How much practice is too much?

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Mar 1, 2018
26
3
New pitching bucket dad here. 13y DD just took up pitching in Aug and she is hitting it hard trying to make up for lost time. Now that her Fall TB season has ended were practicing 3-4 nights per week for 1+ hour (100-150 pitches) plus a 1 hour pitching lesson. I'm looking for feedback on if this is too much? So far she has been fine but I'm cautious about over working her arm.

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Jan 28, 2017
1,661
83
IMO, it's more about being sharp and working hard than a certain number of pitches or amount of time. For example, Two great pitches with speed and location at each spot with each pitch and we are done. Sometimes it's very quick and sometimes it takes awhile. You can change the number of pitches up according to what you want to accomplish. Of course you can also work on other things and not even count pitches.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
You are practicing the right amount.

Your schedule is about what my DD did at that age. My DD was a good (not great) D1 pitcher.

Your DD had to develop stamina...she has to be able to go 7 innings, and throw better in the 7th than she did in the first.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
If you are going to pitch that often make sure your are quitting when her body says to quit, not a clock.

She is still new, she may be 13 but she is developing muscles other girls have developed over several years of pitching.

If she is pitching 100 plus pitches in a practice make sure to break it up just like a game. I would have my dd throw 15 pitches and then take a break, we would discuss what she did well and what we were going to do in the next “inning”. The breaks were maybe 5 minutes but it more resembled game conditions then just throwing 100 pitches in a row.

Or call balls and strikes and she gets a short
Break after 3 outs, keep track of walks too.
 
Jul 22, 2015
851
93
Take advice with a grain of salt. Your kid isn't their kid and each one has different needs and capabilities. My dd simply can't practice that much without breaking down physically but others can. Some girls do better with more frequent work and others are better off having fewer, but longer practices. One thing I would suggest is to give her some periods of 3-4 days with no work to recover, particularly if you see a couple of bad practices in a row.
 
Mar 1, 2018
26
3
Thanks everybody for all the feedback. Sounds like we're about on track and I'll just combine all the input into a modified approach. So far our strategy has been on building muscle memory, mechanics, stamina and working towards controlling her fastball and 2 seam for strikes. Then dialing in her control to specific locations around the plate before introducing new pitches.

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Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
I would just add that you can work on dialing in mechanics without doing full pitching. This approach is less stressful and still allows you to get in quality work. Throwing from 9 o'clock and Power K (at 12 o'clock and with full arm circle) into a tarp--not to mention other countless drills--will help you make progress. Doing this once or twice a week in addition to one or two more intense practices will also help you manage the work load and aid recovery. As with anything, you should do a progressive warm up. Get loose and then throw with lower intensity (50-60%) as you incrementally ramp up to max effort (90-100%). Consistency of practice is ultimately more important than the duration or number of pitches in any given practice. Take time off when you need to. So much of pitching is just pounding the rock over and over and over again. My DD and I try to keep it fun and break up the monotony by playing music...usually the horrible mumble rap that these kids listen to these days!😂
 
Nov 18, 2015
1,585
113
When do you plan on shutting it down to let her arm rest and recover in time for the spring season?


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