Pitching Rules Change

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Feb 13, 2015
164
18
In my area, travel teams never hold tryouts. Most coaches run local leagues or coach at schools, they all pull from there by invite. This has made me want to create a developmental travel team where I can offer tryouts and take some of the girls that never get a chance.

As I mulled this over, I hit a brick wall, pitching. I wanted to attract the kids with heart, but less natural talent that doesn't get them invited to the local teams, but without a decent pitcher, this can be so humiliating for them on the field.

It started me thinking again about underhand pitching. In baseball, you can pull a kid from the outfield (at 10-12u) and at least throw a lot of hittable balls. In softball, you can't get a strike out of 20 pitches if the new kid tries to throw hard at all.

Today, experts are starting to say our kids are too specialized and need to play more sports and have more free play time. How can you have that and develop a fastpitch pitcher?

Because of all I listed above, I want to hear opinions about changing fastpitch pitching to overhand. Could it work? How would it affect the game? Do you like or hate that idea?

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Last edited:

bmd

Jan 9, 2015
301
28
Back in the day, my dd had a t-shirt that read "if fastpitch was easy it would be called baseball". lol. I think fastpitch pitching is an art and a skill that takes a lot of hard work to develop. If you are wanting to start a travel team and are going to host tryouts.....pitchers will come....
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
If your leaque is committed to pitching it is fixable in the long-term. Short-term it is hard to fix.

Most annoying thing is your better pitchers will move to TB but you honestly wish them luck and move in the next pitcher.
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
What you said regarding baseball is true. However, the difference is that the kids already have the ability to throw overhand. Throwing underhand is no more difficult a task than throwing overhand, yet few take the time to develop the skill. Unfortunately most softball coaches attempt to teach a kid to pitch before they learn to throw underhand which is a setup for failure. If you properly develop pitchers and teach them to throw underhand anyone can become a competent pitcher.
 
Jul 2, 2013
381
43
In my area, travel teams never hold tryouts. Most coaches run local leagues or coach at schools, they all pull from there by invite. This has made me want to create a developmental travel team where I can offer tryouts and take some of the girls that never get a chance.

As I mulled this over, I hit a brick wall, pitching. I wanted to attract the kids with heart, but less natural talent that doesn't get them invited to the local teams, but without a decent pitcher, this can be so humiliating for them on the field.

It started me thinking again about underhand pitching. In baseball, you can pull a kid from the outfield (at 10-12u) and at least throw a lot of hittable balls. In softball, you can't get a strike out of 20 pitches if the new kid tries to throw hard at all.

Today, experts are starting to say our kids are too specialized and need to play more sports and have more free play time. How can you have that and develop a fastpitch pitcher?

Because of all I listed above, I want to hear opinions about changing fastpitch pitching to overhand. Could it work? How would it affect the game? Do you like or hate that idea?

Sent from my Z832 using Tapatalk

It sounds like what you are describing is a "C" level team. You can have a successful team at that level with pitchers who can get the ball over the plate most of the time. If you build the team correctly and can develop raw talent they will be moving up faster that you would have thought possible. No need to change the rules for that.
 

osagedr

Canadian Fastpitch Dad
Oct 20, 2016
280
28
My mama says if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. So I won't.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
Our team has only one bracket pitcher right now. We have no big name so we're going to have to look for talent and commitment and take some hits to develop her. I like it that way, to be honest. The ace pitchers often come with baggage (parental at our age level), and there's something really awesome about building something from the ground up. Last fall there was a first year 10U team with zero experienced pitching (this is the team my DD joined in the spring). They got killed all fall but they kept trucking and that same pitcher this fall is about a zillion times better. She was always fast but very wild. They took all those losses with her in the circle though, and all that experience plus her and her parents' commitment and she's gotten to be a great pitcher. I love it. I have a soft spot for developmental teams.
 

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