My 9 yo has now mastered 4 pitches

[chinamigarden]

Ironically I actually did chart pitches. I did so for HS baseball team so naturally (to me) when DD was learning SB pitching I went to local SB college games and did some charting. I generally found that throwing about 80-90% to the glove yields about 64-68% strikes. Naturally better hitters lay off some of the tough pitches and there are pitches thrown to set up others or just a 0-2 waist a ball and see if the batter bites.

It kind of dictated how we practiced so we started with 2-3 years of just fastballs. Master a pitch and then add a pitch and repeat. So we add one pitch at a time taking about 16-24 months to master.

We had several years of:

Other parent: “Oh, your daughter pitches, mine too. Mine has 5 pitches. How many does your have?”

Me: “1” or “2”

CoC




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I would have guys come up to me, hey your dd is Nat?
Yep.
Well my dd is also a pitcher also.
Great, what team is she on.
The one you are playing.
Oh great
So my dd has 6 pitches, how many does Nat have?
2
2?
Yep 2
How fast does Nat pitch?
I'm not sure.
Guy will grumble about me not telling him the truth as he walks off.

 

[Gtrips07]

If I had a dollar for every parent who said their daughter had a wicked screwball when what she has is a fastball thrown inside because she is stepping way way left a bringing the arm away from her side.

My DD has a great change and then depending on the day a great fastball or a great BP fastball

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[1bucketmom]

4 seam FB, 2Seam FB, change up, low rise, high rise, drop, deep drop, screw, curve, runner, cutter, churve, crise, chop, and super screw a.k.a. HBP.

If you don’t have 15 pitches - why even bother. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[CanOfCorn]

I would have guys come up to me, hey your dd is Nat?
Yep.
Well my dd is also a pitcher also.
Great, what team is she on.
The one you are playing.
Oh great
So my dd has 6 pitches, how many does Nat have?
2
2?
Yep 2
How fast does Nat pitch?
I'm not sure.
Guy will grumble about me not telling him the truth as he walks off.

So exactly how I reply to these questions. I actually didn’t know how fast DD threw until a Showcase a couple weekends ago.

Did you get the feeling he wanted you to bite so he could do the (your DD speed + 2-3 MPH?)


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[BT3100]

When DD was 12 she helped out a team at nationals.
She had a pitch that her PC called a tailing fastball.
It was just a 4 seam but she thought it was cool.
She told the coaches what she threw and she probably said it so fast that the coaches thought she said Italian fastball.
First night were having adult beverages and the assistant coach who calls pitches asked me where she learned to throw the Italian fastball.
I was like "what?"

 

[BT3100]

So exactly how I reply to these questions. I actually didn’t know how fast DD threw until a Showcase a couple weekends ago.

Did you get the feeling he wanted you to bite so he could do the (your DD speed + 2-3 MPH?)


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How you respond depends on how fast your DD throws

 

[chinamigarden]

When DD was 12 she helped out a team at nationals.
She had a pitch that her PC called a tailing fastball.
It was just a 4 seam but she thought it was cool.
She told the coaches what she threw and she probably said it so fast that the coaches thought she said Italian fastball.
First night were having adult beverages and the assistant coach who calls pitches asked me where she learned to throw the Italian fastball.
I was like "what?"

Where were you 10 years ago when we were trying to figure out what to call my dds fastball. It moved too much to be just a "fastball"
Being half italian she would have loved this name.

 

[chinamigarden]

So exactly how I reply to these questions. I actually didn’t know how fast DD threw until a Showcase a couple weekends ago.

Did you get the feeling he wanted you to bite so he could do the (your DD speed + 2-3 MPH?)


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That and he was wondering how my dd beat his dd's team time after time with 2 pitches and with a father who didn't know how fast she threw.

 

[gator5]

My personal favorite. We had a new girl on the team who threw 6 or 7 pitches. After her first game, which was walk filled, the coach pulled her aside and asked her how pitches did she have that she could throw for strikes. Oh, then she only had 2 pitches.

 

[Phandle]

When my daughter was 11 she she had 6 pitches now at 16 she only has 3. Dang she has regressed a lot in the last 5 years.

On serious note when a parent of young pitcher says their DD has 5 or 6 pitches what they mean is she is beginning to learn 3 pitches and the other three are hybrid pitches due to bad mechanics. They will soon realize how many hours of practice it takes to get one pitch correct and keep it that way.