Metrics for determining piching volume progression throughout high school?

[Hillhouse]

Yeah, from what I understand about the screwball, I'm 100% certain a little girl can't do much with it. So certainly not entering our life as far as I can see.

unc... even grown men can't make a ball "screw". Lets just look at basic facts: for a ball to move properly the ball needs to spin in the direction is going. A drop spins forward. A rise spins backward, a curve sideways. I know of no human beings that can turn the ball where it spins clockwise, in a direction that actually makes it "screw". Stepping to the left and throwing to the right is not a damn screwball. "Oh but my DD has great success with it!!!!" No, your kid has good success because whatever she is doing mechanically, she's simply throwing an inside pitch. Inside pitches are effective. So, congrats... your kid can throw it inside. But lets not confuse throwing it inside with a ball that actually curves inside. Bullet spin that you angle inside is not a screwball.

Take this principal into baseball terminology. Who in their right mind would listen to a baseball pitching coach who teaches someone to throw the ball inside and call it a screwball? Or when they throw it OUTside it's a curveball? NOBODY. Curveballs need to be spun in the direction it's going to move. End of story. But somehow, when it comes to girls softball, parents and kids will suspend logic and common sense to think if they step one way and throw it another that the ball actually broke. No it didn't. I mean, seriously... does anyone here have a son with a baseball pitching coach? Would you listen to another word the coach says if they told you to throw the ball inside and call it a screwball? Or, even better, if they're throwing a curveball they need to step way over towards 1st base and simply throw it outside.? You wouldn't listen to another word that coach says, you'd get in your car and tell your son to forget every word he just heard because it's LUNACY!!!! But softball pitcher parents are different. Why?? Is it because softball pitching is still relatively new (compared to baseball's popularity) and A LOT of dads played baseball (hardly any played fastpitch)?? And mothers didn't grow up with the game as accessible as it is today, Little leagues, middle school, High school, travel ball, and 1000's of colleges of all levels having softball to play. I genuinely don't know the answer WHY softball pitcher parents are different.

I realize there is a lot of "monkey see, monkey do" when it comes to pitching softball. Even today in 2020, the overwhelming majority teach H/E as gospel, even though a fraction actually pitched like that. They simply teach the way they were taught and subconsciously must think other girls will 'figure it out' just as she did. But speaking personally, when I was a teenage pitcher I'd see high school girls doing crazy drills and bending their elbow up type stuff and I truly remember it baffling me. How and why did this crap get started?

Sorry for the rant folks. I guess I"m getting cabin fever being coop'd up.

Bill

 

[_MIA_]

Stepping to the left and throwing to the right is not a damn screwball.

....I don't know why but that made me LOL

 

[Hillhouse]

Do you throw your rise and drop with angle? Jump towards 1st and throw it low and inside to a RH batter as a variation.

I could make my rise go up or up AND away. Putting a slight curve to it. And I could make the drop cut in on a RH batter with finger pressure. Not a big fan of the "drop curve". For me, if I want the drop to end outside, then I'm just going to throw an outside drop, period. I don't believe in getting fancy, trying to make the ball do 2 different things. Even the riseball that I could curve wasn't optimal because trying to make the ball do 2 things takes away from it doing 1 thing even better. So, if I wanted an "outside riseball" for example, I would simply throw an outside rise and not try to get cute with the sidespin. From my perspective, if the ball didn't go up enough because I was trying to be fancy with adding side spin, and the pitch got crushed, I'd be angry. If I'm trying to throw a "drop curve" or a "rise curve" and it doesn't do 1 of the 2 things, it's a much more hitable pitch.

When I pitched using a crow hop, I didn't really jump towards 1st, as some guys do. I tried to go as straight as possible.

Bill

 

[BlaineAB]

Plus, if you only have three pitches to work on instead of five or six, conceivably you'd pile up less pitching volume!

 

[uncdrew]

Plus, if you only have three pitches to work on instead of five or six, conceivably you'd pile up less pitching volume!

Yeah, I was reading about a 12U girl's pre-game routine and it made me tired. She was over 100 pitches before the first game even started. You gotta warm up the drop-screw, ya know.