pitching limits

[Jojo]

At 12U my DD was pitching 5-6 days a week, for at least 30 minutes. Every other weekend she was pitching ALL her tournament games-6-7 in a weekend. Before summer, we were doing 2 a days to get ready for Nationals.

I was told back then, pitch pitch pitch pitch.

Now I think it was a little excessive, but I do not believe it didn't harm her in any way, she was a dominate pitcher, I do think a lot of pitching propelled her to be so dominate.

At 14u I made sure she was on a team with another pitcher to share the load. The older she got the more power she used out of her body and she did feel the effects of over pitching then.

 

[obbay]

Now that you mention it, 140 may have applied more to one kid who walked a lot of batters., but everyone was easily over 100. I think you want to strengthen your DDs arm now, rather than go easy on it.

Also, baseball pitching and softball pitching are completely different animals. Softball pitchers don't need the same kind of rest as baseball pitchers. Remember Taryne Mowatt in the 2007 WCWS?

"...For her 60 innings, 76 strikeouts, four shutouts performance at the 2007 Women's College World Series, she was named to the WCWS All-Tournament Team and earned the Most Outstanding Player Award in her victorious bid for the national title. She also set new WCWS records for wins (6) and strikeouts, that one was previously held by former teammate and then assistant coach Alicia Hollowell."

I see your more recent post and I understand the 1-pitcher situation. They should develop a 2nd pitcher anyway.

Count how many pitches she throws in a game now. average it out over a few games and maybe use that as a guide to a typical performance. Based on the info posted here, it sounds like she should be fine pitching 100+ per outing/300+/week

Maybe they can start working in a #2 to close for her, or give her an inning off?

 

[SoftSocDad]

Protecting your daughter is YOUR responsibility. I generally use the eyeball test during games, and I think you should use it to determine what you feel is the number for your daughter. She could be built to handle the repetitive stress for 500 innings a year, but I applaud you for looking beyond the win now mentality expressed by a previous poster. Your daughter will thank you later when HER kids begin to play sports.

 

[sluggers]

IMHO, I would go with one game per day, and pitching a total of 3 games per week. Allowing a pitcher to throw two games on Sunday would probably be OK, as long as the pitcher took Monday and Tuesday off.

Some coaches pitch the kids 5 to 7 games over a weekend, and then having the same kid pitch 2 or 3 more games during the week. That is, IMHO, insanity.

There is no question that softball pitchers can damages their shoulder by over-pitching. There is also no question that it takes a lot more pitching to harm a softball pitcher than a baseball pitcher. The stress in softball pitching is directed at the bicep and the bicep tendons. As I'm sure you know, the bicep is a pretty good size muscles, so it isn't going to be easily damaged. That doesn't mean that the bicep can't be damaged, but that it is going to take much more pitching to do some harm to the bicep.

People are confusing "fatigue" with "repetitive motion injury". They aren't the same thing. In repetitive motion injury, there are micro tears in the muscle during an activity. You have to rest the arm/shoulder in order to allow the muscle to repair. "Fatigue" is caused by a change in the chemical balance within the body caused by the activity.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I would explore the allowable number, a little. I would count until she appears to tire, a little. The number might change from day-to-day. 75 - 100 pitches, I guess, in a time limit 5 inning game. But you need to work with her catcher, so she is helping all that she can (limiting passed balls, good throws back to the pitcher, working the glove inside and outside and using the change up.) Pitch smart, not "all out."

Also, remember to exercise the glove arm, so a muscle imbalance does not occur.

 

[Mike]

The sport of youth softball is getting worse. For every good coach there are 10 bad coaches each surrounded by 20 to 30 clueless parents who think windmill pitching is a safer and more natural motion than a baseball pitcher. There is nothing natural about violently spinning your arm in a reverse motion in a whip like manner 400+ times a week. Pitching any amout of times per week will ultimaltely have negative effects on our daughters, I and my daugher understand this. She could also fall out of a boat and drown when we go fishing so we take some precautions. I am bucking the system and common belief and taking a strong position against overpitching. I realize its a sore subject and people get defensive because there daughters are currently pitching 400 pitches per tournament plus whatever they are throwing per week and they are trying to justify it. I am willing to take some flak so keep it coming. Thanks for the replies.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

Mike - also keep in mind that any pitch count should include pregame warm-ups; between inning pitches, and the actual game pitches. You include overhand toss warm-ups, pregame batting practice, and in-game plate appearances and these young girls are taxing their bodies during any given tournament. I think over time it takes it's toll on growing bodies. Let's all be a little careful, they need these bodies for the rest of their lives after fastpitch.

 

[Mike]

True, but I think the point is the warm up routine is not as aggressive as live game pitches. We warm up slowly and only throw hard at the very end of warm ups. I am only going to count the game pitches, I'm not completely crazy. My main point in all of this is preperation. 100 pitches in 6 innings is about 17 pitches per inning, if they can't get it done in that amount then something is missing. They are throwing alot of bad pitches or there defense needs work. Right now every pitch doesnt count because they know they have an unlimited number as long as they can strike out a few here and there the coach probably wont pull them. Give them a certain amount and over time I believe they will focus more on the pitches they have, thus creating better practice habits. I was originally going to go with 75 pitches but after reading these posts I might bump it up a bit.

 

[obbay]

Mike- I don't know what your league is like so I'm only answering based on my experience. I would encourage you to have DD be her best but have reasonable goals. Have a good work ethic and good warm up/cool down. develop good habits she can take with her thru life. I don't want either DD to play college ball, but i would like for them both to keep playing softball thru college.

It is a game and as such should enhance one's life.

have fun!

 

[alabama_lowlife]

This year was my DD's first year on jv and she was called up for varsity as well but has only pitched one inning on varsity. I scored all of the jv and varsity games on my iPhone with the digital scout app. All pitchers combined on both jv and varsity teams as well as our opponents averaged 14-15 pitches per inning over the course of about 40 games so far this year. individually, most were averaging within a couple pitches of that number. So 6 innings would be around 90 pitches or so.