10U pitch speed

[coach james]

There is not an elite pitcher in the game that is focused on throwing strikes.

Amen. They're focused on spinning it to a spot.....

 

[Rocketech1]

Maybe at 10U or 12U but there comes a time where the "just throw strikes" mentality results in balls hit to fence which also cannot be defended. There is not an elite pitcher in the game that is focused on throwing strikes.

This is a very important concept. Once you can locate your pitches consistently, the goal is to not throw strikes but to have the batter swing at marginal pitches that are out of the zone.

When DD was learning to pitch at 7/8 YO old, the goal was to throw it down the middle. Once she was fairly accurate, she moved to throwing the fastball to all four corners, etc. At one point her PC said that she is "throwing too many strikes" and initially I didn't understand the "problem". However, she was 100% right. Once a pitcher can command her pitches, the goal is to have enough control to purposely not throw it where the batter can make good contact. That is the difference from being a thrower to being a pitcher.

 

[riseball]

This is a very important concept. Once you can locate your pitches consistently, the goal is to not throw strikes but to have the batter swing at marginal pitches that are out of the zone.

When DD was learning to pitch at 7/8 YO old, the goal was to throw it down the middle. Once she was fairly accurate, she moved to throwing the fastball to all four corners, etc. At one point her PC said that she is "throwing too many strikes" and initially I didn't understand the "problem". However, she was 100% right. Once a pitcher can command her pitches, the goal is to have enough control to purposely not throw it where the batter can make good contact. That is the difference from being a thrower to being a pitcher.

Back in the day Kaci Clark told us "Throw balls to batters strengths and strikes to batters weaknesses."

 

[mothgirl]

Maybe at 10U or 12U but there comes a time where the "just throw strikes" mentality results in balls hit to fence which also cannot be defended. There is not an elite pitcher in the game that is focused on throwing strikes.

Thank you! .....Meatballs down the center because you told em to throw a strike


I hate tacos- said no Juan anywhere

 

[4 girl's dad]

Maybe at 10U or 12U but there comes a time where the "just throw strikes" mentality results in balls hit to fence which also cannot be defended. There is not an elite pitcher in the game that is focused on throwing strikes.

I think this is a big component to the conversation. In 12u if my pitcher can't get a girl to swing because they are all balls off the plate, she won't be pitching long for our team. Once she has control of the ball, I don't really want her throwing meat ball strikes either.

Good topic

Edit /\/\/\/\ she beat me to it!

 

[SyndreSoftball]

Why wouldn't she have already been in 12U last year at that speed?

She has always played up, this is her first year staying in her age group, found a good group of girls her age to play with, physically there is no question she can play up, but still needs some work on staying calm and cool in the circle, so she is playing with her age group, it always helps to have a January DOB in softball.

 

[vol]

Maybe at 10U or 12U but there comes a time where the "just throw strikes" mentality results in balls hit to fence which also cannot be defended. There is not an elite pitcher in the game that is focused on throwing strikes.

And there's the dilemma. So how do you tolerate, for lack of a better word, a pitcher that throws 30-40% strikes at the 10u level, that may one day figure it out? Or put in the girl throwing 42 and fat all day long giving up shots to the gap, but may learn to hit the corners and pick up some speed? Maybe it's at the 10u or 12u level when a girl who wants to pitch figures out she can't. I guess my statement of "you can't defend a walk" is from the frustration of seeing 30 minute innings, not a ball put into play and 4 runs on the board all because "she can hit 52." We've beat a few teams we shouldn't have because they gave us runs without having to do much more than stand there. And we've lost to way more than our fair share for the same. At what point does a coach say "no more"? And put in someone who at least makes the other team earn it with their bats?

 

[Eric F]

And there's the dilemma. So how do you tolerate, for lack of a better word, a pitcher that throws 30-40% strikes at the 10u level, that may one day figure it out? Or put in the girl throwing 42 and fat all day long giving up shots to the gap, but may learn to hit the corners and pick up some speed? Maybe it's at the 10u or 12u level when a girl who wants to pitch figures out she can't. I guess my statement of "you can't defend a walk" is from the frustration of seeing 30 minute innings, not a ball put into play and 4 runs on the board all because "she can hit 52." We've beat a few teams we shouldn't have because they gave us runs without having to do much more than stand there. And we've lost to way more than our fair share for the same. At what point does a coach say "no more"? And put in someone who at least makes the other team earn it with their bats?

It depends. Are you playing to win, or playing to give the girls game experience? As I said previously, being able to throw the ball fast is good, but not being able to put it somewhere useful (for 10U rec, that just means in the strike zone a decent amount of the time) is not being an effective pitcher. Drilling the backstop at 52mph doesn't impress me.

Personally, if I'm going to get beat by giving up hits, or walks and wild pitches, I'd rather it be hits. Hopefully, I've done a decent enough job as a coach that the defense can make some outs. I would rather win with hits, too, but if their pitcher is all over the place, you can bet we will be taking advantage of every opportunity to get runs across the plate.

 

[grcsftbll]

I likes Eric's perspective. Mostly because my kid is the slowest of our 3 pitchers but has the best location So I'm biased.

 

[Eric F]

I likes Eric's perspective. Mostly because my kid is the slowest of our 3 pitchers but has the best location So I'm biased.

If your DD is also giving up the least amount of runs, that makes her the best PITCHER. Just because the ball is put in play doesn't mean she's not being effective. Giving up easy grounders is a very efficient way to get 3 outs quickly. Slow pitchers who can hit low corners tend to give up a lot of easy grounders.

As others with much more experience in the game than me have said, speed is just 1 of 3 factors in a pitch, and it's not even the most important one.