Spin Rate

DD#2 is 11, we converted her over to IR last year with the help of this board (thank you). Every month or so we pull out the rev fire to see how we are progressing with speed and spin. The last couple months she has been around 45-47mph with a spin of 10 - 11RPS on the rev fire, accuracy was improving really well, however speed kind of stalled. Her TB coach has been asking us to start working on a curve, I have been putting it off because I would like to see her improve on her drop ball before moving onto another pitch. However she hasn't really spun the ball all that well. She get's pretty close to a 6-12 spin but just isn't spinning it very hard. So about 3 weeks ago I started putting a ball in her hand every time she sat down to watch TV (read this trick in an old post). Last weekends tournament she was throwing harder than usual and had a record high 73% ball to strike ratio, so thought I would get the rev fire out today. she was throwing 48 - 51mph with a spin of 14 -15 RPS. She says she can fell her fingers pulling on the seams much better. For 3 years we have been talking about making the ball spin and she figures it out watching TV.... Our goal for the season was to get to 50MPH with a spin of 14, and 70% strike ratio (not how many times she actually hits her spot, this is more like 40% -50%), we are still early in the season so I think we are going to need some new goals.

My question is what is a good goal for spin rate for an 11 year old with decent mechanics?

I can assure you no one has done a study on spin rates for pre-teen girls. So, with that in mind, here is a link on RevFire's website about average HS and College spin rates. RevFire Spin Data

18-20 rps.

should be a goal to strive for

Out in Left Field said:

She is too young for the curve, particularly if you teach the palm down. We also see lots of kids now with drop curves in HS that are really not learning the curve pitch correctly, so you get mediocre results.

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I agree here.
If she's getting 15rps on a drop, just convert that into a cutter/in or out shoot?
IMO, she needs to be as close to perfect as possible on one pitch before moving into other pitches. The curve ball release is much different than her newly learned IR release of a peel... learning the curveball release before the muscle memory of that dropball is deeply engrained will mosy likley be counterproductive.

corlay said:

18-20 rps.

should be a goal to strive for

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That is a good range. As for that curveball, I wouldn't bother with it at this age. I really like the FB-CU-DROP-RISE as the order of learning new pitches. Converting a rise into both a screw and a palm up curve later on is easy once a girl can throw a rise.

I keep spin rates on all my students, unfortunately I don't keep them for fastballs.
My 11yr olds all just throw a drop. I have one throwing a drop and rise and screw, and a couple more working on getting their rises game ready.

Thanks for all the great advice.

JoJo: When do have your pitchers start working on a rise ball? What would be a good range for spin rate on a peel drop for an 11 year old?

coach james said:

I agree here.
If she's getting 15rps on a drop, just convert that into a cutter/in or out shoot?
IMO, she needs to be as close to perfect as possible on one pitch before moving into other pitches. The curve ball release is much different than her newly learned IR release of a peel... learning the curveball release before the muscle memory of that dropball is deeply engrained will mosy likley be counterproductive.

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Coach James: This is exactly what happened we worked on the palm up curve for two weeks at the request of her TB coach and everything started to have what I think was a bullet spin and her accuracy started to fall off. Since we started tournaments a month ago I decided not to work on it this season and instead work on spinning the ball better, so we broke out the stripped balls and started spinning the ball everyday.

WOODY123 said:

Thanks for all the great advice.

JoJo: When do have your pitchers start working on a rise ball? What would be a good range for spin rate on a peel drop for an 11 year old?

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A couple of months after I introduce the drop, I want to get them comfortable on the drop then I just have them work the rise spin, no pitching it. Just getting the ball to be able to spin back, and increasing the distance as the spin is correct.
My pitchers throw either peels or turnovers, whichever they prefer or I think is best for them.

I am very analytical, I keep records of EVERYTHING! Over the years I have figured out the averages of all my age groups, in speed and spins and where a good place for them to be at in every age group so I can set goals for them and for my 11yr olds the goal I set for them is 14.0

These are what I have;
10yr old--12.8 = turnover
11yr old--22.2 = peel--not a true peel, has curve spin, switching to turnover now
11yr old--17.8 = turnover
11yr old--15.6 = peel over
11yr old--15.0 = turnover

Jojo said:

I am very analytical, I keep records of EVERYTHING! Over the years I have figured out the averages of all my age groups, in speed and spins and where a good place for them to be at in every age group so I can set goals for them and for my 11yr olds the goal I set for them is 14.0

These are what I have;
10yr old--12.8 = turnover
11yr old--22.2 = peel--not a true peel, has curve spin, switching to turnover now
11yr old--17.8 = turnover
11yr old--15.6 = peel over
11yr old--15.0 = turnover

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Jojo, Thanks for sharing, it looks like we might be within the norm but still have some room for improvement on the spin rate.