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

DD is in the middle of the journey, 14u - going on year 3 of pitching. Outside of the obvious (expensive, time commitment (everyday), pitcher parent stress), I would tell newbies to make sure the arm stays loose. Loose is fast and on the edge of out of control.

We spent so much time concentrating on IR and pronating early to get the drop, that I didn't pay attention to how tight the finish was. Now that DD has control or at least a semblance of it, working on more MPH is tougher without the loose arm.

Also, I can't say enough about a good mentor. DT and his DD have been a godsend. Find someone local that has been through it

wasted 2 yrs and lots of money on HE.

Not a pitcher parent but the biggest thing I would do if I had one is to protect her from overuse. That next game is really important and you don't want to sit out 3 weeks with a sore shoulder because it's the most important tournament of the summer but I've seen so many pretty good pitchers just be done by 16U.

Recent Addict said:

Loose is fast and on the edge of out of control.

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Saw what you did there

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Glad I saw this thread. My soon to be 9yo has been asking to do pitching lessons and its the one thing I have no experience with to help her. Then again, even if I did she would still resist anything I tried to teach her even if a pitching coach said the same exact thing I did word for word

Read stuff here.


That's all you need. Read stuff here and you'll avoid HE, learn spin and location are more important than learning your 5th pitch, and to enjoy the journey and time with your DD.

uncdrew said:

enjoy the journey and time with your DD.

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THIS^^^

Best thing about DD wanting to pitch is the time she wants to spend with me, I'd like to think it's cause I'm cool but mostly I'm just target practice. She's regretted telling me to be tough on her a couple of times, but this is her journey. I'm just along for the ride

1. Learn to throw underhand. Don't start out pitching. Spend months just throwing underhand like NFL referees. No pitching. No windups. No rubber. No catcher. No bucket. No batters. No balls and strikes. Just throw.
2. Speed, speed, speed. Everyone who says location and spin are more important are absolutely full of it. The only thing that matters for the first 6-8 years of pitching is speed. Speed kills. Worry about location and spin when she is consistently playing against girls who can handle the speed. But that's not going to be for a long time.
3. Uh, speed.

clarity said:

The only thing that matters for the first 6-8 years of pitching is speed. Speed kills. Worry about location and spin when she is consistently playing against girls who can handle the speed. But that's not going to be for a long time.

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Happened for us in first year of 12U, about 3 years in.

Location has saved my DD numerous times. Can't get fastballs by them the way we could in 10U. However, speed kills and boy was it fun watching her blow the ball by batter after batter. I'm all for teaching speed, for sure.

Here is my list from a few years ago.
Most still applies




1) Legs.... One of the coaches from a team that DD tried out for in the summer reached out to me recently as he heard that DD was throwing harder. Why? Well to be honest she was not using her Legs at all.... She is now on a strict program of full speed sprints daily. The first few weeks were painful and hard.. But as the weeks have gone by she has developed the stamina necessary to maintain a high level of performance in speed drills. I have watched her get faster and faster. I NEVER knew just how important the legs were to the total pitching package.

2) Diet.... I wish at 10 years old I would have understood just how important it is to increase the level of protein that DD was consuming. She is a very lean kid and I equated that with fitness, but I have learned now that she is weight training (lightly) just how important protein consumption in the development of the body. She would never eat breakfast, pick at her lunch and eat a big dinner. We have been helping her make better choices and it's helped her gain some muscle.

3) Weight training... I always bought into the "no weight training" till later in life philosophy. I now understand that light to mid weight training can make a big difference in performance even at 13 years old. Girls don't get big like boys at this age, but they get stronger very quickly. DD has been weight training since November and has made big strides in this area. Again I wish we would have started this process sooner. DD does mainly pulling exercises.. but does do bench press... However I do not and will not allow her to use a straight bar.. Only dumbbells... This keeps her from using one side to compensate for the other. My belief is that is how injuries happen. She does squats... but again dumbbells only.

4) Change up.... I remember reading over and over about the importance of a great change up, but DD hated to work on it. She always threw hard and the change up challenged her. And she failed over and over. I can remember going full pitching practices without her throwing a single change up. After our fall season her coach gave her feedback and challenged her to come in the spring with a "ready to go" change up. She worked her butt off over the last 5 months and today is hitting 8 out of 10 CU's. She is so much more of a complete pitcher now. I don't know how I could have better helped her here but I do think that if we were disciplined about developing this pitch at 10 years old she would be father along now. Get the Change up down before you move to the Screw/Curve.. etc.. When she was younger DD hated to throw the change and learned the screw and curve. Both pitches she could control and they became her favorite pitches to throw. The problem is that if you can't change speed your cooked at 14U ball. At 12U you can get away with it...

5) Location.... I have learned that three things that make a pitcher at 14U are location, movement and change of speed.. Location is first for a reason. Girls must locate pitches 80%-90% of the time if they are to be successful. We worked on this a ton last year but in years past we put off the "10 up and inside, 10 low and outside" type drills. If I only knew how important up and down and left and right were at say age 10 we would have put a ton more time into this versus working on that curve ball or screw.

6) Mental toughness. One area that I think DD always did well with is pressure. She pitches better with the base loaded then with no one on. However there is always room to improve in this area. From reading books, to talking to older pitchers working on the mental side of the game is so important. One great exercise is setting up pressure situations during pitching practice. It's never going to fully simulate a game but the more she learns to deal with pressure the better she will handle it during games.

7) Setting goals.. This seems so obvious but I can tell you at times DD lost track of her goals. She now writes down goals each month. In the past they were all based on speed of her fast ball.... but she has now learned to gear them more towards accuracy and hitting spots. We have a fitness area set up in the basement. I picked up a white board and post her weight training goals and actuals results. Any way is a good way as long as they WRITE down their goals

8) Hitting... DD is still working to become a better hitter. We take her to hitting lessons aside from the team hitting. Nothing builds confidence better than a pitcher getting a clutch hit in a game when she is not pitching. It's a huge boost to the team and demonstrates great team work. It also helps at tryouts A few of my friends have daughters who pitch and they don't spend much time at all on hitting. I think that this is a missed opportunity.

9) Get your DD on a team where she is NOT the #1 pitcher. How nice is it to see DD being the #1 pitcher... that feels good right? You love hearing the other parents say "your DD is the best".. In reality having DD being #2 or #3 is better, I've learned. Your DD needs to work hard and see the person who is better than her every day.. That may require you to put DD on a team at a higher level than she played on last season... You want to see her strike out the entire lineup? Put your DD in a REC or town league in addition to travel.. I'm serious.. When DD was 11 we let her play Rec ball to boost her confidence and it worked. Also helps the Rec players too as they see a pitcher that will challenge them.

10) IR... Don't wait another minute.. Read the stickies at the top of the page... and find someone in your area that can teach your DD IR.. If you can't find that person then.. READ and ask questions and help your DD through the process. There is so much information out there, make sure that you start at the top of the page on this very forum.