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camibrian

Sponge of knowledge
Jun 2, 2016
22
0
Southern Arizona
At what point do you consider your DD/students ready to step in the circle for actual game action? Do you wait until they can command the strike zone? Do you have a certain percentage of strikes that you require before letting them into game action?

Here in Southern Arizona, kid pitch starts at the 9-10 age group and watching the pitching this past year was infuriating. All of the games were walk after walk until the 5 run limit was reached. Very rarely did you see a batter take the bat off of their shoulder because they were all instructed to wait for the walk. My plan after my DD finished coach pitch and expressed interest in pitching was to attempt and get her efficient enough to throw around the strike zone for fall ball. We are making great strides, but I was just curious as to others opinions/feedback.
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
For travel you have to be able to throw strikes. Game time is not the time to be sorting that out.

Unfortunately their are more teams than pitchers.
 
Sep 3, 2015
372
63
I think your plan is good but there is no substitute for real game pitching. The ump strike zone, game pressure, being hot/tired, being off, success, failure are things a pitcher should experience and find out if it's right for them before they get older.

DD started pitching when she was 8 in rec and it was bad, but she kept at it, got better as time went on, had some ups and downs, mostly ups. She just turned 13 and has been the 1 on a 12A team since we moved to from B ball last fall. I think that experience was invaluable and now you can't tell if she's throwing a shutout or down by 5. Nothing fazes her, she's been through it.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
May 20, 2016
433
63
9YO will usually have a tough time but by 10 they should be ready. My DD got thrown in to games 3 months after we started. She's 10 now and can throw pretty well. Which is a blessing and a curse. Umps tend to shrink strike zones on girls that know how to pitch while expanding for slingshotters.

I like the umps that expand the zone and make girls swing. Takes that whole keep your bat on your shoulder thing out of the game. In my experience at 10U it is about 50% of the umps that do that.

Long and short i think you can't simulate live game so throw them out there.

edit: Also don't focus on throwing around the strike zone, push mechanics and the strike zone will come. Aiming makes little girls crazy.
 
Last edited:
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Dd has worse P in leaque, still is.

We made an effort that eveyone pitched. Every player on on team pitching 2 innings.

Some are not going to ever again. :)
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
At what point do you consider your DD/students ready to step in the circle for actual game action? Do you wait until they can command the strike zone? Do you have a certain percentage of strikes that you require before letting them into game action?

When she has about a 50-50 chance of throwing a strike, you let her pitch. Don't make a big deal out of it if she succeeds or fails.

What you really want to know is whether she loves to pitch. Not evey kid wants to be a pitcher, or should be a pitcher.

If your DD loves it, then you practice more. If she doesn't...then you work on a different position.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
In 10U travel I've seen some really strong pitchers, a whole lot of decent pitchers, and some pretty bad pitchers. I think you see walk fests at the lower levels of travel and in rec. We played A in first year 10U then mostly B this year and in both we saw a lot of good pitching. Personally DD was in lessons 8 months before she pitched in a game. That wasn't by design or for any reason, she just got lessons for Christmas shortly after she turned 8 and didn't move up to kid pitch til fall.
 
Jun 19, 2013
753
28
There is the chance that you are ingraining poor mechanics by pitching as a newbie (it took us 2 years to mostly undo what we ingrained in first 2 years) BUT if she is meant to be a pitcher it is fun to pitch. It's not that fun to wait to pitch. I agree with Sluggers - 50% chance is good enough. I look back at video of my DD first couple years and it's ugly in retrospect. But she was learning and growing in so much more than just locating pitches. How to lead her team, how to field her position, how to deal with umps, how to observe hitters, how to work with a catcher, and coaches, what she is capable of, how to persevere in tough times out there from getting hit in the shin to ignoring the other teams and maybe even her parent coaching from the stands. Game time is night and day from practicing in the back yard.

My DD has been on all sorts of teams. Starting out on a team that had NO pitching so she went out and tried to an A team where she was the #3 and didn't get too many shots. B- teams where she pitched 50% of the time and nobody could make an out behind her to save their lives to it always took twice as long as it should have to get out of an inning. But nothing has changed through the years - she still wants the ball any time she can get it. If you see your DD has that get ready for a fun ride!
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
If you are practicing with her say 50 pitches on the bucket...how many times are you off the bucket chasing the ball? Less than 5? Not an exact number but you get the idea.

She should be around the plate most of the time (90%+ again not scientific) by that I mean say inside quarter of each batters box and not bouncing before crossing the plate and not over five feet off the ground....maybe a 4 ft square box give or take and to sluggers point half of those should be strikes or at least borderline strikes.

In a typical inning you would only want the other team team to only score a run or two before she would strike out the side assuming they don't swing. If nobody is swinging and you walk in the run limit she is not ready and I would pull any pitcher at that point unless of course you don't have any other pitchers.

and to others point never tell/teach her to aim and just throw strike. Mechanics, mechanics, mechanics then let the results take care of themselves
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
If you are practicing with her say 50 pitches on the bucket...how many times are you off the bucket chasing the ball? Less than 5? Not an exact number but you get the idea.

She should be around the plate most of the time (90%+ again not scientific) by that I mean say inside quarter of each batters box and not bouncing before crossing the plate and not over five feet off the ground....maybe a 4 ft square box give or take and to sluggers point half of those should be strikes or at least borderline strikes.

In a typical inning you would only want the other team team to only score a run or two before she would strike out the side assuming they don't swing. If nobody is swinging and you walk in the run limit she is not ready and I would pull any pitcher at that point unless of course you don't have any other pitchers.

and to others point never tell/teach her to aim and just throw strike. Mechanics, mechanics, mechanics then let the results take care of themselves


DD has had trouble with that in college at times so don't expect your 10U to be perfect :)
 

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