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My 9yo daughter seems to be regressing when she throws and I've run out of catch phrases, analogies, and visual aids to help her, so I'm soliciting ideas.
From the beginning, I've taught her to "point, step and throw," and we originally not only had success with distance but also with accuracy ... not only with her, but with others.
The "point" is basically to rotate the shoulders to be in line with the target, point the glove at the target with the arm straight back (like making a letter "T").
The "step" is to step and point the foot at the target.
The "throw" is ... well, to throw the ball.
This year, there appears to be two problems that I see, although one may be the result of the other.
The first is that when she steps, she is locking her left knee. As she comes forward, she looks like she's rocking up using it almost like a vaulting pole but then pushes back against the forward momentum. Instead of allowing her right leg (she throws right-handed) to come through and fall in front, it bends at the knee (think "flamingo leg"), and then straightens to catch her falling back. To use a basketball analogy, it looks like she's performing a "fade away" throw and her throw is very erratic but even worse when it's a long throw and she "presses."
I've tried various ways to get her to allow herself to come through ... I put her on a mound to have her throw down an incline to reinforce the momentum of the follow through, I've tried having her concentrate on bending the front knew rather than locking it, we've tried "long throws" and a crow hop to get her momentum strong enough that she cannot lock the knew and fall back, to no avail at this point. I've also had her watch video of other players ... softball, baseball, pitchers, outfielders, etc.
The second problem, although this may be the result of the knee lock, is that she is short-arming her throws ... almost a "flicking" motion. The result is that while she could make the throw from SS or 3B to first, her ball is diving into the dirt about 3/4 of the way there.
Many times, the ball comes out with a corkscrew spin rather than backspin ... would using a smaller ball (she uses an 11" ball in her league), like a baseball, allow her to get the feel of throwing with 2 fingers rather than 3 and reinforce backspin, then move back to the larger ball?
I did read in another thread the tip to draw a line on the ball and try to get it to not wobble, which I'll try this weekend.
Any other ideas, catch-phrases, tips, or other drills I can use to try to get her over ... her front leg?
TIA,
Dave
From the beginning, I've taught her to "point, step and throw," and we originally not only had success with distance but also with accuracy ... not only with her, but with others.
The "point" is basically to rotate the shoulders to be in line with the target, point the glove at the target with the arm straight back (like making a letter "T").
The "step" is to step and point the foot at the target.
The "throw" is ... well, to throw the ball.
This year, there appears to be two problems that I see, although one may be the result of the other.
The first is that when she steps, she is locking her left knee. As she comes forward, she looks like she's rocking up using it almost like a vaulting pole but then pushes back against the forward momentum. Instead of allowing her right leg (she throws right-handed) to come through and fall in front, it bends at the knee (think "flamingo leg"), and then straightens to catch her falling back. To use a basketball analogy, it looks like she's performing a "fade away" throw and her throw is very erratic but even worse when it's a long throw and she "presses."
I've tried various ways to get her to allow herself to come through ... I put her on a mound to have her throw down an incline to reinforce the momentum of the follow through, I've tried having her concentrate on bending the front knew rather than locking it, we've tried "long throws" and a crow hop to get her momentum strong enough that she cannot lock the knew and fall back, to no avail at this point. I've also had her watch video of other players ... softball, baseball, pitchers, outfielders, etc.
The second problem, although this may be the result of the knee lock, is that she is short-arming her throws ... almost a "flicking" motion. The result is that while she could make the throw from SS or 3B to first, her ball is diving into the dirt about 3/4 of the way there.
Many times, the ball comes out with a corkscrew spin rather than backspin ... would using a smaller ball (she uses an 11" ball in her league), like a baseball, allow her to get the feel of throwing with 2 fingers rather than 3 and reinforce backspin, then move back to the larger ball?
I did read in another thread the tip to draw a line on the ball and try to get it to not wobble, which I'll try this weekend.
Any other ideas, catch-phrases, tips, or other drills I can use to try to get her over ... her front leg?
TIA,
Dave