Pitching Lessons - At what point do hang it up?

[starsnuffer]

To answer your question, the kid who has practiced everyday and worked hard is the one who "gives a flying leap" that she throws strikes in a rec game. I guess because my 9 year old isn't on a world renowned travel team she shouldn't worry about whether she pitches well or not.

She should be playing rec ball to have fun, and given the opportunity to fall in love with the sport. If you tell a kid, "go throw strikes honey, play catch with the catcher", you're trying to get her to "be good at rec ball", which is missing the point of rec ball, isn't it?

If you want her to be happy pitching, then let her learn how to pitch. Part of learning how to pitch is allowing the pitcher to have the mindset that no one, not you, not her coach, and especially not her, should care where the ball is going to go. Now, why is this important? Because a young pitcher is going to have to make adjustments. Every time an adjustment is made, the ball is going to fly off somewhere it wasn't intended to. The goal is for the young pitcher to adjust whatever is being worked on, the goal isn't to put the ball in a particular spot. Maybe she's leaning forward, so you get her to stay back with her nose behind her belly button. Should you then be upset that everything is going over the catcher head because she hasn't changed her release point yet, or should you be happy that she learned what she was being taught and made the adjustment to her posture? If it's the latter, then you, the dad, or the coach, need to understand that this is ALWAYS the case, even in a game.

Focus on the mechanics. Focus on the mechanics while ALWAYS THROWING HARD. IF you focus on mechanics without throwing hard, then you will have to simply re-learn everything when you do decide to throw hard.

-W

 

[southpaw coach]

Wow. I haven't checked in on this thread that I started in a while and had no idea it was still going on. My two cents on the discussion is that we tell our pitchers to "hit their spots". I do purposely call pitches outside the strike zone at times to get hitters to chase a bad pitch or exploit a hitters' weakness. From that perspective I disagree that a pitchers job is to always throw strikes but accuracy is definitely key. Cracks me up when my catcher is set up six inches outside the strike zone and the pitcher hits the spot but the batter doesn't bite - the parents all spring a leak when the ump doesn't ring her up. I just holler out "way to hit your spot!"

Most pitchers I know who have been successful were taught to throw as hard as they could and with repetition developed the mechanics and accuracy. Our #2 pitcher just started in lessons last March and she's pretty effective.

 

[Wookie]

All I know is what my DD did, and that was to throw hard. She was trying so hard to please me or the PC to throw strikes that not one motion was the same, and her mechanics were horrible - bending at the waist, short arming the follow through, etc. As part of our regular practice, I'd have her throw 5 or 10 pitches in a row, as fast as she could. What happened was the pitches were strikes! And she learned that by always throwing hard, her body naturally adjusted to make the pitch. Now when she throws a bad pitch, or not accurate, she knows exactly what she did, and it's usually related to arm speed and her arm circle. And when she's struggling to "throw strikes" (which I NEVER tell her to do) or her accuracy is not very good, she slows down her arm speed, bends at the waist, short arms it, etc (in other words, her mechanics go out the window) so she can get the ball over the plate. And then she gets rocked.

Again, this may not be for every kid but for mine, that's what worked.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

She should be playing rec ball to have fun, and given the opportunity to fall in love with the sport. If you tell a kid, "go throw strikes honey, play catch with the catcher", you're trying to get her to "be good at rec ball", which is missing the point of rec ball, isn't it?

If you want her to be happy pitching, then let her learn how to pitch. Part of learning how to pitch is allowing the pitcher to have the mindset that no one, not you, not her coach, and especially not her, should care where the ball is going to go. Now, why is this important? Because a young pitcher is going to have to make adjustments. Every time an adjustment is made, the ball is going to fly off somewhere it wasn't intended to. The goal is for the young pitcher to adjust whatever is being worked on, the goal isn't to put the ball in a particular spot. Maybe she's leaning forward, so you get her to stay back with her nose behind her belly button. Should you then be upset that everything is going over the catcher head because she hasn't changed her release point yet, or should you be happy that she learned what she was being taught and made the adjustment to her posture? If it's the latter, then you, the dad, or the coach, need to understand that this is ALWAYS the case, even in a game.

Focus on the mechanics. Focus on the mechanics while ALWAYS THROWING HARD. IF you focus on mechanics without throwing hard, then you will have to simply re-learn everything when you do decide to throw hard.

-W

So what you are saying is that there is no point in trying to play well if you are playing rec? I guess I just don't get that mindset. I have one daughter who is very competitive and is extreamly dedicated and plays travel ball and another daughter who is probably as good of a player but just isn't as dedicated to the sport and we don't see the point in spending tons of money on a travel team when she may or may not put in the effort. However that doesn't mean that she just should play ball with the attitude that "oh well it's rec so who cares if I catch/throw,hit the ball." The whole attitude that rec shouldn't be competitive because you're supposed to be having fun is a load of crap. What team would tell you that they have fun getting beat week after week? I will never agree with you that because they aren't on an elite travel team that they shouldn't go into every game and give it their all. My husband coaches my daughters rec team and he absolutely loves teaching these girls the basics of the game and watching them improve week after week. IMHO alot of you have lost sight of the "love" of the sport and what it means to girls just starting out. It just really insults me for people to say that if you don't care about the game go play rec because rec players care as much about the game as anyone else.

