PITCHERS who look like they dont care in the circle

[GunnerShotgun]

If the other team sees and senses weakness, they get stronger. It can motivate them, drive them, make them play better. You want to avoid that.

You've watched sports, we all have. When a team leader/player is rattled, it's not good for that team. This phenomenon has been around a long time.

Nonsense. While that may sound good on the back of a team high school t-shirt it has no merit. The players are already giving 100% effort, there is nothing else to give.

Pitchers don't suddenly pitch 5mph faster when motivated. Batters don't hit the ball further. Runners don't steal bases faster. If you have research that cites otherwise please post it.

Softball is not a team sport and the pitchers facial expressions have no impact on what the other individuals are doing or not doing other than perhaps annoying the umpire.

 

[radness]

Emotion can stimulate things like endorphins and adrenaline.

 

[radness]

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[EDen]

Writing This as a National level 18u Pitcher

From the time you first start learning how to pitch, to when you are trying to get recruited by colleges. Everyone always says to never show any negative emotion while in the circle. But for good Emotions, I know some coaches who love when their pitches get fired up because a team mate just made a great catch, or when they slap their thigh with their mit, after just striking out the fourth batter, almost as a job well done to themselves. But when you are showing no emotion that's where the debate come in. As a pitcher i pride myself on my presence and composure in the circle. I am very serious and one of my favorite things to do is to look the batter in the eye when their stepping into the box, and almost tilt my chin up at them. Almost saying that I'm confident your not going to be able to hit off me. I have been told multiple times, by teammates who have live BP against me, or even other teams where i know the girls. They say i'm very intimidating, and that they feel almost scared when they have to go up against me in the box. And that is what you want from a pitcher. To be able to get into someones head and have them double guess themselves. If you almost look like you don't care. The batter is going to take that and run with it. They are going to be more likely to think your not confident in your pitching, and swing for the fences, instead if they were scared and just thinking about trying to make contact with the ball.

That's what I think my problem is with pitchers acting like they don't care. Because even small things like that can mean the difference between a win and a loss for you and your team.

 

[Vertigo]

In the circle, I prefer pitchers to be stoic. Don’t want to be able to tell who is winning or losing by the pitcher’s expression. However, after 3 outs, I love the pitchers who go to meet their outie who just made a great catch or give a high five to their catcher for the nice frame on their last K, or the 1B who made a phenomenal stretch to get the double-play. How they look in the circle means nothing to me - I’ve seen the high action, verbal, mean-looking pitchers throw a terrible game while the sweet, quiet pitcher takes down future D1 commits.

I can honestly say when I played, I’ve never faced a pitcher who intimidated me by their mound presence. If a pitcher stared me down while I was in the box I would start cracking up.

ETA: I’m just stating my preference. If pitchers want to show a lot of emotion or try to look mean, etc it doesn’t really matter that much to me - unless it’s affecting their teammates.

 

[PapaBear]

I can speak for my own. Her demeanor comes from two places, confidence or refocus. She is very stoic in the circle and has always had the look of up 100 or down 100 is the same. If she's dealing the look is next batter, next out. If she's walked a batter or gave up a hit, next batter, refocus, next out. She's the last one off the field to greet all of her defense every inning and the last out for a big game she will let the relief of the win show with a fist pump or a loud let's go.

 

[Palmer Square]

I’ve shown the example of Dylan Cease on the mound to my girl. Calm even expression throughout.


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[Bullseye]

Stoic is an unbreakable appearance. Once that cracks and inferiority starts to show the advantage goes to the other team. Any person who does not recognize what a disaster weakness is in a sporting competition is not paying attention.

 

[jsoftballcoach]

'It looks like she is coming to whoop some Azz'
would not consider that robot like.
imo that is showing heart.

My interpretation of robot like is
even-keeled.
Possibly stoic is a good word.
View attachment 25262

My DD is considered stoic in the circle. If you watched her you would never know if her team was up 10 or down 10. She is a P5 committed pitcher. I once wondered if she loved the game enough, turns out she really does, a lot.

Does she look like she doesn’t care? I would say no, to me she’s just all business. Robotic and stoic does not equate to not caring. It’s just part of her personality.


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[S Spiff]

It's easy to make way too much of the effect "appearance" and "attitude" have on performance. People look at it like "once the stoic pitcher cracks, the advantage goes to the other team," but the stoic pitcher only broke because the other team was already getting to her. When we were younger, so many parents deemed it almost essential that the girls be up so that they could perform. The truth is, when they are performing, the girls are up. Performance and attitude presented may not be completely separate, but post 41 is true. Appearance or perceived attitude is much more an effect of performance than a cause.

Forgive me for mixing sports here, but one of my least favorite coaches that my daughter had was a volleyball coach who did not seem to be able to understand the impact the skill of the other team had on his own team. He's asking them about why they are down and playing so poorly, when the answer (to me at least) appeared to be that the speed of the game was way beyond our kids' ability. They were overmatched and they hated it and it showed. But their attitude had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

I can count on zero fingers the times that I have seen a pitcher just dealing, racking up k's, mowing them down, then she slipped and made a bad facial expression and lost the game. On the other hand, no one ever does better than their best, no matter how great of an attitude they display.