Batting practice is now pitching practice

[redhack]

My DD is a pitcher. She is on a team with four pitchers, and with that she still pitched most of the innings on her team this last year. Her strength is her mental state when she is in the circle. However the opposite could be said for her batting. She has power and a great eye, but is inconsistent and is a "mental wreck" many times in the box. So we have been working almost every day on batting. Drills, weekly lessons with a hitting coach, anything to get her back to a better batter and give her the confidence she needs.

So my problem is this. Here TB coaches have placed a very heavy emphasis on offense this year and have gone to live pitching for all batting practices, which are every practice. Well my DD is the primary pitcher for this. SO she never get much time to work on her own batting during practice. They alternate the other 3 (2 pitching during practice), but DD is pitching every practice. Now we work on batting at home (days she not at pitching or team practices) but she never get the chance to she live pitching (which is where she falls apart). Now I understand what the coaches are trying to do, and I know why the like my DD pitching (daddy pride moment). But I worry about her lack of live looks.

Team parent side of me says she needs to do whatever is the best for the team, and I do think this is it. She can strike out her teammates, it gives them great challenging looks. And she loves the additional live practice.
Daddy side says DD will not keep up without the same time at bat (live pitching) as the others, and she is starting from the middle of the pack. Need her to see live pitches. I also worry about her focus, and giving less that 100% to some teammates to "let them hit one".

During the last year on tournament days that she would pitch a lot, they would pull her out of the lineup. She knew why (coaches wanted her rested and not mentally dealing with a poor a bat) and never complained. But when the season was over she made it a goal, to be too good to pull from the batting order.

Should I place her goals above the teams?

 

[David Carter]

Not sure I understand exactly what is going on. Sounds like your DD pitches half of BP every practice. The assumption would be she is also in the hitting line every practice while the other girl is pitching (you said other pitchers alternate practices)....so she hits live pitching every practice from the girl she is taking turns with doing the pitching. She should be seeing the exact same number of live pitches as all the other girls on the team.

If this is not the scenario then you should talk with the coach as to why not. Depending on age some girls get an early tag as pitchers only (they don't bat) and if you don't want that for your daughter you need to let the coach know.

As far as the merits of pitching BP practice that depends on how often you are practicing and how she feels, what other drills are they doing that day, etc. As far as whether she is working on her pitching by trying to get every batter out or just pitching fastball down the middle, that is the coaches call, maybe batter x needs to work on turning inside pitches, batter y struggles covering the outside corner I would hope the coach is actually thinking batting practice through and not just using her as a pitching machine.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I don't call it placing your DD's goals above the teams. I call it looking out for #1. If she keeps up the pitching schedule that you describe, she could seriously develop an injury. Plus, as you have stated SHE wants to bat, too. Do you know how many pitches she is throwing during one of these practices? For example, does every girl get 3 swings or do they stay there until the coach says "Next?"

If you search this site, you will find that we have discussed at least once or twice, whether we even want our pitchers or DD, throwing batting practice. I am on the no side.

 

[David Carter]

I was just writing back to say how I think it is OK for pitchers to pitch BP but when it comes to practical application the more I thought about it I usually don't. I also don't BP every practice but that is obviously dependent on how much practice time you have in each session and how many session per week. I think it is also situation dependent, I know last season my #1 missed a game for another activity (she played travel v-ball but that is another thread) and the way the schedule was going to work out she was going to have over 2 weeks in between games well in the middle of that I had her throw two or three simulated innings during a practice. All that to while I think it is OK I don't see the value in doing it every practice.

As far as batting she needs the practice to get better so keep working on it and let the coach know, as a coach if she is good enough he can't afford to sit her too much but if there is a girl on the bench equal or better as a coach it is hard not to sit your pitcher for the reasons you just stated, as an aside does she play a position when she is not pitching and where does she usually bat?

 

[CoogansBluff]

I think this is a concern that's within the category of reasonable to broach w/ the coach. If I were the coach, I'd be open to hearing this one for sure.

When I've done live hitting, I've planned out a rotation where the pitchers get extra at-bats to compensate for the fact that they can't hit against themselves. That's easy to do - unless you have only one pitcher.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

I'm a little confused too. 3 pitchers rotating BP? Should be 1/3 of the pitching time a piece, correct? That's exactly what I've done for 8 years on TB, that's how we did/do it for middle and high school. If its done equally it should work out fine.

As mentioned before, there were days DD threw batting practice and days she threw pitching practice. Two totally different goals there.

Pitchers and their hitting abilities vary a great deal. Some can do both, some can't be good in a dual capacity. Some must accept that role and focus 100% on pitching, some work extra hard and acquire the hitting ability.

In HS we run a 3 girl 3 day pitching rotation for games. When DD pitches she hits, when the other 2 pitch she is the DP and hits for the other pitchers. My brother's son ( same age as DD, senior ) is the opposite, he is a "pitcher only". But he has focused all his talent on the hill, signs next month large D1.

 

[redhack]

Some clarification. 4 pitchers. 2 pitch for all of BP in two cages. DD is always in rotation, other 3 switch out. So each one pitches every 3rd practice. Or close too that. No solid pattern other that so far this fall DD has pitched all, and spent little to no time practicing batting.

 

[David Carter]

Thanks for clarifying think we were all assuming only one pitcher at a time. Given this info it sounds like coach might be leaning towards having her pitch and not bat, which if you don't want that to happen you need to speak up now. What age are we talking about? Also how often are you practicing? If this is two or three times a week I would say no (if its once a week might be OK), if she is cycling through half the team at about 20 to 30 mins a practice it is probably too much (need to remember at BP you are not getting normal breaks between pitches and batters and innings easily a games worth of pitches).

Especially since this is fall ball tell the coach or if she is old enough (14U+) have her tell the coach she wants at least the fall to try and improve her hitting and she can't do that if she never hits.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Some clarification. 4 pitchers. 2 pitch for all of BP in two cages. DD is always in rotation, other 3 switch out. So each one pitches every 3rd practice. Or close too that. No solid pattern other that so far this fall DD has pitched all, and spent little to no time practicing batting.

Yea I probably talk to the coach, at least maybe get some explanation of his intentions.

I don't care for cage live pitching by a player. If we are working in a cage, I or the AC will throw and it runs much faster.

Live pitching I'm running full field practice, that way everybody works just like a real game situation. For me, I think this is very important vs the cage. I want BP/PP as simulated to a game as possible.

Cage to me: "here, hit this bucket of balls"

Field practice: give them a few free swings/hits then "work the count, hit the gaps, get on base". That's how you develope a bang bang lineup.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Suggest bringing in an older P to pitch to the whole team. Whether its once or weekly/monthly, its good experience and a good confidence builder.