Developing a New Pitcher

[llsoftballdad]

I've spent a lot of time reading on this forum, but this is my first post. My DD is 12U. She has been taking pitching lessons and throwing at home for a year. Her current team is inconsistent with pitching reps at practice or tournaments. Her team only uses her in bracket play with very little warm up and when the bases are loaded and were down by several runs. While my DD is consistently improving, I would consider her a pool play pitcher at this point in her development. How do most teams use and develop a new pitcher during the season?

 

[sluggers]

No coach develops pitchers on a TB team. They don't have the time or the skill to develop a pitcher.

I've heard your story a million times. So, I'll cut to the chase:

If your DD wants to be a pitcher, she has to find a TB team where she is guaranteed circle time. That usually means moving to a less competitive team. To become a pitcher, your DD has to be in the circle. She isn't going to become one by playing LF and watching someone else pitch.

Your DD loves the players? She'll have to learn to love players on a new team. You love the coach? You need therapy. Fall out of love with all TB coaches.

The coach is giving your DD some circle time to keep you happy--but your DD is not going to pitch more.

A TB coach goes out and recruits a couple of pitchers. The coach promises the parents about how much circle time the pitchers will get. Then, the TB coach has a third pitcher on the roster to fill in. If one of the main pitchers get hurt, he will recruit a new pitcher--he will not give more time to the third pitcher.

It sucks. I'm not trying to justify it. TB coaches need pitchers, and they make "back room" deals to get the pitchers.

My DD was in the same situation. She got on advanced 16U team when she was 13YOA. She didn't pitch. She then went to a B-level 16U team, and pitched all the time. She ended up a D1 pitcher.

Your DD has to be in the circle to develop as a pitcher.

 

[hooham08]

No coach develops pitchers on a TB team. They don't have the time or the skill to develop a pitcher.

I've heard your story a million times. So, I'll cut to the chase:

If your DD wants to be a pitcher, she has to find a TB team where she is guaranteed circle time. That usually means moving to a less competitive team. To become a pitcher, your DD has to be in the circle. She isn't going to become one by playing LF and watching someone else pitch.

Your DD loves the players? She'll have to learn to love players on a new team. You love the coach? You need therapy. Fall out of love with all TB coaches.

The coach is giving your DD some circle time to keep you happy--but your DD is not going to pitch more.

A TB coach goes out and recruits a couple of pitchers. The coach promises the parents about how much circle time the pitchers will get. Then, the TB coach has a third pitcher on the roster to fill in. If one of the main pitchers get hurt, he will recruit a new pitcher--he will not give more time to the third pitcher.

It sucks. I'm not trying to justify it. TB coaches need pitchers, and they make "back room" deals to get the pitchers.

My DD was in the same situation. She got on advanced 16U team when she was 13YOA. She didn't pitch. She then went to a B-level 16U team, and pitched all the time. She ended up a D1 pitcher.

Your DD has to be in the circle to develop as a pitcher.

i agree with a lot of this. it comes off a little harsh but i get why. i will say a good travel ball coach will get reps in during practice and should be warming them up properly between games. it's very important to have pitchers and catchers work during practice. if other girls are getting time and not your daughter then she could be behind the eight ball. Figure out how to make her better on your own. Invest your time into her away from the team. Teams need 3 pitchers but if you're not in the top 2 I'd consider ramping things up so she can prove herself or prepare to find a better fit on another team. However do your research now and be ready in August to try out on teams. have her ready and try to get into some open practices before committing to any team. Coaches who need pitching will come off very desperate during try out times.

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[Chris Delorit]

Ilsoftballdad,

She should get time relative to what her coaches feel is her appropriate comfort and skill level. Pool play, some innings here an there, etc. Obviously, there are variables and every club will be unique.

Sure, there are some variables to warm-up requirements. Generally, a liberal amount of time and some sort of pitch count. If she also plays the field, then her coaches have opportunities to be forward-thinking between innings as well as with flex/substitutions that can offer better prep ops.

Seek and you'll find travel ball coaches who are dedicated to providing individual pitching training with you daughter during the season and in the off-season.

Yes, there's both qualified coaches and also those who will make the time to help develop skill sets.

You'll have to do your homework on local and semi-local clubs and have the willingness and dedication to travel a little bit to do so.

12U is just fine, where she has the opportunity to improve her skills at an increasing rate.

Chris

 

[llsoftballdad]

Thanks for the feedback. I get the part about mound time. She is throwing 300+ pitches a week at home and throws strikes when she gets mound time. My DD is putting in the work, but getting mound time has proved to be a challenge. Here current team only has 3 pitchers. I would assume every pitcher gets warmed up even if they aren't going to be used. I would also assume new pitchers are used in less stressful situations, such as pool play, BP, and when the game is a blowout.

IMO, for any TB coach to not develop all of their pitchers is short sighted and foolish. From what I can see, teams are always looking for pitchers. My DD has only been playing TB for a year and I'm trying to get a better understanding of the sport.

Having said that, I'm trying to get a general idea of how other teams develop new pitchers so I know what to look for in Fall tryouts.

Do most TB teams use new pitchers in pool play and batting practice? How much time does a TB team spend on batting practice? Do most coaches pitch BP or do their pitchers throw BP?

