Need parental/coach pitching advice

[quandofloo]

My DD is 11 (2004) playing her last year in 10U rec. We will likely be making the jump to travel next year as we have already talked to a few organizations around us but we wanted one more year of experience mainly to give her some serious mound time.

She pitched a few times last season but will be my team's #1 this year. She naturally does not feel comfortable with the hello elbow method that most of the PCs around here want the kids to use so we have worked on our own with my limited knowledge to develop a repeatable delivery that she is comfortable with. However, I am not a PC. I am going to spend a considerable amount of time reading through the IR sticky and trying to wrap my head around it, but we are about to start playing games and I wanted to ask about 3 areas that I am concerned with in the short term.

1) When she really starts feeling good and cuts loose, her natural delivery has a rotation that causes the ball to break in on right handed batters. This is not anything that we have tried to develop or do intentionally, it is just the way that the ball spins out of her hand when she lets it fly. Is this a sign that she has a fundamental flaw in her delivery that I need to worry might be causing excess strain and a potential injury concern?

2) We deal with the normal nervous habit of throwing excessively high pitches periodically. Typically, I can tell her to make sure that she is holding the ball in her fingertips and not down in the palm of her hand and everything is fine. I am not 100% sure that I am giving her great advice there though. I just know that is what worked for me as a baseball pitcher and it has helped her when the problem came up and I needed something to tell her to calm her down. Is there any better advice to offer to a pitcher that is struggling to bring the the ball down in the zone?

3) She has a very difficult time trusting the catchers on our team. This is the other main reason why we are going to have to move to travel ball. She is afraid to go 100% with the kids on the rec team. This causes her to slow everything down so her delivery is erratic and I am afraid that she is going to hurt herself by trying to slow down. What have you guys used to help a girl get over the psychological hurdle of trusting their teammates?

Thanks.

 

[Me_and_my_big_mouth]

My DD is 11 (2004) playing her last year in 10U rec. We will likely be making the jump to travel next year as we have already talked to a few organizations around us but we wanted one more year of experience mainly to give her some serious mound time.

She pitched a few times last season but will be my team's #1 this year. She naturally does not feel comfortable with the hello elbow method that most of the PCs around here want the kids to use so we have worked on our own with my limited knowledge to develop a repeatable delivery that she is comfortable with. However, I am not a PC. I am going to spend a considerable amount of time reading through the IR sticky and trying to wrap my head around it, but we are about to start playing games and I wanted to ask about 3 areas that I am concerned with in the short term.

1) When she really starts feeling good and cuts loose, her natural delivery has a rotation that causes the ball to break in on right handed batters. This is not anything that we have tried to develop or do intentionally, it is just the way that the ball spins out of her hand when she lets it fly. Is this a sign that she has a fundamental flaw in her delivery that I need to worry might be causing excess strain and a potential injury concern?

2) We deal with the normal nervous habit of throwing excessively high pitches periodically. Typically, I can tell her to make sure that she is holding the ball in her fingertips and not down in the palm of her hand and everything is fine. I am not 100% sure that I am giving her great advice there though. I just know that is what worked for me as a baseball pitcher and it has helped her when the problem came up and I needed something to tell her to calm her down. Is there any better advice to offer to a pitcher that is struggling to bring the the ball down in the zone?

3) She has a very difficult time trusting the catchers on our team. This is the other main reason why we are going to have to move to travel ball. She is afraid to go 100% with the kids on the rec team. This causes her to slow everything down so her delivery is erratic and I am afraid that she is going to hurt herself by trying to slow down. What have you guys used to help a girl get over the psychological hurdle of trusting their teammates?

Thanks.

Hi! That's so cool that your daughter is working so hard and ready to move into TB. My DD started playing at 11 (she's 13 now) and we have been down the road your getting ready to go down. I don't know much about the technical aspects of pitching, and I wouldn't even bother trying to act like I do. What I do know, though, is that the stickies on IR here on this board are enough to help you help your DD significantly - if you commit to understanding them, and if you get coach's eye or something similar and take video of her. Then post it (when she's ready and gives her consent, of course!). You'll get tons of valuable feedback (along with a smattering of poo-poo, but that's pretty easy to sort through after you get to know who's who!).

My DD learns SO much when we use Coach's Eye, and show her what she's doing vs. what the demonstrations show. She's visual, and likes to remind me that I have never been a softball pitcher. She's also a teenager, and although your DD probably NEVER argues or disagrees with your correction, I have found that video is the end-all to the discussion. "I wasn't glove-swimming!" No? Ok, consult Coach's Eye - Coach's eye says you were, babe, like Phelps in the Olympics. "Oh."

We had H/E lessons early on, then stopped having lessons, then found a local college girl to help DD (and that was wonderful). There was some in-between time where we felt like DD wasn't "getting it" the way she wanted to, so I found these boards (and some great people!) who helped her very much. She made the most progress over the Winter, just from the stickies, watching other girls who clearly "got it", & Rick Pauly's videos. We finally did sign her up with a local PC who is absolutely amazing - and she loves him - but the bottom line is that you CAN do it yourself, especially at her age. Let her be part of the process. Watch college games. Check out the "model pitchers" thread. Lots of girls see and emulate, better than hear and try to reproduce what you're telling them. My dd only hears about half of what I'm saying, but have her watch Monica Abbot pitch a pineapple off a guy's head, and she's all over it!

