- Jul 14, 2018
- 982
- 93
My experience is only with my daughter and her friends and teammates, but I'm going to disagree with the idea that speed should be the priority at 10U. I'm assuming that a 10U preseason clinic will mostly be for beginner pitchers, and that the league as a whole will be comprised of girls seeing kid-pitch for the first time.
If this is the case, velocity without location is useless. If a girl can't throw strikes, she's not going to pitch much. The coaches have no choice but to put someone in who can at least put the ball over the plate, or else everyone on the field is just standing around. And that's not good for anyone.
A 10U kid is not going to learn how to pitch between now and April. But if she can get out and throw strikes and get a taste for being in the circle, that's the first step towards becoming a pitcher. That's what will light the fire that leads to real lessons and working on their own to get better, more accurate, and faster.
DD was the kid in 10U who didn't throw very hard, but threw mostly strikes with only the very beginning of an IR delivery. There were many bigger, stronger kids who could throw much harder than her, but with bad mechanics and lots of walks. At the time, even though she was slower, she had many more strikeouts than the hard-throwers because 10U hitters are bad. Four years later, she's the only one still pitching.
If this is the case, velocity without location is useless. If a girl can't throw strikes, she's not going to pitch much. The coaches have no choice but to put someone in who can at least put the ball over the plate, or else everyone on the field is just standing around. And that's not good for anyone.
A 10U kid is not going to learn how to pitch between now and April. But if she can get out and throw strikes and get a taste for being in the circle, that's the first step towards becoming a pitcher. That's what will light the fire that leads to real lessons and working on their own to get better, more accurate, and faster.
DD was the kid in 10U who didn't throw very hard, but threw mostly strikes with only the very beginning of an IR delivery. There were many bigger, stronger kids who could throw much harder than her, but with bad mechanics and lots of walks. At the time, even though she was slower, she had many more strikeouts than the hard-throwers because 10U hitters are bad. Four years later, she's the only one still pitching.