Average speed

If your DD throws average speed with her fastball, What does she have to do to win at a fairly high level in HS? Location and what else. My DD will be limited to hopefully a good HS pitcher and possibly a low level JUCO later on pitcher.

Kind of a loaded question. With way to little info. Age, other pitches, competition in HS, why are you limiting her or is that her choice, does she have location down...and on and on

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I agree with djcarter, but in most HS settings, she can be successful by spotting a fastball, and changeup, but with average speed, she better be really good at the spotting.

Tango said:

If your DD throws average speed with her fastball, What does she have to do to win at a fairly high level in HS? Location and what else. My DD will be limited to hopefully a good HS pitcher and possibly a low level JUCO later on pitcher.

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You can be quite successful with average speed in HS and travel (even at the highest levels).

1. Be able to miss with accuracy;
2. Be able to defend any ball hit through the circle;
3. Be able to defend the bunt;
4. Have a change up that you can throw for a strike on command;
5. Have one movement pitch that can be thrown for a strike on command.

If she develop a little movement just to keep the ball off the barrel it will help.

Change speeds a little (doesn't have to be a changeup)

The best hope to win is to have a great defense behind her.

IME if they have proper mechanics, any pitcher of average build has the ability to throw low to high 60's so except at the very highest level speed should not be a limiting factor. There are many pitchers with top programs who live in the low 60's.

DD is 11 and has solid mechanics IMO. Throws between 45 and 48 probably on a good day. Hits spots well with FB. Throws a good flip change and pretty good palm up CB. A little to inconsistent with strikes on some days. Working on screwball but never thrown it in a game. Really good sometimes but not ready. Working the rollover drop and could really throw it 6 months ago but has completely lost it.

Going to be short hopefully 5.2 -5.4. Limited ability.

Tango said:

...Going to be short hopefully 5.2 -5.4. Limited ability.

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You mean limited like Delanie Gourley from Florida? What a shame.

Tango said:

DD is 11 and has solid mechanics IMO. Throws between 45 and 48 probably on a good day. Hits spots well with FB. Throws a good flip change and pretty good palm up CB. A little to inconsistent with strikes on some days. Working on screwball but never thrown it in a game. Really good sometimes but not ready. Working the rollover drop and could really throw it 6 months ago but has completely lost it.

Going to be short hopefully 5.2 -5.4. Limited ability.

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OK let's start with she is 11...nobody has any kind of idea what her true potential is. Most of it will be limited by the amount of drive and passion she has in her.

She has a growth spurt in her no doubt, if you and your wife are both under 5ft 6in maybe it's hopeless but you still never know. Not to mention size is not a good indicator of pitching prowess.

It can not be over emphasized that she needs to have control. Try this; just divide the zone into high, low, inside and outside now during your next pitching session call say 25 pitches start all fastballs alternating zones high and outside then low and inside etc. after 25 pitches did she hit the target around 75% of the time or better. If the answer is no then I would stop trying to throw four different pitches and concentrate on location without losing any speed and working in the change up. She has plenty of time to learn pitches but if she does not have control what is the point of calling a low outside screwball if she is only hitting the spot half the time, I personally don't regularly call pitches until a pitcher has control because you are wasting your time until then it's fastball below the belt outer half unless I call something else which is maybe a change up if the batter is making good contact or inside if I feel she is crowding the plate too much.

Honestly her effort is going to determine what she can accomplish...if she really driven to be the best pitcher and wants to work hard at it...if so get a quality pitching coach and get to work, if you can't find one, post a video of her and we would be happy to help. If she starts working now there is no reason she can't be hitting 50 and consistently hitting her locations before the spring season starts up. Having solid mechanics is a lot more important than how many pitches she has or speed those things can follow only if oyu have a good base to work from. As far as being a good HS pitcher it's a complete crap shoot I know a really good pitcher that pitched on a solid TB team that never saw quality minutes on Varsity her Freshman and Sophomore year we had an All State D1 recruit ahead of her so she just threw on JV to get circle time, then her Junior year another stud Sophomore pitcher got the #1 spot and she just floated between JV and Varsity to get minutes, but the #2 on her TB team and numerous pitcher she ran over during TB season were all starting for their Varsity teams and different school...sometimes life is not fair...she got frustrated and concentrated on her travel/school volleyball teams and never played softball her senior year.

What does she have to do to win at a fairly high level in HS?

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You say, "win".

Winning at a "high level" is dependent upon your DD's team, not the pitcher. At high levels of play, every team has got a good pitcher. The teams around the pitchers determines the winner and loser. I've seen great pitchers go 17-10. I've seen decent but not great pitchers go 27-3.

The answer to the question, "What does it take for a pitcher to be competitive at the higher levels of HS ball?" is very dependent upon location.

Teams in southern California, Florida, Arizona, parts of Chicagoland and parts of Georgia at a whole different level of play than the rest of the country. In those locations, 60MPH would be a minimum speed, along with a movement pitch and a good changeup.

If you are in a rural area, probably 55MPH would be considered great. In some areas, 50MPH would probably get a lot of wins.