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radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
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How long should it take for pitchers to find the strike zone consistantly?
Is there a magical amount of weeks or months?
How about by age does that matter?

*Consistantly to the point a coach could say
"Let them hit it, goal not to walk batters."
 
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Top_Notch

Screwball
Dec 18, 2014
512
63
I recall looking at ball/strike ratio when DD first started pitching. It's been a while, but if I recall correctly, she was around 50% first year 10U and 66% second year. DD has always had good control but I recall discussions that 50% wasn't cutting it. Her team did very well @10U so I'll go 66% by 10U. ;)

Another good metric is first pitch strikes at young ages.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
One of the regular posters here in the past would say that at 10u the pitcher should have a K per inning and another k for every walk. And that the Ks made up for the walls. It actually made sense to me because 10u batters are less disciplined and 10u pitchers tend to be wilder.
My dd was fairly wild until she was 14. But that wildness also came with speed and movement. So she would walk a few batters and then strike out the side. It was a roller coaster at times.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
How long should it take for pitchers to find the strike zone consistantly?
Is there a magical amount of weeks or months?
How about by age does that matter?

There is no magical # - it is highly variable by the pitcher and the player.

Some never really get it - the 'controllably wild throw hard' pitcher exists in even higher level D1 college softball. There are many, many hard throwing 6'+ tall girls who are frankly terrible pitchers in travel but get recruited because they are tall and throw hard and many college coaches are deluded into thinking they will be the one who 'fixes' this pitcher - even though there has been a sucession of coaches since 8U who have all failed.

Perfect example from the top 2 pitchers on DD's 18U travel team from last season - DD & one of her best friends.

DD is not tall and throws in the low-60's. She is looking for 70% FPS, can throw a strike with movement on command and rarely walks anyone she doesn't want to. If her team can give her 3 runs, she will win somewhere in the 80-85% range of her starts.

Her friend is 6'2", athletic and takes what seems like every batter to 3-2, has as many walks as K's and throws everything in the mid-60's. She is wild - and when she is on she is awesome. But when she is not, she gets hit around a lot. There isn't a lot of middle ground. College coaches loved her - and she is a great kid. But I worry she is not going to do well in college at a mid-high D1 because when it comes down to the crunch, she is not really a very good pitcher.
 
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Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I kept crazy stats for my DD. Not sure if I'll keep doing it. Why not, I have the time.

9 year old: 52.7% strikes
9 1/2 years old: 59.3%
10 years old: 60.7%
In a lot of games, I would take whatever it was at 8 YO 😫
 
Aug 21, 2008
2,359
113
The hardest part about being a young pitcher is not the physical act of pitching. It's the mental side of it which is rarely talked about or developed.

At a golf driving range, I can hit the ball long and straight. Put me on a golf course and I have no clue where it's going, so I end up seeing the ENTIRE course, not just the fairways. This is the same for pitching. A 10 year old can be popping 80% strikes in the pitching tunnel all winter, then in a game she's all over the place. And people scratch their heads, question the pitching coach, question the kid's heart, question a lot of things. And pitching is different from a lot of team sport activities. Its only the pitcher in that circle. He/she has to deal with the ground, his/her nerves, the other team, the umpire, the fans cheering, the other team cheering, and still maintain concentration. How often does anyone work on THAT at practice? I bet never.

The hardest thing to control in pitching is not the ball. It's emotion and adrenaline. If softball pitching is what she wants to do with her life, then you need to find a sports pysch sooner instead of later. Parents will probably need their own shrinks too but that's another topic.
 
Jan 14, 2020
81
18
I kept crazy stats for my DD. Not sure if I'll keep doing it. Why not, I have the time.

9 year old: 52.7% strikes
9 1/2 years old: 59.3%
10 years old: 60.7%
I am right with you, plus with GameChanger you can go right down a rabbit hole on stats... lol... my lil DD is around 54% strikes and I won't babble on the rest of the analytics.
 
Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
I think at 10U, based on my experience with Little League and mostly local travel ball, you are hoping for the girl to throw strikes at least 50% of the time. Anything less than that and I think you just end up walking too many batters and the game becomes miserable for all involved. I think the expectation around that strike percentage rises pretty quickly as they move into 12U. At that point, you are looking for a girl that can consistently throw strikes 60+% of the time and the girls that can't see their innings pitched start to become fewer.

Somewhere between second year 12U and first year 14U (as rubber moves back to 43'), it's been my experience that there is a quantum jump in expectation. Not to just throw strikes at a 60-70% clip, but a focus on throwing quality strikes (to a specific location or somwhere near it) as well as the introduction of, say, the first movement pitch along with an increased use of the change up, which is a pitch most girls I see seem to struggle with.

It's also been my experience that speed matters--it always does--but particularly at the younger ages where girls can overwhelm inexperienced batters from 35 and 40 feet just by throwing hard somewhere near the zone. Coaches seem to love that and those early developers. At higher levels (even at 2nd year 14U where we are now), I see girls that throw pretty hard (mid-upper 50s) get roughed up when they cannot hit spots or when they throw flat fastballs. Many of these hard throwers that I see do not have a change up or cannot control one, which is the same thing.

Not there yet, but I assume that expectations for precision, speed, and movement only keep going up with 16U and 18U. The target I've heard for strike % and first pitch strike % is 70 percent. A former SEC pitching coach told me there was a crazy correlation between a 70%+ FPS percentage and the team's winning percentage.
 

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