Newbie to Pitching Question

[T-Seed]

Background: DD has been playing softball since she was 3.5 she just turned 11. Up until recently she had no interest in pitching. ~9 months ago she decided she wanted to pitch mainly due to lack of successful pitcher's on both her rec and TB teams. She began teaching herself how to pitch watching Montana Fouts videos (her favorite pitcher plus we are Bama fans) & using a cat toy and throwing at our couch. After a few months of her showing she was serious on learning the skill and me attempting to help her in the yard based on this forum and various YouTube videos we decided to get a PC, been seeing the PC 1/week for about ~6 months now.

She was the primary pitcher on her 10U rec team this season with good success and is in a rotation with 2 others on 10U TB. We picked-up with a 12U TB team this weekend and she did well. Complete game (4 innings) with 1 walk, 1 hit batter, and gave up 4 hits, 2 runs allowed. Came in as relief in 2 other games with success as well and only allowed 1 run. 1st time pitching in 12U.

She is now ~5'-7" and 100 lbs. During velo-drills with PC been clocked at 46 MPH with a 11" ball at 35' and 41 MPH with a 12" ball at 40'. Still have a few more 10U games to go so we are bouncing around there. I have asked the PC about her progression and am being told she is doing exceptionally well for the amount of time she has been pitching. I agree but know I am biased.

So to my question, I have been down the HE/IR rabbit hole. We (neither me nor the PC) have changed the way she pitches are far as that is concerned, what you will see is her "natural" arm motion that she has used from the beginning basically. PC says she is using IR (I think I agree) but not so sure. We took a slow-mo video last week in the back yard, see below. Is this IR or NO, what say the Guru's?

Note: We were primarily focusing on leg drive & we did not notice she was stepping out with her drive leg before planting until we watched the video later. Video also clearly exposed some other mechanics issues (drag foot not coming to heel, stepping out to side a bit, not turning hip to catcher, completely leaving the ground).

Sorry for long post, I can be long winded.



Any comments or advice are appreciated!

Jeremy

 

[CoachCeetar]

think your video is set to private.

 

[Ken B]

Says it's set to private.

 

[T-Seed]

1st time uploading to YouTube, says it is Public now.

 

[T-Seed]

 

[CoachCeetar]

hardly a guru here, but this seems to jibe with all the IR stuff I've seen and my daughter has learned over the last 14 months or so.

 

[jfitch12]

Just focusing on the upper body, it is not bad, and will probably improve just with reps. She looks a little straight with the arm, and the finish is not exactly what you want. You might consider drills that focus on (1) a looser arm (more bend in the elbow throughout, but especially in the upswing), (2) more pull with the lats in the downswing (look up the old BM "adduction" video if you have not seen it), and (3) the princess-handshake finish. The finish alone may help promote more external rotation on the downswing in order to internally rotate into the princess handshake. Also remember that some cues work and some don't--if she has not gotten it after 15-20 tries, move on to something else. That's where a good pitching coach can really help.

 

[sluggers]

She's not doing IR correctly--she's maybe 1/2 way there.

The hand should be behind the ball at 12 and under the ball at 9. She should finish with the palm down.

The sticky thread "IR in the Classroom" has an excellent progression for teaching IR.

 

[CoachJD]

As others have said, I think she's on the right track, but it looks like she gets behind the ball before release, which limits the whip. So the IR isn't there yet, but I've seen this many times with someone who is headed in the right direction.

Also agree it looks like her arm straightens out a bit too much. Those two things are probably connected.

If you want something promising: It could just be that she's lanky, but it appears she has long arms (don't, um, tell her she has long arms!). This will bode her well as she develops as a pitcher. Those longer levers seem to really benefit pitchers for science-y reasons someone else can explain better than I can. Once you get that whip going, she's going to throw harder than one might expect from someone of her size.

 

[ArmWhip]

I think she's doing it correctly except for the very end, the palm up finish concerns me. The 'lock it in' drill is one way to address this, with an emphasis on the roll over immediately after release. Another way is to use a small hand tool like a hammer, or a garden trowel, with the lock it in sequence, to let her feel the whipping action through release. Then move to holding a ball and doing the same thing, then releasing the ball.