how has your pitching journey been?

with a lot of folks reading and posting in the pitching section, i wondered how has your DD's pitching journey been?

for my DD, it started in 2012 unfortunately with HE. we made the transition to IR/BI in 2013.

To date, DD has fixed the following:

1. bad drag (side of the cleats)
2. glove swim
3. pushing (bowling)

Under construction:

1. butt-out (bending towards 3rd)
2. Brush contact

it might seem like a long time to fix a few things, but looking back, corrections DO TAKE TIME to really sink in.
I wished it could be faster but as master Yoda would say "Patience, my young padawan". that's Patience bucket dad/mom.

This message board has been A GREAT help and resource as is finding the right PC to guide DD!

how has your pitching journey been?

We started lessons in January of this year. She's 8, and just joined a 10U team so we've not seem her pitch in a game yet. Sep 19 is our first 10u tournament.

I've been pretty impressed with her journey. We don't clock speed often but at her first lesson she threw 33 mph. The last time, a couple of weeks ago, she was at 43. She can reliably throw 4 different pitches. I think the most impressive part is how much better accuracy has improved. I'm really looking forward to seeing how she does in a game scenario. Nervous too!

I'm very glad we started her in lessons when we did. I realized very, very quickly that all the YouTube in the world would not help me teach her proper technique.

Edited to fix autocorrect stuff.

We just transitioned to 12u from a successful 10u season. We still need to work on better whip which is even more necessary now. Working on core strength and mentally " bringing the legs" on every pitch.
We have glove swim but have not made it an issue as we work on the more important things. It's going to be interesting.....everything seems slower.

Wishing everyone success with fixes!!!!! And patience a for those of us on the bucket.

My daughter started at 8 years old. A friend told me it's like having a baby, 9 months before she can pitch. It went from a bucket of balls to the backstop @ each outing, to fewer and fewer. We can pitch now with one ball.

Numerous le$$ons and time later, she has vastly improved. She has a fastball and a change. She's working on a drop ball but doesn't throw it in a game. She will learn the curve soon.

Speed went from mid 30s to mid 40s. We just returned from USSSA World Series where my daughter pitched over 14 innings and had 29 Ks. Although she was not dominant against the best teams in the Midwest , I could not have asked for better outings. Her control was great, great poise on the mound, and she was an integral part (my heart still hasn't recovered) in our two wins.

DD started at age 7 in 8U...got tired of playing outfield...wanted to be in on every play...so she pitched and caught...loved being the center of attention in the circle...

Quickly found her a PC after I taught her (from the internet) her first change up...realized any further improvement had to be taught by someone else...she has had great PCs her entire pre-college career...only going to get better in college with her HC being a former D-1 national champion pitcher...

DD has been told from day 1 that she doesn't throw hard enough...all that did was piss her off...from age 12 to the present (now 18) she has increased about 16 MPH...I read somewhere that a speed increase of 2 MPH each year (assuming the pitcher puts in the work including strength and conditioning, which DD does) is about average.

Funny how 99% of the "flamethrowers" DD grew up with don't pitch anymore...funny how every team DD has been on, she became the "go to" pitcher over the "flamethrower" because she's consistent, spins the hell out of the ball and hits her spots while mixing speeds...funny how she'll be pitching in college on a scholarship next year...

DW and I have loved every minute so far...and so looking forward to the future...

DD's first pitching coach tried to get her to switch to HE so we've battled that a lot. She had another try to convert her later, but we knew better and she didn't switch.

For a while dd's circle went behind her head and she was falling off to the side. She had some college girls help her work through that. These fixes helped her with control a lot. Lack of control is what got coaches wanting her to throw HE I think.

She had a lot of trouble with keeping her weight back too much, and she still battles that some.

We're working now on more drive off of the mound, not leaning back too much, faster drag foot, and getting all of her speed back after a shoulder injury.

This past fall dd had really bad nerve pain and couldn't play, couldn't even play her clarinet. This year she went backwards a bit, but she's almost back to normal and finally throwing hard again. She played 16u the past 2 years, but this week she's at 14u western nationals. After a tough year with that injury I'm hoping this tournament will be just what she needs. We didn't intend for her to play up either of those years, it just worked out that way. I can't wait to hear how she does this week!

DD started at age 10 in Little League and is now 32 and still going pretty strong. The journey has been amazing. After all these years you would think dear old dad could relax during one of her games.......nooooot! I can't imagine what life would have been without this journey.....boring I would suspect. I have read some of the posts on things your DD's are working on or are looking forward to working on. Well try this out.......poor Sarah comes home at the holidays, pitches with me and leaves with a long list of things to work on. Now granted, her Dad is a little over the top, but the learning, correcting, tweaking process never ends. Enjoy the journey....who wants a boring life post softball!

My dd started pitching at 12, she pitched HE, and since she wants to be perfect, she took it to heart! She was horrible. I think cuz she was trying so hard to do what she was told. She broke her fingers skateboarding then broke her foot and ankle (growth plate fracture on foot) once that healed she broke her other foot. Long time healing had to do PT she couldn't play softball.
She started lessons again last July and we started with I/R this time. She's 14 1/2 now, she not a flame thrower, but she's got good mechanics, we are working on not going past midline and arm speed (Ty, RB!) areas that need to be improved also - staying loaded for our whip, good snap, BI. Want to get the arm working before we tweak her drive. She's got a decent drive, good posture, but much room for improvement! She working out 4x's a week in the gym and running to get stronger. Love this site and the people on it! It's fun, it's hard, lots of sacrifice and hard work on both our parts.


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DD started playing when she was 7 (baseball), then moved to FP when she was 8. She practiced pitching from 11 to 13 but never got to pitch for real except for an inning here and there. 9th grade was first year coaches took her for a pitcher, and still, she fought for mound time (with D1 committed seniors). 10th grade, she fought and won starting pitching spot for her HS varsity team (and won All District 1st team pitcher award too). In travel ball, she still fights continually for mound time, with coaches favoring her more at 3B or OF. This year, she has decided to step down caliber wise (travel ball team) with the hopes that she will get more mound time. Her mechanics are good but I think she could use more practice time. We have a very hard time finding a catcher to practice with, and she struggles with just pitching into a net. She says she needs more location consistency and the net doesn't provide that. I think she just thrives more on the POP sound. LOL. She does work out on her own but as far as pitching goes, not so much. Anyway, her PC has been out with heart blockage (I think they just put a stent in), and we are hoping he will be back on his feet by next week when she is ready to rock and roll. We shall see!

My DD started out in rec at 10 1/2 and filled in as pitcher second half of season and got the bug. Started pitching lessons at the end of that season and worked on it a LOT but it was H/E. I found this site right away but because our HE coach had warned me that ball on top was dangerous for your arm i quickly dismissed most of what as I was reading and stuck with what we were doing. Played first year 12's on a b/c team and pitched a lot. Played 2nd year 12's on an A team and almost never pitched. During this past winter we made the real jump to I/R. Went back to a B team for first year 14's and pitched a lot with some struggle keeping good i/r form. No lessons during season really, just watched videos of herself and worked on it on our own. Posture has improved significantly in last year. Drag is a major work in process. Drive has improved somewhat. Looses almost all BI in full motion. Speed just about 50 at this point.