to back games 450 pitches including warm-ups and between innings)

9) Make sure you and she enjoys the process, it's wonderful to see the growth and for her to have success with her pitches when it all comes together. Do it right and she will have a long "career". Best to you!
 
May 20, 2019
132
43
So we are back in the swing of spring season and it appears a break for DD has done wonders. We have been working hard on staying tall and curing monkey but. Mechanics are starting to look pretty solid now and control seems to be improving but we seem to have lost quite a bit of velocity somewhere.

 
Sep 19, 2018
928
93
Lost velocity for very early in the season? Don’t sweat it. It comes back fast. Btw - you guys are doing a great job there.
 
Nov 8, 2018
774
63
So we are back in the swing of spring season and it appears a break for DD has done wonders. We have been working hard on staying tall and curing monkey but. Mechanics are starting to look pretty solid now and control seems to be improving but we seem to have lost quite a bit of velocity somewhere.



b419da2ddb1e3c429bef8d7759d211b0.jpg


Notice palm up here. She still has HE in her blood. Haha. Really she looks fantastic. I reviewed it all and her mechanics are darn good. I’ll credit you for that.
Work on that IR and whip. She’s got the contact now torn that palm over. Work the hand and fingers I towed the spine. That will happen if she internally rotates the arm and pronates the forearm. Finish palm down.
She does that and her speed will go up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 20, 2019
132
43
Good catch. I thought she was missing some elbow snap. We have been hyper focused lately on staying tall and maintaining FSR. Starting to get consistent BI finally. Want to thank all of those here who have given great advice thus far. Also Hillhouse for his great videos :)
 
May 20, 2019
132
43
Update....finally DD has pitched her first part inning in TB. I was proud of her even though she wasnt very effective. She held her composure and was pretty consistent in finding the zone. Other team was a year older and was shelling her due to not much velocity yet. Any suggestions on building velocity for a 50lb runt 10yo :) Warning ....Video below is painful to watch😉

 

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