Tears on the mound

[Greenmonsters]

I've got one right now that the dad is having hard time with. She's a late starter at pitching, 11, and immediately was super hard on herself when she started pitching games because she had to catch up so fast. It's been and year and half now and she still loses her composure on the mound. Not real sure what to do with this kid because she loses composure with me in the class, she is so bad she loses composure just talking to me about her game.
She's extremely emotional. She's a good pitcher now, has moved up to 12u tournament ball and will be moving up in the fall to 14u tournament ball. Dad isn't sure if she's ever going to make it as a pitcher due to her extreme mood swings.

How does she handle stress and failure off the field? Wonder if there wouldn't be some real-life benefit to getting together with a mental coach.

 

[guero_gordo]

Never to young to let your catcher know that she can help keep her pitcher positive and relaxed, and aware that she's not alone out there.

 

[parrot]

I think Tracks of My Tears is actually a better Smokey Robinson song.

 

[Jojo]

How does she handle stress and failure off the field? Wonder if there wouldn't be some real-life benefit to getting together with a mental coach.

Her dad has never mentioned her actions off the field, so I don't know. I'm thinking it's just a softball/pitching issue.

 

[NorthMS]

North:
The solution is to not have kids signalling to you to come out. That makes quitters. Be an adult and be in charge.

You have no idea about this situation. If that makes a quitter, why hasn't she asked to come out? Not one time in 4 innings pitched and all 4 have been pretty rough. I spoke on my ONLY experience with THIS individual girls. Quit making such leaps.

A coach should learn to know his/her players, not take a cookie cutter approach to coaching.

 

[Southpaw729]

I give her credit for sticking it out. Her emotional response is natural at that age in that she is trying to please mom and dad, not let her coaches and teammates down and, for sure, doesn't want to be so embarrassed!

Strikes, mental toughness and confidence are all a process. The challenge at the younger ages is teaching them how to manage their emotions when things don't go well on the field. Just stress that every pitcher goes through this and in time she will throw strikes more consistently. I have seen it for 12 years of coaching fastpitch!

As for the tears, my daughter at 10 and 11 wore mirrored sunglasses to more easily hide her emotions.

Best of luck!!

--John Michael Kelly

 

[Rocketech1]

Best advice I got from a long time coach on this subject. Pull them before the tears start. Let them know that they will be re-inserted back to pitcher later in the game. Never had one come back in and NOT do better.

How do you know when the tears will start? With pitchers wearing masks and sometimes sunglasses it's very difficult to see from the dugout if they are upset and crying. I have been surprised at times I would visit the circle and my pitcher had tears in her eyes.

Pitching is very difficult and especially tough for young girls when things are going bad. Unless she is too upset to pitch effectively, she is staying in. Most pitchers work themselves out of it and many teams don't have strong 2nd and 3rd pitchers.

Lots of emotional highs and lows with pitching. It's what makes some players love the position and others hate it.

 

[SBmom8992]

Rocketech1 that was my thought re: not pulling her out. She wasn't getting sloppy with her mechanics, she was dealing with an ump with a super tight strike zone that wasn't giving any leeway to the pitcher. This particular ump's games usually wind up in double digit runs for each team since she's less generous than other unps who want to see the girls swing the bats if it's a reasonable pitch. We're talking first year pitchers here. But that's another story...

While catching DD tonight in the backyard during our nightly practice, I was trying to crack some jokes to loosen her up. She asked me to stop so she could focus. I asked her why she's so serious - now this is the goofiest 10YO kid I know - and she actually told me that pitching is serious business. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the mental aspect as much as the mechanical aspect of pitching.