9 y.o. son repost

Pitching Mechanics
#1

Hello everyone, hope your summers were good. After a short break, my son has decided to start pitching or at the very least throwing again. After reviewing these videos, what do you feel he should work on? I know glove side was an issue in the past, probably still is, but I was just wondering what else so we can start our routine on a good foot. Thanks to everyone in advance. Any positives would be appreciated as well, so I can leave that stuff alone.

P.S. These videos are from June, as July was his last month of pitching these should be current.

http://home.comcast.net/~palmiedj/IMG_0132.MOV

http://home.comcast.net/~palmiedj/IMG_0134.MOV

http://home.comcast.net/~palmiedj/IMG_0135.MOV

#2

It’s really impossible to view these movies like we want to, we need controls to go forward and back before we can give some judgements. That is what the youtube video’s work so well. In addition they take forever to load, most of us are severly ADD and dont have the patience. Please upload to youtube and then get them up onto here.

#3

I’m surprised you’re having difficulty viewing. They are in .mov format which is Quicktime. And if you maximize the screen you can fast forward, rewind, and pause. But I’ll try to repost them in youtube if that would be easier.

#4

Yea the youtube is so much easier to watch.

#5

Pretty good! I’d like to see him getting his hips moving faster down the mound, which would help get his head out in front of his footplant. I’d also like to see a little more involvement of the glove side arm as the hands separate down back and up.

P.S. I actually like .mov’s better because you have much better control over the speed of the playback.

#6

Thank you for taking a look Steven. I appreciate it. We’ll work on that this off-season and I’ll post some results. He pitched a little the other day and did relatively well. I tried to have him get his hips moving faster and I think it will take a little time, but he’ll do it. Thanks again.

#7

The fact that these are in .mov format is why they are infinitely better than Youtube videos, which are good if you have nothing else. With Youtube, you cannot step forward and backward through the video one frame at a time. In the videos shown, I’m not sure why the controls are not showing but if you hit “enter” it will play. Then use your left and right arrow keys to step through the frames. This is fantastic and is what is so very frustrating about Youtube videos.

Now for the mechs of this young man. His shoulders are wide open before he plants the front foot. Maybe Roger or laflippin can help with the equal & opposite at footplant cue.

#8

First thing I’d do is change his starting position. Move his feet closer together so he doesn’t have to weight shift towards 2B to go into knee lift. That will eliminate some unnecessary movement and avoid tipping off runners. Then add some bend to the knees and waist so his back leg doesn’t have to collapse so much when he initiates movement towards his target.

Also, as DM mentioned, it would be good to work on keeping the shoulders closed a bit longer to get better hip and shoulder separation. And that starts with the glove arm. In the 2nd video it’s real obvious that his glove flies out to the side pulling the shoulders with it. If your boy can keep the glove out front in an “equal and opposite” position a hair longer before he turns it over and then keep it in front of his chest as he turns it over, that will avoid the fly-out and allow the shoulders to stay closed longer.

#9

Thank you to everyone who responded.

Roger: You helped me in June, and I appreciate your help now. It is becoming more clear to me that we have to work on that glove side (as your advice has not changed) :lol: and trust me we tried at the end of last season and have not forgotten it. Old habits are hard to break. The only change he seemed to be more resistent to was his feet placement. Trying to fight the closer together and the bend in the knees. Is that a major flaw (like the glove side) or more of a tweak? He wants to get better so I know he’ll do it. Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked for help but I’m trying to focus on one thing at a time.

DM: I don’t know why the video is doing that. I actually consider myself technologically savvy but I’m stumped here. Thank you for the pointers.

#10

The starting position adjusment itself is just a tweak. But the impact can be large because it affects the entire delivery. The young guys lack the core strength to stabilize posture and balance if they get themselves going in a direction other than at the target. Take, for example, a pitcher who leans back (towards 1B for a RHP) as he goes into knee lift. He’s moving some of his weight towards 1B while trying to move towards home plate. He’ll probably end up going somewhere in between and falling off to the glove side. Similar things can happen to pitchers who hunch forward because they started off too upight.