Is it OK to pitch our girls with our batters in pre-season and practices.

[iclickjohn]

My coaching partner and myself have taken this year off and will be back again next year. We are putting together a great coaching team and are excited for what we feel we can do with these talented girls.
Both of our daughters are on the fastpitch travel as well as majors. 10yo. Neither of the teams had much batting practice against pitchers this year. The coaches pitched, meh so-so, but not like the real thing. Pitching machines are good for swinging and eye hand coordination. But to me the reality of 2 balls and 2 strikes is way more intense. The fact that the girls pitching is not as accurate as the machine, leaves the batter vulnerable to doubt about which pitch to go for. There's nothing like the REAL thing for a batter.
I plan on starting early, getting pitchers up to speed with technique and then, as soon as possible, get them pitching to our batters. It seems that it would be good for both the pitcher as well as batters. Is there any advise against doing that?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Here is a similar discussion - http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/5158-any-problem-pitchers-throwing-bp.html

 

[fastpitch]

I don't let our pitchers pitch batting practice. I don't want our pitchers letting them hit it. If they were to pitch it would be a real situation where they either strike the batter out, walk them, get a hit or an out. Never to let them hit it.

 

[coachtucc]

I have taught myself to at least throw with my arm at the 12:00 position!!! Do I throw hard..not as hard as the girls but I put a pitching net up and go to 21 feet or so and it seems like it!! Helps the girls with some timing!!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Yes, to Tucc's suggestion. You do not have to throw fast, just buy a pitching net.

 

[SoCalDad]

When my son was playing baseball I was walking by a batting cage at the fields and saw a dad throwing a ball to a 7 or 8 YO boy from about 20 feet away. Not more than 2 or 3 minutes later I hear and see a commotion by the cages. The same boy hit a come backer and broke the dad's nose. Ever since than I never throw to batters without a pitching net.

 

[starsnuffer]

Pitchers shouldn't throw batting practice, but they should throw hitting practice. There is a huge difference between the two.

-W

 

[coachtucc]

Do I throw BP...yes I do!!! The my pitchers pitch to the batters and they don't throw it just over the plate...they pitch like a normal game and the batters have to hit like a normal game!! The catcher calls strikes...one rule...you look at 3rd strike, then you're time is up...if you swung and missed, then the count starts again!! This way if they think its close, then they learn to at least try to foul it off!!

 

[iclickjohn]

Thanks. I think that aligns with my philosophy as well. Pitch as in real game bat as in real game. Coachtucc like your suggestion on 3rd strike. The one drawback is so much downtime for the waiting players. Maybe a few for fielding any hits and the rest could be running drills off field. I may try cycling through batters, one or two full trys and switch. Maybe 4 batters per pitching change. That would be the equivalent to pitching 8 batters if the batters stay for 2 full trys.

 

[rowdy]

This is a good topic. I think it depends on your team. Our pitchers usually give up two to three hits in a game so having them pitch batting practice would be a waste of time. If we score one or two runs we will usually win and to me execution is more important than hitting practice. Softball is won with great pitching and great defense and teams that don't know this don't usually do to well outside thier own backyard.

As for batting practice being for show in MLB. The key to hitting is seeing the ball and muscle memory and swings are where these skills are honed. Second thing I would mention is NO pro team lets their pitchers throw to their hitters, not softball or baseball.