Pitch count for a day?

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Oct 26, 2019
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This is the first time I've seen softball pitch counts that actually recommend fewer pitches than for baseball pitchers at the same age. It's always been my understanding that pitching in softball is less taxing on the arm, so while overuse is possible (especially pitching multiple times in a day, etc.), it's not as prevalent.

I think the big distinction between the plan that I shared and baseball plans is that you would be hard pressed to find anyone recommending baseball players throw consecutive days. The guidelines that I shared take into account consecutive days of throwing and allow for more pitches on the second day than the first day. If it is a one day tournament or one day I think you could probably go with the higher of the two numbers and feel pretty good.

I am also a big believer in on ramping or slowly adding more intensity and volume as the season progresses. Coming out of the gate and throwing 100 pitches the first weekend of March is a lot different than throwing 100 pitches in July in my opinion.

I can name three girls in my locality under the age of 12 who have missed an entire season recently to growth plate stress fractures. I would recommend anyone to err on the side of caution when it comes to young arms.

Apologize for the length of the post, but yesterday we were down a pitcher and while most coaches would have thrown their other two pitchers extra, I chose to take a butt whipping in the third game instead of risk the health of the girls. I slept pretty good last night knowing I did the right thing.
 
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Feb 20, 2020
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Her hand was hurting this morning, but she threw a pretty good game. We lost but I was proud of her for getting through it.

Both the coach and I are going to be watching more carefully from now on, just to keep her from getting hurt.

Thanks for the advice and input, everyone. i appreciate it!
 
Mar 10, 2020
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By 14u dd started throwing 125 pitches every workout.
Attended 1 lesson weekly.
Threw 3 to 4 workouts on her own depending on games schedule.
She pitched max 3 games per weekend. H.S. Could throw 2 games during the week.
Starting and finishing a full game never an issue. Her last travel team Coaches promoted pitchers do their job with the defense. Which helped her focus on not over throwing to do all the work herself. She started throwing less pitches in games. She found similar mindset in her college choice. Her college coaches remind her to throw her best dont over throw. Now that she's grown she says mental fatigue was worse than physical. Relying on defense took pressure off.
 
Feb 10, 2018
496
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NoVA
178 in-game pitches in the heat in one day, sounds a bit much to me. When you add in a few pitches to warm up for each inning and whatever other warm ups she did with the team, you are easily 220+ full pitches in a single day. That sounds like too much at any age and particularly if you are going to be asked to do something like that on a regular basis.

I think the more concerning thing is that it sounds like you don't have any additional arms on the team. The team should have 3 or 3.25 viable arms to get through tournament weekends. The lack of pitching, it seems to me, is going to constantly put your daughter in the position of carrying the whole load all the time. Getting ample work in the circle is essential for her development, but I would be careful about her getting overworked and potentially injured or burnt-out. There can also be a great deal of mental stress that goes along with pitching, which is also a factor in fatigue and wear-and-tear.

The coach sounds like a decent person, but only you are going to be able to fully protect your daughter. If she is really competitive, she might not even be willing to protect herself.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Great point Traps71.
How is the pitching roster built to support the schedule!

Run into this same overplay issue when teams rely on one catcher.

Heavy work load may be ok for one weekend...but repetitive overuse injury takes time to evolve into an issue.

Need to pay attention ahead of time!
 
Feb 20, 2020
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We had 2.5 pitchers and a bunch of potential guest ones when we were planning out the season, but the other main pitcher decided COVID was too big a risk and the guest pitchers have been busy trying to cram tourneys into what's turned into a five-week season here. The one for this weekend cancelled the day before pool play. We've supposedly got backups for the last three, but you never know. But I'll be tracking her a lot more closely than i have in the past, and if we've got to take some on the chin, then we do.

To her credit (at least to me), the coach has made an effort to tell the defense we can't afford to give away a single out, because we can't ask our pitcher to throw one more pitch than she has to. I thought that was nice -- at least nice for the parent of the pitcher to hear :)
 
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Jun 8, 2016
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To her credit (at least to me), the coach has made an effort to tell the defense we can't afford to give away a single out, because we can't ask our pitcher to throw one more pitch than she has to. I thought that was nice 00 at least nice for the parent of the pitcher to hear :)
Did it work? ;)
 
Apr 8, 2019
214
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How do these pitch count suggestions relate to practice? 100 pitches a day gets mentioned often. How many days a week? Does the count include drills, or is it strictly full pitches?
 

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