video - continued progress on drive mechanics

[catchermom13]

Got new video on dd's progress incorporating drive mechanics. Any and all critiques welcome. Two things that have improved that we have not been concentrating on is the syncing of the glove arm coming down at release - it used to just sort of hang out and then come down as an after thought - and the throwing arm getting good brush, tucking into the right thigh nicely. I'm thinking the legs/lower body are setting the arms up in a better position now to receive the whip but I could be totally off my rocker...

[video]https://www.coachseye.com/v/aRci[/video]

[video]https://www.coachseye.com/v/pYx2[/video]

 

[Ken B]

Well done!

 

[Perfect Circle]

 

[Rick Pauly]

CM13
Your DD is doing some really good things. Not much to change here. The obvious thing that jumps out is the negative reflex movement after she has released the pitch.......it doesn't really affect the outcome/performance of the pitch but may have some long term health/injury issues because of it.
It appears that she may be intermixing "Pull Together" (good) with "Pull Back" (bad). "Pull Together" is what she is doing up through release.....she is pulling arms together and legs together....good. After release she is doing "Pull Back" which is a negative move that often creates an arched back and lower back disc crushing movement....this would be a concern for me as a parent.
Curious, was there a particular drill that caused the "Pull Back"? If she is still doing that drill, I recommend ceasing it immediately.
If there is any way to just "Pull Together" I would highly suggest that. One tip on "Pull Together"....the legs pulling together usually include some hip rotation (and subsequently shoulder rotation)...it looks like she is trying to fight against rotation.

 

[Ken B]

After spending more time looking at the clip, I'm seeing her torso pretty open at foot plant, then instead of closing to around 45 degrees and holding through release, her hips open back up as the drag foot swings towards 1B.

My fix would be to change the focus of the initial drive to one of driving out a little more squarely and allowing the body to open naturally (as opposed to a focus of driving to get open.) If that didn't "fix" things, I'd add the feel of pulling the insides of the knees together and/or pulling the laces/knee towards the target into release. Looking forward to hearing other opinions. (Reread Rick's post and realized he'd already pointed this out...) I'm pretty sure the DM sticky addresses the leg/drag action somewhere... I'll see if I can find it before javasource gets a chance to respond (or someone beats me to it!)


While searching the DM thread for info on the drag leg at release, I came across these:

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/19828-front-side-resistance.html
http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/22268-2-drive-mechanics-questions.html#post297860
http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/25239-anchor-drive-leg.html

 

[Rocketech1]

Others have commented on her mechanics so I won't touch that but I have a couple of observations:

1) she shows the ball (and grip) very early in her backswing which could be a "tell" to batters. I would have her glove go back more with her pitching hand. With most high level pitchers, the batter never sees the ball until the arm is coming forward.

2) I'm a fanatic about this, but if she is pitching on dirt or grass, make sure she uses her cleats (if she's 14U, metal cleats). It might tear up your yard a little but IMO its worth it (and a badge of honor). The only time DD pitches in tennis shoes is with her PC because she uses a plastic pitching mat on top of her concrete side yard.

With that said, your DD has good mechanics. Keep up the good work!

 

[catchermom13]

Thanks for pointing that out Rick P. - I don't know why she sometimes does that jerk back at the end. Its not every time, but more often than not. She's not around tonight to ask but I will definitely talk to her about it. we've never done any drills that would encourage this. As far as fighting the hip rotation, are you thinking she doesn't snap the hip closed at release? She's been told so much to stay open and not slam the door so she may be fighting it. I never noticed that before but maybe telling her to close at release will help. Thanks for taking a look!