How many players tried pitching?

[radness]

How many players tried pitching but ultimately stopped?
At what age did they stop?



Me~Always A Catcher!
Never considered nor wanted to pitch.
Yet have paid a lot of attention to it!

 

[Eric F]

I wouldn't say she really "tried" to be a pitcher. More like she had a "sample". In my DD's last season of rec ball (10U), we had already made the commitment to move to TB, and knew that she would never get to experience the circle at the TB level. Her rec HC encouraged her to pitch a few innings just to see what things look like from the other end. She practiced for about a week before her debut. Over 2 games, she had 3 IP, 1 H, 4 K, 7 BB, 2 HBP...and she had a great time. She was happy to return to her domain behind the dish, however.

 

[sluggers]

When I was coaching 10U rec, 50% of the girls would say they were interested in pitching. I would work with them after practice. By the second practice, only about 3 (out of 14) would continue pitching...I don't know if it was the parents or the kids quitting.

Out of 14 kids, I usually ended up with 2 kids who actually worked on pitching. I usually had a third who was athletically talented enough to kind-of, sort-of get the ball over the plate without practicing.

Around 14YOA is where kids and parents decide if they want to do the work.

 

[Traps71]

Just an anecdote from my small corner of the world. Between 10U and 11U, my older DD's travel team (a local A-level team) had 7 girls who pitched (including a little bit of personnel turnover between those two years). Of those, now at 2nd year 14U, only 3 of those girls are still pitching for their travel ball teams and will/may pitch for their High School teams, including my DD. Two have given it up entirely. Two others "can pitch," but are really position players who are not putting in the work it takes to pitch successfully in travel ball (at whatever level).

I am sure it partly depends on the strength of the travel team, but I see the break point being about the second year of 12U ball. From what I've observed and experienced, the pitching game goes rapidly from just hoping the girl can be in the strike zone about half the time and not walk everyone (9U+10U) to trying to hit spots and developing a secondary or tertiary pitch (by second year 12U). It is definitely that way by 14U when rec is really no longer an option for most and batters are getting better and bigger and stronger.

As many others have mentioned, by 14 or so, many of the early advantages some girls enjoyed by maturing quickly and just hurling the ball past overwhelmed batters don't really work any more at 14+. Oftentimes their mechanics are jacked because of that and it becomes, in a sense, too late to sort them out (have seen this happen in at least one case). I think girls (and their parents) also figure out that they don't want to practice 3-5x a week and pay for private instruction just to possibly be competent at pitching. I also think that many girls do not enjoy or cannot handle the spotlight and pressure that go with being a pitcher...because there are definitely going to be bad days at the office. My younger DD, while more physically gifted than older DD, does not want the added workload and cannot handle the added pressure of pitching and is happy to just play IF and cheer the pitcher on.

 

[Rick M]

When DD’s rec squad (a very solid group of 8U’s) were aging up to 10U, I arranged to have a local pitching coach do a dozen group lessons. We encouraged everyone to attend — we wanted to see who might have potential.

At the beginning, we had seven of our twelve players start the lessons (we had one other kid who had been doing lessons on her own, so she skipped the group thing).

The group slowly whittled down, until the last three weeks when DD was the only kid still going. Five years later, DD and the other girl who started pitching sooner are the only pitchers from that original group. Everyone else still plays, but not in the circle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[quincy]

At 8u we made it a point to have everyone P and C.

P we succeed, C we failed.

 

[HunterMO]

Similar story here as others. At 10u we did a group lesson for those interested. Had 8-10 show initially. Then slowly whittled down to about 4-5. Through the season we only used 3-4 as they were the most consistent. Only 2-3 actually put any work into it.

My DD was one of the 3 who actually practiced at home and took lessons. Out of the 3 from 10u we only had 2 pitchers for our first year of 12u.

Starting our 2nd year of 12u we will have 3 pitchers. My DD and her teammate who started with us in 10u and the another pitcher/catcher we picked up to help take some workload off for tournaments and double headers.

Who knows how long DD will want to continue to pitch. She’s good, not great. But, has already started stronger than she did last year. Now that she’s finished a major growth spurt/body change we will see how this year goes. She could work more at home, but I think part of that is age related. Already she’s shown more willingness/want to practice outside of team practices. So we will see how it goes.

I will try to keep her pitching for as long as she continues to find it fun. She finds it frustrating at times but the challenge is still enjoyable to her.

 

[MightyMO]

When DD moved up from coach pitch/machine pitch, I wanted her to be a catcher. I caught when younger and enjoyed it. She wanted to pitch. Eight years later, she has stuck with it and is a good but not great pitcher to be completely honest. She is the number 1 for her high school team but plays for a high level travel team and only pitches a few innings here and there for them. She's an infielder there and actually prefers that now. She plans to play infield in college and be done with pitching completely.

 

[KrisHur]

DD stopped pitching travel second year 12U. She enjoys it and starting in November gets back into practice to pitch for her HS team's April-June season. I wish she'd stick with it year round as she has a bit of talent for it but she's just not into the extra work it takes on top of being an A+ student and competent hitter/fielder.

 

[chinamigarden]

My dd was pitching for the HS when I realized that every girl on the field with the exception of the catcher had been a pitcher at one point. Only 2 of them, including my dd were still pitching.