- Mar 4, 2016
- 66
- 6
That is because a college coach has to see into the future. They have to see how good this girl CAN be, not how good she is now. Yes, the now factor is part of it. But, it's about potential. Is she going to throw even harder than she is now or is she peaked? My guess is, someone throwing mid 50's has some room to grow in the speed department and if she's already got the movement pitches down, then I'd say she's ahead in the game (pardon the pun). Yes, of course, maybe the girl in the mid 50's has peaked too. There's where a college pitching coach needs to be wise and see the difference. And if the girl is being recruited, said coach has to funnel instruction on what to work on and how to do it to get out of that 50's MPH.
One question I have is, if your daughter is really serious about pitching, then worrying about high school should be the least of her troubles. So what if she doesn't play high school, I know of no college coaches who care about HS stats. HS stats, in my area, are kept by a dad on the team who has NO CLUE what is a hit or an error, a pitcher can have 21 strike outs against a school that can barely field a team, and there can be a lot of daddy ball favoritism. So, please don't stress about high school ball. I understand it's a part of growing up and girls like to play for the school, play with their friends, etc. But don't believe it will help her with college recruitment, IF THAT is her main goal.
What everyone has said is true, it's ideal to have sound mechanics when trying to get maximum speed. Sure, there are some that can use brute strength but that doesn't mean they are using good mechanics, their balls probably don't spin correctly, and they are more susceptible to injury. Plus, they will only throw as hard as their muscles will take them, get sore more often, and run out of energy faster. At the end of the day, the Good Lord created everyone differently. Someone (male or female) can throw extremely fast with seemingly very little effort. While others struggle to get anything. Why is that? I don't know. Sometimes it comes down to someone having a gift from heaven. If you have sound mechanics, good body structure, healthy, and can only break 55, then that's what you got. Personally, I had the ability to throw it (almost) as hard as most, but not consistently. I used movement, change of speeds, location, smarts, and a very good catcher for much of my own success.
Like Tommy Lasorda said in Orel Hersheiser's book, "You can stand on pitchers mound and fire a gun into a target, eventually the hitters will time the bullet." His point was well taken by me personally!
Bill
My entire point was a lot of people tend to downplay speed. Yes, if everyone is throwing about the same speed you look at other areas to evaluate them. But if pitcher A is throwing 55 and pitcher B is throwing 65 and both have identical movement and accuracy there is not one person here that would take the pitcher throwing 55. Also, we all agree that mixing speeds is very effective so if pitcher B is throwing 65 she can effectively mix speeds from 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65mph as to where pitcher A can only mix from around 45-55. Another point stated often is a faster pitch just gets hit harder. I disagree with this also and believe it’s bad info to spread. The faster the pitch the less time a batter has to determine if it’s a strike or ball. If the pitch is thrown at 65mph you probably have to start deciding if that pitch is going to be a ball or strike 10 ft after it leaves the pitchers hand. The ball has a lot of distance still left to travel before it hits its intended spot (still plenty of time for that pitch that initially looked like a strike to veer off the plate and become a ball). To where a pitcher throwing 55 the batter can wait until the ball is damn near right in front of them before they have to decide if they need to swing. And yes comparing 55mph against a 65mph is a huge difference but for every mph gained by a pitcher it takes that much more time away from the batter to decide if they should swing or not. But I digress, i will keep my opinion to myself when this topic comes up. Best of luck to all!
Didn’t mean to hi-jack your thread OP. My apologies.
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