 

[hooham08]

my dd's first team the coach gave limited innings to all other pitchers except his dd. she got majority in every game. that was a lesson learned for us on researching the coaches. for him it was typically 1 inning for the #2-4 pitches and 2 walks=pulled. except his dd could walk in runs. he also guest pitched a particular girl to try to get her on the team. he never let anyone pitch during practice and they never pitched in the side. so that's likely not the norm.

My dds current team rotates and let's the girls pitch live in practice, but not every time. We bat through all girls when possible and they do a scrimmage with a couple dads in outfield sometimes. Pitchers and catchers come early and all throw at the same time. The coaches call pitches for everyone and they monitor and watch to see what's working. My daughter pitches tincher which is internal rotation and the coach relies heavily on me for feedback. IR is not common in my area.

one thing we did when researching a new team last August was the coaching. we made sure we found a coach that would work with us on her style and not deter what's she's working on. my dd amazed the coaches on all teams she tried out for and 1 texts me every few months to check in on her. I made my her first experience known and that's helped. we didn't play victim but we let them know her story. they were all shocked that my dd didn't get mound time. the current coach works hard to please my daughter and to motivate her. he wants us happy. i don't take advantage of it and i encourage him to not show favoritism and try to prevent the same type of situation for my dds pitching teammates. so far it's been a very pleasant experience

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[hooham08]

oh in my rambling i forgot to mention our new team the coach starts the number 2 and 3 pitchers during pool play. he's not afraid to pull anyone when needed including #1. DDs personal pitching coach recommended me to have my dd pulled if she was showing signs of bad mechanics even if she's getting outs. i relayed that to my coach and he's even executed that this year. Don't be afraid to do what's best for your daughter. We left a strong team and great girls and parents because it was the right thing to do.

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[Rick M]

My DD was in a similar situation as a first-year 12: she played for a good team that had been together for a few years, and she was the #3 pitcher. Just like you, I was frustrated by her lack of circle time (why would a coach not use all three pitchers in the pool when you're playing three games? Who knows??).

We decided to seek out a lower-level team where DD could compete to be the #1 pitcher. I'm happy to report that's exactly what has happened.. Some takeaways:

1. All teams and coaches approach their pitchers differently, but you should not expect the team to play too great a role in your daughter's development. You've got her taking lessons and throwing regularly on her own, that's great! That is where she will get the most improvement. The only BP my daughter throws is when they are practicing bunting and infield defense. Coaches throw BP.

2. You have to be okay taking some lumps. A lower-level team should seek out appropriate competition, but you have to live with some less-than-stellar defense behind your daughter and some low-scoring games when she does pitch well. You have to remember that winning 12U games isn't the goal, winning HS (or higher) games is.

3. 12U is probably the toughest transition that a pitcher has to make. The bigger ball and the 5-foot distance are big obstacles to overcome. Again, be patient. DD struggled mightily as a first-year 12, but now that's she's in year 2 she's doing very well (4:1 K:BB ratio, used to be the other way around). Now that she's playing middle school ball, she's had to back up to 43 feet, and that has been much easier on her than the move from 35 to 40.

4. Keep in fun. DD won't be bringing home any trophies this year, as she did with her last team, but she is a central part of her team. She was the new kid, but has made new friends and still loves to go out and play softball, even more so now that she's getting more time in the circle than in the dugout.

 

[uncdrew]

Thanks for the feedback. I get the part about mound time. She is throwing 300+ pitches a week at home and throws strikes when she gets mound time. My DD is putting in the work, but getting mound time has proved to be a challenge. Here current team only has 3 pitchers. I would assume every pitcher gets warmed up even if they aren't going to be used. I would also assume new pitchers are used in less stressful situations, such as pool play, BP, and when the game is a blowout.

IMO, for any TB coach to not develop all of their pitchers is short sighted and foolish. From what I can see, teams are always looking for pitchers. My DD has only been playing TB for a year and I'm trying to get a better understanding of the sport.

Having said that, I'm trying to get a general idea of how other teams develop new pitchers so I know what to look for in Fall tryouts.

Do most TB teams use new pitchers in pool play and batting practice? How much time does a TB team spend on batting practice? Do most coaches pitch BP or do their pitchers throw BP?

Your first paragraph is how we run our team. All 4 of our pitchers come 30 minutes early to practice to work on pitching and we get them all mound time each and every tournament. We usually have the best two saved for bracket games, but at the end of the day they all pitched.

However, none of us on the coaching staff are professional pitch instructors. We know some, we give a lot of moral support. But we're not the ones who will make them better pitchers -- they need a professional for that, and we line up coaches for them and highly encourage (ie make mandatory) that they go weekly if they want to keep pitching for us.

So we develop all our pitchers in that we give them time to practice, get them instructors, and give them mound time. We aren't actively teaching them how to pitch, however. We don't have that skill.

We don't have our pitchers pitch "batting practice". A machine does that.

We do have our pitchers pitch simulated game scenarios against our own team. "Batting practice" means more "throw strikes so batters can work on their hitting" -- get the hitter lots of reps with consistent strikes. "Live pitching" is more the term used when the practice session is as much about the pitchers as it is the batters, and it's a slightly different focus. "Live pitching" will result in fewer strikes and fewer swings for the batters.

 

[llsoftballdad]

when and how often do you warm your pitchers up at tournaments?