9-10u and pitching styles

[Lance Steckler]

had a coach on our Org coach groupme ask today and his ~9 yr old DD, and she's been taught HE for approx 18 months. The question was should they switch to the I/R style? Waste of time? Worth it? etc.

I basically said switch immediately and change instructors as well. And also, cautioned him on the "I know 9 pitches" crapola.

Thoughts????

 

[ArmWhip]

Too bad she has had 18 months of bad instruction. Maybe at that age it's not baked in too much. Now she's probably headed into her season which means she will be pitching in games. That's a double whammy when it comes to changing mechanics. If she wants to be good she has to make the change ASAP.

 

[Hillhouse]

The immediate question would be, do they understand the difference between the 2 things? IF the answer is yes, and you know H/E to be wrong and opposite of the way the body is designed to move, then why would you continue? That would be like sending your kid to school where the teacher says 5+5=11 and accepting it. I feel bad for people who say they don't have alternatives and the only coaches nearby is H/E. I don't really have an answer for that, except to say if you know it's not right then it doesn't make sense to continue. It might require sacrifices and strong commitment to travel further away to get lessons from a non-H/E coach.

 

[lostcreek1]

The immediate question would be, do they understand the difference between the 2 things? IF the answer is yes, and you know H/E to be wrong and opposite of the way the body is designed to move, then why would you continue? That would be like sending your kid to school where the teacher says 5+5=11 and accepting it. I feel bad for people who say they don't have alternatives and the only coaches nearby is H/E. I don't really have an answer for that, except to say if you know it's not right then it doesn't make sense to continue. It might require sacrifices and strong commitment to travel further away to get lessons from a non-H/E coach.

It is very true where we live in small town USA there are 2-3 PC within 20-30 min of where I live all teach HE all older men. There are two PC that teach IR both women both about 1.5 hours from us in either direction. We chose to make the 1.5 hour drive.

 

[BrianTx01]

My favorite 9U to 10U pitching style is strikes.

 

[BrianTx01]

Internal rotation is a very fancy term used to describe the natural progression of a slow young pitcher with no movement to a fast pitcher with lots of movement. I honestly don't think you can teach a kid "internal rotation". Teach them how to throw a curve ball and a turn over drop ball and it will just happen.

 

[lostcreek1]

I honestly don't think you can teach a kid "internal rotation".

Can you elaborate on this.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

That would be like sending your kid to school where the teacher says 5+5=11 and accepting it.

This is an underrated observation on the subject. They aren't alternate ways to come to the same right answer. Only one way is correct. Quit comparing the two as equivalents.

Slingshot style vs windmill style would be a more interesting discussion on different pitching styles.

 

[ArmWhip]

I honestly don't think you can teach a kid "internal rotation".

I've done it.

My favorite 9U to 10U pitching style is strikes.

If this is indeed your favorite pitching style no wonder you struggle to teach IR to 9-10 year olds. "Just throw strikes" promotes bowling style.

 

[lostcreek1]

I've done it.

If this is indeed your favorite pitching style no wonder you struggle to teach IR to 9-10 year olds. "Just throw strikes" promotes bowling style.

So is it your opinion that pitching with HE mechanics has shorter learning curve to throw enough strikes to be effective in 10u. I see girls pitch this way every weekend but don't know any of them well enough to know how much work they put in compared to my DD. If so maybe that is the reason it doesn't go away. Mom and dad pay money for their DD to throw strikes so people teach the mechanics that produce that result the fastest. We have been IR from the beginning which has been almost a year and a half with pretty steady practice, and we are just now getting to the point of throwing enough strikes to be effective in a game IMO.