T-rex Arm Follow through

[bd927]

My 10U daughter on her follow through where she stops her arm and draws it up like "T-REX". She has been in lessons for 1yr learning IR and fought getting long arm from the beginning and this is her natural movement on the mound (She throws low to mid 40s). She had forearm pain in the spring/summer but the DR thinks it was from overuse not necessarly this movement. Her instructor thnks this movement played a part as well. Are there any drills or instruction she could to break this habit?

 

[go4fpsb1953]

Take a look at the ThrowMax training aid. I’ve used it for both issues of too much elbow bend in the pre release and follow through.

 

[chinamigarden]

My 10U daughter on her follow through where she stops her arm and draws it up like "T-REX". She has been in lessons for 1yr learning IR and fought getting long arm from the beginning and this is her natural movement on the mound (She throws low to mid 40s). She had forearm pain in the spring/summer but the DR thinks it was from overuse not necessarly this movement. Her instructor thnks this movement played a part as well. Are there any drills or instruction she could to break this habit?View attachment 28581

Need to see Video. This looks like a false finish to me. Where she pitches, the ball is gone and then she moves into what feels like what she has been taught. Only way to know for sure is video of the whole thing

 

[bd927]

Need to see Video. This looks like a false finish to me. Where she pitches, the ball is gone and then she moves into what feels like what she has been taught. Only way to know for sure is video of the whole thing

 

[Fluid Fastpitch]

I have a student that did something similar!
Every pitcher has a finish. Hopefully it's natural and a non-teach. But sometimes a student cooks up a finish that they weren't instructed to do, but is a byproduct of something they were. In my student's case the finish was a byproduct of her trying to pronate fast and in a short space. So she'd finish, pronate, and yoink her arm back/up with the pronation. The only reason I corrected it was because she was mistiming it and would sometimes pull the arm back during the release resulting in an unintentional changeup.
I corrected it by replacing it with a different finish.... (Sorry Rick....) In her case our cue was to point the finger to the ground about 6 feet in front of her. I put a marker there to indicate where she should point. It didn't take long to replace the habit and the results are better.

In your player's case, I don't know that it makes sense that that finish would cause forearm pain. Maybe some shoulder strain, but I can't feel any forearm strain when I mimic that motion. So if it's not causing her pain now or any other issues, maybe let it go.

 

[cvsoftball]

I see she does a rapid IR and then the arm comes through on the regular path. Might be someone told her to not let her shoulder move forward and she is overcompensating the other way. Maybe smooth out the 4 points and join the IR with the release path. Slow her down, break it down, and walk her through 9 to 6+.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Watching that motion made my arm hurt. She's leaning forward at the release. There is no natural resistance set up in her body position. Her right shoulder is coming forward too soon allowing her to lean forward. She's trying to create resistance by stopping her hand just as it reaches her hip. What I told all the kids I worked with was to think of themselves as an octopus. No bones. Nothing but fluid motion.

This is a combination of drills that I have used in the past that can help both situations at the same time.

Get a 12" tall bucket or other suitable platform she can set her stride foot on. The lighter the better. Don't use a ball bucket. They are too tall.

Put her in the fully open position. Turn the bucket over. Put her left foot on the bucket in a suitable position where she has 90% of her weight on the right leg, the remaining 10% on the left leg is there to stabilize her body.

Now have her do the 3 circle drill. Tell her to make 3 circles with her arm. Start her off slowly. The circles are done in continuation. The first circle is at about 25%, the second at about 40% and the third at about 60%. There are NO stops or hesitations between circles. She throws the pitch on the third circle. IT sometimes helps to count them out getting a little louder with each circle. When she releases the ball tell her to follow through like she is going reach out with her finger tips and tickle the catchers chin starting with the pinkey. Make sure she does not cheat at the top of her circle and the arm is loose. She can't fall off of the bucket. Also, tell her this is not a speed drill. This is a muscle memory drill. When she gets to the point she looks like she is doing it correctly and keeping her weight back have her do the drill with here eyes closed. This will help her feel what her body is doing. Also when she's first starting out tell her this drill is not about strikes. You DON'T CARE where the ball goes.

You'll receive a lot of "This feels funny," "I don't like this." or any other variations of that.

Good luck. It's not an overnight fix. She's learned a lot of bad habits that have never been corrected.

 

[bd927]

Watching that motion made my arm hurt. She's leaning forward at the release. There is no natural resistance set up in her body position. Her right shoulder is coming forward too soon allowing her to lean forward. She's trying to create resistance by stopping her hand just as it reaches her hip. What I told all the kids I worked with was to think of themselves as an octopus. No bones. Nothing but fluid motion.

This is a combination of drills that I have used in the past that can help both situations at the same time.

Get a 12" tall bucket or other suitable platform she can set her stride foot on. The lighter the better. Don't use a ball bucket. They are too tall.

Put her in the fully open position. Turn the bucket over. Put her left foot on the bucket in a suitable position where she has 90% of her weight on the right leg, the remaining 10% on the left leg is there to stabilize her body.

Now have her do the 3 circle drill. Tell her to make 3 circles with her arm. Start her off slowly. The circles are done in continuation. The first circle is at about 25%, the second at about 40% and the third at about 60%. There are NO stops or hesitations between circles. She throws the pitch on the third circle. IT sometimes helps to count them out getting a little louder with each circle. When she releases the ball tell her to follow through like she is going reach out with her finger tips and tickle the catchers chin starting with the pinkey. Make sure she does not cheat at the top of her circle and the arm is loose. She can't fall off of the bucket. Also, tell her this is not a speed drill. This is a muscle memory drill. When she gets to the point she looks like she is doing it correctly and keeping her weight back have her do the drill with here eyes closed. This will help her feel what her body is doing. Also when she's first starting out tell her this drill is not about strikes. You DON'T CARE where the ball goes.

You'll receive a lot of "This feels funny," "I don't like this." or any other variations of that.

Good luck. It's not an overnight fix. She's learned a lot of bad habits that have never been corrected.

thank you for the suggestion. This is not how she practices or taught. The T-rex arm is something that has been emphasized by her instructor and myself is a bad habit will become an issue with injury. She is aware but game pitching everything is out the window sometimes. on this particular day the leaning forward and leaping with also the arm movement alot of ball were into the ground. Typically her lessons and practice at home it isnt this bad but she has to be reminded but Im at the point if it leads to her being injured and she cannot fix it pulling the plug on pitching.

 

[Gags]

I'm also thinking this would lead to more shoulder pain than forearm pain. I can't say it's common, but I've seen it enough where I scratch my head and wonder what pitching coach is letting her throw like that (the ones I've seen have an even more exaggerated shoulder move - to the point where it looks like they're scratching their ear with their shoulder).

 

[Sparky Guy]

thank you for the suggestion. This is not how she practices or taught. The T-rex arm is something that has been emphasized by her instructor and myself is a bad habit will become an issue with injury. She is aware but game pitching everything is out the window sometimes. on this particular day the leaning forward and leaping with also the arm movement alot of ball were into the ground. Typically her lessons and practice at home it isnt this bad but she has to be reminded but Im at the point if it leads to her being injured and she cannot fix it pulling the plug on pitchin

What she is trying to do is to aim the ball. She has to trust her release. The reason the ball was going into the dirt is because she was leaning forward and she is short arming the pitch.

What I tell kids to help enforce the correct body position is she has to keep her brain above her butt. The head needs to be stationary and on top a straight spine. As soon as the head goes forward the rest of the body will follow.