Pitching Controversy

[suncatcher]

My daughter is a Junior in High School this past year. She had a amazing
year in softball. She had 17 wins and 8 losses of the 17 wins 6 were shut out games. She had a total 92 strike outs.

She is a very good pitcher. She likes to throw alot of off speed balls
and change up alot on pitching.
She has several combinations that she uses:
Drop
Drop curve
Rise ball
screwball (inside or outside)
Drop curve change up
changeup
knuckle ball
curve ball
fast ball
fast ball inside or out

She made All District Pitcher, All Parish Pitcher( 2 years in a row)

Here's my question:

During school ball she throws all of her throws.

Now we are back during the summer and traveling with a team and the only a few throws are rise ball and drop ball and fast ball.
The majority of these throws are not working at the plate for strikes. The coach that is calling is not mixing up the throws and she is getting alot of hits made. The teams 18U we are playing against are seasoned batters. Those throws are very hittable.
It's frustrating to her why they won't let her use her best pitches. She
has tried to talk to her coach and he is very closed minded. He tells her forget about school ball and focus only on these three pitches.
He actually told her no matter if they hit off you throw what I tell you to
throw. She would never go against her coach and has been throwing what he wants. A few times it's cost him the game.
The real issue is that she is going to be a Senior and the college scouts
are out watching them play.
She play for 18 Under team. She has alot of exposure of college scouts. We are doing alot of showcases this summer and I feel she isn't able to show what she can really do. She is a very respectful kid when it comes to be loyal to her coaches and I really admire her for that.
Her pitching coach continues to work with her on all of her pitches. He maintains she needs all of her pitches to make it to college level.


What do you suggest?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Without seeing your DD pitch, I will make a guess.

During the summer the batters are going to be better hitters. I would have her pick 3-4 pitches (not FB) and work on them until they are perfect and unhittable.

Hopefully, her FB speed is over 55, consistently.

If you have any videos you could post, it would help.

She sounds like a great girl that any coach would be lucky to have.

 

[sb sunseeker]

Could it be that the coach is saving her other pitches for end of season?

It's not uncommon to save something for the endof the seasonw when it counts that other teams have yet to see.

 

[sluggers]

Amy is absolutely correct. But, first, how many fingers does her catcher need?

The college coaches are going to want to see your daughter throwing 60+ mph with tremendous control and have one really fantastic, jaw-dropping breaking pitch. They aren't going to sit around for an hour waiting for your daughter to throw a "knuckle screw drop over the inside corner".

More generally, pitches fall into two categories: "breaking pitches" and "pitches that move".

A breaking pitch is one where the ball moves 12 to 24 inches. Because there are only 40-43 feet from the pitchers mound to the batter, you can't make a ball move horizontally that much. So, there are only two true breaking pitches in softball: a rise and a drop.

You can have pitches that move from left to right or right to left, but they aren't going to move very much. They aren't going to move enough to consistently fool a batter.

What does your daughter need in college?

My daughter (an all-conference D1 pitcher) had one of the best drop balls in the country. She worked for about two years to get the speed up to 60+ mph and to have the ball drop like a rock about two feet before it got to the plate. (It was not a peel drop, by the way). That was her breaking pitch. She had great control with it, and could throw it for a strike.

She couldn't throw a riseball worth a ***t.

She could also throw a curve or a screwball, but basically these were simply fastballs that moved a few inches. In college, she rarely threw a straight fastball. She was always making the ball cut one way or the other.

She changed speeds with her fastball and drop ball, but she didn't have a great change-up.

Her control was exceptional. She once went 43 innings without walking anyone.

Her pitching speed was 62 mph, with occasional bursts up to 65. She hit 67 mph a few times. She could not pitch consistently above 65+ mph.

JRW

 

[suncatcher]

slugger

Thanks for your input.
That's the point I was trying to make. Her best pitches are screwball, curve ball and rise ball. She does very well on her drop balls.
The coach only wants fastball, rise and change up. She feels she can better work the plate with variety of pitches instead of just those select pitches.
He doesn't want to work around the plate.
But i will discuss your concept with her.

 

[ang4yanks]

My daughter is a Junior in High School this past year. She had a amazing
year in softball. She had 17 wins and 8 losses of the 17 wins 6 were shut out games. She had a total 92 strike outs.

She is a very good pitcher. She likes to throw alot of off speed balls
and change up alot on pitching.
She has several combinations that she uses:
Drop
Drop curve
Rise ball
screwball (inside or outside)
Drop curve change up
changeup
knuckle ball
curve ball
fast ball
fast ball inside or out

She made All District Pitcher, All Parish Pitcher( 2 years in a row)

Here's my question:

During school ball she throws all of her throws.

