1st time pitching in 16U gold

My dd played for the 1st time yesterday with her new team which is a 16u gold team. This is quite a step up from 14u b level travel. Her team is playing a bunch of college round robins and a couple of pgf tournaments sprinkled in. She was the 3rd pitcher in the rotation so pitched the last inning of the 1st game and the 1st of the 2nd game for a total of 2 innings. She had no solid hits on her and was moving the ball very well. She induced a lot of foul and ground balls but had no strikeouts. The worst thing was she had 2 walks so she needs to work on her control. She didn't seem to be pitching as fast as usual so I think she was holding back some which I think could be because of nerves. I wish she would have had 2 consecutive innings because she does get stronger once she gets into a rhythm. Does this seem like a decent 1st outing for her playing at this level? She was not happy with her performance but she was used to getting the strikeouts. Here is a clip of her pitching, thoughts? https://vimeo.com/183230917


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I HIGHLY recommend working on perfecting an off speed pitch. Do not make the mistake that we did by relying on my DD's movement pitches to get batters out. Good hitters know the strike zone and lay off balls, and umpires start to tighten the strike zone at the older age groups and in college. A good off speed pitch is necessary to keep the batters off balance, regardless how hard your DD throws.

Agree, and for sure something we are working on. Her change up is looking a lot better but we are working on her keeping it lower in the zone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Legendsmom said:

Agree, and for sure something we are working on. Her change up is looking a lot better but we are working on her keeping it lower in the zone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Focus on throwing it for a strike first (on command every time). After that she should focus on throwing it on the "U".