MAKE A LIST~ fp Pitchers who can throw 70mph

[DropcityUSA]

Maybe Midwest is skewed, but just hard to reconcile this with what we see regularly. Drop's team has several throwing much harder than that.

Earlier this Fall we played a local open tourney just for reps and ran into some 13B kid throwing 62-63 consistently (we also use Smart Coach). Softball is small world and never even heard her name before that. Not saying she was amazing, but was bringing it.

From PGF experience at my DD’s age, Midwest had harder throwers than West Coast. California team pitchers were lower 50s at Nationals, but they had better movement. Texas at USA AAG was mixed. From hard throwers to a girl that was like a junk ball pitcher. Southeast has some hard throwers. NE has

Okay, right around 60 is a little ambiguous. To some people, that could be 58.

I'm not saying they don't have three first-year girls throwing 60. I'm just saying they're not cruising there in games. I asked permission from every one of my daughter's teammates parent to put them on the PR. I also asked them what their daughter threw. Of the four I got, (one was away, and one was my daughter), three said 60, and one said upper 50s. The top speed I got from those four was 58 from one, 57 from another, and 56 from the other two. Mind you, these were in-game speeds, not lessons. When I informed them of the speeds, they were all in disbelief. They were shocked that their precious daughters weren't throwing over 60 because they had all done it in lessons. Well, games are a different animal. Maybe they need to conserve energy, so they are slower. Maybe it's the field conditions, the wind, the sun in their eyes, or the train going by. I really don't know why, but the radar opened their eyes.

Remember, this was a relatively small sample size, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are more throwing 60+ out there. But when only 18.75% of the pitchers we saw this weekend threw 60+, I'd say the more likely scenario is people like to exaggerate.

Our pitchers were clocked every pitch at PGF Nationals during the summer as were the opposing pitchers we faced. I can say based on that there tends to be a pretty wide speed variance at that age not only game to game, or inning to inning, but also pitch to pitch. I’d say generally a 5mph range. There didn’t seem to be much cruising from any pitcher.

Our pitchers in-game speeds are pretty consistent with their practice speeds when they pitch at team practices. I’d expect a lot of girls can throw harder when a PC is around optimizing mechanics.

If you go 30 seconds in of the vid at the end you can see my DD hitting 61mph practicing and then 60mph show up in game (takes a couple seconds). But that is top speed.

We didn’t do any in-game radaring in the fall. Some days she seems fast and others she might be slow.

We also have a 13-u girl in our area that throws low 60s, but she walks or hits like 3-4 girls an inning.

 

[lostcreek1]

I think girls are getting better younger, and peaking out at younger ages. Maybe it is from better coaching, more consistent practice I really don't know. I do know that if you look at some old threads on here there are people all but calling someone a liar for saying they seen girls in 10u throwing 50mph. If you go to a good 10u tournament today there will be someone there throwing 50mph or faster. Not saying there will be a ton of them but there will be some. Seen one girl hit 50 in a 9u tournament and a couple more hit upper 40's. I am talking about game speed.

 

[DonnyS]

Okay, right around 60 is a little ambiguous. To some people, that could be 58.

...

I'm sure there are more throwing 60+ out there. But when only 18.75% of the pitchers we saw this weekend threw 60+, I'd say the more likely scenario is people like to exaggerate.

In my view it's pretty easy to spot the girls cruising at 60+. Girls in the 64+ range stand out to everyone. But you are spot on with the 60 crowd, it's mid to high 50s for some pitches and maybe over 60 at times. But it's night and day when you watch them. If that makes sense.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

From PGF experience at my DD’s age, Midwest had harder throwers than West Coast. California team pitchers were lower 50s at Nationals, but they had better movement. Texas at USA AAG was mixed. From hard throwers to a girl that was like a junk ball pitcher. Southeast has some hard throwers. NE has


Our pitchers were clocked every pitch at PGF Nationals during the summer as were the opposing pitchers we faced. I can say based on that there tends to be a pretty wide speed variance at that age not only game to game, or inning to inning, but also pitch to pitch. I’d say generally a 5mph range. There didn’t seem to be much cruising from any pitcher.

Our pitchers in-game speeds are pretty consistent with their practice speeds when they pitch at team practices. I’d expect a lot of girls can throw harder when a PC is around optimizing mechanics.

If you go 30 seconds in of the vid at the end you can see my DD hitting 61mph practicing and then 60mph show up in game (takes a couple seconds). But that is top speed.

We didn’t do any in-game radaring in the fall. Some days she seems fast and others she might be slow.

We also have a 13-u girl in our area that throws low 60s, but she walks or hits like 3-4 girls an inning.

With all due respect, where is the radar reading during the pitch? I am not saying she isn't throwing 60, but the video makes us take your word for it. Did I miss it?

