How to tell a high school coach that she can't overuse my pitcher

[Gags]

I've done this with free throws in basketball, but not pitching yet.

We have done this as an OF drill. The girls at near-max distance apart, one at a time, a girl will turn behind her, pick up a ball, and close her eyes. Once she turns, a random girl on the other line will start yelling for the ball as if the cut/relay, and the thrower, with her eyes still closed, will turn and throw towards the voice.

It's kind of crazy, but the throws are A LOT more accurate than you'd expect. Most times, the receiver only has to move 5' or less to the ball - and this is after a throw of 100'+ (maybe from CF to RF foul line?)

The girls enjoy the drill (14U), and I'm constantly impressed with the accuracy regardless of how many times I see it.

Wait - what was the point of this thread again?

 

[daywalkerdad]

Glad my kid is not the only one shutting eyes works.

 

[Dabears17]

My daughter’s coach has not blindfolded her- but does have her pitch with her eyes closed. Usually when she is overthinking something. It is impressive how well she can pitch without even looking.

I didn't do it regularly, but on occasion, I'd have a pitcher throw a pitch or two with her eyes closed to get her to relax and trust herself.

 

[DryHeat]

Going somewhat in a different direction... But yesterday was the first time I have paid any attention to college softball signings. I noticed on the social media posts for multiple schools, they list the travel team, NOT the high school.

So from a purely softball career standpoint... Just how important is high school? I understand value in friends and community. It was certainly a big deal to my small town team that made the state championship. But just trying to put leverage on the HS coach here. Diminishing their value might not be the right flex to get what you want, but I can be petty. HA!

Edit: The P5 schools anyway. Some of the smaller ones list hometown. Only one of our HS commits actually listed the high school name. All of our baseball commits listed the school.

DD had a signing day ceremony both at the HS at lunchtine and the TB org in the evening. She was the only SB player to sign at HS. There were maybe 15 from various sports.

The TB org had 23 signees but only 18 could attend, and we had 2 out-of-state players Facetime in. Still a good evening.

The school DD signed with included for each player both the HS and TB teams and a short list of accomplishments for each. Stuff like BA, HRs, all-district/state honors and such for HS, and for TB they noted stuff like finishing places at Sparkler/PGF/Alliance etc.

That said, I've never seen a college coach at a HS event.

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[DryHeat]

So DD's high school team has a new coach. The program has only two pitchers, and coach is planning to use DD as the sole varsity pitcher and the other girl as the sole JV pitcher. She's also planning a schedule where they'd play 3-4 games per week for the season, including tournaments where she'd play more than one game per day.

Coach has told DD that she needs to be prepared to pitch 100% of the team's innings this spring. DD has told Coach she's not comfortable with that load, and Coach says she needs to get comfortable with it. This week she told Coach that her shoulder was unusually sore (after throwing 100-150 pitches M-F in practice, and then pitching in games both days this weekend with her travel team), and Coach not only refused to give her a day off but told her that she wants her to throw an additional 100 pitches per day so she can learn to work through the pain.

Back on topic...

To the complete surprise of nobody except the head coach and maybe parents, the #1 pitcher on DD2's 14u team is experiencing shoulder pain and has an ortho appointment. Overpitched in tourneys (at least half the innings and one pitcher left after getting no time or respect). Lots of pitches during the week. Now down to 2 pitchers. Sigh.

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[lostcreek1]

Back on topic...

To the complete surprise of nobody except the head coach and maybe parents, the #1 pitcher on DD2's 14u team is experiencing shoulder pain and has an ortho appointment. Overpitched in tourneys (at least half the innings and one pitcher left after getting no time or respect). Lots of pitches during the week. Now down to 2 pitchers. Sigh.

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How much did she pitch? How many games did she normally pitch in a tournament, how often did they play.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I've done this with free throws in basketball, but not pitching yet.

We have done this as an OF drill. The girls at near-max distance apart, one at a time, a girl will turn behind her, pick up a ball, and close her eyes. Once she turns, a random girl on the other line will start yelling for the ball as if the cut/relay, and the thrower, with her eyes still closed, will turn and throw towards the voice.

It's kind of crazy, but the throws are A LOT more accurate than you'd expect. Most times, the receiver only has to move 5' or less to the ball - and this is after a throw of 100'+ (maybe from CF to RF foul line?)

The girls enjoy the drill (14U), and I'm constantly impressed with the accuracy regardless of how many times I see it.

Wait - what was the point of this thread again?

Not sure. I've been reading it with my eyes closed.

 

[DryHeat]

How much did she pitch? How many games did she normally pitch in a tournament, how often did they play.

Normal schedule, appx every 2 weekends. Most weekends were over 200 pitches. One was over 325. Plus a rumored 150 pitches per day on off-days.

Maybe its something else, everybody is different, but I was telling myself and others in the spring she needed to be careful.

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[lostcreek1]

Normal schedule, appx every 2 weekends. Most weekends were over 200 pitches. One was over 325. Plus a rumored 150 pitches per day on off-days.

Maybe its something else, everybody is different, but I was telling myself and others in the spring she needed to be careful.

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The 200 pitches per weekend doesn't really sound overly excessive if it was over a two day period. However that plus 150 a day every other day of the week seems excessive to me. You would think somewhere in there her parents would see to that she had some rest days.

 

[BucketDud]

The 200 pitches per weekend doesn't really sound overly excessive if it was over a two day period. However that plus 150 a day every other day of the week seems excessive to me. You would think somewhere in there her parents would see to that she had some rest days.

Yeah I've seen multiple 500 pitch weekends from pitchers on opposing teams, so 200 doesn't seem that bad. Our DD did have a couple 200+ pitch bracket days last Summer and had knock-on effect for a few weeks after where she didn't look very crisp.

But as I mentioned before knew a kid who was on a program for couple years where she threw 300 pitches/day every single day of the year. I thought that was insane but she never had any injuries problems and just finished her HS career. The time commitment alone would have driven me crazy.