Possibly a question that's impossible to answer but....

How do you know When they have tapped out in terms of speed? Been stuck for what seems forever and thinking she's maxed out. Any ideas on how to when the quest for speed is officially over?

What is the comparison between her overhand throwing speed as compared to her fast pitch speed? I would look at that differential. If they are close then for the moment it might be what it is. If overhand speed is much greater then there should be more underhand. Anyone else find a correlation between overhand and underhand?

Man10 said:

How do you know When they have tapped out in terms of speed? Been stuck for what seems forever and thinking she's maxed out. Any ideas on how to when the quest for speed is officially over?

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I do not have the answer, but I will just say from 9 to now 19 my DD plateaued moved up plateaued etc. But her jump in her first year in college this year has been fairly decent...cruising 3 mph on average above where she was just do to the amount of working out and throwing. She has always been in decent travel ball programs but the difference between college and tb in workout frequency and intensity is off the charts. So bottom line is I don't know but they can keep improving for quite a while if my DDs experience is any guide.

Andy

Eye test only, overhand is slower.

How old is she?

Has her game speed been slowly increasing and can she sustain it for the duration of a tournament?

CLM265 said:

How old is she?

Has her game speed been slowly increasing and can she sustain it for the duration of a tournament?

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She is 16, she has gained somewhere around 8 mph in about 1.5 years when we learned about DFP and IR. She was clocked at 58 at a college camp this past summer, she was clocked today with a pocket radar at 55, we are assuming that there is a difference in the two radars but I'm thinking it can't be more than 2-3 mph which means no increase since June. As far as tournament, she does pretty good at maintaining her speed as long as she doesn't have to pitch 3 games a day. 2, she's good to go, 3 and it hits her. lol

How old is your DD? As long as she is still growing there is always potential for speed increases.
How are your DD's mechanics? Is she maximizing her whip? BI? Leg drive? Ect?
How often is your DD working out? As [MENTION=1407]AndyS[/MENTION] mentioned, getting on a college workout program will boost most pitchers a few MPH.

As a pitchers parent you need to walk a fine line to push your DD to be the best that she can be, but be careful in your quest for speed, burnout is real and having a DD that throws 62 MPH and is still playing in college is better than having one that can throw 65 MPH but quit softball.

JAD said:

How old is your DD? As long as she is still growing there is always potential for speed increases.
How are your DD's mechanics? Is she maximizing her whip? BI? Leg drive? Ect?
How often is your DD working out? As [MENTION=1407]AndyS[/MENTION] mentioned, getting on a college workout program will boost most pitchers a few MPH.

As a pitchers parent you need to walk a fine line to push your DD to be the best that she can be, but be careful in your quest for speed, burnout is real and having a DD that throws 62 MPH and is still playing in college is better than having one that can throw 65 MPH but quit softball.

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At 16 the mid to high 50s seems about right for a good quality pitcher. The answer is in bold if the mechanic are right and she has stopped growing then you can probably get a couple miles an hour with strength, conditioning and more workouts but as [MENTION=5663]JAD[/MENTION] said I would not run her into the ground chasing 60 mph just to say she throws 60. Also how is her control and movement that is not something to overlook while she is chasing speed. You've been on the site for a while so you know if you are willing to post a video everyone here is only about helping and if three or four people all see the same thing it might be that one thing to work on during the off season that will help.

I agree with DJ about this. In immortal words of Alice Morse Earle, "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.”

To your specific question...my DD was throwing 55 MPH at 15YOA. She found a better PC, and hit 60MPH when she 16 or so. She threw 62MPH after a couple of year in college, and topped out at 67MPH her senior year of college. No one (not me, not her PC, not her college coaches), believed she could hit 67...but she did. (She worked her rear end off.)

The real athletes are continually striving to get better...to perfect "one more thing". So, how fast she throw doesn't matter a whole lot. Her goal is to get better every day...fixing her circle, fixing her push off, making her IR timing better, getting the right degree of hip closure, and on and on and on.

Your DD should continue speed work, control work and movement work for the rest of her pitching career.

Her speed may determine her ultimate level of success at softball...but, if the only reason she is playing softball is to "get a scholarship at U of Softball Heaven", then she shouldn't be playing anyway.

Thanks for the replies, her mechanics are very close I believe. She could have a little more drive, little more bend in the arm and whip and a little better front side resistance. In other words, she could make small adjustments on a little of everything but we've fought that battle for two years now. She works out probably too much, we try to get in the cage 4 days a week and pitch about 1.5 hours and workout about a hour. Her control and movement needs work, the speed is more for her than me. She constantly worried about speed. Me, I'd rather her bend the ball.