11" or 12" Ball?

[MK37]

My DD won't be pitching anymore this year because her TB coach won't and rec is almost over. She is 11 years old playing 12U this year. I've had her practicing with a 12" ball since last year thinking that would help for this year. However, she did not grow like I thought. She is about 5' and weighs all of 80# and has small hands. After reading another thread, I had this thought and would appreciate opinions.

She can't throw the 12" unless she uses all four fingers. What if I had her practicing with an 11" where she could throw with two fingers getting used to that grip. Once her hand grows to handle the 12", she would already be used to throwing with two finger grip. Does that make sense or am I all screwed up in my thinking?

 

[quincy]

I assume she is not throwing movement pitches, get her to the 12’ ball and stick with it. Throw the 11’ balls away.

For a fastball there is no “perfect” grip anyways.

 

[Carly]

She should practice throwing overhand with an 11" ball or even a baseball so she doesn't lose the feeling of letting the ball roll off her fingers and letting her wrist snap naturally at release. But changing back and forth between balls will screw up her pitching mechanics so stick with the 12" there. If she's really having trouble with it, try warming up by throwing a baseball overhand, then progressing to 11" and then 12". Then go into pitching warmups with the 12". Both the overhand throw and the pitching motion involve the same natural wrist snap, so as long as she keeps that feeling she should be ok until her hand grows.

Also I agree that using all four fingers is perfectly fine. Many fully grown pitchers still throw that way. The thing that's important is being able to hold the ball comfortably in the fingertips and not having it jammed in the palm.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

I agree, get rid of the small balls. My daughter is the same age/size and every now and then a small ball will slip into the bucket and when she throws it goes 10 ft over my head. It's hard to do both at the same time. I have tried using the small ball when introducing new pitches/grips but it never worked the way I thought it would.

Ironically when a small ball sneaks in to the hitting lessons I think she is absolutely going to crush it but she never does. I have noticed this with other girls as well...

 

[quincy]

If it matters DD is 4’ 6’’, 65 lbs. She does not appear to have a problem with the 12” ball. She moved to the 12” ball last fall, now she is uncomfortable with the 11” ball.

She pitches and is still eligible for 10U so for grins I wanted to see how fast she could pitch the 11” ball, still not sure because all her pitches went over my head. Last time she pitched an 11” ball.