Turning Drive Foot When Pitching

[coach james]

Drag box has its place in the tool box, however the two step is in my opinion a better drill for a premature drive foot turn.
Keep shoulders and hips square to the target until 3:00, then as the stride leg gets fully extended, the hips will open as the ball circles over the top.

I'll put emphasis on feeling the pivot foot toes in the drive.... She needs to feel the toes roll up on point no later than 3:00 as well as a hamstring/glute flex as her drive leg violently extends. This will help overall drive mechanics

 

[shaker1]

Here's a couple of Java's posts from the Drive Mechanics Thread. This one is good to show how the drive itself opens one up. Try it out

Exercise 1 – Stride Orientation
Stand, feet side-by-side (comfortably spaced), with the right side of your body 6-12 inches from a wall… facing forward. This is also a handy thing to perform in front of a full-length mirror.
While keeping your right foot pointed straight ahead, take a decent sized step forward with your left foot; at a 45-degree (inward) orientation/angle on plant.
If it helps you keep your right foot pointing forward, feel free to raise the heel up so you’re on the ‘ball of your right foot’.
Once you’ve landed… hold your position and look at your hips. You should see that, naturally, your hips responded to the angle of your stride foot. They won’t be at exactly the same angle as your foot… as we are all designed a little different. The wall will serve as a reference to this angle…
To drive the point home, after checking out your hip orientation, square them up (forward) while in this position. In doing so, you’ll feel a stretch in your right hamstring and glutes… And you’ll also have a reference as to how much your hips opened… which was about 45-degrees.
Exercise 2 – Drive Orientation
Repeat Step 1 from above.
While keeping your left foot pointed straight ahead, rotate your right (drive) foot outward 45 degrees. Take a decent sized step forward with your left foot; keeping the left foot pointed straight ahead on plant.
If it helps you take a decent step forward, feel free to raise the heel up so you’re on the ‘ball of your right foot’… but be sure to keep the right at a 45-degree angle and left foot at no angle – or straight ahead.
Once you’ve landed… hold your position and look at your hips. You should see that, naturally, your hips responded to the angle of your drive foot… Check angle with the wall to your right.
Square up the hips… once again… feeling this ‘stretch’. Depending on your flexibility – squaring up will be a resisted feeling… as it’s not natural… hence the reason our hips open.
Exercise 3 – Stride & Drive Orientation
By now… some of you may have just had an epiphany… but do the exercise anyway.
Repeat Step 1 from above.
With feet side by side, rotate your right foot outward 45-degrees. Take a decent sized step forward with your left foot AND land at a 45-degree angle with the left foot, too. Both feet should be angled (to the right) 45-degrees.
Again, feel free to raise up on the ball of the right foot, if it helps you take a larger step.
Now… look at your hips… Holy smokes… that’s not a 45-degree hip angle!!!
Reference the wall, you should be pretty close to ‘fully’ open… and definitely a lot further than you were in Exercise 2 or 3. Try them all again, and compare if you don’t believe me.
Hopefully, that epiphany has set in… If not… you’re either one-legged, a mutant, or just generally disagreeable… (not that any of those things are bad attributes... I'm keeping it positive this New Year!)

 

[shaker1]

Heres the next post;

Drive foot turn-out ADDS to the stride angle… and if you really want to put it to the test… try Exercise 2 with the right foot rotated outward 90-degrees with no stride foot angle. Now… let us have a peak at Ueno and Monica… one more time… but through a ‘different pair of lenses’…

This introduces a subject that has led to a couple heated debates on DFP… drive foot turn-out. Drive foot turn-out is completely natural and NOT a negative thing. Every decent sprinter in the world does it… many pitchers do it, and if your DD doesn’t do it… you're limiting the amount she can engage the largest muscles in her leg… and they’d like to help her drive forcefully off the plate…so let them! If you still don’t believe it… well… you might be getting in your own way... and hers.
All this said… I often limit drive foot turn-out. Turning the drive foot out much more than 45-degrees (I prefer only what is necessary) is counterproductive… similar to stretching a muscle too far… you’ll negate the directional force if you take it too far… and put the quads at a disadvantage.
So… if I’ve said/say that your DD is opening too much… and that it appears her stride orientation is fine… you need to realize that the additive effect of her drive turn-out and stride orientation… are creating a hip/torso angle that allows her to open beyond 90-degrees.
Couple this with the last main post… Stride Angle… and you’ll see how easy it is… and unbelievably prevalent… that younger/inexperienced pitchers open too much. You might have just checked the stride foot… now you know better… Check the stride angle (across the body adds to the angle, to the left for RHP subtracts)… check the stride foot orientation, and then check the drive foot orientation (as it PUSHES off the rubber).
Lastly, should your goal be 90? IMO, no. I like 70ish… because I know the effect that the upper torso and arm momentum have on adding to the torso angle. Setting 90 with the feet… results in 90+ overhead…
Pitching is never as simple as one thing… it’s a bunch… added up… and with every pitcher - they are never the same.

 

[Olympctm]

This was fantastic to show my DD and we have been working hard all week on this, a work in progress but much better than we were even last week.