How Many Pitches?

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Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
I think pitchers warm up way to much sometimes also. See a girl warm up before every game and then before they bring her in. Play five games and throw 20 before the game 20 to come in and then pitch. It's not just the game pitches. Heat has an effect. Of course stress of the game. 0-0 game puts more stress than a 13-0 game. Laboring is more a sign than how many pitches IMO.

Agree on the laboring over number of pitches. As long as their mechanics are solid and velocity is normal they should be ok.

I think most pitchers tend to not warm up enough, especially when they get older. I didn’t really notice until I saw college pitchers warm ups. They don’t just loosen their arms, they get sharp for each of their pitches. So these 10U’s with 7 different pitches should be warming up about 90 minutes. :LOL:
 
Jan 28, 2017
1,661
83
Agree on the laboring over number of pitches. As long as their mechanics are solid and velocity is normal they should be ok.

I think most pitchers tend to not warm up enough, especially when they get older. I didn’t really notice until I saw college pitchers warm ups. They don’t just loosen their arms, they get sharp for each of their pitches. So these 10U’s with 7 different pitches should be warming up about 90 minutes. :LOL:


Talking about multiple games in a day. That's different than pitching one game. You have to warm up before the first one. Then just enough to be ready. 40 pitches ×5 is 200 before you pitch
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
My DD is 10 and she's been pitching for a year. We work out 3-4 days per week, about 100 throws per session. One lesson per week. So we're pitching most days, but certainly take days off.

She's the #1 and gets a lot more work than the others. 175 pitches Saturday. Two full games and then relief in the last game. She's fine, but I was getting worried. Was close to talking to the coach about taking her out.

I keep her warm-ups minimal on game day. Some drills to get loose, but not that many full pitches. She often walks the first batter, which isn't ideal. But arm safety comes first (and I don't know that she wouldn't walk that first batter anyway). Down the road, like before a high school game, I can see warming up a lot more. But not for 10U tournaments when I know she'll have tons of mound time.

We always take at least one day off after a tournament. Perhaps two depending on how she feels. We have a hitting lesson tonight, so won't pitch again today. 175 is a lot of pitches. But she actually seemed faster at the end of the last game and was looking really strong.
 
Mar 28, 2014
1,081
113
Dads the answer is simple. Use your eyes. You know your DD. You know her form. When she starts losing her form, it's time to shut it down because she will start creating some bad habits that are awfully hard to break. Have an understanding with the coach that when the form starts to break down, she needs to come out. Some days that is 100 pitches and some days it's 160. Only your eyes can tell.
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Hard pitch counts are a great tool if you do not really know that much about pitching. There are way too many variables involved for pitch counts to be truly useful. I have found actual performance to be the best metric. When the mechanics start to degrade, she needs to sit. By charting pitches and taking into account other variables I usually know in advance when to expect things to head south.
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
A few points:

I would count the pre-game warm-up pitches and pitches between innings when assessing how many pitches to throw. For example, you might throw 50 pre-game pitches, 4 pitches between innings x 7 innings (28) plus 15 per inning average x 7 innings (105) = 183 pitches per game. As you can see, they can add up very quickly.

At 12U, DD pitched over 450 pitches (PGF qualifier) in one day over 3 games including a 3rd game 9 inning international tie-breaker. Only time I had to ice her arm and shoulder (in 10 years pitching) and she was sore for 2-3 days afterwards. Still pissed at the head coach who was making a statement and punished our second pitcher who was late to the 1st game and sat her all day.

The bottom line is use some common sense, rest your pitchers whenever you can, and make sure they are conditioned to pitch year-round, slow and steady worked well for my DD, never had an injury due to pitching or otherwise.
 
Aug 1, 2019
962
93
MN
My DD did a pretty good job of listening to herself and taking care of herself. Didn't get carried away with pre-game warm-ups, especially against weaker teams. She knew an early walk wasn't going to do much damage. After settling in a groove she'd just throw one pitch when they took the field between innings so the catcher could get her throw down. When her team was up to bat and it was hot she'd pull up a lawn chair on the shaded side of the dugout to cool off and decompress (black uniforms look cool, but thermally aren't). Before the last regular season HS game, she had a talk with the coach about sitting it out so she could rest for playoffs. As basically the only pitcher, there was some wear and tear that needed recovery. She did ice some, but for the most part we tried to stay away from that. Maybe opening a can of worms here, but we leaned toward the philosophy of letting the blood flow freely to heal the area, not slowing it down by cooling it.
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
Easy! At least 14!
1) Fastball
2) Rise
3) Curve
4) Screwball
5) Change
6) Drop
7) Off-Speed Drop
8) Crise
9) Scrise
10) Crop
11) Scrop
12) Off-Speed Curve
13) Knuckle
14)......

Never mind--guess it's only 13...
 
Jul 14, 2018
982
93
14U DD is her team's #1 pitcher, and throws just under half of the team's innings. She typically throws one complete game herself, and is called upon to finish another on a three-game Saturday. She usually starts the first game on Sunday.

Her ceiling is around 100 pitches in a single game. Once she hits that point, she's visibly tired and starts to lose velocity and miss her spots. Luckily, that doesn't happen too often as most tournament games only go five innings and she can get through that in 80 pitches or so. When she does come in for relief, she's been rested for an hour or two and that seems enough to get her a fresh start. On the occasions where she's had to throw a full seven innings (school ball and non-timed friendlies), she's not very sharp at the end.
 

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