- Jan 9, 2015
- 301
- 28
This is my first post. I have been a long time lurker but a short time member. I am very impressed with this site and am very impressed by the knowledge of the members. I am also impressed with the many clips that are posted.
Here is the current situation. dd will be 12 in a week. She has been pitching for 2 years. Last spring she was doing very well. In my opinion she had solid mechanics (except with a habit of over rotating at the top of her circle and then pushing the ball…sometimes). She played 10U. This fall she moved to 12U. She hit a major growth spurt in August and really she seems to be still going through the spurt. Anyway, her speed has drastically reduced this fall, her control is out the window, her coach got frustrated and began riding her case and told her that she was “throwing horrible”, and she started to slow down her arm at the end of her pitch in order to correct (VERY BAD). She looked very fatigued this past November. So she basically took part of November and December off (with my encouragement). She threw only once a week in December and we worked on as you call it IR and speeding up downswing. I worked on her confidence. By saying lets not worry about where the ball is going just throw….let it rip…..don’t hold back. And trying to get her to laugh when she did something not quite right. Now she is back to throwing three times a week. Seems like the break did more bad than good. Because now she is a little taller her arms a little longer her legs a little longer and she is basically learning to pitch in her new body. Most of her pitches are going high or in the dirt. Her circle has improved however. I wish that I had the softballs to post a video…..Anyway, I am just curious if this is a normal process that developing young pitchers go through?? Is it normal to go through this frustrating phase that we seem to be stuck in?
Any ideas? Suggestions??
Here is the current situation. dd will be 12 in a week. She has been pitching for 2 years. Last spring she was doing very well. In my opinion she had solid mechanics (except with a habit of over rotating at the top of her circle and then pushing the ball…sometimes). She played 10U. This fall she moved to 12U. She hit a major growth spurt in August and really she seems to be still going through the spurt. Anyway, her speed has drastically reduced this fall, her control is out the window, her coach got frustrated and began riding her case and told her that she was “throwing horrible”, and she started to slow down her arm at the end of her pitch in order to correct (VERY BAD). She looked very fatigued this past November. So she basically took part of November and December off (with my encouragement). She threw only once a week in December and we worked on as you call it IR and speeding up downswing. I worked on her confidence. By saying lets not worry about where the ball is going just throw….let it rip…..don’t hold back. And trying to get her to laugh when she did something not quite right. Now she is back to throwing three times a week. Seems like the break did more bad than good. Because now she is a little taller her arms a little longer her legs a little longer and she is basically learning to pitch in her new body. Most of her pitches are going high or in the dirt. Her circle has improved however. I wish that I had the softballs to post a video…..Anyway, I am just curious if this is a normal process that developing young pitchers go through?? Is it normal to go through this frustrating phase that we seem to be stuck in?
Any ideas? Suggestions??
