Hard Head!

[mm'spapa]

How much more speed & control can one expect from great mechanics over and Athlete who has always done well with just God given talent.
My DD is a good athlete and since no one else can pitch on her team, she is the pitcher. No lessons, just watches other girls and does it her way. She is on 1st yr 14u.
Since she does ok "her way" she is reluctant to change. Pure strength gets her about 50 mph. Not a lot of command of any pitch. Has her version of the fastball, drop, and change up.

 

[Sparky Guy]

How much more speed & control can one expect from great mechanics over and Athlete who has always done well with just God given talent.
My DD is a good athlete and since no one else can pitch on her team, she is the pitcher. No lessons, just watches other girls and does it her way. She is on 1st yr 14u.
Since she does ok "her way" she is reluctant to change. Pure strength gets her about 50 mph. Not a lot of command of any pitch. Has her version of the fastball, drop, and change up.

Unfortunately, she does not have anyone competing with her for the position. So she feels there's no need to "change" anything. Until that time comes she will continue to be a "Hard Head" as you say.

When she gets used as batting practice by a few of the better teams, then she may realize she has to do something else. She needs to watch some of the top pitchers in the country and see if she does anything like them. While they are different in the way they get the job done, almost all of them have same general mechanics.

As for the amount of improvement... That depends. She may be doing some things well right now through imitation. She can always improve with the knowledge of what she is doing in the circle.

 

[Jojo]

Short answer to your question, "A lot".

 

[WillyT812]

I discussed this with our other coaches just the other day. You start with the arm, if they can whip overhead fairly well they should be able to, with coaching, do it underhand. So this is the initial physical ability part. The next part, which is just as important, if not more, is self motivation. This is the part that takes most girls out. A decent PC can lead a girl to good (IR or no IR) but to be great requires internal motivation. If you think you can grind a girl, or your daughter, into being great the only thing you'll accomplish is having a girl/DD hate you and possibly softball. For most girls (and boys) good is good enough.

I told my starting pitcher yesterday that when Cat Osterman retired she thanked a lot of people, there must have been around ten pitching coaches. And that is the point; Cat didn't have a single person who made her what she became, she motivated herself. No one told her to practice every day, no one told her to get into shape. She was self motivated to become great, no one dragged her kicking and screaming to be great. When she exhausted all that a PC knew, she found another. She had drive to be great. Any athlete at the top of their game is self-motivated. They probably have OCD. It's extremely rare to find, at a young age, self motivated players. We can take them to good, it's on them to become great and it doesn't matter whether we talking about a league, HS, college or the pros.

I've seen so many adversarial father/daughter (when the father is the PC) relationships over the course of my softball coaching time (22 plus years) that I now know that this is the norm and that a positive relationship is a rare thing indeed. I constantly remind myself even to the this day, long after my daughter is gone from SB, we're developing human beings first, softball players second. I hope I'm good at both.

 

[JAD]

Questions....
1) Does your DD want to continue pitching?
2) Is she willing to put in extra time and effort to become a better pitcher and help her team?
3) Is playing college softball one of her goals?

If the answer to the above questions are "yes", I would encourage you to spend the time, money and effort to get your DD some pitching lessons. It may be a "one step back, two steps forward" situation, but will pay long term dividends. I encourage weekly pitching lessons, but I know some very effective pitchers who only go once or twice a month. If lessons with a pitching coach are not an option get your hands on Bill Hillhouse's DVDs and become your own pitching instructor.

 

[guero_gordo]

Hope you get her attention before injury does.

 

[quincy]

If she is willing to practice in the off season that is probably when you will have an opportunity to change some things. If she is successful doing what she is doing you are going to have a heck of a time changing things and I am not sure you should even try.