She is currently our third pitcher behind our first two who have much more experience and are a year older (98vs99). I am seeking advice how to best bring my daughter along so she'll be a one or two option for us eventually without over doing it and putting my daughter before the team. Thanks in advance.
Developing my daughter as a pitcher
- Thread starter CE98Coach
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Your DD needs to keep working on it and be ready when she is given a chance. If the Team is comfortable with the #1 and #2 pitcher it is a lot of work to pass them, even if she is better.
Be at practice and games early practicing to let her show her stuff, show her pitching but do not let it interfere with the Team warm-up or practice.
Hopefully the manager is not favoring the other pitchers because they are older, they are just comfortable with them.
Lot of work and frustrating.
Be at practice and games early practicing to let her show her stuff, show her pitching but do not let it interfere with the Team warm-up or practice.
Hopefully the manager is not favoring the other pitchers because they are older, they are just comfortable with them.
Lot of work and frustrating.
You have a responsibility to develop *all* your players, including your DD.
(1) A coach should pitch all of his pitchers during pool play. So, if you have three games, then each pitcher would get one game. For the elimination games, you pitch your best pitcher or pitchers--which means that your DD is *probably not* going to pitch the elimination games.
(2) During the week when you play "friendlies", the pitchers who got the fewest innings on the weekend get more innings during the week. So, your DD is going to pitch the lion's share of the friendlies.
(3) You don't leave any kid on the mound who is getting rocked or is struggling. You take her out and put someone else in.
(4) Have a very short memory. I.e., "You may have been terrible two innings ago, but I can't remember. Go try again."
(1) A coach should pitch all of his pitchers during pool play. So, if you have three games, then each pitcher would get one game. For the elimination games, you pitch your best pitcher or pitchers--which means that your DD is *probably not* going to pitch the elimination games.
(2) During the week when you play "friendlies", the pitchers who got the fewest innings on the weekend get more innings during the week. So, your DD is going to pitch the lion's share of the friendlies.
(3) You don't leave any kid on the mound who is getting rocked or is struggling. You take her out and put someone else in.
(4) Have a very short memory. I.e., "You may have been terrible two innings ago, but I can't remember. Go try again."
Thanks for your insight. Would you put a limit on # of runs, hits, walks in regards to getting "rocked" or "struggling" before pulling? TIA
- Jul 26, 2010
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I always put a limit on walks. Usually it's 2. I make exceptions for walks when the count is 3-2 and a few foul balls, or intentional walks. That way you're fair. 2 is 2 no matter what kind of pitcher you are.
As for hits, this one is tougher. Some teams just hit. Talk to your catcher. Is the pitcher hitting her spots? Is she keeping the ball at the knees to try to make those hits playable balls or is she pitching juicy nuggets? If she's not hitting her spots she's not doing her job. Her job is not to "throw strikes", it's to force the batter to fail. That doesn't mean strikeouts, but outs. Pop flys, ground balls, strikes, ect. Her job is to enable to defense to do its job. If she's not pulling her weight, make a change, she'll get another chance another time.
-W
As for hits, this one is tougher. Some teams just hit. Talk to your catcher. Is the pitcher hitting her spots? Is she keeping the ball at the knees to try to make those hits playable balls or is she pitching juicy nuggets? If she's not hitting her spots she's not doing her job. Her job is not to "throw strikes", it's to force the batter to fail. That doesn't mean strikeouts, but outs. Pop flys, ground balls, strikes, ect. Her job is to enable to defense to do its job. If she's not pulling her weight, make a change, she'll get another chance another time.
-W
- Jul 26, 2010
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Because I coach youth softball, not college softball. At-bats with 3-2 counts and foul balls are generally "character building" at bats for both the pitcher and the batter. If the at bat ends in a walk, so be it. . . remember that in situations like this, the batter is fouling stuff off waiting for a sweet pitch. I'd rather end up with a walk then a multiple base hit with a few RBI's.
And yes, I do hold infielders to 2 errors an inning, and I do yank them on 2. An infielder that is not doing their job brings the whole team down. Never move them, always sit them down, if you move them to the OF, then you give the OF the impression that it's where you put the kids that make mistakes, which is something you CAN NOT do as a coach.
I don't see how it's an obsession. Pitchers shouldn't walk batters unless it's part of the strategy. Pitchers need to be able to pitch the pitches that are called. Unless the catcher is calling 4 balls, then the pitcher isn't doing their job. Pitchers don't get to be pitchers unless they can do the job they are trying out for. If they're walking kids in a game, then they are not doing what they were doing when the got the job.
-W
Sometimes I wish you were my DD’s Manager, other times I do not. If she is trying and making mistakes it is on you not her.
Some key attributes of a good pitcher are:
1) they want to pitch and will work hard at it, especially in the off-season when other pitchers are taking a break;
2) they have a regular pitching coach;
3) they have easy access to a practice facility, either at their home or very nearby;
4) they have an above average competitive desire to perform at a high-level;
5) they have a family that supports and promotes their development;
6) they are confident in their abilities and don't dwell on mistakes during the game.
The bottom-line is if your DD wants to be the #1 or #2 pitcher she has to put in a lot of work and wants to improve. I think its good that she is competing against some of her more experienced teammates for a starting position. It will give her a goal to aspire to. If you are the coach of your team, treat your DD just like one of the other players, if she is working hard on her pitching, give her some time in the circle, maybe its only scrimmages at first or one or two innings in a tournament, but she needs to get game time experience to get better.
