Elbow Bruise

[SoGASoftball]

What are the common causes of hitting the hip? DD has a lemon sized bruise on the inside of her elbow which is painful. We thought she had corrected it by opening her hips more, but Saturday she and I both thought her hips were opening good, but the hitting of the elbow to hip was worse by evidence of her worst bruise and pain to date. I know you'd be guessing on her causes without video, but I have no video at this point, and she'll be out from full motion until pain goes away. What are the other common causes? Thanks for the help.

 

[starsnuffer]

It's usually not a case of not opening enough but rather closing too soon. Study brush interference. The forearm should brush and roll across the front of the pelvis, not the side of the hip, and it should be the upper forearm, not the elbow.

Lately I've seen this kind of bruising happen when people try to force internal rotation to happen, rather then simply utilize natural whip. It's easy to do wrong if it's just read about on the internet rather then demonstrated and felt. The end result is that the pitcher drives their elbow down into their hip and then rolls their hand over.

-W

 

[javasource]

It's usually not a case of not opening enough but rather closing too soon.

Well said... and not just the above quote... the whole post.

You'll want to take a closer look with video and see where her hips and shoulders are around 9 and 8.

 

[Ken B]

Without good video, it's tough to tell. When you get a chance, can you answer the following?
-Is she a new pitcher?
-Has she changed anything recently? If so, what are the cues/focus points?
-Is the bruise on the inside of the elbow, or the forearm?

A couple speculations:
-She's trying too hard to lead with the elbow. A better cue might be to pull the loose lower arm down and allow it to whip.
-She's releasing too far from the hip. Might seem a little counter-intuitive, but if her whip is ok but she's releasing too far away, her elbow may bump rather than the forearm brushing.

Video would really be helpful.


Ken

 

[nanotech14]

The jury is still out on brush interference, at least at the thigh or hop. The bruise you cite is the reason. You should not think of closing at all when you are pitching. That is what we do on our HS team and when we teach our seminars to local rec and TB groups. Not one of our pitchers brushes her hip or thigh. The arm slots naturally where it goes when you are walking. Our ace is off to a D3 school after the lowest ERA in our district.

PS Hillhouse says belly and he sells this nifty thing you attach to your thigh to get the correct position.

Just so you know Hillhouse wants it attached to the front of the thigh not off to the side.

 

[Ken B]

 

[Ken B]

 

[starsnuffer]

-W

 

[Ken B]

Looking at the above examples, I'm seeing the elbow closer to the back of the hip and the forearm brushing the side of the thigh.

I'm still looking for some shots of the new-school pitchers who don't utilize brush. I'm guessing old-school coaches like Hal Skinner, Rich Balswick and Rick Pauly would prolly like to see these examples as well.

 

[Doug Romrell]

Shame on all of those pitchers in the examples posted above for having so much brush interference. Isn't there some law that makes it illegal...illegal to hurt oneself in this way?