Pitching Form

Having looked at the video, I think your worries are misplaced. His problem seems to be that he begins upper body rotation far too soon. The shoulders should not start to rotate at all until the front foot lands. There are several things one can try to correct this.  Maybe others will see it differently.

I think he looks pretty good mechanically.  He might be a little early when he starts to rotate, as mentioned, but it seems so minute that I wouldn't mention it to my son at all unless there was some significant control issues.

As best I can tell, this is the frame where his front foot lands:

With the dark uniform, it could be fooling me, but his left shoulder seems to be well into rotation.

It's also hard to tell, but looks like he hasn't yet started to turn over the back foot which leads to his hips being closed. Again, it's difficult to see for sure, but there doesn't seem to be much hip/shoulder separation. I always saw things like this as good news because it means there is a LOT more velocity in his body that can be brought out with a few fairly easy fixes.

I think you need to bring him to east Texas and play for our school so i can analyze his form in a game.  ;0)

If there were time (I know the season is starting), and he were a student of mine, I would start by trying to get the hips to open by foot strike. It's difficult to tell from the angle, but one problem may be that his foot lands early, off line with home plate. It might be as easy as getting him to stretch out more and land the foot a tad bit later so that it lands online (keep in mind that this is a guess from looking at video shot from an angle where I can't be sure). Otherwise, there are drills that can help get him feeling how opening the hips feels - Google "reverse throwing drill" and "turn and burn." Once I got the lower body opening up the hips at foot strike, I'd take a look at his upper body. The shoulders should not start rotating forward until after footstrike. There are a few things that I've seen work to accomplish this. One is as simple as holding back the hand break longer to delay trunk rotation. One method I have had a lot of luck with is to have them actually bring the ball behind their back rather than out behind them. Once they get the feel, they can drop the behind the back (my son actually kept it). here is a video of a 13yo I worked with a few years ago. Notice in the video on the left where his shoulder are at foot strike. I had him go behind the back. The second video is from just 45 minutes later. Note where the shoulders are. On the left, he was throwing 66mph, on the right, 71. Ignore some of the obvious lower body problems - we worked those out later.

here, I actually did things backwards. I worked upper body and then readjusted the lower body, which took more time. After a couple of weeks, he dropped the wrap around behind the back and returned to more traditional mechanics.

personally I think the front arm action could be tighter,  its seems like its just along for the ride.    He would increase velocity and accuracy if he gets that going better.  

Lots of good suggestions....does appear to have a slightly early upper rotation....really when evaluating where everything is, it is much better to capture footage from 1B angle...this angle is hard to really see what is happening / and when.  One thing that "looks" like but can't really confirm at that angle is the position of the left arm at foot strike....looks somewhat long.  I have found that arm layback, and velo "can" be very dramatically effected by this....we strive for 90 degrees or actually a liitle inside of that....it has been VERY difficult to get there, but it has improved with drills, and work.  Otherwise, does not look too bad at all...front leg "looks" like it could firm up a bit more into ball release, but again not anything huge that I personally see as bad.  What is his current sitting velo?

gunner34 posted:

personally I think the front arm action could be tighter,  its seems like its just along for the ride.    He would increase velocity and accuracy if he gets that going better.  

That was my first impression, his front side open a bit early and the arm comes down with no real purpose, if that makes sense.