Pitching-What to work on?

My dd guest pitched last week. She was used as a pool pitcher and the other guest pitcher was used as a bracket pitcher. The reason was my dd pitched slower than the other girl. The other pitcher pitched straight down the middle of the plate with very little ball movement but faster. The other teams were hitting her. My dd had a lot of ball movement and wasn't getting hit much but she did walk a couple batters. Should my dd work more on increasing pitch speed? It seems like everyone always want to know how fast she pitches.

In my opinion speed will help the off speed pitches. Keep working on movement and location. I look for the bracket pitcher to be the one that gets more off center hits and gives the defense a chance. Speed down the middle just goes farther.

If I remember your post from about a month ago with a video of your dd pitching, she had recently migrated towards an HE style rather than her original (Amanda Scarborough's) style...
You where given a lot of suggestions to help her. Her primary issue was a walk out pitch with closed mechanics and a forward lean. Continue to work on staying open and leading with the elbow palm up, with her posture staying behind her front leg. Keep studying pitchers like Scarborough and the speed will come.
Inexperienced coaches will continue to think speed is the most important thing! Stay patient and keep improving. She'll be fine

I do not know if I would be too worried about another guest player pitching ahead of your DD, sight unseen I would probably rate the faster pitcher ahead too. Once she pitches on a Team hopefully the better pitcher will win out regardless of the speed. In the long run changing speeds, location and movement will be more important than raw speed.

coach james said:

If I remember your post from about a month ago with a video of your dd pitching, she had recently migrated towards an HE style rather than her original (Amanda Scarborough's) style...
You where given a lot of suggestions to help her. Her primary issue was a walk out pitch with closed mechanics and a forward lean. Continue to work on staying open and leading with the elbow palm up, with her posture staying behind her front leg. Keep studying pitchers like Scarborough and the speed will come.
Inexperienced coaches will continue to think speed is the most important thing! Stay patient and keep improving. She'll be fine

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You are right, she was pitching HE style but in the tournament she was using Amanda Scarborough style. Which how she was how she was originally taught how to pitch. She has been working on staying back and gotten better. Still need work on keeping her weight more centered. I do appreciate all the suggestions and dd has been working hard on them. Being new with travel ball and dd being a fairly new pitcher, I am trying to learn as much about the game as possible. Also, trying to understand, "what makes a good pitcher".

Out in Left Field said:

Winter is coming and that is when the pitcher works on speed. By that I mean, working out and specific drills that encourage using full body, momentum and proper mechanics without worrying about location so much (and remember rest.) No matter what type of pitcher she is, she should do this because all athletes benefit from fitness.

But the pitcher also needs to learn a new pitch over the winter, so this is the time to work on varying the speed.

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Definately looking to work on speed during the winter months.

Crytstal Brown, I don't know what age your DD is but in the younger levels, coaches are going to be impressed with speed.

I've seen 10u & 12u try-outs where they just chose the pitchers off their speed. Speed can be enough at these ages, but control and a change of speed for slower pitchers can even be better.
As far as "What makes a good pitcher".

There is a lot there, but the main points are;
Control, speed or ability to change speed, ability to work under pressure.
You want to have a pitcher that doesn't give up too many hard hits.

My DD had a friend who went on to play outfield at a D1 university. She quit after her freshman year saying she was tired of playing the game hugging the outfield fence as one by one the hits went over the fence.

My dd was playing 14u. The other pitcher didn't walk a single person in the game but the other team score 21 points. The girl pitched only one speed. While her speed looked impressive, she looked confident and I give her credit, she played hard, too many opponents were hitting her hard. Listening to what the coaches were saying, they believe the pitcher did a great job, just the defense needed to back her up.
The time my dd did play in the tournament, she did a great job selling the change up(not slowing her arm movement down). No one hit her change up in the game. The first inning she struck 2 batters out and one hit it short to 2nd base. 2nd inning was the same,only got hit off once. 3rd inning was when she walked the two batters back to back.One of them did score. After that inning, she was pulled and wasn't used the rest of the day.

I even asked the coach what he saw that she needed to work on, he said, "nothing, she did a great job".

Crystal Brown said:

My dd was playing 14u. The other pitcher didn't walk a single person in the game but the other team score 21 points. The girl pitched only one speed. While her speed looked impressive, she looked confident and I give her credit, she played hard, too many opponents were hitting her hard. Listening to what the coaches were saying, they believe the pitcher did a great job, just the defense needed to back her up.
The time my dd did play in the tournament, she did a great job selling the change up(not slowing her arm movement down). No one hit her change up in the game. My dd did walk

I even asked the coach what he saw that she needed to work on, he said, "nothing, she did a great job".

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Well there is your answer, your DD is fine, and the defense needs to work harder when the flamethrower is pitching.

I wouldn't predominately focus on just one thing over the winter.
Allow her to do her speed drills and continue to work on her mechanics. As her mechanics improve her speed will improve, and continue to work on her breaking pitches because come 16u she's really going to need them.

Out in Left Field said:

JJ:

I would not want that outfielder on my team. Better to play softball than do nothing. Guess she did not get the memo there is no I in team. She won't be happy after graduation--with slowpitch if she thinks that hugging the fence is hard in college....because that is mostly what's next for most college grads....


For real: The college fences are too close or not high enough. That is fact.

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She was off the charts smarts, she chose the poorly playing D1 college to please her daddy, but enough was enough, and finished school on a Academic scholarship. Playing softball in college isn't for everyone, and sometimes it just to please daddy.