Thread: How to get a girl to stop placing and start pitching with power

How do I get it through my daughter's head that I just want her to pitch with power and use some force behind her mechanics and have her stop worrying so much about throwing strikes and placing the ball?

I feel like Ive done everything. Ive given her imaginary 2 weeks passes where Ive told her I dont care if the ball goes over the backstop and I dont care if she doesnt throw a strike for weeks......I just want her to pitch with more force. However, she is such a perfectionsist and cares soooooooo much about being good and keeping her spot as on of our teams better pitchers, that she just wont let loose with me. Not during games and not even at practice or at home.

I am really considering getting her a PC once this Rec season is over with. I know sometimes it takes another coach to get a DD to listen completely or to try something different. Do you think this will help? I know at some point soon she will need someone a little more experienced anyways. Dont get me wrong, she pitches decently fast. Its not slow, but she has so much more to give and I know she is "looking good" right now but in the long run it will stunt her growth as a player with her placing the ball.

Its hard for her to understand as a 9 year old that I dont care so much if she keeps up with her 7K-10K per game pace. I sometimes question myself....lol. Again I just want the best for her and know she is holding back in fear of not playing as well.

She already does play with girls 1.5-2.5 years older than her. One thing that may help along those lines though is that this rec team is playing in a club tourney in June and she should see a whole lot better players than she has seen in rec this year. Or at least more good players at one time. Seems like most teams we play there is 1 or 2 studs and the rest.......not so much.

Appreciate the input.

I am a little aprehensive however. Ive done some research and talked to a few PC around here and havent liked who I have talked to so far. It really discourages me when I talk to some PC's and they cant articulate a sentence decently or seem to have the same if not less knowledge then myself. I just want to make sure she is in GREAT hands and truth be told, I dont think there are a ton of reputable PC in my area. Im sure there are some real good ones.............I just need to find them!

Anybody know of good PC in New Mexico?

WOW. Great idea marriad. I cant beleive I didnt think of the radar gub idea. Knowing her and how competitive she is, I bet that will really get her moving in the right direction and listening to what Im telling her. Great idea.

No, she doesnt have a second pitch right now. She doesnt have a second pitch right now. The rule has been that she has to get consistent with a fastball and then we would add another pitch. I think your right abou it probably getting a little boring. Looks like its time for me to hold up my end of the deal and teach her a change up.

Great ideas. I really think this will get things going.

Take the plate away. Have her practice against a fence with no catcher. Then keep backing her up a couple of steps at a time. Challenger her to hit the fence on a fly without worrying about strikes. Keep moving her back until she can not physically make it there. Then keep here there for a while. After that bring her right up to 35' and tell her to throw as hard as she was earlier.

As someone else suggested, you may have get a PC involved to get the results you feel she is capable of.

How do you know this isn't as fast as she can pitch? has she pitched faster in the past?

Tojo, Im finding this out as the time passes and thats why I think Im going to get a PC soon. As for her instruction so far: Im a relative novice in terms on coaching softball. I hve dedicated the passed 2.5 years to soaking up EVERYTHING. However, most of her pitching fundmentals have come from my uncle who has been a long time TB coach and has coached numerous D1 players. Unfortunately he is a very very busy man and cant really dedicate the time needed to what she and I would like. They havent been able to work much since last year, but fundamentally she is pretty darn solid. His time is all volunteered and so its hard to insist more of something that is so sparse and out of the kindness of his heart.

To answer the question as to how I know thats not as hard as she can pitch. Every once in a great while, she will pipe one down the middle in a game or practice and it is significantly faster than the rest of her pitches. Then a ball will be thrown and she reverts back to placing. I have never attempted to put a gun on her pitches but using my best guess, I would say she pitches 36-38 on average. On those rare occasions when she smokes one its looks more like 44-46. Again those are just my guess-timates. I could be way off. And again, maybe she is pitching right where she needs to, but thats why I need a more seasoned coach as far as pitching goes.

My little girl still has a very long way to go, but dad has probably come close to exhausting his ability to make her better in that regard............outside of just practicing and re-inforcing what her new PC will teach her.

I dont think she is a freak pitcher and the next phenom, I really dont. She honestly is a much better infielder or catcher than she is pitcher right now. However, I do know she can be doing more and I just want her to have the reseources and tools to do more if thats what she wants. I really appreciate everyones inout more than you know. Its greatly appreciated and respected.

My 12 yo DD is the same way. We've tried to break it down and work on the specific bad habits she reverts to. She throws much slower when she tries to place the ball. Specifically, she bends at the waist and pushes the ball when she's trying to place strikes. Try to integrate a drill that targets the issue (in our case leaning). We have her do some flamingo drills as a part of her warmup. So far it seems to have helped some. All I can say is good luck. This is a tough one. A lot of people have told me it just takes experience on the mound.