 

[DonnyS]

With all due respect, where is the radar reading during the pitch? I am not saying she isn't throwing 60, but the video makes us take your word for it. Did I miss it?

Did you not hear the music? Kid Rock and Fabolous...what more do you need? j/k LOL!

 

[DropcityUSA]

With all due respect, where is the radar reading during the pitch? I am not saying she isn't throwing 60, but the video makes us take your word for it. Did I miss it?

See the pitchers name and pitch count, the pitch count will change to the radar reading when you set it up with GC. A guest player configured it for us.

 

[CoachJD]

Maybe Midwest is skewed, but just hard to reconcile this with what we see regularly. Drop's team has several throwing much harder than that.

Earlier this Fall we played a local open tourney just for reps and ran into some 13B kid throwing 62-63 consistently (we also use Smart Coach). Softball is small world and never even heard her name before that. Not saying she was amazing, but was bringing it.

I'm sure different parts of the country have different overall talent levels, but I have never seen a 13u kid, especially a B level player (the level I see most often as that's where the players I coach who are on travel teams play), throw 60+.

It exists, of course. I'm not doubting that. But if you're throwing 62 at that age, you're on one of the best teams.

That said, the fastest pitcher we've faced the past two years threw 60 as a Freshman. I didn't have a radar gun on her to get the exact number, but I know what 60 looks like and she was there often enough. I'm guessing she would've been 14u, so I certainly know it's possible. But we don't face any other pitchers who throw that hard

I go back to this: If all these 12 year olds were throwing 60+, you A) would not have so many pitchers throwing sub-60 who pitch in college and B) you'd have a lot more college pitchers throwing 70+.

They exist, but they're rare. I bet you could find a 12 year old basketball player who can dunk, too, but I bet the basketball boards don't act like if you're 6th grader isn't dunking he has no future in the sport.

 

[bsbs]

I'll come at this from a little different perspective. My daughter's goal was to hit 60 before 13. She has probably been clocked 5 times in her life. She hit 61 in May, a couple weeks before 13. Her pitching coach posted a pic, and people started talking. She doesn't throw enough strikes whatever. All silly stuff, she's a B player who plays up. Anyway, I have no idea what she throws now, but she is a much better pitcher than she was 6 months ago. 61 didn't really mean anything it caused way more coversations than I cared to have.

 

[DropcityUSA]

I'm sure different parts of the country have different overall talent levels, but I have never seen a 13u kid, especially a B level player (the level I see most often as that's where the players I coach who are on travel teams play), throw 60+.

It exists, of course. I'm not doubting that. But if you're throwing 62 at that age, you're on one of the best teams.

That said, the fastest pitcher we've faced the past two years threw 60 as a Freshman. I didn't have a radar gun on her to get the exact number, but I know what 60 looks like and she was there often enough. I'm guessing she would've been 14u, so I certainly know it's possible. But we don't face any other pitchers who throw that hard

I go back to this: If all these 12 year olds were throwing 60+, you A) would not have so many pitchers throwing sub-60 who pitch in college and B) you'd have a lot more college pitchers throwing 70+.

They exist, but they're rare. I bet you could find a 12 year old basketball player who can dunk, too, but I bet the basketball boards don't act like if you're 6th grader isn't dunking he has no future in the sport.

I know a rival team of ours found a 5’9 lefty throwing low 60s in a rec league. She’s a 2027, so a year older. But she is also good pitcher, not just a thrower. Went from rec to a National team. So I guess it happens.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Okay, right around 60 is a little ambiguous. To some people, that could be 58.

I'm not saying they don't have three first-year girls throwing 60. I'm just saying they're not cruising there in games. I asked permission from every one of my daughter's teammates parent to put them on the PR. I also asked them what their daughter threw. Of the four I got, (one was away, and one was my daughter), three said 60, and one said upper 50s. The top speed I got from those four was 58 from one, 57 from another, and 56 from the other two. Mind you, these were in-game speeds, not lessons. When I informed them of the speeds, they were all in disbelief. They were shocked that their precious daughters weren't throwing over 60 because they had all done it in lessons. Well, games are a different animal. Maybe they need to conserve energy, so they are slower. Maybe it's the field conditions, the wind, the sun in their eyes, or the train going by. I really don't know why, but the radar opened their eyes.

Remember, this was a relatively small sample size, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are more throwing 60+ out there. But when only 18.75% of the pitchers we saw this weekend threw 60+, I'd say the more likely scenario is people like to exaggerate.

Are you clocking them from directly behind? Any angle will lower their speed. Even the height and how you aim the PR can change the accuracy of the reading. So at their lesson the radar is probably set in a tripod aimed directly at their release point resulting in the most accurate and higher speed.