IR and Spin

[Shawn]

I won't go into a long explanation, but the point is this: don't chase "proper" spin at the expense of mechanics and speed. If her mechanics look good and she's throwing strikes at a good speed then don't chase a certain spin by changing mechanics. Let her develop the spin at release during drill work.

One of my pitchers can’t throw 12 to
6. I never asked her to change. She has a good curve and rise because the spin is closer to her natural spin.

 

[fastpitch91]

Question! When my daughter started pitching a few years ago I was reading through the forum and came upon all the IR stuff. We looked really hard for an IR pitching coach, and feel like we found one. But before we did find one we spent a few months working through the drills I saw on the forum. That seems to have worked out pretty well and now we have a pitching coach that she really likes that didn't really change anything major that we learned from this forum, so I thought we were good to go.

Fast forward a bit she's 11 now, her pitching coach will talk about how we need to work on the spin on her fastball. Her coach doesn't push it too much, because my daughter seems to be doing pretty well I'm assuming with what she's got. But I figured now that it's summer and we have more time we can really work on it. Her pitching coach is expecting 12-6 spin. So we tape the ball and the tape should stay pretty straight.

Well it doesn't. And the only way we can seem to get it straight is if she pulls her arm to her side and does some wrist flick stuff. Then she can get it straight every time, but she loses a ton of speed. She's throwing about 47 and then it goes to something like 40-41 with the "right" spin. Anyways I thought it was just a "we gotta figure it out" type of thing. Then I see this post on facebook today:

https://fb.watch/spbtM-sJcv/

It looks like the video of the girl is how the pitching coach wants my daughter to look like. The video of the coach is, I'm pretty sure, how she is throwing now. But I think it causes her spin to be not exactly straight.

Is that to be expected, or is she maybe doing something else wrong? Should we be looking for really straight spin? Or is it reasonable that it's kind of released on the side a bit? I just read IR in the classroom again, and again makes me think her spin is wrong.

I'm a little worried the way we are trying to fix it is getting her to push the ball and more HE like than IR. We've come so far I don't want to go backwards.

tldr; Should we be stressing really straight spin? If so, how can I get her to do that without pushing the ball? Here is a semi recent video of her now. I doubt the spin is super clear, but just know if there were tape on the ball it definitely wouldn't be going straight:

Google Photos

photos.google.com

couple things. first from the video her mechanics are pretty good for 10. Cant really see the spin axis with that shot. Second, a perfect 6/12 spin is going to drop down hard which is great. if she is getting slighty off axis with her hand as she spins the ball off her fingers she is going to get a down-left ( 730 spin) or a down-right movement ( 430 spin) : not exactly something to cry about as kids spend months learning to get movement. More get a 730 spin as the hand is slightly underpronated at release. This is a drop curve - yes a simple FB grip with 730 spin will drop down and left. If this is her natural motion DO NOT FIGHT IT. I was writing an article this morning that the premise was "measure and understand a pitchers natural tendencies and design their pitching arsenal around that" SO if her natural fastest pitch is a drop curve she should focus on learning to focus her target point so her outside pitch "clips the corner". Great pitch!!! she may find that throwing that pitch inside is DNAGEROUS unless she starts it well inside and catches the back corner but if she can throw that another great Pitch. On a practical level - make her some half painted balls split along the 6/12 axis; ( i find red a lot easier to see than black btw) , She will quickly get easy to see visual feedback and she may quickly learn to adjust her spin to 6/12. If she gets a 6/12 inside drop, a 730 drop curve and a change up she will be well on her way to pitching success.

 

[fastpitch91]

Question! When my daughter started pitching a few years ago I was reading through the forum and came upon all the IR stuff. We looked really hard for an IR pitching coach, and feel like we found one. But before we did find one we spent a few months working through the drills I saw on the forum. That seems to have worked out pretty well and now we have a pitching coach that she really likes that didn't really change anything major that we learned from this forum, so I thought we were good to go.

Fast forward a bit she's 11 now, her pitching coach will talk about how we need to work on the spin on her fastball. Her coach doesn't push it too much, because my daughter seems to be doing pretty well I'm assuming with what she's got. But I figured now that it's summer and we have more time we can really work on it. Her pitching coach is expecting 12-6 spin. So we tape the ball and the tape should stay pretty straight.

Well it doesn't. And the only way we can seem to get it straight is if she pulls her arm to her side and does some wrist flick stuff. Then she can get it straight every time, but she loses a ton of speed. She's throwing about 47 and then it goes to something like 40-41 with the "right" spin. Anyways I thought it was just a "we gotta figure it out" type of thing. Then I see this post on facebook today:

https://fb.watch/spbtM-sJcv/

It looks like the video of the girl is how the pitching coach wants my daughter to look like. The video of the coach is, I'm pretty sure, how she is throwing now. But I think it causes her spin to be not exactly straight.

Is that to be expected, or is she maybe doing something else wrong? Should we be looking for really straight spin? Or is it reasonable that it's kind of released on the side a bit? I just read IR in the classroom again, and again makes me think her spin is wrong.

I'm a little worried the way we are trying to fix it is getting her to push the ball and more HE like than IR. We've come so far I don't want to go backwards.

tldr; Should we be stressing really straight spin? If so, how can I get her to do that without pushing the ball? Here is a semi recent video of her now. I doubt the spin is super clear, but just know if there were tape on the ball it definitely wouldn't be going straight:

Google Photos

photos.google.com

and have her work on her glove hand higher at ball glove separation and stay in front of her stride leg.... worth 2-3 mph

and best I can see frame by frame her hand is slightly under pronated at release..... to give her a 700 - 730 spin would be my guess