12U What grip for waist high and above pitch

[abbygale]

Thanks to BM and BH, my dd throws a pretty decent beginning peel using IR. Spin is pretty much spot on. Occassional curve to it which works well as she is a lefty.. Keeps it mid-thigh and lower. When it comes in high, it gets jacked.

How should she approach throwing above the waist? She only hits 50+ and she needs a pitch for the upper half of the zone. I was thinking of having her letting the pitch come out between her thumb and forefinger as a sorta corkscrew. When she first started with IR it would do that pretty consistently but it sure looks easy to hit.

She uses a CU also.


Actually, it should read "thanks to everyone here for all of your help"

 

[redhawkridge]

If your 12u is that proficient at her pitching, then she should be hard at work developing a rise. Go to fastpitchTV.com and watch Bill Hillhouse's episodes 89, 90, 91. In his presentation, he talks about working on the rise early in a promising pitcher's development. There's no better way to attack the upper side of the strike zone.
Now, let me put in a plug for a high drop. If the batters at her level of competition are seeing good pitchers with hard fastballs and riseballs, a high drop is a devastating pitch. The batter sees the elevation, thinks it's going higher, or staying high, and relax. When it drops thru the strike zone, they are shocked. The only problem is whether the umpire is good enough to stay with a pitch and see the unexpected change in elevation.

 

[starsnuffer]

If your 12u is that proficient at her pitching, then she should be hard at work developing a rise. Go to fastpitchTV.com and watch Bill Hillhouse's episodes 89, 90, 91. In his presentation, he talks about working on the rise early in a promising pitcher's development. There's no better way to attack the upper side of the strike zone.
Now, let me put in a plug for a high drop. If the batters at her level of competition are seeing good pitchers with hard fastballs and riseballs, a high drop is a devastating pitch. The batter sees the elevation, thinks it's going higher, or staying high, and relax. When it drops thru the strike zone, they are shocked. The only problem is whether the umpire is good enough to stay with a pitch and see the unexpected change in elevation.

The other problem with a high drop is that it's the exact same pitch that cheap single wheel pitching machines pitch, and usually batters are keen to knock the snot out of those.

-W

 

[mrslug01]

My DD is 14 also and has a great drop. She's righty and hits the outside corner very consistently with it. Working on hitting the inside corner as well. Pretty good just not as accurate as outside. Often I'll have her throw an inside fastball on the hands to get ahead. We want to make that a screw ball over the winter. Other thna that, I'll have her throw a high inside fastball at times as a waste pitch. Purposely up and in to set up a curve or drop away. She has learned a rise spin but she's only low-mid 50's so we don't throw it. Just a high fastball. I'm personally a bigger fan of drops than the rise anyway. At A level U14, I've found a good drop shuts down almost every team.