I won't address many of your specific questions, because if I know the folks on DFP (and I think I do, at this point), you'll get LOTS of positive encouragement and feedback, along with links and help. The one I can speak to, though, is #3: obviously your decision to move her to TB is a good one. If she's being told to "throw softer", or she feels like she can't give 100% from the circle, then she is only hurting herself in the long run. We hear all the time, "practice like you play" - which means that if she's constantly only going 75%, that's what she'll get used to. She has to be able to trust her catcher to do her job. We knew our dd was ready when her first rec coach told her "throw softer, you're going to hurt someone."

Anyway, my main reason I'm responding is to be a cheerleader and say, "RAH-RAH-RAH, YOU CAN DO IT!" as you go through this with your dd. You won't find better folks than this community.

 

[xygent1]

biggest advice I can give ya is making sure she is doing the correct mechanics especially when entering into TB and her ability to hit her spots at the 12u level to me that's the most important and depending on how hard she throws (if she has good mechanics) you could start implementing the different pitches and working on the different spins.at least in my DDs case we consentrated on mechanics first, 2nd strikes, 3rd hitting the corners and spots, once those we're easy for her we worked on her throwing a good change, then drop, then curve, and now the ( rise (not throwing it in games just practicing the spin and mechanics of the pitch)) all along the way working on speed/endurance drills. I might be wrong in the order but that's how we have done things.

 

[GoCaboNow]

My DD is nine and a lefty. Been pitching about six months. Half her throws are screwballs that break pretty good towards a left hand batter. She finally GOT a few of the I/R drills we had been doing and screwball goes away but now everything is a curve. LOL. Not enough practice to bring it to a game yet but she is really encouraged by the extra oomph.

When she misses high her posture at release is a little forward instead of her normal slightly back and release at the hip.

 

[JJS]

Answer to Question #1: Perfect. If she is throwing correctly her misses will often be in to a righty. Very good sign without seeing video.

Answer to Question #2: "Feel is Real". Mentally we all need triggers. If that is her trigger that works for her, then great. Stay with it until it doesn't. There is so much mental to this game, and all sports actually.

If you want to get technical, the main reasons girls miss high are posture and release point. When she holds the ball too tight she is probably holding it past her optimal release point. Therefore, the ball goes high. So, good job. You are onto something there.

Answer to #3. When playing catch there are two goals. Player A's job is to throw the ball where player B can catch it. Player B's job is to catch the ball no matter where it is. While these goals work together when playing catch, Player A & B can only focus on their job. It has to be explained to her that her job is to hit her spot(glove, shin guard, whatever). She can only control her job. By being timid she is not doing here job to the best of here ability. I would rather have one player not do their job then 2 players. She needs to let the catcher fend for herself. I know it sounds callous to say to a 10-11 yr old, but she has to get there before she starts playing TB.

 

[riseball]

Before you apply things from baseball like grip to fastpitch, I suggest you go throw pitches yourself underhand, as the two are totally different, regarding ball size and ability to control a pitch. BTW, it is not a release point but a release zone. You will be chasing things endlessly the way you are approaching it, just being honest.

The reason one's hand or whatever does not work when nervous is humans are built with fight or flight, and those movements are never precise. So I would not harp on that from the angle you are coming from. She is young, her stride and her postures are probably not there. So let her control the things she can control and stop worrying about the rest because it will be analysis by paralysis.

Never quite heard quite put that that way.

 

[sluggers]

1) .... Is this a sign that she has a fundamental flaw in her delivery that I need to worry might be causing excess strain and a potential injury concern?

No.

Is there any better advice to offer to a pitcher that is struggling to bring the the ball down in the zone?

Yes...you have *HER* teacher *HERSELF* the pitcher how to throw the ball lower. How? You have her throw one over your head. Then, tell her to bounce the next one to you. Do that about 100 time a day for a week, and she'll figure it out herself.

The problem is that you aren't practicing correct. You don't teach a kid to "throw strikes". You teach a kid how to move the ball around the plate. The best way is to simply rotate inside/outside/high/low pitches until she figures it out.

She has a very difficult time trusting the catchers on our team. ... What have you guys used to help a girl get over the psychological hurdle of trusting their teammates

Simple:

"Either you use Suzy as the catcher, or I'll find someone else to pitch who will."

 

[riseball]

...Yes...you have *HER* teacher *HERSELF* the pitcher how to throw the ball lower. How? You have her throw one over your head. Then, tell her to bounce the next one to you. Do that about 100 time a day for a week, and she'll figure it out herself.

The problem is that you aren't practicing correct. You don't teach a kid to "throw strikes". You teach a kid how to move the ball around the plate. The best way is to simply rotate inside/outside/high/low pitches until she figures it out...

Awesome advice. I saw the same thing on page 4 of the OLIF guide to pitching.

 

[PA SB Dad]

Is there any better advice to offer to a pitcher that is struggling to bring the the ball down in the zone

Actually, Hal had a drill that he posted a few years back that I thought was pretty good. Have her pitch a wiffle ball. The first few times she does it it will fly straight up out of her hand and hit the ceiling. She will very quickly realize she has to release the ball much earlier to keep it down.

 

[javasource]

What have you guys used to help a girl get over the psychological hurdle of trusting their teammates?

Surround her with people better than her... forcing her to earn their trust.