Because that in and of itself makes someone qualified to instruct pitchers. Just having been there. I was born in a hospital so I guess that makes me qualified to deliver babies.
Need parental/coach pitching advice
- Thread starter quandofloo
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Because that in and of itself makes someone qualified to instruct pitchers. Just having been there. I was born in a hospital so I guess that makes me qualified to deliver babies.
From an early age a pitcher must understand that when the ball rolls off her fingers she is no longer a pitcher and cannot control what happens next. She instantly becomes one of 9 fielders who have certain skills or lack thereof. If the catcher cannot handle the pitch that is not her problem. If the ball goes through the SS legs it is what it is. All she can do as a pitcher is throw the pitch to the best of her ability, nothing more, nothing less. Some days her defense will save her bacon and make up for her mistakes in the circle. Other days they will make her job in the circle very difficult. As they say control the controllables. Some pitchers learn this at an early age, others never figure it out.
Yes.... Having been a pitcher, even a good pitcher, and being a good pitching instructor are often very different things. Having been a pitcher is neither necessary nor sufficient to providing good pitching instruction.
Did the nurse who delivered you receive training from other nurses who had experience delivering babies, or did she learn from her self-taught dad-coach, who watched some YouTube videos and read an online message board?
You forgot "and stayed at Holiday Inn Express".
- Jun 18, 2013
- 322
- 18
We played our first game of the season last night and she struggled mightily with that. I am going to follow my own 24 hour rule and add a little more to it unless she comes to me today and wait until tomorrow to talk to her about it. Give us both some time to process and really think through how we want to approach the next step.
She threw okay, but not up to her abilities. She was obviously holding back because she is afraid of really letting loose on the catchers. It isn't about the batters, which I find odd. She doesn't care about a hitter being in the box, she is just worried about the catcher. I would say she was throwing at about 75% of her normal velocity and it really hurt her mechanics and her control. My assistant coach, who is also an AC on one of the travel teams we have looked into, had me move his middle infield daughter to catch the second inning just to try to give my DD some added confidence in the catcher. She walked a few and had some very frustrating bad plays behind her on defense that didn't help matters.
We stayed and watched the game after ours and one of her friends, a girl that has played with us every year since they were 6 until this year, was pitching. I knew that she has been taking lessons over the winter so I really paid attention to her delivery. She has clearly been working with a PC that teaches IR so I asked her dad for his contact info and will likely be getting in touch with him soon. I am going to talk to my DD tomorrow and make sure that it is what she wants to do first though.
She loves to catch and has a strong bat but she has told me she wants to pitch too. At 11, it is hard to know which way to encourage her to go. I am trying my best to walk the fine line between encouragement and overbearing.
I know the quality of REC ball varies in different parts of the country, but around here the words "serious mound time" and "10U REC" are never used in the same sentence. See if there is a C-level TB team in your area. C-level tournaments usually have a run rule per inning to help keep the game moving along and is great for developing pitchers.
And for the purist there is no "mound" in softball, so the term used is "circle time".
At age 11 I was convinced that my youngest DD was destined for a career behind the dish. She kept wanting to pitch and I did my best to encourage her to catch. Until one day I finally relented and let her throw a few pitches. That was her last day as a catcher. Let her try everything, you never know where she will end up.
I call it mound time, don't know why never played baseball. I was thinking maybe it should be called Rubber time, lol....that just sounds weird. Sorry off topic, my dd is getting some mound time in Rec this season but what sucks about it is the last 4 games they have played has been without an ump. A parent stood behind the pitcher calling the pitches. It sucks! If they arn't waist high down the middle of the plate (exactly where she's not supposed to throw it) then it's a ball! Even when they have umps the last ump told her to "throw it down the middle" that's where he likes it. So yea I would have to agree on Rec ball not giving serious circle time, except to learn how to throw your fastball right down the middle.
- Jun 18, 2013
- 322
- 18
Gah, 16 years of baseball dad slipped in on me. Go ahead, ask me about how much I have stressed about my son.
I really think mine is leaning the other way. I think she has pitching ability, but she loves catching and has watched the NECC DVD by herself multiple times. She was coaching up the catcher from the circle the other night at practice and wouldn't throw a pitch until they were in the right stance. At the time I thought it was funny, now I think it might have been a sign of a bigger issue.
Just in case nobody has figured it out yet, I am a serious over thinker.
