10U pitching evaluation

[jadefish]

My DD had her 10 years old birthday this month. She is about 4'8"-4'9". She has been pitching for two years now. We are lucky that we never had any HE pitching coach. Her coaches are all great, every detailed, focus on mechanics.... However, her pitching speed is not quite there. In those practice videos, her speed was about 40-42. What we could do to get more speed? All I ask is to get 45 game speed. Any suggestion is much appreciated.

 

[rslaubaugh]

I dont have much to suggest as i am just a bucket dad going through the same journey as you are and 2yrs in as well. I see a lot of good things here IMO. The one thing I see that might give some extra velocity is the ball appears to be to 3rd base instead of up at 9 o'clock. Surely one of the more experienced guys will come along shortly with all kinds of good suggestions. They have given me and my DD great feedback along the way that has always been helpful. We are trying to find some velo as well so i will be taking notes of the suggestions you get.... ;-)

 

[abbygale]

Get that foot down earlier so that she is firmed up prior to throwing the ball. She is trying, just late to the party. Other than that , she looks great!

 

[DNeeld]

My DD had her 10 years old birthday this month. She is about 4'8"-4'9". She has been pitching for two years now. We are lucky that we never had any HE pitching coach. Her coaches are all great, every detailed, focus on mechanics.... However, her pitching speed is not quite there.

I just want to caution you, coming from years of experience, to not get overly concerned about pitching speed. She's 10 and the speed she pitches at now has very little to do with the speeds she will be pitching at as she gets older. Speeds comes from technique and good, solid repetition. If you do that, you'll find speed takes care of itself. Of course, gradual, incremental speed increases should be a part of any overall goals, but they shouldn't be a focus.

If she is still lacking in speed when she's 14 or 16, then that is the time to make it a direct concern.

In those practice videos, her speed was about 40-42. What we could do to get more speed? All I ask is to get 45 game speed. Any suggestion is much appreciated.

The caution about chasing speed aside, she is very, very refined for a 10yr old. Kudos to you and her pitching coaches, they obviously know what they are doing. At this age, she looks better than 99% of the girls I see. She is way ahead of the game. She has a handful of small inefficiencies, but these are more refinements than changes.


The primary ones I would focus on is simple ball orientation. While, as I'm sure some will point out, Montana Fouts doesn't have the ball to the sky at 9:00, doing so does help generate greater whip. Focus on the ball up and 9:00 and pulling the elbow into the side with the scaps engaged. This will engage the big muscles to power the movement and prime the small muscles to transfer that energy into the whip.

Second, make sure she is utilizing both arms effectively. She has a bit of glove swim, which isn't bad, but is inefficient. As you can see in this picture, she is starting to engage the scap on the throwing arm, but the glove side isn't contributing:


She corrects this a little further downstream and brings in both scaps:


You can tell this by where the elbows are being adducted into the body. They are both behind where the side seam of her shirt would be. This means both scaps are engaged and are being used to power the pitch. This is good! That said, she could engage them both a little earlier, and get a stronger pull with the ball oriented to the sky.

The last thing is just simple effort. Is she really throwing with 100% of what she has each pitch? Most younger kids don't and not necessarily for lack of trying. They just don't have the physical and mental maturity to realize their body really does have that extra UMPH in it when called upon. Focus on her trying to move faster with an eye on mechanics. Once mechanics start to break down, you'll need to back off a small bit. Once mechanics are back under control, start to ramp up the effort again.

She has a couple of small drive inefficiencies as well, but my preference is not to spend too much time on advanced drive mechanics until they are older and stronger. Introducing that at too young an age often causes more problems that it is worth.

Again, my main advice would be she is doing excellent and is well ahead of the curve. Don't fall into the trap of sabotaging her by chasing hard numbers on the radar. Speed will come and with how far along she is, it should come sooner rather than later.

The biggest problem you should have with her is keeping it fun!

 

[ArmWhip]

The thing that catches my eye, and I can't be sure because the vids aren't close up, is that she appears to be cupping the ball/wrist throughout the whole motion. Cupping limits proper whipping action, unless you're throwing a palm up curve or riseball.

 

[sluggers]

However, her pitching speed is not quite there. In those practice videos, her speed was about 40-42. What we could do to get more speed? All I ask is to get 45 game speed. Any suggestion is much appreciated.

Let's get your goal straight: You want a *good* 16U pitcher, not a good 10U pitcher.

What is the one thing needed to make a good 16U pitcher? It is not speed, control or movement--it is *LOVE OF PITCHING*.

The amount of work required to be "good" at pitching is unbelievable. She has to throw at least 100,000 pitches...meaning she has to have at least 1000 practice sessions. It is a lot of practice, but there are lots of kids who did it... @riseball , @Sparky Guy, etc.

How do you get a kid to do it? She has to really love pitching...there isn't enough dynamite in the world to make a teenage girl do something she doesn't want to do.

the real question is, "how can I increase her fun at this level"?

How do you do that? Teach her how "just throw strikes". The more strikes she throws, the more mound time she gets, the more success she has, the more fun she has, the more she learns to love pitching.

How do you teach "just throwing strikes"?

First, she needs control--control is the ability to move the ball in 4 inch increments around the plate. That is, she can throw a ball down the middle of the plate, and then the next pitch move the ball 4 inches either up, down, right or left. Yes, it is hard. Yes, it can be done.

Second, she needs to find the umpire's strike zone and then pitch to that strike zone. She (and you) have to get over "bad strike zones" and concentrate on how to use whatever the ump's strike zone is.

Finally:

Put her on a team where she pitches...a lot. At this time, don't worry about whether it is an A, B, Gold, Premiere, Zirconium team...worry about that when she is older.

 

[Shawn]

Have you measured her in a game? With my kids on some pitches throw up to 4
mph faster in a game.

 

[Hawk_]

Looks better than 90% of 10u players I have seen.

 

[Butch18507]

Second, she needs to find the umpire's strike zone and then pitch to that strike zone. She (and you) have to get over "bad strike zones" and concentrate on how to use whatever the ump's strike zone is.
This is one of my favorite things I have read here, I preach this to our pitchers as well as ur hitters.

 

[jadefish]

Thank you all so much for the advice

@rslaubaugh I told her this morning and we will see whether she could get the palm up position

@abbygale should she try to to have shorter stride?

@DNeeld Special thank you so much for the detailed analysis. Seems that the ball orientation is a problem. We will see whether she could make the change fast. How to cue her to use her glove side more? She used to slap her thigh with the glove to make a cool sound. Her coach made her stop doing that. Now she is very gentle and make sure not to slap herself with the glove. I also have question about her effort. In late March early April, for a short period, she pitched 44-45 with one 48 in games. Then spring break came. She took two weeks off and came back with 40-42. Two months passed, she is still 40-42. I don't think she is intentionally pitching slower. There got to be a reason.

@ArmWhip How to cue her to not cupping?

@sluggers I really don't know how to keep it fun for her. The following is a game they played two weeks ago. Within five minutes (I can't create clip longer than 2 minutes. that is why there are three clips), look how many bombs are there. She was crying at the end of the inning. This team run ruled us three months ago. Our defense got a lot of better and we actually won them on Saturday. Then we lost to them again on Sunday because that five minutes. Not that I am chasing speed. But if she could pitch faster, it will help her team a lot. Losing like that is no fun.