Accuracy?

[Justmoi]

Well the basis for my question is my team does not have any serious pitchers. By that I mean the 5 or so that are willing or want to pitch have little formal training nor parents who will spend the needed bucket time with them. So have been trying to squeeze pitching time for them at the expense of the valuable practise time. As such they are raw with basically fastballs and so so change ups and have just been trying to get them to get over the plate or hit a target to try build consistency. From what I'm reading here I think we are probably in for trouble much as I worried we would be. Out of 100 pitches so far 2 are in the low 20's for putting it across one in 30s and another bounces between 20s to 40s

 

[quincy]

I am not sure when your first game is but they can improve really quickly at that age, especially if they have never pitched before.

 

[JJsqueeze]

hmmm....There is no way a pitcher will develop at all within a single season by pitching at team practice only. If there are no parents willing to practice outside of the team then you should just focus on Defense and Hitting. If you have a catcher with an arm and a girl that can catch playing first or short, you can get a lot of outs on the bases just catching them napping. Then if you hit the the ball you can win some games that way.

A coach can teach girls to hit, field, throw etc in a team environment but teaching pitching or catching skills is really hard because it is so 1 on 1 intensive.

 

[Justmoi]

Didn't intend my last post to have the negative tone in regards to parents. Was just sharing that the kids pitching practise is limited. I figured expecting 70% callable strikes would be bit much to ask but definitely concerned that 20's an 30s seems more the norm currently

 

[Doug Romrell]

A coach can teach girls to hit, field, throw etc in a team environment but teaching pitching or catching skills is really hard because it is so 1 on 1 intensive.

Agreed! However, some will never understand the time requirement for polishing a pitcher.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Didn't intend my last post to have the negative tone in regards to parents. Was just sharing that the kids pitching practise is limited. I figured expecting 70% callable strikes would be bit much to ask but definitely concerned that 20's an 30s seems more the norm currently

Not negative at all.

 

[JAD]

Well the basis for my question is my team does not have any serious pitchers. By that I mean the 5 or so that are willing or want to pitch have little formal training nor parents who will spend the needed bucket time with them. So have been trying to squeeze pitching time for them at the expense of the valuable practise time. As such they are raw with basically fastballs and so so change ups and have just been trying to get them to get over the plate or hit a target to try build consistency. From what I'm reading here I think we are probably in for trouble much as I worried we would be. Out of 100 pitches so far 2 are in the low 20's for putting it across one in 30s and another bounces between 20s to 40s

Does your REC league have run limits per inning? When we were playing 10U C-level TB, we would find tournaments that catered to developmental teams that have a 3-run limit in every inning except the last. It was always reassuring to know that you could only give up 3 runs an inning even when your pitcher walked 6 straight batters.

 

[Justmoi]

Does your REC league have run limits per inning? When we were playing 10U C-level TB, we would find tournaments that catered to developmental teams that have a 3-run limit in every inning except the last. It was always reassuring to know that you could only give up 3 runs an inning even when your pitcher walked 6 straight batters.

There is a 5 run limit,but sure hope we don't have to rely on that

 

[Rocketech1]

Well the basis for my question is my team does not have any serious pitchers. By that I mean the 5 or so that are willing or want to pitch have little formal training nor parents who will spend the needed bucket time with them. So have been trying to squeeze pitching time for them at the expense of the valuable practise time. As such they are raw with basically fastballs and so so change ups and have just been trying to get them to get over the plate or hit a target to try build consistency. From what I'm reading here I think we are probably in for trouble much as I worried we would be. Out of 100 pitches so far 2 are in the low 20's for putting it across one in 30s and another bounces between 20s to 40s

Of those 5, pick your 3 "best" pitchers who have some athletic skill and are willing to practice 3X a week. You can have an additional pitcher/catcher practice each week, and make sure every time you have a team practice, the pitchers get some work in, even if its for only 15 minutes each.

They need to learn the basics, so find someone that can help teach them (an older experienced coach or player). Educate yourself so you have an understanding of what mechanics they are trying to accomplish. Sit on a bucket and catch them yourself sometimes so you can see who is progressing and who needs extra work.

Short-term goals of minor improvements each week. They may walk and hit many girls the first 4 to 6 weeks but as long as they are getting better, you are "succeeding".

Lisa Fernandez (Team USA gold medal pitcher) tells are great story about when she first pitched in a game, she walked 14 batters. Her goal the next game was to only walk 13 batters; and the next game to walk only 12 batters, etc. I think this is a great attitude to have.

Last night, at my DS's baseball game, in the 5th inning the starting pitcher walked the bases loaded with no outs. New pitcher comes in and proceeds to hit the next 3 batters. We end up losing 8-6.

You may not win all of your games this season but one of the goals of the head coach is to help their players improve from where they currently are. If you do that, you will have a "winning" season this year....good luck.

 

[Elk Grove Hurricane]

Thanks for the info, all, really informative. Especially about the 8u pitchers. Watching my DD take that first trip to the mound at that level soon, was wondering what would be considered good. Last year I had two who could get it over 20-40% of the time, and it varied that much. The one who was getting it over 40% was a God-send, she got hit by the good teams but at least it wasn't ball 4, coach pitch, every at bat.