Okay, so I spent an hour and a half tweaking my DD's throwing mechanics tonight after a couple weeks of reading and re-reading this thread, doing under-the-hood experiments on my own throwing pattern, and trying to sort through all the info, both good and bad. The results were amazing!!
She is a lefty who has been playing TB since she turned 10. She's a pitcher and has honestly probably thrown 10 times underhand to every 1 time overhand. Since she's on 1B when not in the circle, her mediocre throwing ability/mechanics have been low on the priority list of things to work on. That's my fault.
So I started tonight showing her a few of the clips FFS posted in this thread (thanks FFS!!!). I explained what we would be working on and aiming for. She said the gifs really helped her "feel" what she needed to do. So we moved on to Tewks' behind the head drill. Explaining the "back/back" concept to her really helped her understand weight distribution. She has always let her COG get "out front", which causes her to basically spin with very little core and lumbar resistance. She tends to "push" the ball, or throw it like a dart. No pronation of the arm. No rolling the thigh. Not quite as bad as the Tewks girl, but not good either. Anyway, I had a pair of my socks that I rolled into a ball, taped up tight on the ends, and had her throw at a mirror. It took about 30 minutes and she was starting to understand the "feel" of TE. On a side note, working with her reminds me of the old adage: "girls have to feel it to play well; boys have to play well to feel it."
Then we moved on to the water bottle drill. It took less than 5 minutes before she "felt it". She was leading with the elbow, with TE, powerfully whipping the bottle. I took her to the garage and had her throw into the Bownet. Way more powerful and "natural" looking than I've ever seen her throw. I can't believe it!! I am so freaking stoked!! It's after 1:30 in the morning and I can't wait to wake her up and go play catch for real. lol
Many thanks to all the contributors to this thread. Truly a great one.
She is a lefty who has been playing TB since she turned 10. She's a pitcher and has honestly probably thrown 10 times underhand to every 1 time overhand. Since she's on 1B when not in the circle, her mediocre throwing ability/mechanics have been low on the priority list of things to work on. That's my fault.
So I started tonight showing her a few of the clips FFS posted in this thread (thanks FFS!!!). I explained what we would be working on and aiming for. She said the gifs really helped her "feel" what she needed to do. So we moved on to Tewks' behind the head drill. Explaining the "back/back" concept to her really helped her understand weight distribution. She has always let her COG get "out front", which causes her to basically spin with very little core and lumbar resistance. She tends to "push" the ball, or throw it like a dart. No pronation of the arm. No rolling the thigh. Not quite as bad as the Tewks girl, but not good either. Anyway, I had a pair of my socks that I rolled into a ball, taped up tight on the ends, and had her throw at a mirror. It took about 30 minutes and she was starting to understand the "feel" of TE. On a side note, working with her reminds me of the old adage: "girls have to feel it to play well; boys have to play well to feel it."
Then we moved on to the water bottle drill. It took less than 5 minutes before she "felt it". She was leading with the elbow, with TE, powerfully whipping the bottle. I took her to the garage and had her throw into the Bownet. Way more powerful and "natural" looking than I've ever seen her throw. I can't believe it!! I am so freaking stoked!! It's after 1:30 in the morning and I can't wait to wake her up and go play catch for real. lol
Many thanks to all the contributors to this thread. Truly a great one.