Now we are back during the summer and traveling with a team and the only a few throws are rise ball and drop ball and fast ball.
The majority of these throws are not working at the plate for strikes. The coach that is calling is not mixing up the throws and she is getting alot of hits made. The teams 18U we are playing against are seasoned batters. Those throws are very hittable.
It's frustrating to her why they won't let her use her best pitches. She
has tried to talk to her coach and he is very closed minded. He tells her forget about school ball and focus only on these three pitches.
He actually told her no matter if they hit off you throw what I tell you to
throw. She would never go against her coach and has been throwing what he wants. A few times it's cost him the game.
The real issue is that she is going to be a Senior and the college scouts
are out watching them play.
She play for 18 Under team. She has alot of exposure of college scouts. We are doing alot of showcases this summer and I feel she isn't able to show what she can really do. She is a very respectful kid when it comes to be loyal to her coaches and I really admire her for that.
Her pitching coach continues to work with her on all of her pitches. He maintains she needs all of her pitches to make it to college level.


What do you suggest?

There are good suggestions posted. We have faced this very problem this year. A couple of questions...are they practicing her other pitches during practice? Has she directly asked why they will not allow her to throw her other pitches? One very good point made above is that the catcher may not be able to manage all of her pitches, and they are concerned about passed balls. If this is the case...they need to be practicing her with the catcher every chance they get.

Now, after all of that said, I hate to ask, "Does the coaches dd also pitch?"


Ang

 

[suncatcher]

Called Pitches

The daughter doesn't pitch but the assistant coach who calls the pitches
his daughter pitches. They do not have the same style of pitches. His daughter has a back injury that's she recovering from and only pitches in Pool play right now. We have two catcher on the team and both very skilled on catching. It's very seldom a pass ball gets by especially if it's a drop ball or rise ball. These girls have been catching for a long time and both Juniors in high school but have played travel ball for 6 years.

 

[halskinner]

Start lookin for a new team

My daughter is a Junior in High School this past year. She had a amazing
year in softball. She had 17 wins and 8 losses of the 17 wins 6 were shut out games. She had a total 92 strike outs.

She is a very good pitcher. She likes to throw alot of off speed balls
and change up alot on pitching.
She has several combinations that she uses:
Drop
Drop curve
Rise ball
screwball (inside or outside)
Drop curve change up
changeup
knuckle ball
curve ball
fast ball
fast ball inside or out

She made All District Pitcher, All Parish Pitcher( 2 years in a row)

Here's my question:

During school ball she throws all of her throws.

Now we are back during the summer and traveling with a team and the only a few throws are rise ball and drop ball and fast ball.
The majority of these throws are not working at the plate for strikes. The coach that is calling is not mixing up the throws and she is getting alot of hits made. The teams 18U we are playing against are seasoned batters. Those throws are very hittable.
It's frustrating to her why they won't let her use her best pitches. She
has tried to talk to her coach and he is very closed minded. He tells her forget about school ball and focus only on these three pitches.
He actually told her no matter if they hit off you throw what I tell you to
throw. She would never go against her coach and has been throwing what he wants. A few times it's cost him the game.
The real issue is that she is going to be a Senior and the college scouts
are out watching them play.
She play for 18 Under team. She has alot of exposure of college scouts. We are doing alot of showcases this summer and I feel she isn't able to show what she can really do. She is a very respectful kid when it comes to be loyal to her coaches and I really admire her for that.
Her pitching coach continues to work with her on all of her pitches. He maintains she needs all of her pitches to make it to college level.


What do you suggest?

Unforunately, alot of coaches have that baseball mentallity; The only thing that really matters is speed, speed and more speed. The coach must be calling her pitches and not letting the pitcher and catcher call the game.

The coach is doing what is easiest for him/her. If all the coach has to deal with is up and down movement, the coach doesnt need to spend any focus on the batter's stance, position in the box, anything else like that that can be capitalized on. The coach is an idiot. Feel free to use my name and that statement if you want to.

You may have to take a stand and maybe find another team. If the coach does not let her call her own game and use her pitches and be as successful as she can be, you should find another team with a smarter coach.

That coach is holding back her success.


Just out of curiosity, does that coach have a daughter that is also a pitcher on that team?.

 

[suncatcher]

The head coach has a daughter who plays but is a short stop.
The assistant coach who just this year started calling pitches with our team had a daughter who pitches. I know where you are going with this and I really don't know if he is part of the problem. But the head coach is determined to only pitch the calls they make. I've talked to her pitching coach and he suggested next year find another team that will challenge all of her pitches and make her a stronger pitcher instead of holding her back.

I get alot of support from umpires who know my daughter and know her pitching skills and have asked me about her this summer.

:

 

[ang4yanks]

On my dd's former team, the assistant coach's dd was #1 pitcher. He would call the same pitch for my dd consistently. When my husband asked some questions, he was told that the low and inside pitch was the best pitch for his dd. Therefore, the numerous pitches my dd throws were not being utilized. Eventually we came to realize that he doesn't really understand the theory behind calling pitches. Teaching the pitcher to pitch, catcher to catch, improving communication between pitcher and catcher, reading the umps, remembering the batters and utilizing the scorebook are vital.

I am not suggesting this is the dynamic you are experiencing, but this is another area (learning to call pitches) that needs instruction and coaches who can teach it. My husband worked with my dd during the World Series to quiz her on what the next pitch should be. They were having fun playing a game within the game!

Ang