Pitch calling advice?

[MandM]

DD is 14U, guesting this weekend, checked with coach & he has girls call pitches. Up to now, TB coach has done that and DD has had bigger fish to fry with her pitching. I know there was an earlier post on this but I can't find it.

Can anyone provide some basic advice that I can pass on to her? (in terms of sequence of pitches that may be effective). I don't know the team she is guesting for or competition she will face as we have not played any of the teams in this tournamet. She is leftie, cruising midfifties, effective C/U, hits spots with 4-seam. Two-seam FB - rises up and in on RH batter. (yes, that's really all she has to choose from)

Thank you for your thoughts

 

[NVfishing]

DD is 14U, guesting this weekend, checked with coach & he has girls call pitches. Up to now, TB coach has done that and DD has had bigger fish to fry with her pitching. I know there was an earlier post on this but I can't find it.

Can anyone provide some basic advice that I can pass on to her? (in terms of sequence of pitches that may be effective). I don't know the team she is guesting for or competition she will face as we have not played any of the teams in this tournamet. She is leftie, cruising midfifties, effective C/U, hits spots with 4-seam. Two-seam FB - rises up and in on RH batter. (yes, that's really all she has to choose from)

Thank you for your thoughts

I would have her throw FB and her inside high fast ball. If a batter is quick and has her timed well then throw in the change. I always prefer high and tight and then down and away.

 

[2bucketdad]

"When in doubt go down and out, if you want to win go down and in."
"Never throw more than 1 pitch in a row to the same location at the same speed."

 

[2bucketdad]

Throw the change early and often on any count.

 

[smallball]

Will she be signaling to the catcher, or vice versa? I'd just have her trust the catcher. And hit her spots.

 

[JAD]

If the coach is not calling the pitches I would assume the catcher is doing it. Very rarely does a pitcher just throw 'whatever' and the catcher just sets up and catches. The best thing I can tell you is to vary the location and speed - high, low, inside, outside to keep the hitters off balance. Just try to keep the ball off of the middle of the plate if the other team has good hitters.

 

[MandM]

Thank you for the help everyone. I appreciate the advice. I would certainly love it if my DD could learn a peel drop in week- but it has been a tough haul to get to where she is now (3 years)- so I am happy to for her to work step-wise on acquiring new pitches as her relatively "new" (read- corrected) mechanics become engrained. I still find when practicing a new pitch (she is learning the curve now); she can - for lack of a better word - lose the feel of her corrected mechanics. This seems to me to be a normal progression for someone who had bad habits to undo, and as the period of her corrected mechanics has become longer- this has become less of an issue.

With regard to the two-seam- I am sure you are correct SB- as the coach said try this grip and see what the ball will do- in the sense that for her students, the balls seem to move more, but not necessarily in the same direction for each student. So whether its a consequence of finger-length, spin or whatever- she was correct in that the ball is not a flat pitch. Catching for my DD- I can only tell you what it "appears" to do, which is appear to travel straight, then curve in (towards a right-handed batter- DD is LH), and jump up. While I guess from all the physics talk on this site, this is an optical illusion, it is certainly an effective one- which in another couple of mph- will have her mom (me) hiring a catcher for her.

 

[JAD]

Thank you for the help everyone. I appreciate the advice. I would certainly love it if my DD could learn a peel drop in week- but it has been a tough haul to get to where she is now (3 years)- so I am happy to for her to work step-wise on acquiring new pitches as her relatively "new" (read- corrected) mechanics become consistent.

With regard to the two-seam- I am sure you are correct SB- as the coach said try this grip and see what the ball will do- in the sense that for her students, the balls seem to move more, but not necessarily in the same direction for each student. So whether its a consequence of finger-length, spin or whatever- she was correct in that the ball is not a flat pitch. Catching for my DD- I can only tell you what it "appears" to do, which is appear to travel straight, then curve in (towards a right-handed batter- DD is LH), and jump up. While I guess from all the physics talk on this site, this is an optical illusion, it is certainly an effective one- which in another couple of mph- will have her mom (me) hiring a catcher for her.

Set up a camera on a tripod behind the catcher and film your DD pitching. It is tough to pick up on what she is doing in her delivery while you are trying to keep from getting hit in the face by the pitch, but if you will video it you can watch it later and try to determine what she is changing in her delivery (wrist snap, grip, step, shoulder, ect) to create the different movements on a pitch.

 

[MandM]

Thanks for the great idea! I have a tripod that I have not used and will try this.

 

[MandM]

Oh- I have been promoted to "I can talk softball all day"- (or is that a demotion) what does this mean?

It means time to get an avatar!