High School Coaches

What do you do when the high school head coach want your dd to pitch(better word throw) bp. Now mind you, not just your dd, but all pitchers on the staff. Here's the kicker, only throw strikes, let your teamates hit, and only down the middle. NO drop, screw, curve,rise(if you have one) or change up even if they can throw all for strikes. All knowing (small school has a great record because has been blessed with a pitcher for most of her career), doesnt hold travel ball in high regard even A class. Nice coach, but have been told by parents (current and past), dont even come close of raising an issue with any issues related to the team nuff said.

Not looking to confront head coach, kid is 14 I want to stay of it. looking for advice for to know what to say to dd. Past 4 years learning her craft, stay out of the red yada yada.

I just dont get it, why not set up a pitching machine, or have a coach set up screen 15 feet away from plate.

I can do you one better. DD was asked to throw BP to the JV team, then asked to not only throw hittable pitches but to slow down so the JV could hit. The coaches intent was to work the varsity fielding but there are many better ways to do this then to have his pitchers practice throwing slow and down the middle. I was on the phone with the coach as soon as I heard about this, we won't . If the coach won't talk about it rationally then you have few options. Either find a way to live with it (DD actually just did cool down style easy walk throughs instead of real pitching) or don't pitch HS. Around here at least HS is generally pretty low level and not where College coaches are looking to recruit from and the players goal during HS season is to not slip backwards too much or pick up too many bad habits.

Our local online rag, NJ.com has several stories of kids currently out with leg injuries and one that had to leave when hit in the stomach by comebacks. Maybe print it out and say you really want your ace pitching strikes to these other girls?

Injuries

Never really saw the benefit of practicing on pitches that were slow, flat, and fat. But then again that is probably what they are seeing.

DD will be restricted in what she can throw, I am OK with that. Let her know what she can throw and she will learn something from that.

If they tell her to let the batters hit.DD gets nothing out of it.

Pitching down the middle at V level is suicide. Hope she has a mask. That coach has no respect for his players.

-W

This type of BP is what a coach is for. I threw mine from about 35 so I could put some stuff on it but last long enough to throw a few rounds to my players.

DD's current HS coach is cool. He wants to challenge our batters and has DD just get up there and throw her stuff. Also good because we arguably have the best conference in our state and our batters WILL see similar pitching (Example - We are facing an Oregon Ducks verballed-pitcher this Thursday).

If I heard DD was being asked to alter her pitches to gear them down (except for maybe a short sequence of change-ups) I would tell DD to NOT do it. I wouldn't care what the HS coach would say or do.

Now know I take on this hard-line approach ONLY in the case of a player (like my DD was) who is going after the best scholarship she can and where HS is really just preperation for the more meaningful (for her goal) TB season. In these cases HS should not get in the way of a pitchers dreams.

In contrast if my DD were to be playing and pitching for "fun" then I would expect her to conform to the HS coaches desires with this.

On a related note - DD currently is being asked by HS to throw way more fastballs than "normally" DD would pitch for K dominence. I would be barking about this if DD was not already "signed". I am much more relaxed about stuff now in her senior year. (again only doing this in support of DD's big college dream).

The fact of the matter is that personal college pitching dreams can & will conflict with HS directives. Like anything ya got to find a happy compromise which can be VERY difficult.

RubberBiscuit said:

...Now know I take on this hard-line approach ONLY in the case of a player (like my DD was) who is going after the best scholarship she can and where HS is really just preparation for the more meaningful (for her goal) TB season. In these cases HS should not get in the way of a pitchers dreams...

Click to expand...

I wish High School coaches should just be grateful for having an accomplished, college bound TB pitcher and not try to turn them into HS pitchers.

I don't have any input on the high school side, but at 12U we have my daughter attack the batters like she would in a game to give them real world practice. She is trying to strike them out and they are trying to hit. The catcher is calling locations and pitches etc. If they want them fat just set up a machine. These are two entirely different practice scenarios as far as I can see. One is timing and mechanics (fat) one is pitch selection and more real world (live pithing).