Becoming a dedicated pitcher only, when???

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Apr 28, 2014
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This last sentence stands out!
Can you please share how or what considerations stood out that connected the decision to only pitch at that point. 2nd year 18's?

May i ask of her recruitment at this point?
Thanku BT3100!

Sure
She moved up to a team in our org that has D1 commits at every position. No need for DD to play CF at a level less (even slightly) than the other OFers.
She is a 2021 and had several offers in Sept/October. Committed to her dream school in October (D1 Mid Major).
 
Aug 20, 2017
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If she is one of the best hitters she will hit and play defense. If she’s not she will mostly just pitch. I dealt with this this year on my travel team. I prep all players to play an infield and outfield spot in practice and everybody takes BP. Number 2 pitcher was great in circle but hurt us defensively and at the plate. I’d rotate sitting her and another player when she wasn’t pitching. Parents didn’t like that. And this is on 14U level
 
Apr 20, 2018
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SoCal
If she can hit obviously better than most other players on her team she should be in the lineup (EP)at least. If she is a better athlete and more reliable than others on defense she should be in the field. This is 12u for crying out loud. It way too early to get pigeon holed into one position. And BTW, no matter what age bracket we are talking about if your DD is an athletic pitcher never stop having her shag fly balls and taking BP.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
12U is way, way too early to specialize. If she can play other positions effectively and bats well, she should be in the lineup. The only exception I might consider is resting late in a tournament when the temps are high. Even then, if she hits effectively, she should be in the batting lineup every time.

You never know how long she'll be effective as a pitcher. I know plenty of pitchers who were monsters at 12/14U who are nothing special at 18U. Staying relevant means being able to play other positions, and I'm not talking about 1B. I rarely see a Pitcher at 1B who isn't just standing there hoping for a perfectly thrown ball.
 
Aug 21, 2008
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He didn't ask us to take her out of the field, nor did he say that he wanted to, but during our conversation he brought up that he wants to spend more time teaching the mental approach to attacking a batter (ie, exploiting their weaknesses, pitch location and selection, pitch location based on base runners, etc), and that he can't teach her that when she's the outfield. DD and I (and PC) have worked on the mental aspect a bunch, and she does really well currently. He thinks teaching her in live games could give her even more of an edge up because he can point out exactly how it applies and she can see the example better, and I do understand that point. She's getting approx 40% of the circle time and doing pretty well when she's in, I'm just hesitant to see her come out of the field. I'm afraid those skills will deteriorate.

I'm rather curious about this coach. I think it's refreshing to hear a coach tell a pitcher they're going to help with the mental approach, help with observing holes in swings, weaknesses, pitch selection, etc. 2 questions: #1. Is this coach actually going to do this or will he get so wrapped up in games that he goes through his motions and not teach the game as he's promising. To be fair, most coaches do this where they just call pitches, write their notes, and don't teach the game DURING the game. #2. Assuming he's going to actually do this, what are his credentials for doing this? What does this guy know about setting up hitters in fastpitch softball? 12u Softball is where the line is a complete blur between good pitching and bad hitting. A half decent pitcher can make a coach look great at the 12u level but someone 1/2 decent at the 14u level isn't going to have the same effect.
 
Jul 1, 2019
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While I'm agreeing with the feedback so far, I did say he "wasn't" trying to take her out of the field nor the lineup. He mentioned that he wanted to use more of her time out of the circle to teach. She moves to 14U in about 2 months so it's also not like she's just turning 11 either. I totally agree, we aren't wanting it either, especially this early. My main question was "when should we expect to see this"? She's been batting every game and shagging pop's fly's and taking infield every practice. I've just seen her game time in the infield slowing down, and it made me wonder.
 
