“Pitching Drought”

[JAD]

5. I would argue there are more D1 caliber pitchers in the Chicago area than there have ever been. But 43 foot mounds, year round hitting instruction, hot bats, and stacked lineups make pitching a much tougher position choice for most players than it was in the past. If you start getting beat up on the mound as a 14 year old you may not have the persistence to work through it. I would say rotten fathers and the failure of travel coaches to develop pitchers is no more an issue than it has ever been. There are simply physical limits on how hard a pitcher can throw and unlike hitters, there is no equipment available that can help inflate that.”

A pitcher counting on her TB coach to make her better is not doing it right...private lessons and a lot of "bucket time" during the week are what separates the good pitchers from average. Weekends in the circle with a TB coach just shows you what you need to work on.

 

[FP26]

I see some issues in the rec ball program locally. What better way for a young pitcher to get some experience and decide her level of interest in the position, than playing rec ball? Unfortunately, I see too many rec ball coaches that are more concerned about winning their league and the $5 trophy. If they have one quality pitcher (maybe from a travel ball team), that is the girl that is getting the majority of the innings. The average player doesn't even have the opportunity to give it a shot. At the younger levels, give everyone the opportunity to pitch and then slowly allow them to decide who wants to stick with it.

 

[625ender]

Its a joke and all driven by grown men who want you to " LOOK AT THEM "4

There's your answer. Being "coached" by someone who knows nothing of the game other that what see on youtube will never work out. It's narcissism at it best.

 

[Rick M]

I'll chime in on the coaches as well, but for a different reason than some of the others have expressed.

DD just finished up tryout season, and had a number of opportunities to pitch with a large group of girls. She's been doing private lessons with a Tincher instructor for more than a year, and her mechanics are very good. She has a big stride, solid IR delivery, lands with her weight back, and has a devastating changeup. Out of a dozen tryouts, she got two offers. Why? Because her velocity is average. At 11 YO, she tops out at about 46.

I got to watch coach after coach make on-the-spot offers to girls who throw in the low 50's but bend over at the waist, don't pivot their stride foot, use an HE delivery, etc. The vast majority of these coaches (at the 12U level anyway) don't know anything about high-level mechanics. They see a girl who throws hard and that's all they care about. DD loves pitching and knows the velocity will come -- she's 79 pounds soaking wet. But if she were easily discouraged, she might be tempted to give up. Heck, I'm tempted to give up, weekly private lessons ain't cheap!!

 

[Sparky Guy]

The OP was made by Gerry Quinn on the Midwest Fastpitch site who runs the Illinois Chill. My DD played against his DD's. He continued to run the Chill program after his DD's cycled through. He has a reputation for being able to put together strong teams and get his players signed. He's been around the game for a long time.

In the Chicago area there are many, many teams looking for pitching help. It's gotten so bad some of the teams are posting "No pitchers needed." when looking for position players. The post was in a long thread about why there is such a shortage of pitchers this year in the area.

 

[MikeP]

The girls softball circuit is slowly turning in to a wealthy kids sport.

The high strung, johnny bad rear coaches are killing the game. 100 games a year at 13 14?

Its a joke and all driven by grown men who want you to " LOOK AT THEM "4

The youths TODAY...PLAY WAY TO MUCH.

There's an 8u team close to us that was advertising tryouts for the team as they transition to 10u. They posted their record as 84-10-1 if I remember correctly. That's insane for one season of 8u.

 

[Sparky Guy]

I’ll be honest, something has been missed here and this will not be popular.

Part of the problem is umpires. Give the pitcher the corners, especially at the upper skill levels. Let them get off the damn plate. If you are an umpire, and you are squeezing the zone in 2018 and you see that players are hitting rockets up the middle against a high skill, high experience pitcher, the problem is you. And it is dangerous.

I noticed a huge difference between summer 2017 and summer 2018 in the size of the zone. In 2018 I saw the zone squeezed weekend after weekend. I have a few theories on it but I’ll keep it to myself for now.

I’ll add this. I heard with my own ears “I won’t call anything above the waist” and “I don’t like them low” uttered by two different umpires. I cannot stand these kind of comments by an umpire. Who do they think they are? The strike zone is the strike zone. How dare you change the rules of the game, you should be immediately removed.

The reason we're getting nonsense like that is many of the good umpires have been driven from the game by crazy coaches and parents. The good ones are usually working for a good assignor and working the top level tournaments leaving the rest of them for the remaining needs.

I know a guy who has been umpiring for a long time. He's always assigned games in the HS State Tournaments. He's does college as well. He has told me in the past that he gets fewer groans when he calls strikes. I've watched him call games and he calls a consistent by-the-book strike zone. His games usually run pretty quick because the pitchers can work the corners and are not being used as punching bags.

 

[Westwind]

Sparky, we play very little PGF and I have wondered if that was where some of the better umps have gone. However, I saw some pretty weak umpires in Colorado- we were in power pools on good fields both years I have been there so you would think it would be consistent year to year.

The real shocker for me was USA nationals in Seattle. This was the week before Huntington Beach so maybe that’s where the experienced umps were at. It just seemed like the umps were really inexperienced- positioning, rules, handling tb coaches....

It didn’t really change the outcomes of our games, but sheesh it was weird. Players just looked baffled and some of the coaches were really upset.

 

[Top_Notch]

I got to watch coach after coach make on-the-spot offers to girls who throw in the low 50's but bend over at the waist, don't pivot their stride foot, use an HE delivery, etc. The vast majority of these coaches (at the 12U level anyway) don't know anything about high-level mechanics. They see a girl who throws hard and that's all they care about. DD loves pitching and knows the velocity will come -- she's 79 pounds soaking wet. But if she were easily discouraged, she might be tempted to give up. Heck, I'm tempted to give up, weekly private lessons ain't cheap!!

Keep the faith. I've seen girls dominate at 10U that look mediocre at the end of 12U. The girls at 12U with bad form but athleticism will get clobbered at 14U. 5 years ago I knew nothing about pitching. Now I can look at one or two pitches and tell if the girl is any good and will continue to be good. Sometimes just watching the warm up will tell me all I need to know. How do I know? My DD has been Tincher since 9U.

 

[Laphoneman]

I agree with westwind if umpires quit squeezing the strike zone. The pitcher has a better chance, but if they are forced to pitch into a 12” x 12” spot down the middle to get a strike called of course these batters are going to crush it.