It's late and I'll have some pictures from the game tomorrow but DD and I are both frustrated. DD just turned 10 and is in her second year of IR. Decent mechanics for her experience level, decent speed, but just cannot hit the strike zone. Actually, never throws the same pitch location twice in a row anywhere. Does fairly well in practice but forget about a game. Any ideas, tweaks in general?
consistently inconsistent
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At 10 years old it is not abnormal to have inconsistency in location, so it is not the end of the world. If I was going to sum up a hundred paragraphs of how to improve location, I would do it with two words: Posture and Stability. Without good posture it is extremely difficult to be stable. There are two primary stabilities I would focus on: 1. the connection of the upper torso in alignment with the lower torso; 2. stability of the throwing arm to the thigh.....in other words....Brush trigger followed by brush interference of the forearm with the thigh.
If DD is not getting Brush she will struggle forever...........it is extremely difficult to get Brush without good posture.
- Feb 7, 2013
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Two other words you need to know: Sequences & Practice
After every pitching practice, do a fun dril that replicates game type situations which I call "Sequences" (pitch sequences). Pretend there is a batter at the plate and call certain pitches depending on the count (e.g. Fastball, inside) . The goal is to "strike out" the batter. Keep track of the count and if she "walks" the batter you start the count over. The goal is to strike out 6 batters before she is done. This is a great drill because it simulates game strategy and pitch sequences and it forces the pitcher to concentrate and execute each pitch, otherwise she starts over.
The other word is PRACTICE. She should be practicing at least 3x a week, every week, for the foreseeable future. If you can create a pitching area at your house, that is even better as it makes it real easy to go in the backyard for 30-40 mins to pitch and be done for the day.
I can pretty much guarantee to you that your DD will become much more accurate in real games if you follow the above advice.
Good luck!
After every pitching practice, do a fun dril that replicates game type situations which I call "Sequences" (pitch sequences). Pretend there is a batter at the plate and call certain pitches depending on the count (e.g. Fastball, inside) . The goal is to "strike out" the batter. Keep track of the count and if she "walks" the batter you start the count over. The goal is to strike out 6 batters before she is done. This is a great drill because it simulates game strategy and pitch sequences and it forces the pitcher to concentrate and execute each pitch, otherwise she starts over.
The other word is PRACTICE. She should be practicing at least 3x a week, every week, for the foreseeable future. If you can create a pitching area at your house, that is even better as it makes it real easy to go in the backyard for 30-40 mins to pitch and be done for the day.
I can pretty much guarantee to you that your DD will become much more accurate in real games if you follow the above advice.
Good luck!
Video is your friend, you do not have to beat her over the head with it but let her see what she is doing differently in games.
I have shown DD after the game, have not tried showing anything to her during a game. Advice, if any, during game is pretty basic.
I have shown DD after the game, have not tried showing anything to her during a game. Advice, if any, during game is pretty basic.
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First of all. I want to thank everyone who has offered valuable advice, both here and through PMs. I'm not going to post any video of yesterday's game. It shows a player who is, for whatever reasons, no longer interested in pitching. Whether this is long term or not, I don't know. I do know she has one maore game and we will discuss her pitching future before that game. I can tell you, in all honesty, I am not a daddy ball coach. This is not any sort of brag or tough guy thing, but I'm a team first coach. I have benched my older DDs, during a game at one point.
All my girls know that if they don't want to play softball, it's OK. I have told my youngest the same thing about pitching. If it's not fun, then don't do it. She can hit, throw and catch. She's fast and a good team mate. As long as she's in to softball, she can be on the field based on her own abilities. It's not about Dad's expectations.
All my girls know that if they don't want to play softball, it's OK. I have told my youngest the same thing about pitching. If it's not fun, then don't do it. She can hit, throw and catch. She's fast and a good team mate. As long as she's in to softball, she can be on the field based on her own abilities. It's not about Dad's expectations.
About that age DD went to a couple pitching clinics, coach did not recognize her when she came back. Where is the girl that we needed to by a new backstop for because all the dents? I liked the signs that say no throwing ball into the fenence, when ever I saw them I told DD to save it for the game.
It can turn quick at this age if they put in some effort.
More then anything else they need to want to do it. In MS 1 year DD was only pitcher and her arm was ready to fall off. Coach grabbed the best player and told them you are know a pitcher, she tried a couple innings but you could tell she was plain miserable. She did OK was willing to take one for the team but she hated every minute of it so they stopped.
It can turn quick at this age if they put in some effort.
More then anything else they need to want to do it. In MS 1 year DD was only pitcher and her arm was ready to fall off. Coach grabbed the best player and told them you are know a pitcher, she tried a couple innings but you could tell she was plain miserable. She did OK was willing to take one for the team but she hated every minute of it so they stopped.
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Without any video to go from... My DD had the same issue when she was young. Where the ball was going, was anyone's guess in fact anyone else could probably guess and have a better chance of knowing where it was going then she had.
She was/is an over thinker. She would mull the last pitch the whole time she was on the mound (yeah I know) and my first advice hurt more then it helped, which was take enough tome to clear your head. Just gave her more time to analyse what was wrong. So we went the other direction. I sped her up. We did that by practicing going fast. We came up with our own "pop time" from the time the ball hit her glove she had 12 seconds to get the ball back to me. She didn't have time to stress about where the ball had been going, It was enough time to get set, take a sign and go. Eventually we were down to 10 seconds. Which BTW I counted out loud. So she knew exactly how much time she had, plus gave her something other then the last pitch to think about.
The next season, as soon as the ump gave her the nod, the ball was on its way. And her walk rate, while still on the high side went way down, strike outs way up. So if your dd is one of those perfectionists who beat themselves up over mistakes this might help.
She was/is an over thinker. She would mull the last pitch the whole time she was on the mound (yeah I know) and my first advice hurt more then it helped, which was take enough tome to clear your head. Just gave her more time to analyse what was wrong. So we went the other direction. I sped her up. We did that by practicing going fast. We came up with our own "pop time" from the time the ball hit her glove she had 12 seconds to get the ball back to me. She didn't have time to stress about where the ball had been going, It was enough time to get set, take a sign and go. Eventually we were down to 10 seconds. Which BTW I counted out loud. So she knew exactly how much time she had, plus gave her something other then the last pitch to think about.
The next season, as soon as the ump gave her the nod, the ball was on its way. And her walk rate, while still on the high side went way down, strike outs way up. So if your dd is one of those perfectionists who beat themselves up over mistakes this might help.
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DD has not practicing pitching in over a year, her strike out to walk ratio is about 10 to 1, go figure.
Keep working at it, don't give up. Let go of short term goals and work towards a big picture down the road.
One thing that really helped my DD with accuracy was during practice to simply to alternate inside edge and outside edge every pitch. A big thanks to Dave Edwards for this
. Anyway, I find that when I hold my glove in the middle, anything in the zone registers to her brain, "strike, good pitch". However as soon as you locate, her internal standard gets higher and forces her to focus. This little change made a big difference.
One thing that really helped my DD with accuracy was during practice to simply to alternate inside edge and outside edge every pitch. A big thanks to Dave Edwards for this
. Anyway, I find that when I hold my glove in the middle, anything in the zone registers to her brain, "strike, good pitch". However as soon as you locate, her internal standard gets higher and forces her to focus. This little change made a big difference.