Jul 1, 2019
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I'm rather curious about this coach. I think it's refreshing to hear a coach tell a pitcher they're going to help with the mental approach, help with observing holes in swings, weaknesses, pitch selection, etc. 2 questions: #1. Is this coach actually going to do this or will he get so wrapped up in games that he goes through his motions and not teach the game as he's promising. To be fair, most coaches do this where they just call pitches, write their notes, and don't teach the game DURING the game. #2. Assuming he's going to actually do this, what are his credentials for doing this? What does this guy know about setting up hitters in fastpitch softball? 12u Softball is where the line is a complete blur between good pitching and bad hitting. A half decent pitcher can make a coach look great at the 12u level but someone 1/2 decent at the 14u level isn't going to have the same effect.

Baseball pitcher in college (can't remember where off the top of my head), and I agree that baseball and fastpitch are different. And yes, the tourney this past weekend, he did. DD pitched 10 of the 23 innings, played OF for approx 7, and the other innings she was literally on the bench sitting next to him and he was pointing and talking. After the games I asked DD what he was showing her, her response was that he was showing her swings that were slow, swings where a girl steps out and can't reach an outside pitch, pitch choice when batters are expecting to bunt, jamming or low pitching a slapper based on base runner situation, are they set up in front of the box vs back, etc. DD happens to be a very accurate pitcher with pretty good movement, about 3-4 mph slower than our fastest, but much more accurate. He probably called 70% of her pitches in last weekends firecracker on the inside corner, most batters had a hard time with it, 11 K's, total of 9 hits, 3 walks, and 4 runs given. I'm not saying he's the end all be all necessarily, but most everything he's telling her goes along with most of what DD's PC says about pitching to set up a batter.
 
Jul 22, 2015
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DD is quickly approaching the end of her 12U season and I'm already starting to seeing it on some of the other high level teams around her. I'm also hearing from the parents of pitchers a few years ahead of her, that it may not be that far down the road that we can expect coaches to start playing her less and less in the field unless she's in the circle. We know it'll probably happen at some point, but when. DD plays solidly in middle infield, though her time there is slowly lessening even to girls who may not play it as well as she can. She can play anywhere in the outfield, which she still does quite a bit, however we had a conversation with the coach the other day about this.

He didn't ask us to take her out of the field, nor did he say that he wanted to, but during our conversation he brought up that he wants to spend more time teaching the mental approach to attacking a batter (ie, exploiting their weaknesses, pitch location and selection, pitch location based on base runners, etc), and that he can't teach her that when she's the outfield. DD and I (and PC) have worked on the mental aspect a bunch, and she does really well currently. He thinks teaching her in live games could give her even more of an edge up because he can point out exactly how it applies and she can see the example better, and I do understand that point. She's getting approx 40% of the circle time and doing pretty well when she's in, I'm just hesitant to see her come out of the field. I'm afraid those skills will deteriorate.

Though he hasn't mentioned it, I guess this same concern goes for batting. She's in the top 6 on her team, but I also see pitchers stop batting in a lot of cases. A good example I used to explain this to DD happened to her a few nights ago (she was HBP just above her left ankle, though she continued base running with slight pain, it did really hurt when she landed on that foot while pitching. She made it through it okay, but I could tell it was bothering her. It did, at least a little, affect her pitching. Is it worth it for her to be batting, when she's needed much more as a pitcher.) Is this something we should expect too? If so, when?

What's everyone's experiences and thoughts on these two issues? I don't think he's wanting her to only pitch, but I've seen it happen to so many (not with our coach specifically, just within the sport) that I'm cautious about that door opening.
My theory is pretty simple. If/when she is no longer better than other players in the field and/or at the plate, then I would specialize. I don't see any reason to do it before then and most of the pitchers I see (even at 18u) don't specialize unless they simply aren't effective in the other roles (or just don't like them).
 
Apr 28, 2014
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Hitting depends on the level of competition.
DD was on an 18U mid level team last year. Team won 4 championships at the regional level and she had the second highest batting average and hit 5th.
This year we are on a top 20ish team and face all top tier teams and she doesn't hit.
We could have stayed on the other team and she would still be hitting but she needed to face the best possible competition as a pitcher.
 

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