walking through your pitch

[cornerforge]

Good morning;
last night I went to a practice with a gal I work with ,shes from our high school team. almost 16 years old. She brought along a coach that pitch in a D111 collage. I watched and saw some ok things but than she had the girl doing some exercise that had the girl walking through her pitches. I asked this coach why she was doing this I said you do not want her walking through her pitches , Her responce was yes I do, thats what I teach. I said but she can't get her speed or any of Her different pitches that way. She said that she can throw every pitch that way. I told her I disagreed 100% and left it at that. Is this something new Am I an old differ for everything?
cornerforge

 

[SBFAMILY]

Hillhouse and Gillis, both teach a walk thru as part of the warm up process. If that is what you are talking about.

 

[mrslug01]

I took my DD to a coach that pitched DI recently who taught the same thing. Walk through and follow through straight up to the right shoulder. I even talked about internal rotation with her. She knew what I was talking about with the snap but does not teach that way. She basically can only teach the way she throws. We took two lessons and left.

 

[Dave D]

Walk-throughs are not all that uncommon--Many of the best pitchers I've seen use these as part of their warmups or workouts. They are not exclusive of IR, either. DD does them a couple of times a week, and they have added to her balance and velocity without forcing her out of IR mechanics. It's a nice way to see visible progress, as she is able to move another couple of feet from the plate every week or two. Increase in distance=increase in velocity (as long as arc isn't increasing).

Several years ago, I coached a girl who ended up as a 4 year D1 pitcher, and she would do walkthroughs pre-game. By the end of her senior year, she would stand about 50 ft beyond 2B in CF and throw strikes as her between innings warmup. It was pretty intimidating. She went from mid-upper 50s to low 60 swith a great rise--at least some of that was due to the power she developed by doing walkthroughs.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

Just so we are on the same page, can you define exactly what you mean by "walking through" her pitches. Our PC has my DD do a drill where she stands back from the rubber 8 feet or so and walk into the pitching motion as she reaches the rubber and makes her pitch. Apparently this helps balance, timing, and velocity of the pitch.

 

[mrslug01]

I'm not referring to a walk through for an exercise to increase speed for example. My daughter and I do walk throughs for that purpose. This coach teaches a motion in which the student finishes walking through in the follow through. She believes it helps with the screw ball and drop curve. Also believes that you get more speed and power becuase you are finishing the pitch better. I had a few conversations with her about it. I wanted my daughter to finish as most of us here would agree she should. Coach eventually said do as you want but that she didn't think the pitches would work that way so I gave up. She was successful DI pitcher in the North east but was taught one thing and that's what she knows and teaches. Everyone that goes to her is a clone.

 

[mrslug01]

If you're a righty you would land and push back off your left leg. That would generally have you fall slightly backwards or to the side. This teacher teaches that you should land on the left leg and focus on stepping forward so the right leg actually winds up in front of the left leg at follow through. When my DD does a walk though drill, she walks a few steps releases and still pushes back off her landing leg, or as sluggers has talked about, brings her right leg up and stands on the left for balance. We spent all winter last year fixing her from landing on her front left toe and walking forward. Certainly didn't want to start it again.

 

[halskinner]

I would be interested to find out at what point she starts a student on the riseball, either riseball? Without that resistance against the stride leg, I suspect your instructor was a step-style down-ball pitcher. Find out early on and decide if that is what you want.

I have been sitting here trying to recall if I have ever seen a pitcher walk through while throwing a riseball and I cannot remember any doing that.

Hal

 

[mrslug01]

From what I understand she threw a screwball in, drop curve away and a change. No rise. This would be to righties. Not sure how she handled lefties. One of her students piched a varisty game against us last year and that's all I saw. Screwball in, drop curve away. This girl was a Sr and is going to play D1. That's all I saw though. My DD loves the ball in and turned on one of those screwballs and almost parked it.

 

[Dave D]

Sorry I misunderstood your question in earlier post. One of the first PCs I worked with was a step through teacher--he always wanted pitchers to "slam the hips shut" with release and step square to the plate immediately. He was an old-school former mens' pitcher who also coached "point the elbow, show the back of the hand" mechanics. Nice guy, could demonstrate what he taught, but ultimately behind the times for female pitchers. DD learned this style originally, but has transitioned to IR and a more open hip release, with good results. With all that said, I don't think that any kind of step through finish to the motion will likely lead to the kind of pitching most of us are looking to develop in our DDs.