- Jul 26, 2010
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The bench is not a bad place. The bench is a learning place. Since this thread is in the pitching forum, look at it from the perspective of the pitcher: It is the pitchers job to put the ball into play and allow the defense to make outs. If the infielders and outfielders are missing routing plays (errors), then that takes away from a legitimate out (success) that the pitcher had. When you have a single kid who is failing routinely in an inning (2 errors or more), then you are creating a situation where you can have animosity amongst the players on multiple levels. First off, you have players on the field doing their job, and they might feel that the struggling player is hurting the team. Secondly, you have kids on the bench itching to go in and wondering why "sally" gets to play and mess up repeatedly while they sit the bench. You just create a competitive environment internal to your team so that your players push themselves to become better and strive for more. You cannot do that if your team synergy is based on the concept of entitlement or rewards for participation.
Practice is where skills are taught, learned, and honed. Practice is where the coaches and managers see what the kids are capable of and try to make the best call for who plays where and when. You just don't put a kid in a position in a game out of sheer chance or luck of the draw, you put a kid in that position because you believe she can be successful there, IE she has demonstrated the skills needed successfully at practice.
That means that when a kid is getting errors, it isn't because she does not know how to do a skill, it means that she's having a bad day or isn't in the right spot emotionally. The coach is doing the kid a favor by pulling her out, coaching her on it, and giving her the opportunity to rise to the challenge of setting her head straight and improving the next time out. Keeping a kid in with all that extra peer pressure of knowing she's let her team down repeatedly when she's already in a bad way is not helping her, and it really isn't as "fair" as you may think it is.
Infielders/outfielders get 2 errors PER INNING when I'm coaching before they are yanked, that means they can make mistakes and carry on. Pitchers get 2 walks. That means they had to have thrown 8 balls. Let's assume that 4-6 of those were supposed to be in the strike zone, that's 2-3x the amount of mistakes that any other defensive player gets and that's more then lenient to any pitcher.
-W
Practice is where skills are taught, learned, and honed. Practice is where the coaches and managers see what the kids are capable of and try to make the best call for who plays where and when. You just don't put a kid in a position in a game out of sheer chance or luck of the draw, you put a kid in that position because you believe she can be successful there, IE she has demonstrated the skills needed successfully at practice.
That means that when a kid is getting errors, it isn't because she does not know how to do a skill, it means that she's having a bad day or isn't in the right spot emotionally. The coach is doing the kid a favor by pulling her out, coaching her on it, and giving her the opportunity to rise to the challenge of setting her head straight and improving the next time out. Keeping a kid in with all that extra peer pressure of knowing she's let her team down repeatedly when she's already in a bad way is not helping her, and it really isn't as "fair" as you may think it is.
Infielders/outfielders get 2 errors PER INNING when I'm coaching before they are yanked, that means they can make mistakes and carry on. Pitchers get 2 walks. That means they had to have thrown 8 balls. Let's assume that 4-6 of those were supposed to be in the strike zone, that's 2-3x the amount of mistakes that any other defensive player gets and that's more then lenient to any pitcher.
-W
The issue to me is honesty. Any coach who tells a player after a mistake to "Keep plugging, everything is OK, shake it off" is fibbing. Everyone knows (and certainly the player) that if the player makes "too many" mistakes, the player will either be yanked from the game or replaced permanently.
Starsnuffer tells everyone what the rules are up front. The other coaches play this little game of telling players one thing and doing another, until the players become so jaded they stop listening.
Starsnuffer's method is not as draconian as it sounds. There is also "short term memory loss" on the coach's part--that is, there is always a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, etc. I've used this method. I've seen other coaches use it. If done correctly (with some humor and teasing), the kids love it. They know exactly what is expected of them and the outcome for failure to meet the expectations. They don't sit on the bench and wonder why Mary, who just dropped her 5th popup was pulled, while Suzy, who is impersonating an open window at shortstop, is still playing.
More generally, I've never quite understood why coaches treat softball players differently than players in other sports. In hoops, if a kid throws the ball away a couple of times, the player is jerked. Parents don't immediately schedule counseling sessions for the player and try to get the coach indicted for child abuse.
But, somehow, softball players are assumed to be so mentally fragile that being pulled from a softball game will create permanent emotional damage. "Oh no...I can't bare the thought of not playing LF and getting a chance to back up third base on steals! How will I ever face mummy again?"
Starsnuffer tells everyone what the rules are up front. The other coaches play this little game of telling players one thing and doing another, until the players become so jaded they stop listening.
Starsnuffer's method is not as draconian as it sounds. There is also "short term memory loss" on the coach's part--that is, there is always a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, etc. I've used this method. I've seen other coaches use it. If done correctly (with some humor and teasing), the kids love it. They know exactly what is expected of them and the outcome for failure to meet the expectations. They don't sit on the bench and wonder why Mary, who just dropped her 5th popup was pulled, while Suzy, who is impersonating an open window at shortstop, is still playing.
More generally, I've never quite understood why coaches treat softball players differently than players in other sports. In hoops, if a kid throws the ball away a couple of times, the player is jerked. Parents don't immediately schedule counseling sessions for the player and try to get the coach indicted for child abuse.
But, somehow, softball players are assumed to be so mentally fragile that being pulled from a softball game will create permanent emotional damage. "Oh no...I can't bare the thought of not playing LF and getting a chance to back up third base on steals! How will I ever face mummy again?"
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