- May 1, 2011
- 350
- 28
So, we have a first year 10u team. We are constantly working on mechanics, and a lot of our girls have pretty swings. However, some of the tournaments we've played in the last few weeks have had some pretty formidable pitching. We've faced two girls (one this past weekend was actually clocked with a gun, so there's no debating) throwing right around 55 mph, and several girls hovering around 50 mph. Our fastest pitcher throws around 42 mph. We've done the calculations, and it was figured that from 15 ft doing front toss, I needed to be pitching around 33 mph to mimick the speed of a 55 mph fastball from 35 ft. We tried this, and it really hasn't worked. We've worked on the girls starting their sequence earlier in these girls wind-up, abbreviated swings, and implementing a snap-stop type of swing on 2 strikes (not sure why, but our girls have really cut down on their strikeouts since we did this).
Was watching the Georgia/Alabama game this weekend, and I believe it was Jessica Mendoza that said Georgia's coach would set up the pitching machine and crank it up to like 75-80 mph in practice, so whenever they faced Jackie Traina, it would seem "slow." Does anyone have any thoughts on this? We're going to be traveling to OKC on May 31st, and I'm sure we're going to end up seeing some stud pitching when we get there. We're a young team, so it's not like we have aspirations of going up there and dominating, but I would hate for us to go up there, and the whole team go 0fer the tourney because we can't catch up.
I've seen in the past, or should I say heard in the past, of different sports working on similar things in order to "slow the game down." For instance, I know that Donovan McNabb in 2002 wore special glasses (StrobeSpecs) all through the offseason and training camp that would flash on and off as to block his vision temporarily (almost like a strobe light, hence the name). Apparently, this did have a "slowdown" effect for him, and if I'm not mistaken, he had some pretty good numbers those next few years. They're rather expensive, so I'm not running out and buying any for my 9 year old, but we're in need of some help, and if there's any place to get some pointers, this would be it. Thanks.
Josh
Was watching the Georgia/Alabama game this weekend, and I believe it was Jessica Mendoza that said Georgia's coach would set up the pitching machine and crank it up to like 75-80 mph in practice, so whenever they faced Jackie Traina, it would seem "slow." Does anyone have any thoughts on this? We're going to be traveling to OKC on May 31st, and I'm sure we're going to end up seeing some stud pitching when we get there. We're a young team, so it's not like we have aspirations of going up there and dominating, but I would hate for us to go up there, and the whole team go 0fer the tourney because we can't catch up.
I've seen in the past, or should I say heard in the past, of different sports working on similar things in order to "slow the game down." For instance, I know that Donovan McNabb in 2002 wore special glasses (StrobeSpecs) all through the offseason and training camp that would flash on and off as to block his vision temporarily (almost like a strobe light, hence the name). Apparently, this did have a "slowdown" effect for him, and if I'm not mistaken, he had some pretty good numbers those next few years. They're rather expensive, so I'm not running out and buying any for my 9 year old, but we're in need of some help, and if there's any place to get some pointers, this would be it. Thanks.
Josh