Why we keep reminding you that speed isn't everything

This week, 2 of my high school pitchers faced off in a fall high school season game.

A Senior vs a Sophomore.

I had my sophomore last night who her and her mom were telling me about the game my other pitcher from a rival school pitched.

A little bit about my senior. On a good day she can bring it up to a fiery 51mph! She claims 52, who knows?

Every time she goes to a try-out she's told, "You need more speed".
It's not going to happen with her. Once she hit high school I told her not to think of her speed as a bad thing. A lot of hitters struggle with slower speeds so make it your asset.

Perfect your location and spin the ball. And by all means, don't let those few innings go by and let them adjust, you can't always throw faster, but your sure as heck can throw slower and smarter.



My sophomore said, "She made us look ridiculous". And went on to say it wasn't all that bad because they managed to score a few runs in the last inning,--After they pulled her out.

A lot of kids who cannot ever turn on the speed, quit long before high school. But this one managed to stay with it. She's always been an asset to every team she's played for. You can always put her in and she'll always get the job done without all the flair.

And now she's pitching varsity (was #1 varsity last year as a junior) and still getting the job done.

My DD has pretty good velocity. But it is her teammate who comes in late in the game throwing 53-54 with a 43mph change up that makes the opposing hitters look silly. Some even falling down chasing pitches. Even in college there is a place for such a pitcher.

The fields in my area are littered with the ghosts of "throw as hard as you can, you can always learn control later"...

That is the message I am trying to convey to a 10 yo rec player that just moved back in distance. She is used to blowing away the competition. My message to her is "Be smarter than them. Do not throw the same pitch twice in a row." For her, it may just be changing locations.

But so many of the coaches aren't calling pitches or location and they never even call a time out, to go to the circle.

Placement and being smart can get you far....

How Greg Maddux dominated with mid-80’S heat - GammonsDaily.com

JJsqueeze said:

Placement and being smart can get you far....

How Greg Maddux dominated with mid-80’S heat - GammonsDaily.com

Click to expand...

Does his HOF bust depict him with his wry, little smirk? You know, the one that seemed to say "Yeah, I'm not big, strong, tough, or fast, but I'm smarter than you, sucker. Next victim please."

riseball said:

My DD has pretty good velocity. But it is her teammate who comes in late in the game throwing 53-54 with a 43mph change up that makes the opposing hitters look silly. Some even falling down chasing pitches. Even in college there is a place for such a pitcher.

Click to expand...

From what I remember, yours throws mid 60's, which is bringing the heat pretty dang good. What has always blown my mind, is in BB we start a with a pretty good speed pitcher, then bring in some real fire ballers to close. In my experience with softball it's just the opposite, seems the batters have a harder time adjusting down in speed. Now I know "movement" plays a roll, but just the theory behind BB vs SB bullpen strategies, and how they differ, always has me curious.

On our 14u team we have two pitchers that are just as you described. both have movement but one throws upper 50s the other throws lower 50s with crazy movement and location. They split games regularly and are very successful doing it. we call the strategy fire and ice. Although we most often go slow to fast because we figure the teams we face saw a faster pitcher in their previous game and are more adjusted to speed vs filth.

riseball said:

My DD has pretty good velocity. But it is her teammate who comes in late in the game throwing 53-54 with a 43mph change up that makes the opposing hitters look silly. Some even falling down chasing pitches. Even in college there is a place for such a pitcher.

Click to expand...

Exactly.
When my DD went to college she was the flame thrower on the team.
Her team had a Sophomore pitcher from Canada on the team that was 6'2". I think they saw the "potential" in this kid with her height and that they could pull some speed out of her mechanics. She was topping out at 54mph.
Every day at practice she was put on the Finch Windmill, every game I watched she was in the practice area on that windmill trainer.
My DD claimed that was all they were doing with her. She never got faster and they cut her her Jr year.

Seems a shame that all those months she couldn't have been working on her spins and been a useful member for her team.

I worked with this student last night. She said that in that particular game she had 9 K's in 6 innings and was getting most of them with her off speed curve.

I'm pleased she's going to her off-speed more. Getting my pitchers confident that off-speed pitches are effective is always a challenge.