My DD pitching - Internal Rotation Question.

[Steve Huff]

Wow! I am impressed! I can say that if you have been teaching her you are doing a great job. I never coached young girls, but I have seen few in my clinics with as solid a foundation as your DD has. She is using internal rotation, and few older pitchers do! This is my opinion, but her hip orientation at release is very good, and I personally don't push the arm into the side issue because I think it hurts follow-through to some degree, perhaps causing the wrist to roll sooner. That can impart improper spin such as bullet spin. So I don't take Ueno as my model. I'm not knocking her, she is the best in the world, I just don't like two aspects of her mechanics. It also may be that her hip orientation creates a need to block her upper arm at her side.

I think knightsb and slugger's points are well taken. I would also start using tape or string to create a power line, and make sure the ball of her stride foot lands on the power line. I can't see by the video, but it seems she is very close if not right on the line.

 

[lhowser]

I will try to get some video from the front tonight. She had really struggled with North and South accuracy. Missed a lot high. I think this my have been attributed to not getting elevated on her leap, landing with a bent knee and pushing up. We have worked on that the last 2 weeks. We are playing this weekend so we will see how it goes.

based on this quote your earlier statement about elbow touching the side is interesting. It (elbow to side)can serve as a release cue and help with the north/south accuracy. I wouldn't jump the gun though and force it. See how it goes this weekend.

 

[Mike]

Why are you asking us? so far you have done a fabulous job We should be asking you questions.

She looks very smooth, effortless.

 

[Alan Snedeker]

Trust me she is not so smooth all the time. I'll ask her to make some small change and she wants to over exagerate the move.

This is from tonight. To me it looks like she swims a little I'm always harping on her to get her front shoulder all the way in line. I also want her not to go so high with the glove arm. She was not in a good mood tonight so it was not her best. Thanks for all the replies. Its encouraging to know from the experts we are on the right track.

MVI_0070.MOV - YouTube

Thanks,
Alan

 

[BoardMember]

Alan.........The kinetic chain dictates a Proximal to Distal transfer of energy.........Meaning energy flows from the largest muscle groups to the smallest. As energy is transfered toward the more distal parts of the body, the proximal parts begin to decelerate as the distals accelerate. Since the upper arm is proximal to the forearm, wrist and ultimately the fingers/ball, it will decel naturally. Also, the radial/ulanr bones/joints in the forearm have a greater range of radial motion then does the humerus in the shoulder socket, so naturally it will stop rotating sooner then the forearm/wrist.

Bottom line is there is no purposefull "stopping" of the humerus, except in cases where change up is trained to stop the forward motion of the humerus in order to take a lot of velocity off the ball......Basically "cutting off" some of the I/R motion associated with the humerus/upper arm......And therefore "cutting off" some of the velocity generators in the natural motion.

As to your DD..........She looks OUTSTANDING. If you've picked up this teaching from my I/R thread I'd have to claim success in it's purpose.........

The spin your DD show in the last clip with the tape line is the EXACT inward/downward spin I speak about that is critical to learning how to "throw a ball underhand" using the natural I/R kinematic chain.......

If you haven't seen this yet........I posted this "gear" a long time ago to show the "learning spin" of a good I/R motion........

Congratulations on a job well done Sir........

I've been on the forum a few months now after discovering the Internal Rotation thread. I have pretty much exclusively taught my DD to pitch. She will be 10 on Sunday, and started pitching 12 months ago. She is one of three pitchers on a 10U travel team that I also coach.

We have been working on the Internal Rotation part since the start of the year. She has gained almost 5mph in this short time. Here is the video I took last night:

MVI_0061.MOV - YouTube

I notice on all the slow motion clips I see of examples of Internal Rotation the upper arm and elbow come all the way up against the side of the body and almost stops as the lower arm rotates. It is almost like the side of the body is used as leverage to rotate the lower arm before continuing on with the follow through.

