- Jun 18, 2013
- 322
- 18
Okay, this one gets kind of odd and personal.
As some know, my DD is on the 10U rec team I coach. The plan going into the season was for her to pitch and catch for this team and then for us to move on to a TB team. My AC was the AC on the TB team we were likely to move on to. He watched her pitch at practice and was sufficiently pleased to recommend her for a backup pitcher spot on that team. My DD and I were talking through our options and I was trying to help her decide what she wanted to do, but trying to be very careful to make sure that it was her decision.
2 weeks ago, a boy at school was flirt fighting with her by pulling on her backpack. My DD is not one to take these things well, so she spun on him and busted his tail, but in the process she got her ring finger on her throwing hand twisted in the vinyl straps on her backpack. It swelled up a little but never got too bad and never bruised. She always kept full range of motion but it was painful. I figured she just sprained it and she had 4 days of rest before she played again so she wrapped it every day and we didn't worry about it.
She is a very hard-headed, tough little thing that will not admit weakness to her daddy. I had to miss the first game that she played after it happened. She went out to pitch and for the first time in her life broke down in tears in the circle because it hurt to grip the ball. She couldn't throw with any velocity and everything was a mile high. My AC pulled her pretty quickly and then she talked her way in to catch, but she couldn't really throw without pain so he moved her out to LF and just had her stay in to bat. She was very excited that she got to bunt with the bases loaded and drive in a run, so not a total loss.
She keeps telling me that the finger doesn't hurt, so we played through a game with her at catcher with minimal problems. She made 3 innings, which was our entire game before time limit, but she was in significant pain by the end. She could throw overhand fine through that game. Then last night she tried to pitch again. It was the same thing. No velocity and everything was high. She made it through an inning just because we have a 5 run limit but she was almost in tears by the end. She said it hurt to try to grip the ball to pitch. Then I moved her to third and the first thing she did during warmups was throw an absolute dart from outside the third base foul line to our first base that made the other team's AC's eyes about come out of her head. It was pretty freaking hilarious.
So, my question is, if she can't grip the ball to throw a pitch because it hurts but she can throw rockets overhand should I be looking at this as a mental issue or is there a potential injury that could be causing something like this? I am baffled and trying to take this out of it being my DD so I can approach it a little more analytically, but the Daddy side of me is fighting.
As some know, my DD is on the 10U rec team I coach. The plan going into the season was for her to pitch and catch for this team and then for us to move on to a TB team. My AC was the AC on the TB team we were likely to move on to. He watched her pitch at practice and was sufficiently pleased to recommend her for a backup pitcher spot on that team. My DD and I were talking through our options and I was trying to help her decide what she wanted to do, but trying to be very careful to make sure that it was her decision.
2 weeks ago, a boy at school was flirt fighting with her by pulling on her backpack. My DD is not one to take these things well, so she spun on him and busted his tail, but in the process she got her ring finger on her throwing hand twisted in the vinyl straps on her backpack. It swelled up a little but never got too bad and never bruised. She always kept full range of motion but it was painful. I figured she just sprained it and she had 4 days of rest before she played again so she wrapped it every day and we didn't worry about it.
She is a very hard-headed, tough little thing that will not admit weakness to her daddy. I had to miss the first game that she played after it happened. She went out to pitch and for the first time in her life broke down in tears in the circle because it hurt to grip the ball. She couldn't throw with any velocity and everything was a mile high. My AC pulled her pretty quickly and then she talked her way in to catch, but she couldn't really throw without pain so he moved her out to LF and just had her stay in to bat. She was very excited that she got to bunt with the bases loaded and drive in a run, so not a total loss.
She keeps telling me that the finger doesn't hurt, so we played through a game with her at catcher with minimal problems. She made 3 innings, which was our entire game before time limit, but she was in significant pain by the end. She could throw overhand fine through that game. Then last night she tried to pitch again. It was the same thing. No velocity and everything was high. She made it through an inning just because we have a 5 run limit but she was almost in tears by the end. She said it hurt to try to grip the ball to pitch. Then I moved her to third and the first thing she did during warmups was throw an absolute dart from outside the third base foul line to our first base that made the other team's AC's eyes about come out of her head. It was pretty freaking hilarious.
So, my question is, if she can't grip the ball to throw a pitch because it hurts but she can throw rockets overhand should I be looking at this as a mental issue or is there a potential injury that could be causing something like this? I am baffled and trying to take this out of it being my DD so I can approach it a little more analytically, but the Daddy side of me is fighting.
