9 year old pitching

[covrec1]

Here is my first year 9 year old pitching. Anything we should be working on. She throws around 36-37mph.
9 years old - Coach's Eye

 

[Sweet Lou]

Balance - she falls towards 3rd during the pitch.

 

[Rick Pauly]

Like Sweet Lou said, her balance is a problem. Now, what causes the balance issue: 1. Her upper torso completely disconnects from her lower torso....leans forward and toward third. Need to get her to land with a little backward tilt and stay tall (minimum lean toward third).
Notice the huge gap between her forearm and thigh....zero brush interference......the upper torso lean is the primary problem with that; but the total lack of hip rotation is a secondary problem with the no B/I.
My suggestion is to do 90% of your practice from 20 feet distance or less.....slow everything down so she can control her mechanics..."stand tall"....do not be in a hurry to throw from full motion/full distance.....way to many kids compromise their mechanics 'cause they are not strong enough to throw a ball from that distance. Backward chain...I/R in the classroom sticky

 

[covrec1]

Is the first couple ones better and I do see it in the 3rd one that are arm comes away from her body.
age 9 - Coach's Eye

 

[Rick Pauly]

CovRec1
The latest video is slightly better. I took a snapshot of the first video to show what I mean by disconnect of upper and lower torso. The red line is her current spine tilt toward third......the yellow line is more indicative of how she should tilt. There should be a slight lean toward third (RHP) but not a disconnected one like the red line. It is nearly impossible to have balance or not fall toward third if she is in the red line posture. Hope this helps a bit.

Is the first couple ones better and I do see it in the 3rd one that are arm comes away from her body.
age 9 - Coach's Eye

 

[covrec1]

Here is a couple weeks later working on what you said. What do you think?
9 year old - Coach's Eye

 

[coachsandig]

Hard to tell from the angle, but it looks a lot better! I don't think she's hitting the resistance on her front like what our instructor teaches, and her arm seems to be a little short on her follow through. Our coach says that from a kinetic standpoint you need to give the arm more of a follow through so that long term damage isn't caused by the sudden deceleration after release. Palm of the hand should be somewhere around eye level at the end of her follow through.

My DD is also 9 and was timed at her last clinic consistently at 40mph with a top speed of 45. Let me be clear on this...I wasn't there to protest because I had a work emergency, but I wouldn't have allowed her to be timed because I think girls at that age could hurt themselves and get their mechanics all out of whack by trying to impress the radar gun.

With that being said, since learning the "solid front" and long follow through techniques she not only throws harder with more accuracy, but she hits her 50 pitch count/game limit with absolutely no slow down, and no compromise in her mechanics. And more importantly, no soreness!