Time for a video critique

[leerph]

Yep. Still working on snapping the hips and getting the laces to the catcher. When she has the glove swim she gets a good hip snap. When we started working on fixing the glove swim it made it hard for her to keep snapping the hips and she started "kicking the bucket". She said that getting her shoulders all the way open which fixes the swim makes it hard for her to then snap closed with the hips. Still just trying to get it all put together at the same time. I only shot the slow mo copy. I should have done a full speed one. I'll try and get one next week and add it.

 

[djcarter1966]

Keeping the heel off the ground will make that "hip snap" happen much more naturally. Try this simple drill she can just do this in house even, have her get into this position back heel on ground. Now don't have her do anything but lift heel off the ground laces to the catcher and have her tell you what she feels, it should be the hip naturally releasing as a side note you will see her stand just a little taller. Amanda has a little "kick the bucket" finish but look at the back heel.

 

[Ken B]

Here's the Finch comparison:

 

[djcarter1966]

I was actually going to use the Finch comparison as well but chose Cat because she is a lefty, Ricketts is a lefty too sometimes it's just easier to see when you don't have to mirror image everything in your head, plus Jennie is a freak of nature being so tall and strong even still I think you will see more pitchers with a slight lean forward here is Pauly, this position is basically the first H of the two H's we are always talking about.

 

[leerph]

Excellent stuff guys especially with the lean at launch. We will work on addressing that next. She does very well throwing strikes and hitting spots. Just average speed wise. Throwing around 50 mph which is the average around here for travel ball. Of course we have some girls throwing upper 50's at 13 YO, and her sister was throwing 59 when she was this age so she has a lot to live up to. LOL. She started a lot later than my other 2 DD's. I know the speed is there to be had and no reason she shouldn't be in the mid 50's with her pretty good mechanics that she has. We have a pretty good regimen pitching wise to try and help with the speed including a mix of heavy and light ball drills (done very carefully). I honestly think she worries to much about throwing a strike and have tried to get her to just turn it loose. We have done quite a bit of throwing from close to a net so she can just wail away. Man is it funny to see the days worth of rage come out of her when we do that! Haha!

 

[leerph]

Also might be a good time to get into a discussion about that back foot...Through the years I have started to actually think that the back foot dragging side ways versus turning laces to the pitcher is maybe more of a style versus absolute in a way. What I mean by that is that by all means it is super important to fire those hips to a 45 to snap and activate brush etc. But over the years of looking at slow mo of great pitchers I've noticed a mix of both. I have started to think that it boils down to the amount of flexibility the pitcher has in that back leg. IOW, some pitchers can fire that hip while still keeping that back foot turned side ways. Sarah Pauly is a good example of that. In her slow mo that so many of us refer to she has quite a bit of back foot "collapse" and a "bucket kick" but you can clearly see that her hips are working correctly to snap. I still would say that laces to the catcher is better mostly b/c that means less foot in contact with the ground and therefore less drag from the back foot. Just wanted to float that idea out there and see what everyone's thoughts were on that.

 

[djcarter1966]

Jennie actually does thing same thing with her back heel as Pauly but for both of them it is more of a bounce off the ground the heel doesn't stay down dragging the ground it just naturally hangs there, honestly this is probably just fine but the idea is the foot has to be lose allowing the hip to fire correctly, a lot of drills and early instruction have girls basically standing sideways so they kinda get use to this back heel down thing and you have to unteach instead of no teach and the unteach is usually laces to catcher heel up and honestly just the easy way to start so there is never any thought of a back heel down pitch. Any drill you do standing sideways should always be accompanied by a lift of the heel and foot coming slightly forward, simply don't want to ingrain this idea of throwing from a standing sideways position once you get to release.

Seriously though just spend one or two minutes and try and pitch a ball back heel down it is simply a physical impossibility for your hip to release correctly, to isolate just to that static drill I suggested, don't need a ball or anything just stand back heel down then pick up the back heel you can feel it.....again though she has great foundational mechanics keep up the good work

 

[Ken B]

Generally, drag foot angle seems to vary from kid to kid, as does plant angle. They are often connected; in that some pitchers who drag the side of the foot tend to land too open and struggle with release posture. I have some kids that do just fine with keeping the toe pointed down throughout the drive and seemingly have very little hip action. I have a few that almost touch the side of the heel, but come out of it nicely into a solid plant posture. These kids appear to have more hip action. And the rest are somewhere in between.

Every athlete is different and it’s hard to define absolutes. I think by doing so, we can place unrealistic goals on a girl and take away from a strength by trying to drill a mechanic into being.

I look for balance and offer cues and progressions to help them achieve efficiency.

That said, hip snap is never a focus for me. Efficient drive, whip and release posture is where I put most of my effort.

 

[ArmWhip]

Once you get her drive issues straightened out you are left with working on the small stuff. There are two things that catch my eye. First thing that I see is that she is not open enough at 9 o'clock (half way down the back side). This doesn't allow her to fully recruit all the muscles that are available in the downswing. Glove swim is an issue if it keeps the shoulders from opening sufficiently. The other thing I see has been mentioned, shoulder dip. From 9 o'clock to release the shoulder and the body in general should pop up a little. If you look closely at the video taken from the back you can line her head up with the building and see what happens as she goes from 9 to release. You can do the same thing with her shoulder and the dip down can be seen.