14u only calling fastballs

[doublesteal]

I have been working with a pitcher(family friend) for a few months since July. I coach 16u and she is playing 14u for the same organization. She throws a fast, change, drop and screw. The screw is a work in progress and only hits about 65% of the time in practice so far. Her drop is her bast pitch followed by her change up.

2 weekends ago, 2 of my 3 pitchers came down with a stomach bug. I couldn't find a replacement pitcher last minute (everyone I asked was unavailable) so she came and guested for us. She actually did pretty decent, she threw a lot of drops and changes for ground balls and weak pop outs, kept them off balance. They did have some decent hits of her but only score 5 runs (when they scored 10 & 13 in their first 2 games if the day). I discussed with the coach how well she threw and he seemed impressed.

This past weekend her 14u team was in a tournament. First inning comes and she is spot on, her screw was hitting. She got through the first inning on 7 pitches, 2 ground outs and a fly ball to SS, the coach pulls her aside after the inning. Next inning comes and I realize she is throwing a lot of fast balls.

After the game I ask her why she threw so many fastballs. She siad her coach said alls he wants is a fastball and she got in trouble for throwing her other pitches. She had the other team so off balance when she was mixing pitches, why all fastballs.

Has anyone else ever encountered an issue like this.

 

[starsnuffer]

Yeah, it occurs a great deal. It can start with a bug bite or a snake bite, but generally it is attributed to a genetic disorder or childhood malnourishment. There have been cases of this reported after suffering severe head trauma.

Computer geeks would say this person is classified as an ID ten T.

I like Wikipedia's explanation of this behavior:

he year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophet[3] and prophecy.[4][5] The word has cognates in many other languages.

An idiot in Athenian democracy was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private—as opposed to public—affairs.[6] Idiocy was the natural state of ignorance into which all persons were born and its opposite, citizenship, was effected through formalized education.[6] In Athenian democracy, idiots were born and citizens were made through education (although citizenship was also largely hereditary). "Idiot" originally referred to "layman, person lacking professional skill", "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning". Declining to take part in public life, such as democratic government of the polis (city state), was considered dishonorable. "Idiots" were seen as having bad judgment in public and political matters. Over time, the term "idiot" shifted away from its original connotation of selfishness and came to refer to individuals with overall bad judgment–individuals who are "stupid". According to the Bauer-Danker Lexicon, the noun ίδιωτής in ancient Greek meant "civilian" (ref Josephus Bell 2 178), "private citizen" (ref sb 3924 9 25), "private soldier as opposed to officer," (Polybius 1.69), "relatively unskilled, not clever," (Herodotus 2,81 and 7 199).[7] The military connotation in Bauer's definition stems from the fact that ancient Greek armies in the time of total war mobilized all male citizens (to the age of 50) to fight, and many of these citizens tended to fight poorly and ignorantly.

In modern English usage, the terms "idiot" and "idiocy" describe an extreme folly or stupidity, and its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.[8]

-W

 

[Greenmonsters]

Sounds like the P & C have a better idea of what they're trying to do than the "coach". Unless the coach had some specific, undisclosed reason for it being Fastball Friday, sounds like you might want to give your org director a heads up.

 

[crystlemc]

Calling only fastballs at 14u is a recipe for disaster. Sorry to say, that coach should NOT be calling pitches. Maybe not even coaching. What a "maroooon".

 

[EP Dad]

Must be a 14U thing. When I complained that my 12U "B" coach wouldn't let my daughter throw a screw or drop ball no one cared. How do you learn to be a 14U pitcher if you can't do it at 12's?

 

[SoCalASABlue]

I have been working with a pitcher(family friend) for a few months since July. I coach 16u and she is playing 14u for the same organization. She throws a fast, change, drop and screw. The screw is a work in progress and only hits about 65% of the time in practice so far. Her drop is her bast pitch followed by her change up.

2 weekends ago, 2 of my 3 pitchers came down with a stomach bug. I couldn't find a replacement pitcher last minute (everyone I asked was unavailable) so she came and guested for us. She actually did pretty decent, she threw a lot of drops and changes for ground balls and weak pop outs, kept them off balance. They did have some decent hits of her but only score 5 runs (when they scored 10 & 13 in their first 2 games if the day). I discussed with the coach how well she threw and he seemed impressed.

This past weekend her 14u team was in a tournament. First inning comes and she is spot on, her screw was hitting. She got through the first inning on 7 pitches, 2 ground outs and a fly ball to SS, the coach pulls her aside after the inning. Next inning comes and I realize she is throwing a lot of fast balls.

After the game I ask her why she threw so many fastballs. She siad her coach said alls he wants is a fastball and she got in trouble for throwing her other pitches. She had the other team so off balance when she was mixing pitches, why all fastballs.

Has anyone else ever encountered an issue like this.

ALL THE TIME.

I don't have the statistics but it's pretty clear (at least in SoCal) that most coaches are men that have never played FP softball. As such, with only baseball to look back on as a reference, the predominant pitch is the fastball (at least up until 14U).

Even worse is finding out that the coach routinely calls fastballs down the middle...

 

[JAD]

Happens more than most would like to admit....especially in middle school ball! LOL

 

[nanotech14]

I think the fastball is the best pitch, when we are on offense.

 

[starsnuffer]

Must be a 14U thing. When I complained that my 12U "B" coach wouldn't let my daughter throw a screw or drop ball no one cared. How do you learn to be a 14U pitcher if you can't do it at 12's?

OP here is a coach working with a kid, not the parent of a kid. When a parent says that their kid has a screw and a drop, no one believes it. It isn't that no one cares. When a coach working with a kid says that the kid has a drop and a screw, it's more believable. Please don't take this realization the wrong way. No one is assuming that you, in particular, are sharing anything less then a full factual disclosure. It's just the nature of parents and how they refer to their kids. I honestly wouldn't expect anyone to believe anything I said about my own kid either

I've coached kids that, as told to me by their parents, had a curve, screw, drop, and rise, but in the context of actual pitching, they had one pitch that they threw high, low, left, and right. . . . and usually that direction was random (she has natural movement!) rather then by design. For these cases, I'd expect that coach to simply call fastballs, because in reality that is the only pitch the kid has.

The way the OP phrased his post, however, leads me to believe that he's being honest and doesn't really have a horse in this race insofar as proving a point with what the kid is capable of. Instead, he's questioning the coach differing from how he coaches himself.

-W

 

[Amy in AZ.]

So, how does the coach even know a drop and a screw from a fastball? The pitcher could have told him "I don't have a fastball." If it is my DD about to get smacked with a line drive, I would rather have her continue as she was.