Can anyone give me drills to get a young pitcher to start using her legs. She pretty much taught herself how to pitch, but she throws all arm. Any drills or tips will be great.
Using legs
- Thread starter doublesteal
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- Jul 17, 2012
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With a new pitcher just starting out, I can share what my DD has been taught in her lessons. The PC has her get to starting position on the rubber and tells her to lean forward while bending both knees, toe down on the drive foot (throwing side) until she can no longer keep her balance. That's her trigger to push off with the drive foot and "Catch" herself with her plant foot. She has her hold her center of gravity over her rear hip as her drive foot knee comes toward her plant knee. She has her hold that position for five seconds after every rep so she gets used to the weight back position. This has worked very well. The 5 second hold has really helped her with her balance, and forces her to really stay back. It also promotes a strong front side on foot plant.
She does quite a few reps without throwing or using any throwing motion. She starts throwing once she can consistantly hold the position for 5 seconds.
She does quite a few reps without throwing or using any throwing motion. She starts throwing once she can consistantly hold the position for 5 seconds.
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If you go to the forums index and go all the way to the bottom you will find Cindy Bristows form for softball tips, she just gave a tip on improving pitch speed using your push off foot. here is a link http://www.discussfastpitch.com/cin...r-push-foot-increase-your-pitching-speed.html
- Jul 17, 2012
- 1,086
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I may be totally off base here, and I may have missed the point, but this sounds like a drill for a pitcher that already know's how to use her legs. This would be a more advanced drill to increase the explosion off the drive foot, not a drill to teach them how to use their legs. No? In my opinion, adding resistance before the proper form is attained can cause them to develope all kinds of bad mechanics in order to natuarally oppose the resistance. I'm not speaking from a knowledge of pitching drills here, but rather a knowledge of strength traing. Before you increase weight or resistance, be sure you have proper form. Kind of reminds me of my comical college days watching guys trying to Max on a bench press, dropping the bar to their chest so hard that it bounces up 3 inches from the chest compression, then they lift their butt off the bench and wiggling back and forth, side to side, get help from the spotter and then beat their chest that they just benched 300!!
- Jul 26, 2010
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Take her outside, have her put down the glove and the ball, and teach her how to do a standing long jump and triple jump. Teach her how to do a sprinter start from blocks. Teach her how to FEEL her quads loading and exploding during these exercises. Now hand her a glove and a ball, and see what she does on her own with it. Report back.
-W
-W
Thanks everyone. I finally got to work with her again last night. I used the spinter coming off the blocks so she should see how it feels and she immediately goes I dont feel that when I pitch. The drill that helped her the most was marking where she was landing before using her legs and telling her to try and get a little further than than, by the end of practice she was a good 6 inches past that spot consistently. She is amazed at how much harder she throws by just using her legs.
- Jul 26, 2010
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Great progress!
The next step is to decrease the TIME it takes to get her from launch to plant. Striding further is a good exercise, but it can often effect timing and mechanics. You don't want the pitcher to take more TIME to get from point A to point B. If point B is further then it was before and the pitcher takes the same amount of time to get there, then great, this is progress. If she's striding longer but taking more time to get there, then she isn't accomplishing so much. Stride length may need to be experimented with and changed in order to keep her mechanics in sync. The goal here is to get to plant quickly by using an explosive push off the rubber.
-W
The next step is to decrease the TIME it takes to get her from launch to plant. Striding further is a good exercise, but it can often effect timing and mechanics. You don't want the pitcher to take more TIME to get from point A to point B. If point B is further then it was before and the pitcher takes the same amount of time to get there, then great, this is progress. If she's striding longer but taking more time to get there, then she isn't accomplishing so much. Stride length may need to be experimented with and changed in order to keep her mechanics in sync. The goal here is to get to plant quickly by using an explosive push off the rubber.
-W
Why do you want her to use her legs? What does using your legs mean? How does using her legs improve her pitching and why?
These are all legit questions "doublesteal" that you need to be able to answer. The legs are important...but knowing why and explaining why can be very helpful. I have heard so many over the years say - "they are not using their legs and the legs are the biggest muscle...etc"
The question is - How is leg use transferred into ball delivery? How would others here explain it? Just curious.
Carly
Pitching Coach
This is not something you could say to a kid in these words (unless she's like 17 and taking AP physics), but from a physics/biomechanics perspective, it has to do with ground reaction force, both at the beginning and at the end.
Everyone has heard "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." At the beginning of the pitch when you push off the rubber, you're pushing into the earth, and in response the earth is transferring force into your legs and eventually up through your whole body. The better your leg drive at the beginning, the more force enters your body for the rest of the pitch.
Upon landing, again the force of the impact on the earth is transferred up through the stride leg and into the rest of the body. At this moment, the leg muscles come into play even more because the stride leg and trunk area need to be stabilized in good posture in order for the ground reaction force from the stride leg impact to make its way up to your arm and the ball. The gluteal muscles in particular work to rapidly decelerate and stabilize the lower body/core on the front side and redirect the force up the body to accelerate the arm action. If the body is in poor posture due to an overactive upper body combined with sub-optimal leg action, the force will be redirected elsewhere instead of the arm.
The drive through leg, of course, is also working through delivery, but that will be the most obvious to the kid because it's something she can see.
If you want to read more in depth about this and get some links to research studies supporting it, my partner who is an athletic trainer wrote about it here.
