Pitching instructor said... 10%

[lostcreek1]

Wow, really?? You think so?? I can tell you that I've been in facilities from Alaska to Florida, Maine to California and while I see girls pitching and doing their hitting drills constantly, very rarely do I see them practicing indoor fielding. VERY rare. I'm not saying nobody ever does, and I'm not saying it never happens. All I'm saying is, it's very rare to see girls spend time in cages and facilities (outside of team practices) where they are working solely on their fielding, throwing.

I would say most of that does not take place in a facility or a cage. I am not saying they practice as much as the pitchers, but that it is proportional. Pitchers that practice a lot is not going to stay on a team that is not very good, and teams that are very good are not going to have pitchers that aren’t.

 

[Hillhouse]

I would say most of that does not take place in a facility or a cage. I am not saying they practice as much as the pitchers, but that it is proportional. Pitchers that practice a lot is not going to stay on a team that is not very good, and teams that are very good are not going to have pitchers that aren’t.

ok, I see your point. After I posted, I began to wonder if I was understanding you correctly. You're right, if you have a Jordy Bahl on your club team, you'd expect the rest of the to be comparable to her in their own positions, or in the work ethic anyway. Personally, I just don't see it very often. I think most position players consider hitting and hitting lessons to be their off-season work. Teams that have weekly practices during winter inside indoor facilities probably do a lot more than those without those facilities. But I work at a place in the midwest, home to a nationally known and ranked club team that has their own facility. The teams have weekly practice but, almost never do I see the coaches hitting grounders to them. Team practice consists of hitting drills, some of which I understand but most of which I don't understand the point of. And even then, the hitters see less "live pitching" than I would expect. That part I will NEVER understand!! In my book, soft toss and tee work is not a substitute for live pitching. But, I'm not a head coach or a hitting coach so its not my business. That said, I do know that most every year, I'm told about close games lost due to fielding errors that should be routine plays. One has to wonder if they'd be errors or not if they worked at fielding too all winter.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I would say on most teams, the amount of time a girl spends practicing her pitching, will correlate with how much the rest of the team practices there position.

For travel I would agree. Since the comment was around practice level or needing lessons for those without college aspirations my mind went to school ball. There we see all levels of commitment.
I was just saying a pitcher needs to work hard enough to throw strikes.
Much like I would say a 3rd baseman needs to practice enough to reasonably protect herself and field the bunt.

 

[wazzy]

90%
Is this a reflection of parents just throwing money at their kids without parenting guidance or what is this?

Feels more like keeping up with the Joneses to me. If you want the spotlight, you have to pitch. If you want to pitch, you need lessons. So, early on parents are taking kids to coaches hoping that will take care of it. Giving parents the benefit of the doubt, I think many are just naive. At some point they figure it out and the lessons stop, as does the pitching.

When my DD was 11, she worked with a D1 coach who told her that it takes 35,000 reps to master any pitch she tries to throw, and she heard that message. I think that has provided some perspective on how much work should go into being good. He also told her that good is the enemy of great, so there's that.

The pitcher has a responsibility to the team to be good... or great. And likewise, the team owes her their best as well. But overall, softball is a game and not a job so once a pitcher doesn't want to work at it anymore, why force it? I'd say 90/ 10 is a pretty fair representation of what I've seen here.

Plot twist: DD was recently dropped from lessons because she was working so hard and wanted consistent lessons that the coach couldn't provide. So, the moral of the story to the parents is to listen to your pitcher and help support her needs and find a coach with matching expectations and goals.

 

[RADcatcher]

matching expectations and goals.

This is excellent! Super important words!!
This may be the most difficult thing to find in a group of people. All having the same in common, team coach parents players cost schedule desire, the whole shebang.