- Nov 29, 2009
- 2,975
- 83
Over the years I clocked more than a few exit speeds when my DD was pitching. Some were damn impressive!
Especially when the ball gets deposited well beyond the fence.
Over the years I clocked more than a few exit speeds when my DD was pitching. Some were damn impressive!
No doubt that there is some inflated pitching mph numbers. That being said, my daughter played with a 11u girl that has pitched 61 mph during her pitching lessons. I have never seen a young athlete compabible of what this girls does. This girl I am refering to is a 3 sport athlete (softball, volleyball, and soccer) and she is on a totally different level than any other girl I have ever seen. Everything she does looks like it is effortless. The best way to explain it is that she looks like Bo Jackson in what ever sport she is playing.
As hard as she throws, this girl can be very wild. Not uncommon to see the girl throw a no hitter and give up 4 runs on walks and wild pitches. If she and her family ever decide to focus on pitching the ceiling is very high.
I've worked with 4 new kids in the last couple weeks... In all 4 scenarios the kids parent told me she was 60, 55, 55, and 52....
The 60 was actually 54, the two 55 were 48/49, and the 52 kid was about 47.... every single one of them inflated the numbers and I don't understand why they'd lie to me... I'm a coach. Did they think I wouldn't gun her?
Jryans dd, who we'll call "Ryan" is the real deal. Lefty with a really good curve/ change combo... will add a lot of value to what ever school that lands her!
"Which Time?"...…Is my answer when someone asks how far I hit my driver.
As you know there are several softball specific social media sites that rank players and teams, i.e. FloSoftball, Extra Innings, etc. In reading some of these write-ups regarding the individual players and teams, there are some extremely high pitching speeds - like Power 5 college player - for kids that haven't even started high school yet. I had the opportunity to observe one such team at a well attended tournament in November in the Southeast. The FloSoftball ranking article indicated that they had multiple pitchers throwing in the mid-60's so I was really intrigued. The team was very impressive overall and no doubt was very deserving of their high national ranking. But, there was absolutely no way any of the pitchers was hitting mid 60's on a radar. If they were throwing 60 I would be surprised. Turns out my suspicion was validated when this past weekend at a winter camp one of the pitchers was clocked below 60 for all of her pitches.
I just think that a lot of these team and player write-ups are just smoke and mirrors.