- Aug 26, 2015
- 590
- 16
They have to be "all in" at 10?
10U TB and #3/4 Pitcher?
- Thread starter tortuga
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
They have to be "all in" at 10?
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
I guess it depends on the level of competition but IME, yeah. If they want to pitch well enough to get circle time they need to be all in. I think this is a big part of why the numbers drop off as girls get older. Being a pitcher means A LOT of extra work. It can be tedious and time consuming.
There will always be players who start pitching later than 10U, but unless a player has much better than average athletic ability the longer they wait, the more difficult it becomes. It takes a lot of time, effort and money (if you are paying for pitching lessons) to develop a pitcher and it is not for everyone. It also takes a player with a short memory, so they can forget about their failures and focus on the next pitch. I have seen several really good pitchers wash out of TB because when they walked a batter or gave up a home run they would meltdown in the circle.
Last edited:
- Aug 26, 2015
- 590
- 16
Yeah I could definitely see the meltdowns causing attrition. Thanks for the insight.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Sometimes I think it'd be kind of awesome if my kid was content at first base. lol
- Feb 7, 2013
- 3,188
- 48
Along these lines, a few weeks ago, after a few rough games, I noticed DD wasn't into a particular pitching practice and I said to her that it's ok if you don't want to keep pursuing pitching. I know it's a lot of work and and we are fine if you want to play your secondary position CF, full time. And she said "Dad, I would rather give up softball if I was not able to pitch". She said she liked being in the circle where the action is and said that outfield can be very boring at times (her words, don't flame me). I said ok, I will continue to help you and support your decision.
The takeaway for me was that she doesn't always articulate it but a huge part of of what she loves about softball is the act of pitching and competing against every batter.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Mine has said the same thing about the OF so no flames here. She doesn't play outfield much but we've shown her this highlights video of the best baseball plays of 2015 and it was like 97% outfielders. But, this isn't the major leagues and at least in 10U (where mine is) I can definitely see how kids might thing it was boring. The pitcher (and catcher) are involved in every single batter that comes up. You can't really compete with that once they get a taste for it!
My DD's experience is that when she was the #1 pitcher last season in her last year of 10U, she got the majority of circle time and really had an opportunity to develop and face all kinds of competition. Had it not been for that amount of time, she wouldn't have been ready to try out and make a 12A team where she splits pitching time evenly with another pitcher. Pitching in games is critical to development. It's a million light years from pitching in practice. Facing batters, hitting batters, giving up big hits and walking batters all factors into how a pitcher develops mentally. It's difficult to get that breadth of experience by pitching one out of every 5 games. In my area, if you're not a #1 or #2 pitcher by the time you're 12U, it would be quite difficult to play A level ball as a pitcher at 14U when colleges start scouting players.
Last edited:
A primary 1B needs to be tall and have a BIG STICK in the older age groups of high level TB and college.
There is no substitute for circle time, and when your DD is the #1 pitcher on a team she knows that the team is counting on her. We use that motivation when practicing 4-5 days a week. It would have been much more difficult to motive my DD, or myself for that matter, if she was the #3 or #4 pitcher on a team and we knew she was not going to pitch against the stronger teams we faced or in the championship game.
