11YO Rec. DD Pitching/ Throwing Slow in Games

[Hit by the Pitch]

DD is on a roll pitching this year so far, strikeout total is way up and her walks are way down. The key to whole thing is she is not comfortable throwing yet because she hasn’t been able to practice and is just throwing strikes.

She has never been fast but you can see she is thinking too much and just guiding the ball.

HC might not be happy with me but DD is going to throw the ball hard, consciences be damned. I need to get DD on board too.

 

[JNew0872]

I had this same issue last spring with my DD. She was 11 yo and first year pitching. She threw 39 to 41 when she first started in games in April. Drove me crazy because she threw harder in practice. I talked to her PC and asked if I should remind her to throw hard and tell her to throw hard. He told me to leave her alone. It was just a matter of building confidence. Over time as her confidence grew her speed would come. He said to just make sure she was driving hard off the rubber when practicing. Practice would eventually transfer to games. So I took his advice. By fall she was 44 to 47 mph. This spring as a 12 yo, she is now 48 to 51. DD's PC's advice, "Just let her pitch." Worked for my DD.

 

[FrozenRope]

I had this same issue last spring with my DD. She was 11 yo and first year pitching. She threw 39 to 41 when she first started in games in April. Drove me crazy because she threw harder in practice. I talked to her PC and asked if I should remind her to throw hard and tell her to throw hard. He told me to leave her alone. It was just a matter of building confidence. Over time as her confidence grew her speed would come. He said to just make sure she was driving hard off the rubber when practicing. Practice would eventually transfer to games. So I took his advice. By fall she was 44 to 47 mph. This spring as a 12 yo, she is now 48 to 51. DD's PC's advice, "Just let her pitch." Worked for my DD.

Just to be clear...you still promoted speed during workouts, just backed off during the games? Or did you back off on all aspects of promoting speed, both practice and games? Just curious.

 

[halskinner]

Ever make her mad to get 110% out of her? Best person to do that in the game is her catcher. Insult her pitching ability and dont be quiet about it, do it so everybody hears.

A good instructor will do this if thats what it takes at practice sessions.

Dont treat her like a little girl, TREAT HER LIKE A YOUNG ATHLETE.

Let her know that when she puts that uniform on and steps into the circle she stops being somebodys little girl and she becomes a member of an organized sports team, AN ATHLETE the team is depoending on. If the team cant rely on her to throw fast, then they will find a REAL athlete that will!

 

[Hit by the Pitch]

That is funny because her coach made her mad and batter did not have a chance, 3 pitches inning over.

DD needs to get going and I agree about the C.

Edit:

DD stats are all messed up for a couple reasons, she is has over 3 strikeouts an inning and a walk/HBP every .1 innings. She has silly stats right now but the Teams are going to start hitting her.

Teams are waiting to tee off on her but they haven’t been able to yet because she is throwing so slow and a lot of strikes.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

One trick I did with some of my young pitchers was that we had two pitch signs for a fastball. "One" would be a fastball with a purpose (i.e. location) and a "five" would be a fastball as hard as they could throw it and I didn't care if it was a ball or a strike.

I called a lot of fives with 0-2 and 1-2 counts.

 

[JNew0872]

Just to be clear...you still promoted speed during workouts, just backed off during the games? Or did you back off on all aspects of promoting speed, both practice and games? Just curious.

Just backed off during games. When she practiced, I didn't really have to tell her to throw hard. She did. I don't tell her to throw hard either. I tell her more leg drive. Whenever I say throw hard she tenses up and the result is not usually good. We would have leg drive practices. I'd set up a net and she just threw to the net without worrying about throwing a strike and just focused on leg drive. Later I added a target to net. Now she can focus on leg drive while throwing to catcher.

 

[halskinner]

Whoa, hang on a sec. When she practices she throws to a net?? But, at games she throws to the catcher's glove? Get where I am going here?

Shrink the size of the target she throws to at practice. Get an adjustable hitting Tee and place a softball on top. Thats her new strike zone when throwing at the net. If she hits the ball and knocks it off, its a strike. If not, its a ball.

Right now she has alot of room for error at practice, no room for error at the game. You need to reverse that scenario. Make the strike zone the size of a softball at practice and that big strike zone in front of the catcher, it will seem HUGE anmd easy to hit throwing real fast.

Sorry I didnt see that before. It;s her confidence in her own focus that is probably putting the brakes on her speed.

 

[JNew0872]

Whoa, hang on a sec. When she practices she throws to a net?? But, at games she throws to the catcher's glove? Get where I am going here?

Shrink the size of the target she throws to at practice. Get an adjustable hitting Tee and place a softball on top. Thats her new strike zone when throwing at the net. If she hits the ball and knocks it off, its a strike. If not, its a ball.

Right now she has alot of room for error at practice, no room for error at the game. You need to reverse that scenario. Make the strike zone the size of a softball at practice and that big strike zone in front of the catcher, it will seem HUGE anmd easy to hit throwing real fast.

Sorry I didnt see that before. It;s her confidence in her own focus that is probably putting the brakes on her speed.

This was a suggestion I made to the OP because it worked for my daughter. The OP's DD is not throwing to a net (at least, not that he said). My DD did not throw to a net exclusively. It was something she did so she could focus on driving hard off the rubber. It was one drill done during practice. A way we started practice and then she would then pitch to a catcher. Drive and speed transferred over to pitching to a catcher in practice and in games. We did shrink the strike zone after about a week giving her a target to throw to while pitching to the net and focusing on leg drive. It worked for my daughter and didn't take long.

 

[Nunthia1914]

good advice Hal