lack of control

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Apr 27, 2009
11
0
Our best catcher left the team last season and that is also part of the problem, she will let up a little because the catcher has trouble stopping anything low. I think she feels like she has to hit her spots perfectly for the catcher to handle it. And she is a speed freak, she loves to intimidate batters and throw it by them. If she sees a gun behind the plate her eyes light up. She is a hard worker, very dedicated. I hope age and maturity will clear up some of our problems.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
A lot of her issues are unrelated to softball. She is probably just your average, run-of-the-mill, goofy 12 YOA girl who has trouble remembering the day of the week.

It sounds like you have some objective basis that she is throwing 55 MPH. (Please understand that there are lots of parents who think there 10 YOA wonder muffin is throwing 60 MPH.)

You need to make sure you get an accurate speed measurement. If she really is throwing 55+ mph, then you might have a prodigy. To find out for sure, take her to a *baseball* academy (one where they train pro baseball players) and use their speed gun. A baseball academy's speed guns are used to determine whether a pitcher is a pro prospect, so their guns are very accurate. It might cost $10 or $20, but it would be worth it.
 
Jun 2, 2008
62
0
Why is it that everytime the topic of pitching speed comes up .. someone has to question it. It is not unusual to see 12U pitchers at 55+. We see them pretty regularly at tournaments her in FL. We see 14U pitchers hitting 58+ as well.

Jenny Finch was the bomb in her day as a 12U pitcher - no doubt. But the sport has grown immensely, pitching coaches are a requirement, and significantly more girls are playing the sport. So, when someone says their 12yo is throwing 55+, why question it ... just help them with their question/issue.

For the topic - I believe this girl is just going through some growing pains. Just back off a little, let her work through it and all will be fine. Let her rest while she grows and she will come back strong as ever. It sounds like she is a pretty good athlete, and athletes go through spells. Her pitching ability and body need to be in synch, and right now they are not. She will overcome it - just be patient. And if your coach has any sense at all, he will recognize this, and help her work through it. Otherwise, some other coach will benefit and you will be happier anyway. This is a very good opportunity to focus on hitting and her alternate position(s)


I am not a pitching coach, just a pitcher's dad - and my daughter just went through this very thing. She is back, stronger than ever and pitching better than ever ... and oh yeah .. she's one of those 12U pitchers pitching 55+, clocked at 58 in games - and I nor any of her coaches consider her anything but a member of a good team.
 
Feb 4, 2009
112
18
Why is it that everytime the topic of pitching speed comes up .. someone has to question it. It is not unusual to see 12U pitchers at 55+. We see them pretty regularly at tournaments her in FL. We see 14U pitchers hitting 58+ as well.

Jenny Finch was the bomb in her day as a 12U pitcher - no doubt. But the sport has grown immensely, pitching coaches are a requirement, and significantly more girls are playing the sport. So, when someone says their 12yo is throwing 55+, why question it ... just help them with their question/issue.

For the topic - I believe this girl is just going through some growing pains. Just back off a little, let her work through it and all will be fine. Let her rest while she grows and she will come back strong as ever. It sounds like she is a pretty good athlete, and athletes go through spells. Her pitching ability and body need to be in synch, and right now they are not. She will overcome it - just be patient. And if your coach has any sense at all, he will recognize this, and help her work through it. Otherwise, some other coach will benefit and you will be happier anyway. This is a very good opportunity to focus on hitting and her alternate position(s)


I am not a pitching coach, just a pitcher's dad - and my daughter just went through this very thing. She is back, stronger than ever and pitching better than ever ... and oh yeah .. she's one of those 12U pitchers pitching 55+, clocked at 58 in games - and I nor any of her coaches consider her anything but a member of a good team.



i don't believe you.
 
Jun 2, 2008
62
0
Believe me - I took her to a baseball academy and had her gunned with a real gun - its true!!!!!! Plus, everyone tells me she throws that hard, it must be true!!!!

Seriously though - it still doesn't matter if every good hitter 12U taps her up....
 
May 12, 2008
2,214
0
Some 12U girls are practically women physically. An early maturation can create athletic competition imbalances in both boys and girls around that time.
 
My DD (just turned 14) was finished growing by the time she was 12, at least in height. She's still filling out a little (sadly, at least from a teen girl's dad's perspective :( ), but I agree with Mark, from 11-14 you see a huge difference in some girls size/physical maturation over other girls. Several of her classmates that she used to tower over are catching her now. For boys, it's more like 13-16 or older, IMHO. She commented to me at the beginning of school how much bigger some of her boy classmates got over the summer (she is in 8th grade).

She played 12U last year in virginia/tennessee, not exactly so cal when it comes to softball, and 12U players (probably already 13 years old) that pitched in the 53-56 range weren't the norm, but we saw quite a few. Probably 48-53 was more the normal range, just guessing (my DD was only around 48 last summer, and is up to 50-51 now, not as fast as I would like, but speed isn't everything :) ). That is game speeds, obviously, not pitching practice without a batter speeds.

By 14U especially, and even 12U against good teams, if all you have is a fastball, then I don't think it matters how fast it is, they will catch up to it sooner or later, and look out when they do.
 
Mar 6, 2009
64
0
Our best catcher left the team last season and that is also part of the problem, she will let up a little because the catcher has trouble stopping anything low. I think she feels like she has to hit her spots perfectly for the catcher to handle it. And she is a speed freak, she loves to intimidate batters and throw it by them. If she sees a gun behind the plate her eyes light up. She is a hard worker, very dedicated. I hope age and maturity will clear up some of our problems.

I think I said exactly this in my response. It is VERY important for a pitcher to learn how to TRUST their teammates. I know it is very fun to blow it by the batter and to light up the radar gun. But, that will NOT get her very far as she continues to mature. The goal of this game is to score more runs than your competitor, not how many K's you get relative to your competitor. It sounds more like a maturing process or being a pitcher versus a thrower. Keep in mind, that this type of maturing may take a very long time and she would probably benefit more by playing with players who are more advanced that she is. She needs to be pitching against players who are able to hit her fastball easily and she needs fielders who are able to easily able to play good defense (So she can learn to trust her teammates).

Bill
 
Jul 12, 2008
159
0
Tuscola, IL
this question of speed is a touchy subject when it comes to one's DD. Everybody wants them to be the next Finch. But when someone says their daughter is pitching 58 at 12U, you always going to have non believers, but here is the thing, you can make them believe you by posting a video, end of story. And if anybody has a DD throwing 58 in 12U... they have a video! I mean my DD is 13 throwing 51-53 and I have videos and have posted them here and she is just an average pitcher that wants to be the best she can be. So for those of you who have the next "Finch" post a video or else expect people here to doubt you.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
My personal experience was that a pitching coach told my DD at 13YOA that she had a great drop ball and was throwing 58 mph. We had her speed measured at a baseball academy, and she was actually throwing 52. It was a surprise. Everything worked out OK, but my DD wasted a year messing around with an incompetent pitching coach.

I saw a different pitching coach use a radar gun on a girl and tell her that she was throwing 60+ mph, when she couldn't have been throwing much over 50 mph.

It doesn't take 30 minutes to go to a baseball academy and have your DDs speed independently checked with a properly calibrated gun. Go to baseball place that has produced some pro players. None of those places would dream of using a bad gun because they would lose their credibility with the pro scouts.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,474
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top