Wow. My HS had 1100 in 1997. Wikipedia says it's 1,265 now, which isn't surprising considering the growth in that area.
DD2's team (at our 450 student school) does play a few schools with enrollment in the 100's.
The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal
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Wow. My HS had 1100 in 1997. Wikipedia says it's 1,265 now, which isn't surprising considering the growth in that area.
DD2's team (at our 450 student school) does play a few schools with enrollment in the 100's.
DD2 and I spent about an hour at the field Sunday, working out of the hole at the rubber. I've used the cue of telling her to "stay light" coming out of the hole. Ruts like that can act as if you're getting your foot grabbed on the way out, and that always results in bad hip position and forward lean. She did very well, kinda to my surprise. She's definitely becoming more aware of her body position and able to feel more than one thing at a time while in motion.
The front side resistance is really coming along as well. I EXPECT to see it now instead of just hoping to see it. I'm also not having to give her many cues while she's pitching BP. I try not to say anything at all since I'm technically a parent at this time, but I mostly just get her attention, slap my thigh and yell "front side!" and she nods and makes the correction. Or she screams "I KNOOOOOOOW!" and I just walk away.
She threw really well yesterday in practice, and looked to have a couple extra mph on there. I'm not saying I was totally surprised, but it was better than I had hoped. She always ups her game a bit when it matters. It drives me crazy as an instructor, but I'm pumped that she knows how to find her focus and is making corrections on the fly. She also tossed a couple change-ups. One floated but landed true. The other came in low and flat and missed a little inside. Her coach liked the miss, so that's a win in my opinion.
I'm really glad we "took the leap" and switched her to a stride and internal rotation. The whip really isn't there much, but I think after the season we'll be able to pick back up on it and get it going.
Her live at-bats were rough. Just fouled a couple off. She totally abandons her swing mechanics when she's facing a good pitcher (the transfer). She understands the swing pretty well, but the mind goes blank at the plate and she needs to be able to stay true to form. We'll work on it.
The power of the swing though...so much improvement. The weight training is the second best thing she did in the offseason. It continues to pay off.
The team overall is a mishmash of newer players and a few of the vets. There are some who are still missing practice as basketball and cheerleading are finishing up, so it's hard to get an overall grasp of how the team will look. There are a couple newer kids out there really getting after it, though. I'm enjoying watching how things come together and am optimistic for a solid season.
The front side resistance is really coming along as well. I EXPECT to see it now instead of just hoping to see it. I'm also not having to give her many cues while she's pitching BP. I try not to say anything at all since I'm technically a parent at this time, but I mostly just get her attention, slap my thigh and yell "front side!" and she nods and makes the correction. Or she screams "I KNOOOOOOOW!" and I just walk away.
She threw really well yesterday in practice, and looked to have a couple extra mph on there. I'm not saying I was totally surprised, but it was better than I had hoped. She always ups her game a bit when it matters. It drives me crazy as an instructor, but I'm pumped that she knows how to find her focus and is making corrections on the fly. She also tossed a couple change-ups. One floated but landed true. The other came in low and flat and missed a little inside. Her coach liked the miss, so that's a win in my opinion.
I'm really glad we "took the leap" and switched her to a stride and internal rotation. The whip really isn't there much, but I think after the season we'll be able to pick back up on it and get it going.
Her live at-bats were rough. Just fouled a couple off. She totally abandons her swing mechanics when she's facing a good pitcher (the transfer). She understands the swing pretty well, but the mind goes blank at the plate and she needs to be able to stay true to form. We'll work on it.
The power of the swing though...so much improvement. The weight training is the second best thing she did in the offseason. It continues to pay off.
The team overall is a mishmash of newer players and a few of the vets. There are some who are still missing practice as basketball and cheerleading are finishing up, so it's hard to get an overall grasp of how the team will look. There are a couple newer kids out there really getting after it, though. I'm enjoying watching how things come together and am optimistic for a solid season.
The kid got contact lenses yesterday. She said "wow. I actually have peripheral vision" and "look how big the sky is!"
She tried them out at practice today and seemed to like them. I bugged her about them for a bit, but had dropped the subject, then she tells me she wants to give them a try.
Unrelated...I joined a facebook group for parents and pitchers wanting tips, and most of what's on there is a bragging post about their 10u throwing 45 a few weeks into their career and asking for tips...and the mechanics are a mess.
And then the advice (which is supposed to be from coaches, or non-coach advice must be made known) is a hodgepodge of either unimportant tips, suggestions that are out of sequence, or just dumb sh!t that doesnt matter. It's no wonder so many kids can't throw a strike.
