10U pitching evaluation

[Towny9]

Does she throw a change up yet? Can she throw the ball inside to hitters?

The inside fastball and the change up are the great equalizers. They will take the sting out of the other teams bats. Once she starts to figure out both of those she won’t get hit like she is now.

 

[ArmWhip]

Look at her wrist/hand yourself and see if she is cupping the ball. If she is bring her attention to it and point it out. The wrist should be relaxed but not floppy. Have her throw overhand, the wrist should feel relaxed not cupped. Have her focus on what that feels like, then alternate, one overhand throw and one pitch. A pitcher that cups the ball also generally gets on top of the ball early in the downswing. Someone already mentioned having the ball on top of the hand in the downswing as long as possible, that can also be an area of focus. I like sling shot for work like this because it simplifies the focus.

 

[abbygale]

You want more speed which I see plenty laying around. I'm not saying shorten her stride. I'm saying the sooner her stride foot gets down, the sooner her body will start realizing it needs to firm up. Currently the ball is long gone while she is working to firm up her front. At her age and how far she has currently progressed (impressive), I would be all about lowering the stride foot while squeezing the snot out of her backside. Remember you have to push into the squeeze when driving out. Downside is this will expose a weak core immediately. That ball will start popping out of her hand vs floating.

 

[BigSkyHi]

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.

That looks like a well coached 10-u team she was facing. They hit mostly delmonte cream style cans of corn off her. Believe she is on her way to having lots of fun.

 

[Shiloh]

I second the “get her front foot down earlier” post.

Alternately, she could try speeding up her arm whip. That would accomplish the same thing.

Other than that she looks great. Kudos.

 

[Gags]

Does anyone else feel like her arm is too straight down the backside? Seems to be minimal "leading with the elbow". (Comments based only on initial videos and stills).

 

[uncdrew]

3 more miles per hour won't change the fact good hitters will hit her hard.

Locating will reduce the hard hits more than 3 extra mph.

 

[DNeeld]

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.

I watched all three clips and honestly didn't see any bombs. Saw routine fly balls that should have been outs, not one single line drive. Don't mistake poor fielding for poor pitching. Velocity isn't the problem, at least not in the clips you've shown.

Fielding was the main problem. The second was....if the blue is going to give this strike:

Why on Earth would any other pitch be called? This is the second pitch to the second batter in the first clip. If the umpire is going to give you that outside river even half the time (the first pitch was roughly same location and called a ball), the pitcher should have a very good day. Especially as far off the plate as that team stood.

Anyway, none of those are bombs. I know decent outfield play can be tough to find at 10U, but there is not reason any of those "bombs" weren't outs instead.

Her job isn't to cover for weak fielding by overpowering every batter. Her job is to hit locations that make it difficult for batters to square up and DRIVE the ball. Not a single line drive in any of those hits, she did her job. Fielders need to do their job.

Again, she is doing fantastic and is far and away more advanced than 90% of 10U pitchers I see.

 

[ang2bmd]

Agree. You're dd has incredible form for 10u. My 2nd dd is 9u and I see a lot of bad 10u pitching. Shes right where she should be and her speed is excellent for her size. Work on spots and a change up and she will be deadly. Her speed will increase naturally as she continues to refine her form and simply grows. The worst thing I saw in your videos was your catcher standing all over the plate with no ball and no play to be made.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[jadefish]

Thank you for the suggestion and kind word.

But seriously, our team defense is great. More than half of her team are 9 years old, which include two of the outfielders. For any 10U team, anything reaches grass in air is bomb. If it is not within two feet, it is unfieldable. They tried hard. For those hit behind them, they got there quickly and limited damage. we played last weekend and got bombed by another team. But we only lost 1:3. DD only strike out 1 batter. All defense works.

I felt DD is the one who didn't put into enough effort. She didn't back up at home when she should. Our catcher backed up throw from outfield when she should be the one to back it up.

Probably 3mph sounds like a small number. But it really makes difference in 10U games. But, I got it. I should get over it and stop concentrating on what she doesn't have. Let her have fun.