I tell my DD to let her arm come all the way to her body but she says it will hurt if I hit myself, LOL. Is the upper arm not coming to the stop as the lower arm rotates a lack of strength, timing, technique, not getting to her side? It just doesn't seem quite right. Can Board Member comment on this or anybody else please. Any other critique welcome please.

Thanks,
Alan

 

[Steve Huff]

Trust me she is not so smooth all the time. I'll ask her to make some small change and she wants to over exagerate the move.

This is from tonight. To me it looks like she swims a little I'm always harping on her to get her front shoulder all the way in line. I also want her not to go so high with the glove arm. She was not in a good mood tonight so it was not her best. Thanks for all the replies. Its encouraging to know from the experts we are on the right track.

MVI_0070.MOV - YouTube

Thanks,
Alan

Hi Alan, in the front view she is pushing off with her foot turned on the rubber. Try to get her to push off with a straight foot. She stepped across the power-line a little, and got her body in the way of her arm, forcing her to wrap her arm around her body just a little. Of course you saw the swimming. I would tell her to knock the hat off your head by pulling the glove right down through you as the catcher. Only one thing at a time though, say foot pushoff, swimming glove, power-line.

 

[Alan Snedeker]

Alan.........The kinetic chain dictates a Proximal to Distal transfer of energy.........Meaning energy flows from the largest muscle groups to the smallest. As energy is transfered toward the more distal parts of the body, the proximal parts begin to decelerate as the distals accelerate. Since the upper arm is proximal to the forearm, wrist and ultimately the fingers/ball, it will decel naturally. Also, the radial/ulanr bones/joints in the forearm have a greater range of radial motion then does the humerus in the shoulder socket, so naturally it will stop rotating sooner then the forearm/wrist.

Bottom line is there is no purposefull "stopping" of the humerus, except in cases where change up is trained to stop the forward motion of the humerus in order to take a lot of velocity off the ball......Basically "cutting off" some of the I/R motion associated with the humerus/upper arm......And therefore "cutting off" some of the velocity generators in the natural motion.

As to your DD..........She looks OUTSTANDING. If you've picked up this teaching from my I/R thread I'd have to claim success in it's purpose.........

The spin your DD show in the last clip with the tape line is the EXACT inward/downward spin I speak about that is critical to learning how to "throw a ball underhand" using the natural I/R kinematic chain.......

If you haven't seen this yet........I posted this "gear" a long time ago to show the "learning spin" of a good I/R motion........

Congratulations on a job well done Sir........

Thank you Board Member. I owe it all to your IR thread, I found it at the right time. I try to pass the word when I can but it is kind of hard when you don't have the proven experience. I had the coach of our other 10U team ask how her finish looks like a changeup but it is a fast ball. I explained it the best I could and pointed him to the IR thread.

 

[Alan Snedeker]

Hi Alan, in the front view she is pushing off with her foot turned on the rubber. Try to get her to push off with a straight foot. She stepped across the power-line a little, and got her body in the way of her arm, forcing her to wrap her arm around her body just a little. Of course you saw the swimming. I would tell her to knock the hat off your head by pulling the glove right down through you as the catcher. Only one thing at a time though, say foot pushoff, swimming glove, power-line.

Yes the foot thing was my fault. She was having even more trouble getting open and I told her to turn her foot so it would help her get open better. Last week I saw it on video when we were working on getting more elevation with her leap and I told her I wanted it to go straight now. Her response, "But you told me to turn it!" Like you said one thing at a time.

 

[Steve Huff]

Yes the foot thing was my fault. She was having even more trouble getting open and I told her to turn her foot so it would help her get open better. Last week I saw it on video when we were working on getting more elevation with her leap and I told her I wanted it to go straight now. Her response, "But you told me to turn it!" Like you said one thing at a time.

Just establish your position in the softball world by showing her some of the early posts commending your efforts. Every kid needs to know when to pay homage to their parents!

 

[lhowser]

This is from tonight.

That sure looks good. I was wanted to see from the front position if she was away from her body with her arm and circle. She's not. It looks really good.