Something else that irks me.
It seems like I'm always watching videos from people's pitching lessons or a workout,whether it be facebook, youtube, tiktok, etc...and they'll throw a riseball...and it's hardly ever a flippin' riseball. It's just a high fastball. Halfway to the plate it's already at the eyes and climbing faster than Trump's blood sugar. I just find it annoying because people are all braggy about it and it's just a flaming turd that the catcher will be lucky to even reach.
Ok that's it. Now that the season is getting started, I may have a vent here and there. The parent drama is already starting and I have sworn to myself that I won't keep wasting precious energy or brain cells on this crap. Its just that for every second of frustration there's also a second of entertainment value, and that's hard to turn down.
She tried them out at practice today and seemed to like them. I bugged her about them for a bit, but had dropped the subject, then she tells me she wants to give them a try.
Unrelated...I joined a facebook group for parents and pitchers wanting tips, and most of what's on there is a bragging post about their 10u throwing 45 a few weeks into their career and asking for tips...and the mechanics are a mess.
And then the advice (which is supposed to be from coaches, or non-coach advice must be made known) is a hodgepodge of either unimportant tips, suggestions that are out of sequence, or just dumb sh!t that doesnt matter. It's no wonder so many kids can't throw a strike.
Something else that irks me.
It seems like I'm always watching videos from people's pitching lessons or a workout,whether it be facebook, youtube, tiktok, etc...and they'll throw a riseball...and it's hardly ever a flippin' riseball. It's just a high fastball. Halfway to the plate it's already at the eyes and climbing faster than Trump's blood sugar. I just find it annoying because people are all braggy about it and it's just a flaming turd that the catcher will be lucky to even reach.
Ok that's it. Now that the season is getting started, I may have a vent here and there. The parent drama is already starting and I have sworn to myself that I won't keep wasting precious energy or brain cells on this crap. Its just that for every second of frustration there's also a second of entertainment value, and that's hard to turn down.
- Sep 3, 2015
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There actually aren’t that many kids that throw a true rise. The high fastball can be very effective but I’m with you, don’t call it a rise.
My DD practiced rise spin for over a year before throwing it in games. So it’s a pet peeve of mine too.
Enjoying this thread, one thing I can comment on is the riseball.
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First day of Indiana practice is March 6th.
Excited to get started for a new season.
Graduated or lost all but 2 starters from last season.
We will see how good our coaching staff is.
Excited to get started for a new season.
Graduated or lost all but 2 starters from last season.
We will see how good our coaching staff is.
Man that's a rough spot to be in. Our HS lost two starters. One was a very solid hitter and the other was an average hitter playing 1B. We should be able to fill those spots with what we have now, and maybe shore up a couple other spots. We shall see.
Thank you for reading!
I think people treat rise spin as if it can shoot the ball to the moon. It's relatively subtle influence, hence the deception of it.
Isn't a rise suppose to level off at the top of the zone anyway? If it doesn't, any kid who has been playing more than a month would recognize it as a ball before it got past halfway to the plate. There are a lot of really weak hitters who can judge a ball/strike very well.
It's like...I know what my kid can do. She can hit the zone 60-70%, she can hit a spot within 6 inches probably 40% and dead-on about 20%. She can get a change-up to the catcher about 75% and hit the zone on half. And it usually hangs/floats and a good hitter would put it on the concession stand roof.
But these other pitchers I see (including our own) are out there thinking they can throw pitch xyz, but they can't. And it's not these kids' fault. They're guided by adults, including myself. We have to take inventory at some point to put these pitchers and their teammates in the best positiin fir success.
Knowing how to throw a curve and getting one to the desired location 30% of the time doesn't mean you "have" the pitch--it means you're working on it. I don't want a kid out there throwing something low probability unless they're up 0-2 on the batter. I would love to do an analysis of about 20 of each pitch one of our girls knows and give them a true stat. Then do it again with someone in the box. I think it would be eye opening for them.
I fear what's going to happen is that they'll be left to their own devices (or with the catcher who doesn't know the accuracy stats) during a game, or the pitches will be called by someone who thinks they can actually deliver these pitches accurately.
Geez.... I can't even imagine coaching at a school that big, with that many options.
We have about 270 in our high school, which means about 10% of the HS students are on the softball team since I also have a full JV team. The fact I get 25-30 every single year is what I'm most proud of. I don't know of another school our size in the entire city that has a JV softball team.
Does softball have a strong reputation there, or are there just less sports? I think we have 6.
