Reality Check and Maturity

[SoCalDad]

Yesterday my DD received a reality check on her pitching skills. Back about a year and a half ago she joined a 14U A Level travel team. The team was competitive and she worked her way up from the #3 pitcher to #1 in about 6 months. Over the next year with her as the starter the team did very well and was very competitive against other A level travel teams. About a month ago a highly regarded SoCal club recruited her to their Gold 2011 16U team. Yesterday the club played a friendly in the LA area and she was asked to join the 2010 16U team as a guest player.

This was her first time pitching at 43' in a game. While she has maintained speed and accuracy she did not immediately appreciate that the extra distance gave the batters a slight advantage. In the first inning of the first game she came out throwing heat. First three batters would have cleared the fence if there was one. Fortunately we were playing on adult sized fields so the ball had to go 300'+ (one did land about 275' and hit the fence on 2 bounces). Her coach paid a visit to the mound, calmed her down and she managed to get out of that first inning with only 1 more run crossing the plate. The next 2 innings went better but she did not manage a single K in her 3 innings. This was a blow to her ego as she was averaging 2+ K's per inning on her previous team.

The last game of the day went much better. She went to her change up, drop and rise and kept the batters off balance for most of the game. She went 4 innings and managed to strike out 2. She was more excited about those 2 K's than any I have ever seen. On the car ride home she mentioned to me that she now believes her pitching coach that the fastball sets up her other pitches. I appreciated that the reality check of the day resulted in her learning a lesson and that she matured as a player.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

What a GREAT experience for your DD! Now she knows what it takes to be a PITCHER and not just a thrower.

Congratulations on a successful outing

 

[lawdawg]

SCD-
Thanks for your honesty and for sharing this with us. I'm printing it and taking it to one of our pitchers. She's a flamethrower cruises at about 63+ and got knocked off of the mound this year at 43' in TB. She is finally learning the value of location, movement and changing speeds - I think. Our other 60+ pitcher got the message much sooner and has adapted. The 50+ girls with the drop, drop/curve and change have fared much better over our first few months at 43'. They were used to having to hit spots.

 

[3'sDad]

Reality check

DD id 1st year 14U. Last year she was co #1 on her travel team and from 40' cruised at 52 mph and could muscle an occasional pitch up higher than that. Multiple K's/inning were not unusual and the coach used a drop/screwball in addition to the FB to vary the look of the pitch.

Last weekend was DD's 1st event at 14U....she was roughed up pretty well by a 2nd year 14 team, as were her team's other 2 pitchers.

Fast forward to this weekend. DD gets the ball in game 2 on pool play Saturday v a well known good hitting 14U team. DD threw about 85 pitches in the 5 inning game. Pich sequence was: hard (fb/drop/screw), CU, hard, CU. She had to throw 35-40 CU and hit her spot on 65% of them. The CU for a strike set up the hard next pitch and kept the hitters timing completely off.

At least for that game DD pitched a good game versus throwing a good game. Lets hope the lesson about mixing speeds sinks in.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

Sometimes it isn't the pitcher that needs the reality check.

DD is 14 (15 next week) and plays on an ASA 16U A team that is playing up to 18U for the fall. Coach doesn't get it and is calling lots of fastballs and screwballs. At one point there were 7 outside fastballs called, in a row. All 3 of our pitchers get rocked and the team goes 0-4 for the weekend.

Last weekend DD was asked to guest play for the 18Gold team from our organization and ended up pitching 7 1/2 innings in 4 games. No hits against DD in the first 3 games and 3 singles in the last game. On the way home I asked DD what the difference was; Coach was calling variety of inside/outside/off speed pitches and DD was hitting her spots/speeds.

 

[sluggers]

No hits against DD in the first 3 games and 3 singles in the last game.

Might a factor possibly be that the 18U Gold team had better fielding than the 16U A team?

 

[mudbug]

Speed is nothing without control and poise. You need movement and placement. Against a good team, walking a lead-off batter will result in a run much of the time. That is how the best pitchers often end up losing games...an untimely walk.

 

[Coachmom]

Socaldad
A 16U team cannot be a gold team.
It's only 18 Gold and in So Cal you must qualify to be 18 Gold.

Amateur Softball Association: Gold National Championship

Mudbug...so true about the lead off walk especially at the Gold level. DD was pitching a shut out game in Hemet last weekend and in the 6th inning she hit the lead-off batter. That run ended up scoring. We still won the game but the shut out would have been nice.

 

[sru]

Sometimes it isn't the pitcher that needs the reality check.

DD is 14 (15 next week) and plays on an ASA 16U A team that is playing up to 18U for the fall. Coach doesn't get it and is calling lots of fastballs and screwballs. At one point there were 7 outside fastballs called, in a row. All 3 of our pitchers get rocked and the team goes 0-4 for the weekend.

Last weekend DD was asked to guest play for the 18Gold team from our organization and ended up pitching 7 1/2 innings in 4 games. No hits against DD in the first 3 games and 3 singles in the last game. On the way home I asked DD what the difference was; Coach was calling variety of inside/outside/off speed pitches and DD was hitting her spots/speeds.

The coaches are calling the pitches at that age???

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

The coaches are calling the pitches at that age???

Yes they are. And if you watch DI College softball there are many coaches at THAT AGE that call games as well.

Why do you ask?