FiveFrameSwing
Banned
And the more a pitcher lacks 'control', the more a pitch caller must divert from this task and instead make pitch calls more geared towards simply allowing the team to play the game.
calling pitches
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And the more a pitcher lacks 'control', the more a pitch caller must divert from this task and instead make pitch calls more geared towards simply allowing the team to play the game.
Dude - I wasn't referring to your situation at all. I guess I should have made that clear. Sorry about that.
This is just a general theme I see PCs following with a lot of younger pitchers (10-12 years old). They "teach" them several pitches so the parents think they're getting their money's worth because their 11-year-old DD "throws six different pitches." The problem is, she hasn't mastered any of them and you really can't start teaching a girl to pitch (rather than just throw to hitters) until she's mastered at least one. But the PC tells the parents that the coach with two decades of experience doesn't know what he's talking about and they need for DD to throw all these pitches to hitters in real games if she's going to get better.
What they fail to tell the parents, because it is boring and less likely to make said parents spend more money, is that a fastball and changeup located well beats six different pitches located slightly less well every time.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
Often it takes a parent going along for the journey to build a solid pitcher.
During the off-season, see a pitching instructor once a week ..... then during the week spend 3-4 additional sessions doing the boring monotonous repetitive work to master a select number of pitches. During the season ... continue to see a pitching instructor, drop the monotonous work down to 2-sessions/wk, and pitch live during the weekends.
Perhaps the message that some parents don't want to hear is that it requires them sacrificing a portion of their life .... or that they don't wish to believe that their DD need go through monotonous repetitive work.
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FiveFrameSwing
Banned
I will stress this even more. Constantly being down 2-0 turns a pitch caller into daredevil. You have to get something into the zone to get back into the AB and everyone in the ballpark knows it. "Strategy" for exploiting the hitter's weaknesses pretty much goes out the window, and you do indeed have to call something the pitcher is more comfortable throwing. The other problem is, any decent team already knows what that pitch is.
Oh ... but at least she has six different pitches.
Nice post!
It's sort of cyclic ..... the more a pitcher lacks control, the more the pitch caller is handicapped and feels the need to be a "daredevil". Together ... the pitch caller and pitcher come off looking pretty bad. The pitcher & associated family often blame the pitch caller .... but honestly, there is little blame to be accepted by the pitch caller when the pitcher simply hasn't done the work to master control.
I agree totally Little A, yeah we stressed on her mechanics first then hitting her spots followed by a change up, drop and curve but she picked up on the curve better than the drop for some reason so we exploited that more than the drop at first now we are just working on her hitting her spots with those pitches and practicing the spin for the rise with the proper mechanics but wont implement that this year. she's still got work to do on mastering the the others yet. nationals are here in Sioux falls next year for 14u so the plan is to get her to have the rise by then.
well 1st time using the pitch cards was a success no miscommunications what so ever. both pitchers hit their spots good, my DD first game had 8 k's in 4 innings 1 hit against her. we won 9-0, second game the pitcher had only 2 k's but basically shut the hitters down and we won 10-2 it was just a dbl header league game tonight the true test will come on the tourney this weekend playing better teams.
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- Jan 9, 2015
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I would love 100% first pitch strikes...as long as those strikes are pitches swung at and thrown a couple inches off the plate. If your pitcher is good enough to hit her spot 90% of the time then she should be throwing a pitch that even touches the plate about 25% of the time(or less).
A good pitcher can throw strikes. A great pitcher can throw balls that look like strikes.
I couldn't agree with ya more on that shes there on fb's and curves hitting her spots. still working on the drops and trying to get her cu to slow down some more shes been inconsistent lately on that and really no clue why, I gunned her pre game yesterday on 15 change ups and she was only getting a 8-11mph change(circle change and digs her middle finger into the seam) been thinking of trying to have her try the flip change. personally I don't know what change is the slowest?
And that is a problem because...?
I don't know they worked good last night but don't ya want to be in that 15-20mph difference? more I think for the disciplined batters? cant remember where I read it but I thought 20mph was kind of the magical #
