8 year pitcher eval

[bjenkins24]

My daughter just started pitching this last season. She'll be in 10U in the fall/spring and seeing the 10U pitchers she's got a long way to go if she wants to pitch. We've been practicing everyday, but I'm worried we're learning bad habits because I just don't have the experience with softball pitching mechanics.

I think we can get her ready to pitch in 10U with the next few months if we keep up a lot of practice. Just want to make sure I'm not taking her down a bad mechanics path. She does have a pitching coach, but we've gotten some conflicting advice from her pitching coach vs her coach coach, and there are a lot of differing opinions online too. Just wanted to get as much eyes on her mechanics as possible to see what we can do to improve.

Here's a few slo-mo videos from different perspectives. Would love to hear some feedback on what we should be working on!


Glove side: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9fs2xfFeCCeKn9Sf7
Throwing Side: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WotRzEfPrg52Gb9h9
Front: https://photos.app.goo.gl/prwRRDv3hdCin83h6

Thanks in advance!

 

[uncdrew]

Two words:

Professional Instruction


Meaning no, sorry 10U coach, you're not a pitching coach. Sorry keyboard warriors, you're not a pitching coach (well a few are, here especially).

When I coached, I knew well enough to leave those with professional hitting and pitching coaches alone. That said, the two things that jump out at me are:

1. Forward lean -- you want to stay stacked. Hips over knees, shoulders over hips. She leans forward towards catcher at release
2. Stay on the power line. She's stepping way towards first base, needs to be straight to catcher

 

[Top_Notch]

Looks pretty good. I'd have to go back to see where my DD was at 10U. But the one thing that sticks out to me is back leg is stuck. Fast back leg=fast pitches.

Nothing is better than a qualified pitching coach.

 

[BigSkyHi]

Looks like her desire in there. Noticed a lot of work needed from toe to the hips.

 

[DNeeld]

Forget the lower half. She's 8 and its unimportant right now.

Fix this:



Until the arm is loose and whippy and not locked out and stiff as a board, anything you do with the lower half would be pointless.

Run through the 4 drills:

I/R in the Classroom

I've received so many PM's and Emails about I/R I've decided to speak more about training Internal Rotation, and the progression we use to build a foundation for the underhand throw. First of all, we all know that grip, stance, posture, wind-up/load and leg drive all contribute to pitching a...

www.discussfastpitch.com

I/R in the Classroom

I've received so many PM's and Emails about I/R I've decided to speak more about training Internal Rotation, and the progression we use to build a foundation for the underhand throw. First of all, we all know that grip, stance, posture, wind-up/load and leg drive all contribute to pitching a...

www.discussfastpitch.com

I/R in the Classroom

This is great, though having trouble with terminology. The video clips are a big help. My DD is 9 and just started pitching this year. I'm working on closing her delivery (if I'm using the proper terminology). She currently pitches straight ahead but she is quite accurate and has a decent...

www.discussfastpitch.com

Do those drills, not progressing from one to the next until she has mastered it, until that arm is unlocked and she can't throw any other way.

 

[bjenkins24]

Ah that was all so helpful. @DNeeld thanks for those drills. I feel like we've been doing a lot of different drills with her pitching coach like lunges, pitching from really far away, and some other things, but I haven't really heard a whole lot about the actual mechanics which was what I was hoping to get with the pitching coach. I'm doing a ton of research now and reading about all of those links.

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

[DNeeld]

Ah that was all so helpful. @DNeeld thanks for those drills. I feel like we've been doing a lot of different drills with her pitching coach like lunges, pitching from really far away, and some other things, but I haven't really heard a whole lot about the actual mechanics which was what I was hoping to get with the pitching coach. I'm doing a ton of research now and reading about all of those links.

Thanks everyone for your help!

If you need a visual more than reading (though I recommend you read at least the first few pages of IR in the Classroom), Mike (Javasource) put the information in a video:

 

[ArmWhip]

One of the tougher things for a youngster to learn correctly is leaping from the rubber. When distance from the rubber is emphasized (lunges?) they will end up taking a big, long step. This is what I see, that's why the back foot/leg trails and she ends up over the front foot too much. You have to go from leaning forward a little at pushoff to leaning back a little at landing, it's the landing that she's missing.

 

[bjenkins24]

It's been almost three years now, and my daughter has come a long way. She's doing pretty well. We had one great pitching coach who we moved away from, but we found another great one. She's in her last season of 10u she's throwing 44-45 her PR is 47. From what her pitching coach says, her mechanics are pretty good. My daughter is fairly small, but I've seen a smaller girl throwing 48, so my perfectionist self is thinking there's some mechanics somewhere we're leaving on the table. I've asked online in another place and got some suggestions, but a lot of people disagree, so I figure the more input the better. We just started working on getting a little more bend in her arm "bow flex bow" for a better whip. Not sure if we corrected too far.

Curious if anyone has any more advice on what she can improve? I thought I would put it in this old thread since I think it's kinda cool to see the progress.

Google Photos

photos.google.com

 

[tomorrow]

Impressive.
I would be curious what other people disagreed about?
I don't see many pitchers short arm the glove arm and the pitching arm at 3 o'clock. Was this a conscious decision to make sure she would have a bend in her pitching arm when she got to 9 o'clock?
Just a suggestion for pitching lessons and video lessons for pitchers. Get some leggings with a racing strip down the leg so everyone can see what the leg and hip is doing in video. Like these