- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
I can't imagine one of my DD's pitching a tournament as their first experience pitching. We went the route of learning to pitch in a safe Rec ball environment before playing in tournaments. Kudos to her coach if he actually has the patience to sit through all of the bad outings and horrible pitching during tournaments to let her learn to pitch. I hope the other parents on the team will also be so patient.
She's pitching in a scrimmage tonight so it technically won't be her first time ever. It'll be her second. We seem to have a pretty great group of parents, and our coach is great too. That said, we have a couple of girls who want to pitch on our team who will not be pitching at tourneys. Mine is inexperienced, but she's good. I know I'm her mom, biased, etc etc, but you hear it from strangers enough and you figure it's probably true. I imagine she'll walk plenty of girls though, we'll see. Our other 2 have 1 and 2 years of 10U pitching so if she's floundering we have plenty of backup.
My advice is to sit in right field so she can't see you. I can't tell you how many young pitchers I see look at their parents after every pitch. If she can't find you, that's one less obstacle for her. Give her the same response after the game regardless if she struck them all out or walked them all. This is a LONG journey and enjoy the ride.
Historically she's been really focused during games. It's like I'm not even there. But we'll see. I think I'll have a hard time score keeping from right field. I figure I'll cheer some but mostly just keep the book quietly.