Earning circle time?

[Momo'sDad]

A player who just gets it across the plate can be a valuable asset when the starters are struggling with their control. Even if she gets hit hard, that's sometimes a better option than watching pitches miss by 3 feet with the count full on 5 batters in a row. That player still has to practice, though, in order to develop consistency.

When I look at the makeup of our current league board, the majority of members are pitcher parents. Go out to the fields on any given day and who's there? The pitcher parents. Look around at who's doing the work to maintain the fields, keep the equipment lockers clean, etc. Look who's volunteering to coach all these kids. Look at the kids being pressed into involuntary volunteer service around the fields. It's normally the coaches' kids and those coaches are normally the parents of pitchers, meaning the pitchers are often doing more of the little things which help to keep the league running and the facilities looking good. True, they use the fields more than other players for their individual practices, but if you see a kid picking up trash that they didn't put there, chances are it's a pitcher.

Needless to say, when people cry "it's not fair" that little Sarah doesn't get to pitch as much as the coach's DD, I can't help but laugh a little, because they really have no idea what it means to actually earn those innings. "Unfair" would be to punish the girl who's actually put in the work to EARN the innings by deciding every other girl who raises her hand ought to get just as many chances in the circle even though they didn't pick up a ball once during the entire off-season, while the coach's DD has been out there on 90+ degree days getting in her practices.

Like Axe said, thanks so much Chinamigarden.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Added note --

Following the seeding tournament Labor Day Weekend, we ended up in the lowest division. I thought we belonged in division 3, but because of the way the system was set up, the registrar pretty much had no choice. As a result, a team that we crushed ended up in a higher division than we are, because they dropped all the way to the bottom of the bracket and then beat 3 lesser teams, before being hammered in their last game. Excuses, excuses, the bottom line is we failed to get the job done in our Sunday night game a week ago, so we did not advance to play on Monday. Not going to get into how the game was decided, but I would never admit that the better team advanced. The system is what it is, though, but the upside is that I think we're re-combined with division 3 for the end-of-season tournament.

What that means is that we'll be playing a much easier schedule than initially planned. We will not overlook a single opponent or take anyone lightly, but if we do have situations where we're leading by 12 runs after 2-3 innings, I am going to give the less experienced pitchers some work. I hope the regular season games will all be competitive, but while games are not played on paper, we have more talent than several of the teams we'll face. Having 6 girls out of 13 who can put the ball in play puts us in pretty good shape for the fall.

 

[rowdy]

We use fall ball as the majors use spring training. We evaluate our new players and the team to ensure when we get together in the spring we have the pieces to be successful. Now we are older so the girls that pitch are our pitchers and if you aren't you will not see the circle.

 

[marriard]

We like to play lots of non-official scrimmage games. That is when I get circle time for my learning/developing pitchers. This also opens up the number of teams that will scrimmage with us as I can tell a coach of one of the developing teams that we want to scrimmage but we wont be using any of our game day starters in the game.

If you want a player to pitch - find a league at their level to pitch in. My DD played on a travel team last year that had older pitchers so she played 2nd base - but she was also playing some games for a local rec league to get some circle time. It was a 'friendly' rec team with some girls on she used to play a lot with, so we had a deal where she didn't have to attend many practices - just games - and it was a good situation all around. Probably not an option for everyone, but if you are creative you can find a way.

 

[SnocatzDad]

If you have pitchers that are game ready and eager to pitch you should be rotating them in non elimination games. By game ready I mean capable of throwing the ball over the plate and demonstating to you that they are practicing enough outside the team to show a commitment to learning the position and improving. I would feel no pressure to pitch a kid I was confident was going to walk every batter they faced (that's not learning to pitch) and I would feel no pressure to pitch a kid who when asked how often they practiced said that they only worked on pitching in warm ups before a game.

I helped coach a very competitive 12U travel team that ended up 3rd in the state and we religiously rotated 3 pitchers despite their being a wide gap between top 2 and #3. 6 years later that #3 is throwing in the 60's and is a Varsity starter and of the other two, one moved away and the other gave up pitching due to some physical problems. We also had a #4 pitcher on that team who just started learning pitching that spring and we did not pitch her a single inning that summer because she wasn't ready to throw strikes, but she worked all summer long on pitching outside of practice and when I coached her in the fall I had her split games with one other experienced pitcher because she was ready. That fall was rough for her but she continued to work over the winter and was a very good pitcher the next summer. In one year she went from not pitching at all to throwing in the low 50's with a nice drop to her fastball (and she was a lefty )

I cringe when I see young coaches (or coaches of young players) riding one pitcher like a rented mule. It's not good for the kid and IMO it's not good for the sport in general, it does take a lot of time and effort to learn pitching and too many kids give it up when they find that despite putting in the time and effort their coaches never give them a chance.

