Pitching Speed

Question
QUESTION: Hi. I'm wondering what your opinion is on ways to improve pitching speed. My daughter is in her 2nd year of pitching, and she has good mechanics, but she's not the fastest. She will be 11 soon, and she currently pitches around 41-43mph. She is tall and very athletic, but I think she is trying to "arm" it so to speak rather than use her whole body. How much of pitching fastballs is arm strength and how much comes from lower body strength? Are there any drills she can do that will help with speed other than pitching from further distances? Also, I've seen that you can use weighted balls, but she might still be too young for that. She is making the move up to 12U this year, so I'm looking for things we can work on to get her speed up a little more for next spring. Thanks for your help.

ANSWER: OH THERE ARE MANY THINGS WE CAN DO TO HELP HER. BEING TALL IS A VERY BIG ADVANTAGE "IF YOU KNOW HOW TO USE YOUR HEIGHT" SHE HAS LONG LEGS THEREFORE SHE CAN TAKE A BIGGER STEP AND REDUCE THE DISTANCE THE BALL HAS TO BE THROWN. SO FIRST OFF GET ALL THE BALLS THAT YOU OWN AND HAVE HER GET AT HER REGULAR PITCHING DISTNACE. THEN BUT THE BALLS DOWN BY HER SIDE ON THE FLOOR. HAVE HER GET ON THE FLOOR LIKE IN THE POSITION THAT THE RUNNERS START OFF IN A TRACK RACE THEN PITCH FROM THERE, BUT DO NOT STAND UP STRAIGHT, THE POINT IS TO USE ALL YOUR LEGS. IT WILL FEEL WEIRD AT FIRST BUT THIS IS A REALLY GOOD DRILL. HAVE HER THROW ABOUT 20 PITCHES AND DO THIS 2 TIMES THEN ADD PITCHES LATER ON. A WEIGHTED BALL DOES HELP BUT YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT IT IS NOT TO HEAVY AND THAT SHE DOES NOT THROW IT TO OFTEN BECAUSE IT WILL HURT HER ELBOW. TRY THAT DRILL AND THEN LET ME KNOW HOW THAT IS WORKING OUT FOR HER. ALSO GET HER BAT AND HAVE HER STAND SIDEWAYS AND SWING THE BAT IN A CIRCLE" LIKE THE SAME MOTION THAT SHE PITCHES THE BALL" AND GO AS FAST AS SHE CAN ABOUT 10 TIMES. DO THIS 3 TIMES.

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QUESTION: Hi. I'm not sure I understand how to do this drill. You set get down on the floor like they do for track? Do you mean in a standing lunge or like when they are crouched on the ground. Can you try explaining this to me again? I'm having a hard time picturing what this should look like. Thanks.

Answer
sure sorry if i didnt expalin it well enough the first time. yes she will be down on the ground crouched. glove will be touching the floor and the softball will be laying on the floor. when she starts she will get the ball and push off the ground. but she can not stand up straight. she needs to push fowards not upwards. the after she lets go of the ball she gets another and does it as fast as she can. does that help you understand it better?