Hey. My DD is a freshman pitcher on her HS team and she is getting the majority of the circle time already. Coach doesn't call pitches, the catchers do. Calls are really only pitch - fb, curve, change and location is just inside or outside. This hasn't been working very well as my daughter will only throw what's called and won't shake off anything. She is very accurate and her speed is right at 60 with a very nice change up that, when it's on, comes in at about 10 - 12 mph slower. She has never been on a team where the coach hasn't called pitches and those calls have always been very specific i.e. with 0-2 count coach will sometime call it outside in the other batters box, or a high pitch or something other than another strike every time. Also, the problem of her going for the 1st pitch strike and the batters realizing this and going after it has hurt us too.
My question to the group here is how can I help my daughter a) understand the situation at hand like the examples above b) that she is in control of what she pitches and c) how to communicate this to her catchers.
In yesterday's game - until the last 2 innings she had thrown 80 pitches and 70 of them were strikes (something like that). In total she threw 110 pitches and 81 were strikes. For the season she's pitched 57 innings, 803 pitches 73.3% strikes. Era is 2.21 against a very tough schedule in our state. She's walked 7 batters and struck out 37. So often though, she gets to 0-2 or 1-2 and gives up a hit because, from what I can tell, the call is right back in the zone. I keep talking to her about changing eye level in those situations, or throw a change up in the dirt, or curve outside to get them to chase - but because she won't, or doesn't feel like she can, shake off a call, the ball gets put in play. Even if she did shake off the call, I don't think they know how to communicate to each other what would be the next pitch to move to.
Anyway, I'm rambling now. If anyone has any advice that they think would help, I'm all ears!
Thanks!
My question to the group here is how can I help my daughter a) understand the situation at hand like the examples above b) that she is in control of what she pitches and c) how to communicate this to her catchers.
In yesterday's game - until the last 2 innings she had thrown 80 pitches and 70 of them were strikes (something like that). In total she threw 110 pitches and 81 were strikes. For the season she's pitched 57 innings, 803 pitches 73.3% strikes. Era is 2.21 against a very tough schedule in our state. She's walked 7 batters and struck out 37. So often though, she gets to 0-2 or 1-2 and gives up a hit because, from what I can tell, the call is right back in the zone. I keep talking to her about changing eye level in those situations, or throw a change up in the dirt, or curve outside to get them to chase - but because she won't, or doesn't feel like she can, shake off a call, the ball gets put in play. Even if she did shake off the call, I don't think they know how to communicate to each other what would be the next pitch to move to.
Anyway, I'm rambling now. If anyone has any advice that they think would help, I'm all ears!
Thanks!