12u Pitching Dilemma

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
This is going to be a little tough love.

What you are doing is not helping your DD. You put her in a game and let her walk a bunch of people. Do you honestly believe that some other coach would let her walk a bunch of batters? She is going to have to learn that either (1) she throws strikes or (2) she doesn't pitch.

1) You agreed to coach the team. You have responsibilities to the entire team. If you can't the team ahead of your DD, then don't coach. (Which, by the way, is why I stopped coaching my DDs when they turned 13YOA.)

2) Any reasonable athletic kid can be taught to throw strikes good enough for rec. If you don't have another kid who can pitch, then that is *YOUR* fault. You are going to have to work with the other kids to get them good enough to throw strikes....and yes, that means less time for your DD.

3) It is completely unacceptable to put your DD out there for a walkfest. Give her 3 walks an inning, and then pull her. Tell her ahead of time, "Honey, I'm taking you out after 3 walks." Let the other pitchers pitch an inning or two, and then bring your DD back in.

4) Your DD's mechanics are not very good. You need to post the video in the pitching forum and get some good advice.
 
Last edited:
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
Hey in rec, sometimes you gotta calls em' likes ya sees em.
That girl will be on our summer team, she's looking very forward to a great reduction in the D3K.

Even decent catchers have a hard time keeping runners on their bases when P throws the ball to the backstop on a regular basis. I've seen plenty of that.
 
Feb 22, 2013
206
18
2) Any reasonable athletic kid can be taught to throw strikes good enough for rec. If you don't have another kid who can pitch, then that is *YOUR* fault. You are going to have to work with the other kids to get them good enough to throw strikes....and yes, that means less time for your DD.

Rec season lasts around 6 to 7 weeks. Most teams practice for a week or two prior to the season. Are you really saying that you can teach any reasonable athletic kid to throw strikes in Rec league in 2 to 3 weeks while running practice for the other 10 to 12 kids at the same time? Is that the square your shoulder to the catcher and point your elbow to the catcher method?

Softball pitching is a skilled position and takes a lot of work to be good. Being a softball catcher is a skilled position and takes a lot of work to be good. So are all the other learned skilled positions in softball.

3) It is completely unacceptable to put your DD out there for a walkfest. Give her 3 walks an inning, and then pull her. Tell her ahead of time, "Honey, I'm taking you out after 3 walks." Let the other pitchers pitch an inning or two, and then bring your DD back in.

Would you give similar advice to the catcher? "If you have 3 dropped third strikes in an inning then I'm going to pull you."

In rec league I was lucky to have more than 1 girl that would put on the catcher's gear when my dd was pitching. I did have a lot of volunteers to catch when I would put in an athletic kid who would lob the ball around the plate.

When I coached rec ball, I refused to put a kid at first base that couldn't catch a ball semi-correctly or semi-consistently. If a kid could not demonstrate the ability to catch a ball, she wasn't going to learn on game day.

My best rec players were girls who had older sisters that played softball and girls who had moms or dads that played catch with them outside of the two rec ball practices per week.

As to the OP, teach your dd to be a softball pitcher not a rec softball strike thrower. You will enjoy the years of sitting on a bucket and playing catch with your dd. You will also be amazed at how good the hitters get when your dd transitions to travel ball. You will also be amazed at the talent levels of the other players on her travel ball team compared to rec league athletes. When she transitions to travel softball, you will start asking questions like, "How do I teach my dd to throw a ball out of the strike zone on an 0-2 count?".
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
If your DD (P#1) has been pitching at least a year and can't throw strikes 2 out of 3 pitches than she is either not using good pitching mechanics and/or she isn't practicing enough. Command and velocity are not opposites and in fact if you are pitching with good mechanics, you should have good speed.

With that said, newbie pitchers need to pitch to get better so if you care about developing them and keeping them motivated to want to play the position, give them lots of circle time in practice, scrimmages, and games.
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
We have a pretty poor 12u rec team with 3 fairly new [1 year experience) pitchers, and several players that have played very little softball. Pitcher 1 (P1) has good form and velocity, but struggles with control. Hitters rarely can put a ball in play off P1. P2 and P3 have poor form, often worse command issues but are hittable because they have little velocity.

When P1 [my DD] pitches, we'll get 6-run ruled often due to walks, stolen bases (stealing home), HBP, or dropped 3rd strikes...Our catcher is not the greatest at covering balls in the dirt and isn't the best at hustling to get WP. She'll have to throw 3k's to get out of the inning (which happens only about 50% of innings she pitches). Very rarely will a pitch of hers get hit in fair territory. She needs to get 3 strikes before 4 balls to get an out.

When P2/P3 pitch, there is a much greater chance of their strikes getting hit (assuming the other team swings their bats), which means they may only need 1 strike before 4 balls to get a chance at an out. They can put us in a better chance some-times and make the game a little more fun to watch because there actually is the potential of seeing a hit ball.

IMO, P1 is our best pitcher and I want to keep giving her chances, but I fear some parents may be getting restless with the long innings of nothing but the pitcher and catcher doing anything.

Most of the teams we've faced so far have slower more accurate pitchers... I've tried talking to P1 about taking something off speed-wise to "get the strike" but I think 11 year old brains [at least hers] apparently can't comprehend what that means because that usually turns into even more of a disaster control-wise.

Slow-mo video of P1 from a practice earlier this year for reference. https://goo.gl/photos/dmwuRS6X9hzF41VJ6

Advice?

Just watched the video. I would get rid of the glove straight out pointed toward the catcher. In general her mechanics seem fine for now. Practice with a purpose and often (3 or 4 days a week, every week) over the summer and she should be accurate by fall. Good luck.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
Ill take the kids throwing strikes over a kid w little control any day. Your not really even playing the game with walk after walk.

I agree. Fast is lovely but if she's really wild is just walk after walk. So boring for everyone. We have a couple of slow but fairly accurate pitchers on our team. We still win games with them. Or defense just has to do its job. Personally I'd take hits over walks any day.



Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
 
Apr 20, 2017
152
28
I have gone through the same this year with my daughters 10u rec team. Except not really having any decent back up pitchers. My DD was taught to throw hard and fast and then as mechanics got better the control came. The 3dk is the killer for us and have lost games that every score was a d3k. I only have the one catcher that I feel safe at letting her be behind the plate. My advice would be to get away from the rec league and start the transition to travel ball. If your DD is throwing strikes and no batters can hit it then she is not facing batters that will drive her to get better. She also needs to have a catcher she can depend on and those are hard to find in rec league. And every one of those d3k takes a little out of a young pitcher. If travel is not an option try moving up age groups in rec to give her better players to play with and against.

As far as finishing this season I would give all three pitchers time and let the chips fall where they will. Is the circle time really doing much to help your DD if she is not having any success. It's a tough position to be in. And I feel your pain.
 
Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
Not just walks, but SBs, and D3Ks, too, according to the OP. All of these are (I would imagine) largely due to the P's struggles with control.

brewfanks - The point of all of this is that putting more focus on your DD's control will be the most effective way to help her be more successful - now, and in the future.

Yeah, didn't really think about SBs or dropped third strikes, but I stand by my original thought. No one on that team is learning anything or getting any better in the current situation.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,831
Messages
679,492
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top