Parents of older pitchers, what do you know now that you wish you knew when it first started.

[Ken B]

Things I wish I hadn’t taught:
-Wrist snap
-Close the door
-Arm circle speed
-A set of drills applied to every girl regardless of their strengths and deficiencies

Things I wish I’d known:
-Posture
-Whip
-Brush
-Spin awareness
-Evaluating the strengths and awareness of each individual and building from there
-That there can be many cues, feels, thoughts and/or visuals and having many in the toolbox until you find one that clicks with an individual.
-Asking girls to put cues into their own words.

 

[MNDad]

….Or 12u, or 14u for that matter. Just use the time to get better, have fun, and prepare for high school ball and recruiting at 16-18u.

I’d recommend starting to think about the recruiting around 12U and gradually ramping it up. By 16U they should be well versed in the process and have their list of schools narrowed down. Most can talk to kids well before junior year and are open for visits or wandering around campus. Their list might change, but by starting early they’ll have a good idea what they’d like as far as size, distance and characteristics of a school.

 

[Hillhouse]

Things I wish I hadn’t taught:
-Wrist snap
-Close the door
-Arm circle speed
-A set of drills applied to every girl regardless of their strengths and deficiencies

Things I wish I’d known:
-Posture
-Whip
-Brush
-Spin awareness
-Evaluating the strengths and awareness of each individual and building from there
-That there can be many cues, feels, thoughts and/or visuals and having many in the toolbox until you find one that clicks with an individual.
-Asking girls to put cues into their own words.

Interesting that you listed "arm circle speed" as a bad thing. Why is that bad or am I misunderstanding something as usual?

 

[Ken B]

Interesting that you listed "arm circle speed" as a bad thing. Why is that bad or am I misunderstanding something as usual?

Early on, I believe that working on arm circle speed without understanding whip or timing is counterproductive.

 

[Hillhouse]

Early on, I believe that working on arm circle speed without understanding whip or timing is counterproductive.

Fair enough. That makes sense. A fast arm circle with the rest of the body being off with bad timing is not a good thing.

 

[kibadbo]

Oldest started at 8u and just signed her commitment letter for college last month.

Here are my things.

Have them prove they want to do it when they are young. My daughter literally spent 4-6 hours a day on just doing the motions and drills when she was 9-10. This developed the muscle memory necessary to carry it forward.

Learn control at an early age. By 10 my daughter was throwing 90% in the strike zone and spotting pitches. This helps them going forward.

Do not try throwing 4+ pitches before you can even spot your fastball or consistently throw a changeup for a strike.8 Too many girls want to throw 4+ pitches but wend up not throwing any of them effectively.

Work on these things in order. First learn control, then work on your core (legs, stomach, arm whip), then work on spin, and finally long toss and building speed. Too many want to throw hard but fail to throw strikes and have low spin rate. Those girls get hit hard in 16u+.

Definitely a proponent of using tools to develop speed and movement. Use weighted balls for muscle development for speed, use a 14" ball and some kind of device to develop spin. Movement does so much more for girls as they get older.

Lastly, work with them to develop the psyche of a successful pitcher. This is hard because girls are all different but you want them to pitch the same way whether no outs bases loaded or nobody on and 2 outs. Too many girls i see completely shut down a team for 3-4 innings and then give up a hit and then completely come off the rails.

Encourage them when they do good and let them know what to work on to get better. I know I see too many take either of the extremes, meaning all praise or all negativity, neither approach is successful in the end.

Be ready to put the time in with them throughout the process as pitchers require the most commitment for lessons, etc.

Now to one thing I look back on wish i could know then what I know now. Daughter had a tiny crow hop at an early age to gain speed. Never had an ump call her out but coaches would always say something. Seeing what gets the most speed and strongest deliveries in college/pro these days wish I never worked to correct it. The umpiring is so off and majority of top end pitchers use this in some variation to get their extra speed.

This is fantastic. Sorry if this is off topic but how do you go about specifically working on control? My daughter has been with a Tincher coach for 18 months. She throws very hard but can't hit the broad side of a barn from 10 paces.

 

[DNeeld]

This is fantastic. Sorry if this is off topic but how do you go about specifically working on control? My daughter has been with a Tincher coach for 18 months. She throws very hard but can't hit the broad side of a barn from 10 paces.

Assuming her technique isn't fundamentally flawed, accuracy only comes from repetition. A lot of it. Then more of it.

 

[mmeece]

This is fantastic. Sorry if this is off topic but how do you go about specifically working on control? My daughter has been with a Tincher coach for 18 months. She throws very hard but can't hit the broad side of a barn from 10 paces.

Everyone has an opinion, but I'd say don't coach the speed out of her. Let her find her control while throwing hard, not the opposite way. If she slows down to learn control (sounds much simpler than it is btw) she'll just have to re-learn control when she speeds up again. Been there, done that.

 

[Top_Notch]

Let her find her control while throwing hard, not the opposite way.

Agreed. (DD is Tincher, but 80+months, not 18.)

 

[Hillhouse]

This is fantastic. Sorry if this is off topic but how do you go about specifically working on control? My daughter has been with a Tincher coach for 18 months. She throws very hard but can't hit the broad side of a barn from 10 paces.

Wait a minute... 18 months and she can't hit the side of a barn? 18 months? And you're at the same coach? Wow, you are on patient individual!!!

Obviously I don't know you kibadbo or your DD's coach but, not only should she be able to hit the barn after 18 months but, the coach should probably have an idea of why she's not able to hit the barn. Is control ever discussed at lessons? For me, the very first lesson covers a simple explanation of why the ball goes inside and why it goes outside when pitching, why it goes high, why it goes low. If she doesn't understand WHY the pitches are wild, she'll never know what to correct or how to correct it. I'm not saying I'm smarter than your coach or anything like that, please don't misunderstand. But, if your DD doesn't have a basic understanding of the cause/effect of the pitching motion after 18 months, then something seems wrong. I sincerely hope this isn't the case. And even with the exaggeration of saying "unable to hit the side of a barn" I'm unclear how 18 months can go by without addressing that. Or am I missing something like usual?