Hitting Really Fast Pitchers

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Jun 22, 2019
258
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Supposedly there was a 12u kid in College Station this last weekend touching that in games. The HC apologized to one opposing HC before bringing her in (they were already up) but said she really needs circle time because she has control issues lol.

We saw a girl in 12U that was throwing 57-58 consistently.

We saw the same girl 4-5 yrs later and she was throwing about the same speed and everyone was catching up to her. I couldn’t believe it...our pitchers pick up a couple of mph/yr typically, but she basically peaked at 12

Best pitcher I’d ever seen at 12 but average at 16 or 17.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
We saw a girl in 12U that was throwing 57-58 consistently.

We saw the same girl 4-5 yrs later and she was throwing about the same speed and everyone was catching up to her. I couldn’t believe it...our pitchers pick up a couple of mph/yr typically, but she basically peaked at 12

Best pitcher I’d ever seen at 12 but average at 16 or 17.
More data to support the DFP supported theory that being good at 12 is almost perfectly negatively correlated with being good at 18...
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Speedball, preferably with a pinky and a green Easton and a strike zone painted on the wall behind you..
 
Nov 30, 2018
359
43
Marikina, Philippines
Here in the Philippines 60mph was the top end among pitchers. Only 2, one 16 and one a college graduate. The next fastest pitcher threw 58. We had to be prepared for 70mph, though we did not think we would face Japan's Ueno, and we didn't. We faced men's pitchers as much as possible. But I also changed their mechanics:

I call it "Choice vs Timing the Pitcher"
If you think about it, the choice is made at about 50% of the distance to the plate. What happens when the pitch speed goes up. The brain works at the same speed! That means the ball is going to be in the catcher's mitt. So by timing the pitcher rather than on the "choice" to swing, you are eliminating some of that brain freeze.

I had every batter learn to adjust their timing to each pitcher by coming to "hip-connection (slot)" at the hip on every pitch with proper bat "LAG". They were ready to release once they made their observation which has already be made before the elbow gets to hip-connection. The batter is then ready to fire.

* I had our female pitchers stand closer to home-plate. The batter's performed the partial rotation on each pitch. They were facing right-field at connection with is the normal orientation; back knee, belly button facing toward the 2baseman. They did this 10 times through each rotation.
* Second phase, they performed the connection, but I also had the batters call "ball" or "strike" on each pitch and kept score. I had some batters at speed getting scores of 3 or 4 out of 10. By the time we were done all the Filipinas were scoring 8-10 out of 10 on every cycle. If you can't score well on this test, why should the opposing pitcher throw strikes?

When we got to Oklahoma City, Surrey B.C, and Japan for qualifiers we were pretty ready for speed. We were overwhelmed by Dallas Escobedo of Mexico, Stacey King of Florida State pitching for Puerto Rico, Kelly Barnhill, and the no.2 pitcher for Japan. The rest we hit well and beat #4 Australia 2 of 3, #3 Canada 3 of 3, etc.

Photos of Connection and Bat-Lag.
 

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Last edited:
Jun 22, 2019
258
43
More data to support the DFP supported theory that being good at 12 is almost perfectly negatively correlated with being good at 18...

I’ve also seen girls that were really good at 12 and are still really good now in HS/College.

I have seen quite a few pitchers that were really good in 12U, but don’t really develop into stud pitchers.
 
Dec 6, 2019
382
63
Last year at 12u we gunned 3 opposing pitchers throwing 61-62. And they each had good command. They're out there.
 
May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
I 100% percent believe you that there are 12u girls throwing 59-60 mph consistently. We played the Birmingham Thunderbolts a couple of weeks ago, they have two girls on their 12u team throwing that hard. They gave us the worst beating we have had all year. They hit the ball very well in the game that we played them also.
 

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