Switching to IR now or wait until after the season?

[Farmdad]

My 12u dd is one of 3 pitchers on her travel team going into this season. Let's just say we have recently seen the light on IR,BI,etc. My gut tells me to start ASAP on transitioning to IR, but I'd like to hear from those that have done it. I know each kid is different, but is there a chance we could make this work for this season? My big concern would be dd struggling and losing her confidence.

 

[cvsoftball]

I'm in the same place now. My thoughts were to start with the lower half first as all the girls had poor posture. It seems to be a smoother transition.

 

[Softball fan dad]

My DD was switched in the offseason last year by a coach who basically had her scrape everything and start over. I know of another kids dd who do it more gradually. Starting with the lower body and just telling them to not force the HE finish and be loose. Slowly through drills started to grasp the concept. The way my daughter did it was a little traumatic. She was terrible for bit, lost her confidence, and still has some HE habits come up. The other girl switched without really missing a beat and is still transitioning. I think she doesn't even know that she changed. Everyone is different, but if I had to do it again, I'd have done it different.

 

[Man10]

Most of what you work on will not stick enough to hurt her game performance imo. Sooner than later would be my suggestion, we started the transition a month before her HS sectional games when she was a freshman.


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[texasheat]

Start now. Confidence will suffer regardless because it is so foreign to them. Better to get it over now as opposed to her 2nd year in 14u because
it will take a good year to fully convert to the point that she does it in a game consistently without giving up on it and reverting. Sent my daughter a copy of the "Lock it in" drill video on 2/28/18. She fully embraced IR yesterday in a tournament and for the first time never once reverted.

 

[uncdrew]

Now.

We switched a month to 6 weeks before her first tournament and she was on fire come game 1. Might have even been ready sooner.

Off-season is a long, long, long way away. So you lose a few. No big whoop.

 

[Pitcher's DadCoach]

My 12u dd is one of 3 pitchers on her travel team going into this season. Let's just say we have recently seen the light on IR,BI,etc. My gut tells me to start ASAP on transitioning to IR, but I'd like to hear from those that have done it. I know each kid is different, but is there a chance we could make this work for this season? My big concern would be dd struggling and losing her confidence.

I didnt know what IR was until reading these posts recently.. My DD only started pitching this last spring of 2018 when she out of nowhere said "Dad I want to try pitching". So I took her to a local pitching coach for the first 3 months and she sort of hit a wall in terms of speed and accuracy. I can tell you from experience that I started teaching my DD IR about half way through the season from watching Bill Hillhouse and Phil Shoenberg videos. Different terminology but same concept. She began gaining speed and accuracy in BIG chunks. She stopped leaning forward and pushing the ball into the ground and also over compensating throwing it over the catchers head. I'm a clock guy, carry a ball coach with me every practice and game. My DD was throwing 40-42 MPH at her 11U tryouts in July. She now throws 49-50 MPH consistantly and a 51 MPH now and then with very little strain on the arm.

Do it now is my advice. Hope this helps and gives you a guage of performance increase.

 

[Pitcher's DadCoach]

My 12u dd is one of 3 pitchers on her travel team going into this season. Let's just say we have recently seen the light on IR,BI,etc. My gut tells me to start ASAP on transitioning to IR, but I'd like to hear from those that have done it. I know each kid is different, but is there a chance we could make this work for this season? My big concern would be dd struggling and losing her confidence.

By the way her confidence went through the roof and she is now the starting pitcher over the coaches DD. LOL

 

[Dandan111]

I seen a 13yr switch this year.She had a hard nose HE coach her parents insisted was the best pitching coach around. She was
very inconsistent last year. The parents wouldn't listen to anybody. I guess the HE coach was well known around their area.
Finally the high school coach talked some sense into them.
In about 2 weeks she was pitching much more consistent. She struggled for so long trying to make HE picture perfect, double glove
slaps and all.
And yes, the well known HE coach was upset I heard.

 

[Farmdad]

Thank you...I appreciate all the responses. I guess this post was really just for some hand holding for me. Per my original post, my gut tells me to go for it ASAP. We actually did start last evening with some lock it in work. I had dd watch Boardmember's and Java's video's, we worked on the drill and then watched some video of dd doing it. DD seemed to like this approach and I think we will be utilizing video a lot more than we have in the past.