Thoughts please

[Shawn]

Agreed that there are a lot of good things here, and with all the usual caveats about internet advice from one clip:

1. I would consider keeping her back leg straight as she backswings or you could move to a very small knee bend and push-push sequence. Either way, I think you want more hinge and less of a squat at the beginning of the takeoff. Right now, the amount of back knee flexion is creating a squat. Changing the back leg may help her displace her hips forward of the rubber and create more of a lean/fall and less of a sit to start the pitch. She may be able to develop a little more power that way, and it may create the “sense of urgency” feel that seems lacking right now.

I do want hinge and less squat. I did notice that.

2. Despite point #1, I would not fiddle a lot with her takeoff or initial drive mechanics. She may have stood up a hair early on this pitch (and it is just a hair), but she is using a glute-driven thrust, which is not easy to teach, so I would be careful about changes that detract from how she moves through hip extension as the ball reaches the top of the backswing. That looks good to me.

3. This will run contrary to what others are saying, but I thought the most interesting piece of the video was at the very end when she appears to roll on the outside of her right foot as she is getting her balance. My youngest son does the same thing sometimes—both hitting and pitching—and I wonder if your athlete does not have more than normal laxity in her joints, particularly the ankle. That would explain the foot drag on the side. Normally, I would agree that this is a sign of over rotating the hips sideways, but here I actually think the hip position looks pretty good. As you note, her right knee remains pointed primarily towards home (except in the one still posted by dneeld where it is probably more towards third), notwithstanding the foot drag. It is really the knee orientation, and not the foot orientation, that tells you more about whether the hips are at the right angle, and I am not convinced that these hips are “over-opened” (and if they are, it is only for an instant). Lots of high-level pitchers drag the side of the foot for part of the pitch (including Sarah Pauly herself, for example, see below), so you may want to work on it to see what effect you get. But it may wind up being more of an aesthetic correction. I would not necessarily encourage her to “close” her hips more than she is.

4. Where I might focus is on the release point. She is letting the ball go too far in front of the rear hip. My guess is that if you showed another angle, you would see that the BI is not there and that her posture is not stacked the way you want it. Fixing the release point will get her more upright, move the center of mass back as she moves into front foot strike, and thereby improve the front side resistance. I have said this many times before, but fixing the release point is the easiest way to fix posture, so I might make release at the hip with brush a point of emphasis in drills and see whether that affects the full pitch.

(I post this with a lot of nostalgia. My kid just went off to college, and I would kill to have another one just moving to 43 feet.)

Here is Sarah Pauly on the side of the back foot:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, I have seen very good pitchers drag the side of the foot.

No the back foot isn’t as bad here. It’s not just the back foot.

 

[ArmWhip]

There is a lot of attention being paid to her lower body action, my concerns lie in a different area. For all practical purposes her intent is still that of a bowler, even though there is some IR. At 9 o'clock in the downswing she has closed her shoulders considerably, this cuts her off from using adduction (lats) as a source of arm speed and puts the emphasis on the deltoid. She's not really 'throwing' the ball underhand, she's 'shoving' it with a little IR. When the intention is to bowl the body is not going to employ any FSR because it wants to rotate the shoulders and push the ball into release.

 

[Work=wins]

The cadence of the arm circle is off. It’s a sequence thing. The lower never sets up the upper. It’s equivalent to a pushy swing. The front knee raising should lead the arm. Everything athletic movement has an optimal sequence.

Just my .02

 

[Shawn]

The cadence of the arm circle is off. It’s a sequence thing. The lower never sets up the upper. It’s equivalent to a pushy swing. The front knee raising should lead the arm. Everything athletic movement has an optimal sequence.

Just my .02

Yes she is pushy, needs to let go and whip. Her whip is stiff.

 

[sluggers]

Yes she is pushy, needs to let go and whip. Her whip is stiff.

She can't whip the ball because her hand is not in the correct position at 12 or 9. The hand should be behind the ball at 12 and under the ball at 9.

In order to get a good whip, there has to be a bend at the elbow. Unless the hand is behind the ball at 12, you can't bend the elbow.

 

[Shawn]

She can't whip the ball because her hand is not in the correct position at 12 or 9. The hand should be behind the ball at 12 and under the ball at 9.

This is close.



I don’t think it is a mechanical issue by itself. If she is stiff n pushy, then that mindset is creating these imperfections. The hand position might not be perfect because she wants to control the lower arm, stiff pushy. So that mindset is creating what we see.

I think creating a new mindset. Which is to whip, FSR, dragging on the toes, don’t slow down the drag is what John Gay said about heavy dragging because it effects the whip. She needs to transfer energy a lot better. She needs that mindset, that sprinters mentality. Focus on that and learning to let go.

 

[ArmWhip]

One of the most difficult things about teaching pitching is generating the intent/mindset of throwing (underhand) in those kids that don't naturally have it. I use a lot of slingshot in the early stages, with an emphasis on the loose, whippy feel, and pulling down hard into BI. I also like the drill where you alternate between overhand, slingshot and full circle to try and transfer the feel of throwing overhand to the underhand motion. Lack of FSR is a symptom more than a cause, as is closing too early, of the intent to bowl, shove or push the ball.

 

[Shawn]

View attachment 26365

Not too shabby. A handful of points to focus on:

1. Anchor for a drag foot. Hips are having to fight a ton of counter force.
2. FSR needs work, she collapses forward
3. She's missing the whip and carrying the ball a bit too much. Correcting the posture will help. She needs to get whippy from the hippy.

View attachment 26366

Of note in comparing the two stills, notice how much her hips are lagging compared to Amanda's.

BTW, the drag and her hips falling behind is something that needs corrected. The shoulders take over hips.

 

[Shawn]

Needs to drag straight forward and stop using the shoulders

 

[_MIA_]

I also like the drill where you alternate between overhand, slingshot and full circle to try and transfer the feel of throwing overhand to the underhand motion.

That would only work if they throw overhand correctly no? Which is a big if..Or is the feel of an incorrect OH throwing pattern still good enough for this purpose?