How to stop walk-athon in 10u?

[tomorrow]

Not DD’s experience at all. I happened to go back and look a GameChanger a few days ago while trying to see how many pitches DD throws in a typical month. First fall of 12U she had a 17+ ERA and averaged two walks an inning.

She was making the transition to IR on top of the bigger ball and distance. It was a tough 10 weeks! So pitcher parents out there, don’t be too discouraged if they struggle at the beginning of 12U. The move to 43’ at 14U was seamless.

Also, back to the OP, our league did four balls and then coach pitched the remaining strikes at 10U. DD dominated her last year of 10U by just keeping the other coach out of the circle.


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Moving to 12u was a big change for my dd it took many months to adjust.

 

[dbronstein]

This is what leagues in my area do in 8u. It helps develop pitchers for 10u. I tried to have every girl pitch at least 1 inning in 8u. Over two seasons every girl but one pitched. She was scared to and I told her unless she brought me a jar of red vines, she'd have to pitch the last game of the season. She brought me my bribe:

I don't understand this at all. Everyone knows that twizzlers are so much better than red vines.

 

[Hillhouse]

I've skimmed through the whole thread, I didn't do a deep dive on everyone's reply but, I don't recall anyone suggesting that the pitchers learn why the ball goes where it goes when thrown so they can learn to self correct. The majority have no idea what they are doing with their body and just wing it, literally. If that's not the first thing the young pitchers are taught, then I think that's step one.

I know it was sarcasm but, yelling "Throw strikes" is as useful as a screen door on a submarine. They need to know WHY it didn't go straight and how to fix the next one. Knowing the WHY is first step to knowing HOW.

 

[Dabears17]

I've skimmed through the whole thread, I didn't do a deep dive on everyone's reply but, I don't recall anyone suggesting that the pitchers learn why the ball goes where it goes when thrown so they can learn to self correct. The majority have no idea what they are doing with their body and just wing it, literally. If that's not the first thing the young pitchers are taught, then I think that's step one.

I know it was sarcasm but, yelling "Throw strikes" is as useful as a screen door on a submarine. They need to know WHY it didn't go straight and how to fix the next one. Knowing the WHY is first step to knowing HOW.

I was trying to remember your two simple tips for pitchers to self correct, but was drawing a blank. Going to have to dust off your DVD and watch it again.

 

[SJVCoachingDad]

I was trying to remember your two simple tips for pitchers to self correct, but was drawing a blank. Going to have to dust off your DVD and watch it again.

For a right-handed pitcher if it goes left the glove was pointed there. If it goes right she didn't brush. High and low are release timing I believe.

 

[Hillhouse]

For a right-handed pitcher if it goes left the glove was pointed there. If it goes right she didn't brush. High and low are release timing I believe.

Basically yes. Usually high and low are timing issues. Side to side are mechanical issues. RHP throwing inside to a RHP means they did 1 of 2 things wrong. Either, the arm and body had a gap between them OR she turned too soon (which forces the ball to go around the hips, not through them). You see this almost ALWAYS with H/E pitchers. If the ball is thrown outside to a RHB, it usually means the glove shoulder didn't stay pointed to the target long enough. It's not rocket science. It's not some new, revolutionary way of pitching, it's just simply how the body moves and is designed to move. But if you can teach a young pitcher the "why" of things instead of just saying "here do this" they will have a better chance of self correcting.

The worst saying in the world is "Practice makes perfect". Because she's not perfect, she's not going to be perfect, she's going to have bad weekends, bad games, and bad innings. Practice actually makes permanent. But you have to make sure she's practicing the right things. This is where the debate will rage about what is "right". I'd say that making sure she practices the right things (such as no H/E crap) and having the understanding of why the ball went off target will help as much, if not more, than anything else.

 

[Merry25]

Any tips to get outs when no one’s hitting? First year in 10u rec and the pitchers are working with pitching coaches but aren’t throwing many strikes so both teams are just having a lot of walks and steals. Our first game we got 2 outs tagged at home but after that, they quit trying to steal home. So the score ended up being 18-18 due to the 6 run rule in our league. I’m thinking work on throwing stealers out while we continue to work on pitching. Any other tips?

One of things I did when I was having trouble with 9 and 10 year old boys playing baseball was to change it from 4 balls to get a walk to 6 balls to get a walk. It was a change that gave the pitchers a better chance to get outs. The games went much better and the kids learned the game much faster.

The other option you have is to have your pitcher slow down and throw more change ups so that they control the pitches better and this gives your fielders a better chance to participate instead of a walkathon! Good luck!!

 

[Hillhouse]

One of things I did when I was having trouble with 9 and 10 year old boys playing baseball was to change it from 4 balls to get a walk to 6 balls to get a walk. It was a change that gave the pitchers a better chance to get outs. The games went much better and the kids learned the game much faster.

The other option you have is to have your pitcher slow down and throw more change ups so that they control the pitches better and this gives your fielders a better chance to participate instead of a walkathon! Good luck!!

That is a very good idea!!!! 6 balls is a walk!!! As a pitcher, I can get on board with that!! lol. And this is not sarcasm! did you get a lot of push back from people on that rule change? I could envision some dad, who thinks his 10u kid is on his way to MLB thinking this sucks and wouldn't understand the rule change. These are the dads that you see on Oprah's show, who won't give their kid dinner if they strike out or make an error. It's sick.

Did you also increase it to 4 strikes is a K? Just curious.

I really like this idea for the youngsters.

 

[Merry25]

That is a very good idea!!!! 6 balls is a walk!!! As a pitcher, I can get on board with that!! lol. And this is not sarcasm! did you get a lot of push back from people on that rule change? I could envision some dad, who thinks his 10u kid is on his way to MLB thinking this sucks and wouldn't understand the rule change. These are the dads that you see on Oprah's show, who won't give their kid dinner if they strike out or make an error. It's sick.

Did you also increase it to 4 strikes is a K? Just curious.

I really like this idea for the youngsters.

It was hard for some parents to accept, but after a half a season the parents who had older kids were telling everyone how great this was that their current kids were learning more quicker and having more fun playing the game. This made it much easier to find players who wanted to play on tournament teams as well because the kids were having fun. It made a huge difference. No increase in strikes. We also begged the coaches to not ask the kids to not swing at pitches to get a walk. Recreation leagues should be made for the kids to have fun and to learn so that they want to play the game. After the first year parents really accepted because we made that part of the packet during sign ups so that parents could understand what was going to happen. It was great!! We also asked the coaches to ask the umpires about rules and calls after the game as to not embarrass the teenage umpires especially. A teenager will more likely accept criticism when you are trying to help them learn.

 

[uncdrew]

I'm a fan of very big strikezones for 10U rec. Let all coaches, teams and parents know before the season starts. Make them swing, and avoid the walk-a-thons.