As far as pitching just to get it over the plate and to "give them something to hit"....I have heard other coaches tell girls to do that. I do not want to see that in rec anymore than you do in travel. My daughter does go to a pitching coach and we want her to learn the right form and mechanics just like anyone else. But she may only be a good "rec pitcher" and if so...that's fine by me.

 

[SoftSocDad]

For whatever reason, you seem married to the idea that there's essentially some class warfare motive behind the comments being made about rec ball. That's easy to do on softball forums, true, but that's not what's happening here.

I've re-read the entire thread, and no one is insulting rec ball or rec ball pitchers, but what people are saying is that instructing the kids to achieve a specific result is actually limiting their development as a pitcher. This is not the same as saying that every girl needs to have the goal of being a travel ball superstar, instead, it is saying that we should be helping each girl to reach greater heights, even if she does not have lofty, long-term softball goals.

Don't we generally tell kids to always do their best, no matter what it is they're doing? If so, then why would we give them instruction that could hinder that?

Without knowing anyone here, it's clear that a majority of posters who know anything about pitching enjoy watching the girls progress and that's why they're sharing their experience with you. It doesn't make you a bad softball mom, but I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding about the intent behind the posts you've perceived to be insulting, because that's not what's happening here.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

Well SoftSocDad we will just have to agree to disagree on this point. I don't think anyone posting on this site intentionally does it but it seems to be the undertone of any comment about rec ball. And maybe I'm hyper-sensitive to it because I hear it all the time from the softball world. When I have two daughters that are equal in ability and hear not so positive comments about rec then of course it will hurt my feelings. But I just don't agree that saying "who gives a flying leap if a kid can pitch strikes in a rec league" is not insulting. I see the point that is trying to be made but I don't think the delivery of it was the most constructive way to do it.

I love coming to this website, almost daily, to get information about softball. And the reason I like coming on here is to get different opinions. We are not all going to agree on every subject but that doesn't make either one of us right or wrong, just means we differ in opinions.

 

[SoCalASABlue]

For whatever reason, you seem married to the idea that there's essentially some class warfare motive behind the comments being made about rec ball. That's easy to do on softball forums, true, but that's not what's happening here.

I've re-read the entire thread, and no one is insulting rec ball or rec ball pitchers, but what people are saying is that instructing the kids to achieve a specific result is actually limiting their development as a pitcher. This is not the same as saying that every girl needs to have the goal of being a travel ball superstar, instead, it is saying that we should be helping each girl to reach greater heights, even if she does not have lofty, long-term softball goals.

Don't we generally tell kids to always do their best, no matter what it is they're doing? If so, then why would we give them instruction that could hinder that?

Without knowing anyone here, it's clear that a majority of posters who know anything about pitching enjoy watching the girls progress and that's why they're sharing their experience with you. It doesn't make you a bad softball mom, but I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding about the intent behind the posts you've perceived to be insulting, because that's not what's happening here.

Are you serious? Do a search of this and other similar boards/websites for comments about rec ball pitchers. I think it would be a conservative estimate to say that 90% of the comments are derogatory and insulting. I have been told on this site and others that since my DD doesn't throw 60 MPH yet (she's 13) that she should probably give up pitching and find another position.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

Finally I have someone else who sees what I see. I was beginning to seriously believe that I was taking things out of context.

 

[starsnuffer]

I'm going to bow out of this thread because it seems someone would rather pick an argument then read and learn. Before I do, I just want to qualify the fact that I do coach travel ball, and I always coach a rec team in the spring/summer as well. In coaching those two types of teams, I can say with great certainty that while the emphasis is different, the role of the coach to teach softball skills to the best of his/her ability remains the same. I always have, and always will encourage my pitchers, travel and rec, to pitch hard using correct mechanics, and never will I ever encourage them to back off and get the ball over the plate.

As for the competitiveness of rec ball, clearly it does become competitive at later ages. We call this High School Softball. Generally HS ball is played against the same players from the local rec ball leagues, and clearly the girls care about winning and loosing. I don't know why that even came up in this thread. Enjoy.

-W

 

[Tspoon]

I have a quick question.. My daughter is 9yrs old and started taking pitching lessons once a week when we can get in.. The problem is she loves to go to practice with her coach but during the week when she is supposed to be practicing her wrist snaps and throwing she doesn't have the drive to want to practice.. I have to tell her to practice, but she'll go days without practicing.. Should I be concerned or should I Not worry about it...