50mph or Bust

[LW23]

Set goals not ultimatums. They guys above listed the keys to speed. We play first year 14U A ball in Texas. We typically don't see many kids throwing 45 mph. The ones that we do see give us fits one time through the line up and then we typically hit them hard. If your DD wants to continue pitching work on fixing the flaws and her speed will increase. My DD throws mid 50's consistently and can change speeds and levels. and we still to this day work on velocity 3 days a week. It really comes down to are you and DD comfortable with her on the mound from a safety perspective, and are your long term goals aligned in regards to pitching. Its a marathon not a sprint.

 

[coachbubbles]

Echoing alot of what is being said - there is alot to like here about what she is doing but a few tweaks and I could easily see 2-3 mph over a few weeks. Definitely needs to get some FSR. Love Sluggers bricks analogy. The term I use with DD is slamming into the front side. After and maybe in conjunction with that I would work on the drive knee to the catcher. When the foot turns and the heel goes to the catcher instead of the laces the hip will “clear out of the way” and eliminate the heavy brush we want. Even when they think the are whipping and they miss that brush contact point the “whip” will be late causing the ball to spin off the back of the pointer finger and result in bullet spin and thus a slower pitch.

Also echo the choice of words - not found of ultimatum because if she is like my DD she will try so hard and muscle the ball to the point she can’t concentrate on what will give her that speed. Good luck!

 

[canyonjoe]

She'll get faster and don't forget that the players you'll be playing against are the same ones you play against now. It's not like current 14 years olds get to stay and play 14U forever.

 

[wheresmycar]

From April

Can't see the ball very long, but this looks much faster than 45mph to me... I'd say she is easily throwing 50. If you are mandating a certain speed, and you don't own a pocket radar... well... your eye-radar appears to be off...

Oh, the fear that your child will get hit by a bullet comebacker... that never really goes away, no matter how fast they throw.

 

[coachbubbles]

Oh, the fear that your child will get hit by a bullet comebacker... that never really goes away, no matter how fast they throw.

If that’s not the truth! I wonder what that statistics are for pitchers getting hit as far as percentages of balls that are in the meat of the plate verses edges. DD got blasted a bunch at 10u but never once at 12u. She has never been a down the middle pitcher from the beginning and when watching some videos she always seemed to get hit on outside pitches. Must have been all those out-and-around swings at the younger ages. Whether I am lying or not I always tell DD that if you stay off the middle you won’t get hit.

I think focus/reaction increase as they age in addition to the additional distance is why you don’t see as many pitchers get hit at the older ages. Coached/watched probably 250 12u games over the last two seasons and only saw 2 pitchers get hit, but I saw a whole bunch of shots at them get fielded.

 

[Shawn]

As mentioned her mechanics/motion has flaws and that is why she isn’t throwing 50.

 

[lhowser]

You've received a couple of solid pieces of advice that absolutely will improve your daughter's pitching.

1. The magic four for speed:
-Posture
-Whip
-Brush
-Drive

2. She doesn't throw very hard because she has *ZERO* front side resistance.

Make these your focus and she will see success. Don't complicate things with more advice and crazy drills.

A Personal Story: BACK, BACK, BACK in the day I struggled helping my DD with her speed and consistency. I received a bunch of advice and then finally a guy using the name BOARDMEMBER was kind enough to explain Internal Rotation on this site. (his thread is in the sticky threads) That was all I needed. Changed my DD and all I have taught after. The moral of the story - Stick with the two pieces of advice above. It's good advice.

 

[Agbracing]

I would hate to put a set speed on being able to play up. Or sticking to it now that she has reached the age she must move up. And from my experience so far with 14u that low to mid 50’s is what will get absolutely hammered. If she loves to pitch and works at it you may want to use her speed as a deciding factor on what team she plays for or level of ball she plays. You may want to look at mechanics as others have stated to improve and also go with her strength and really focus on hitting corners and changing speeds. The other thing I see coaches and parents do is tell their pitchers to gain speed and throw harder but then get onto them for missing spots. You can’t have both increase of speed and stay accurate at the same time. It really drives me crazy when I see so many young pitchers only work on being accurate. And I’m sure others think I’m crazy for saying throw hard then learn to control it. But to me if you break down pitching and accuracy it all comes down to muscle memory and timing. If you get more leg drive or faster whip then the release point is going to be different. If you had a perfect release and could throw at the same spot 10/10 times then adding 2mph will completely change the accuracy of the pitch. My DD is in the very upper level of speed for her age. But we consistently work speed when time allows. If you are in the middle of a season it’s not the best time to throw out everything to chase speed. But for example we are 2 months from playing another big tournament. So starting this week and for the next month we are pitching into a net and trying to build more speed from leg drive and whip. I don’t care where the ball goes because we are pushing her comfort zone to get better. Next month we will start focusing in on controlling her pitches and getting dialed back in on her locations. So if increasing speed is important for you to feel better about her pitching then be supportive of the growing pains it takes. But also understand that I like a much slower girl on the staff with my DD. It’s almost impossible for a team to be able to hit both. And there are plenty of opportunities for those pitchers also.

 

[fistafury17]

You've received a couple of solid pieces of advice that absolutely will improve your daughter's pitching.

1. The magic four for speed:
-Posture
-Whip
-Brush
-Drive

2. She doesn't throw very hard because she has *ZERO* front side resistance.

Make these your focus and she will see success. Don't complicate things with more advice and crazy drills.

A Personal Story: BACK, BACK, BACK in the day I struggled helping my DD with her speed and consistency. I received a bunch of advice and then finally a guy using the name BOARDMEMBER was kind enough to explain Internal Rotation on this site. (his thread is in the sticky threads) That was all I needed. Changed my DD and all I have taught after. The moral of the story - Stick with the two pieces of advice above. It's good advice.

That video is a poor example of her pitch at this point and likely didn't need to get posted since the flaws in her mechanics aren't a secret to either of us. She's gone back to using a backswing and got back a couple mph that was lost in the transition and also isn't skipping forward on the front toes anymore. The front side resistance still isn't what we want, but the focus recently has been turning the front foot more towards the catcher instead of the near sideways it was a couple months ago. That could be why the FSR had gone away, but she'll figure it out and her knees will appreciate it.
Arm whip is a another obstacle and I've tried everything from skipping rocks on the pond to playing catch with a zip chip. This weekend we might try a towel drill I watched on YouTube recently.
The good news is she's been doing a lot of long toss and can get the ball across the plate from the edge of the outfield grass at our local HS field so that may be a sign of things falling in place.
She can pitch 7 innings and threw over 100 strikeouts to 30 walks in 20 games in a season that lasted less than a month and had a perfect game and another no hit to add to her record. In her first season of travel at 10U was pitching 1.5K's to 1BB and last yr 2K's to 1BB so the accuracy is trending up and now just need the speed to get to the next level.
Finding a pitching coach that offers both knowledge and the chemistry she needs has really been the greatest obstacle so far and my willingness to continue investing in something I feel she may not be putting in the effort to get to the next level.
That may be why the long toss has been successful as it offers instant gratification.

 

[BT3100]

Think effective speed
If she isn't a hard thrower nows the time to absolutely nail that change up.
If she can get it consistent and throw it often it will make her FB look much faster.
Despite what people think hitters aren't necessarily better at hitting slower pitching.
They are however great at hitting predictable pitching. Higher speed adds an element that forces them to make decisions quicker than they would need to versus pitcher with less speed.