Side Arm Solutions

[WaterWitch]

My DD is a just turned 13 year old, transitioning from LL to TB. She started pitching regularly and taking lessons 13 months ago. She's 5'3". I believe she recently had a coach clock her pitching speed between 48 and 50.

At some point in the last year she has started to exhibit a side arm motion which is steadily becoming more pronounced. I'm looking for some different approaches to correcting this problem.

I've included links to 2 videos I took last night of her pitching in a game. I don't have a good command of the video editing software I use but I was able to slow down the clips a few times. I apologize in advance that one has 1 too many slowed views and that I failed to remove the sound from both. Might want to turn your speakers off.

On the "side" view video there are 5-6 still images of the pitching motion at the end of the video.

Thanks in advance!

Front View

Side View

 

[WaterWitch]

I forgot to mention that the Side View video includes my DD doing an overhand throw to first. I know it's not the best angle but it's the best I could get filming through the fence.

 

[chinamigarden]

The first thing that jumped out at me was in the front view how she leaped to the left instead of straight at the plate. It almost looks (to my untrained eye) that she is correcting for her body moving to the left.

Her sidearm seems to only be from the forearm down and not from her shoulder. Some sort of drill to get her arm circle to be full and complete might help. I also wonder if she has ever felt any pain in her arm while pitching. This almost looks (again to my untrained eye) like a correction a kid might do to avoid some sort of pain, and now its become the habit.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I am not certain why a pitching coach would allow this to continue. Maybe she has tried several things and your DD isn't responding. There are drills that I would try - pitching, facing and really close to a wall or fence, pitching whiffle balls (instant feedback), and arm circle, arm circle, arm circle pitch. And there is this - Fastpitch Softball Pitching Training Aids

Don't let her pitch in a game, until she fixes this. Every pitch is illegal. Good luck and I hope that she does well.

 

[starsnuffer]

She has a series of issues that need to be dealt with.

- Toe on pivot foot turns to 3b before she leaps, this needs to be straight at the pitcher, this sets her off going sideways then she does a bunch to compensate.
- She doesn't get open at all, yet tries to step across the power line to compensate for not getting open, this makes her stick her butt out and fly with her glove. She lands sideways leaning towards 3b with a very soft front leg. All of this is because she is not getting open and starting out with a crooked pivot foot.

As for her arm motion, this was probably caused by two things. She probably hit her hip as she was growing and started doing this out of pain or fear of pain, or, someone incorrectly tried to force her to pitch with an IR motion instead of letting it happen naturally, I actually see this quite a bit.

If you pause when her arm is back towards 2b, you'll notice that her arm is a perfect right angle. She's overextending so her arm is too far back behind her, instead of slightly out in front of here where she can still see the ball from the corner of her eye. Because her upper arm is hyper-extended behind her, this is probably forcing her to flex her elbow. From here her elbow angle does not change, so the only way to actually pitch is to sidearm the ball.

To fix this you really need to reboot her pitching mechanics. The drills to do this would be the same drills given to a beginning pitcher to teach the proper muscle memory necessary to pitch. She's 13, give her the chance to do this right and put more focus on doing it right then trying to get her pitching in games. If you need to change pitching coaches to do so, then do it. Letting this continue is very hurtful to your daughter.

-W

 

[halskinner]

She is bringing the ball up and over her head. She is bending that elbow WAY too much, and then she is cutting off the bottom of the circle. Imagine the path of the circle the ball is in as a big hula-hoop. Her hula-hoop is bent and broken. Sge needs to straighten it out and make sure the hula-hoop if facing the catcher, In other words, if it was a real hula-hoop and she pushed it to roll it, it should roll straight to the catcher.

I would suggest the mirror drill.

It requires a full length mirror and can be done inside the house. NEVER use a softball for this drill, Take a pair of rolled up bright colored socks to use as the ball.

Take a strip of blue painters masking tape and run it straight up and down in the center of the mirror.

Then have her stand back from the mirror maybe 10 feet or so. Have her stand with her stride foot ahead of the pivot foot so that her hips a around halfway open. Have her adjust her position so that while she is standing there, the ball is on the blue line when it is at her side.

Then, very slowly, make the arm circle while she closely watches the ball going throu the circle. Keeping a slight bend in the elbow, do not let the ball go off the line, THAT INCLUDES AS IT GOES DOWN BEHIND HER. This is not as easy as it sounds for a pitcher with any type of kink in the hoola-hoop.

Once she can do that consistantly, speed the arm cirle up a little. If that stays consistant, keep speeding it up a little more until she can do it and keep the ball on that line the entire time.

Once she can do all that, start in the normal pitching position as if she was on the rubber. Again, make sure the ball stays on the line. Slowly go through the motion taking a stride like she would while pitching AND KEEP THE BALL ON THE LINE.

While she is doing all this you can stand behind he so that YOU can see the ball on the line also, a second set of eyes so to speak.

AGAIN, NEVER USE A SOFTBALL FOR THIS DRILL and dont let go of the rolled up socks either. Even the socks, depending on the mirror itself, CAN break the mirror.

If dad has some carpentry skills, cut a piece of 3/4 plywood slightly longer and wider than the mirror and get some of the plastic mounting things ansd screws and attach the mirror so the backside touches the plywood. That should give it enough strength to withstand a fastball from wadded up socks. If not, that kid of yours can REALLY bring it!

By the way, if her arm is straight and the elbow is locked, you CANNOT keep the ball on the line.

sneakysoftballpitching.com