Should I buy her new balls?

[Bob516]

Yeah, It's kind of convoluted

Makes a lot more sense now.

Back to what [MENTION=15677]Dandan111[/MENTION] was asking, and I am interested as well. How important is it for a pitcher to be practicing with new balls, or are mildly used balls good enough for practice, if she is comfortable with used balls?

 

[YOCOACH]

Makes a lot more sense now.

Back to what [MENTION=15677]Dandan111[/MENTION] was asking, and I am interested as well. How important is it for a pitcher to be practicing with new balls, or are mildly used balls good enough for practice, if she is comfortable with used balls?

Mildly used ones are fine. New ones (if slightly roughed up a bit with dirt, sand or very fine sandpaper) and gently used ones with good seams will give the best grip and feedback (spin, movement, etc.).

 

[quincy]

Sorry for the hijack, [MENTION=15677]Dandan111[/MENTION], I was curious about this idea.
[MENTION=15496]Tango[/MENTION]-is hitting 11" balls a common practice, that I never heard of? How did you come to use 11" for hitting? Do you use it for live pitching and/or tee work?

Be careful using the 11" ball or baseball, they will absolutely fly off their bats.

OP

We have some game used balls that DD uses for pitching practice. If you do buy new balls whack them around at least a little bit in batting practice.

 

[Tango]

Sorry for the hijack, [MENTION=15677]Dandan111[/MENTION], I was curious about this idea.
[MENTION=15496]Tango[/MENTION]-is hitting 11" balls a common practice, that I never heard of? How did you come to use 11" for hitting? Do you use it for live pitching and/or tee work?

DD moved from 10U to 12U, we had a bucket of 11 inch balls and use them for tee work and front toss in the cage. As a former baseball coach we used really small baseballs 20 years ago.

Bought a couple of 12 inch balls to pitch.

 

[Dandan111]

I bought her the champro softballs today. The dura hide cover and seams feel good. She likes
the feel and pitched with them. We ended up with the rfp vs. the gfp. Not sure of the differences.
Maybe a different core is all?
Anybody looking for a good feeling cheaper practice ball take a look at these.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Rocketech1]

It’s pretty simple, if softball is her primary sport you buy her the best equipment you can afford. The tournnaments my DD mostly played in used the Dreamseam balls so that is the one i wanted her to practice with. Once they got fairly worn i put them in the hitting bucket and/or donated them to the local rec league.

 

[Tatonka]

Hopefully the team goes deep on Sunday and you can find the Tourney director sitting at the scoring tables. He doesn't want to haul and load all those balls back to his car....make a deal with him. Win/win.

 

[Ken B]

Practice with a mixture of new and used balls of various brands. Try to replicate various weather conditions. We watched a team the other day where the HC was somehow able to switch out balls as his pitcher desired throughout the game.

Every pitcher should be able to do her job with any ball, in any weather condition, at any time, in whatever count... I get that pitchers can be a little different, but so is each game.

 

[STRIKE3]

Once they get Schweddy, we opt for new ones


Sorry, I know, totally inappropriate but couldn't resist. Probably inhaled too much chalk at the fields this weekend

 

[JAD]

Avoid the temptation to use only new balls during bucket time. Occasionally throw crappy looking balls, dipped in water before the pitch, because game situations do not always dictate new balls with good leather and you do not want your DD freaking out because the ball she has in the circle is not perfect.