 

[undergroundga]

Just to add an update to my previous post, our fall ball season is now over. Despite my dd politely asking her coach to let her pitch it never happened. The same two girls pitched the whole every game, implosion after implosion. One of the girls did improve as the season went on, but the other not so much. But both gained very good game experience. We won 4 games with several run rule losses.
There was an opportunity for my dd to pitch. Both girls are playing on the same travel team and were gonna miss a tournament. Unfortunately, our catcher is also and coach forfeited the game. So much for her big opportunity.
What bothers me most is the fact that dd approached the coach, explained that she takes lesons and practices 3x a week, and asked(not demanded) for a shot, only to have the coach tell her she would get a chance that was never comeing. And this is a rec leaugue.
I guess I should be happy though. She will be a lot better when her shot does finally get here.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Just to add an update to my previous post, our fall ball season is now over. Despite my dd politely asking her coach to let her pitch it never happened. The same two girls pitched the whole every game, implosion after implosion. One of the girls did improve as the season went on, but the other not so much. But both gained very good game experience. We won 4 games with several run rule losses.
There was an opportunity for my dd to pitch. Both girls are playing on the same travel team and were gonna miss a tournament. Unfortunately, our catcher is also and coach forfeited the game. So much for her big opportunity.
What bothers me most is the fact that dd approached the coach, explained that she takes lesons and practices 3x a week, and asked(not demanded) for a shot, only to have the coach tell her she would get a chance that was never comeing. And this is a rec leaugue.
I guess I should be happy though. She will be a lot better when her shot does finally get here.

If you were getting run-ruled, then the other pitchers should've been getting some work. We've won all our league games so far, but have gotten big leads in half the games and been able to give #3 & #4 plenty of circle time. If we'd been down and unable to come back, I would've done the same. But, if there's a chance for us to come back, then that's how we're going to play it. We were down 16-8 on Sunday, but we had 2 at-bats left. When we closed it to 16-12 in the home half, that put us in striking range, so I put in our ace for the next inning to hold them scoreless and then we scratched out 4 more runs to force the ITB, where we won.

In the next game, though, up 15-6 going into the last inning, we were able to give another potential pitcher a shot and she only gave up 3 runs. Is she a future starter? Not likely to happen on this team, but if she keeps working, her spring coach will definitely send her out there.

 

[RookKev]

UGA.. I know how frustrating it can be. However, as you noted I think, playing up has it's costs. You can make a young lady grow in the field and at the plate, but on the mound, it's really hard, and you had better be one heck of a talent. Especially between 8U to 10U. For a lot of girls, that is a key growing sequence... for boys, some, but not near like it is for girls. Just keep throwing. That is what my dd and I do. She can handle the pressure in the circle just fine, but earning time there is always a battle. You keep practicing, and you will get your chance, whether or not you coach.

 

[rdbass]

DD start pitching at 8u never seen any mound time.Dad and dd practiced year round.Next year DD is 9 on 10u rec team started to get mound time,because my DD walk more girls then she strike out parents complained to coach.They just wanted a pitcher to throw it over so the other team could hit the ball to fielders.Dad and DD still practice as much as possible during the season.Towards end of season coach allows DD to pitch last innings of the games.3 up 3 down.Coach's of other teams would comment why didn't you pitch her the whole game?Answer was parents just want someone to just slingshot it over.Dad and DD practice all fall and winter.DD is 10 on 10u rec team.#1 pitcher and only pitcher.She pitches every game team ends season in 2nd place.Highest finish in township ever.Dad and DD practice all fall and winter.DD is ask to play on a 12u travel team.DD and other pitcher rotate every other game on the mound finish #2nd.DD and dad practice all fall and winter.This year 12u travel team same 2 pitchers same rotation,but this year finish#1.The other pitchers from her rec team not pitching or playing anymore.DD and dad practicing as much as we can and will continue to practice.If your DD's want to be a pitcher keep practice and they will earn mound time.

 

[rdbass]

Maybe you missed what I wrote.I was teaching my DD to pitch the correct way,but the parents of the other pitchers thought they should just throw it over.I believe in showing the girls the correct way to pitch and give them mound time.I was trying to develop the girls into pitchers.The parents just weren't patient enough to let this happen.They for whatever reason could not understand walks at a young age and that being part of the learning process.Parents thought it was better to have other teams hit the ball like it was batting practice for them.Even though your DD may not get mound time now if you keep practicing and when that times comes and your DD's gets a chance to pitch they my never be able to get her off the mound again.