Trick Pitching...

[Thing1Thing2]

Was thinking about asking Hal specifically... But this is for all. My DD is a pitcher. We play 10u A-B ball. So far my DD has been pretty successful, she throws relatively hard. Good control. Has 3 pitches. My question is:
We have faced certain pitchers, who IMO, don't throw as hard or maybe as accurate, but they have strange or different wind up that throw all our batters times off. Like one pitcher double pumps, another takes a long bend forward then loops it around... And our batters swing at all that stuff (and most are not even K's) DD on the other hand looks maybe smoother, mechanics good and really has the same windup for all her pitches. Do I need to try and incorporate different wind ups to throw the batters time off? To me, it seems like more trickery pitching covering a lessor pitcher. But hey it works...so???

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Funky wind-ups I think will have more of an impact at the younger ages (pre-14U) as girls in general can be soooo reactive towards "different" things they see. Girls that scream on delivery I remember as another thing that young ones can get freaked-out on.

But the later in years, and the better of SB play, the less a wind-up is going to matter. I know of a very fast, but straight-throwing, pitcher in my state that has a wild herky-jerky wind-up with a scream that can really fluster some teams. When she plays new teams or lesser state HS teams she can blow a team away. But then she gets into the later state brackets or she gets on the national TB scene and she gets bombed. Funny as when she pitches she either wins 15-0 or gets beat 0-15......

 

[Ken B]

 

[humpty]

If your dd is very successful leave the gimmicks alone. I don't see the top pitchers in wcws doing tricky windups. You want the wind up and motion to be the same that way they don't know if its the drop or the rise or whatever coming.

 

[Ken B]

Adding to humpty,
I'd say you want the retired batter shaking her head on the way back to the dug out because she swung at a nasty ______ rather than shaking her head about a funky wind up.

 

[JAD]

Funky wind-ups I think will have more of an impact at the younger ages (pre-14U) as girls in general can be soooo reactive towards "different" things they see. Girls that scream on delivery I remember as another thing that young ones can get freaked-out on.

I agree with RubberBiscuit, a funky wind up will throw off batters in the earlier age groups, but by 14U the batters are much more polished and gimmick pitching does not work as well, especially at the higher levels of TB.

 

[JAD]

KenB - not sure who the pitcher is in your video, but someone needs to teach her to bring her hands together before she starts her wind up.

 

[Ken B]

That video is probably the most watched softball pitching clip on youtube. First thing I thought of when RB mentioned funky wind ups...

 

[Ken B]

Sorry for the side track--I don't believe it matters when the hands are brought together, so long as they don't come back together after separating like she's doing in the clip. (Not to mention the step...)

 

[Jojo]

Sorry for the side track--I don't believe it matters when the hands are brought together, so long as they don't come back together after separating like she's doing in the clip. (Not to mention the step...)

It doesn't, as long as it's being brought together for at least a second.

We faced a funky windup pitcher in 14u State one year. She was distracting a lot of teams. She was seriously taking an entire minute of arm motions before throwing a pitch. Complaints were made to the umpire, but he explained all her funky motions were taking place before her presentation, making them legal. She didn't distract our girls at all, they just got frustrated at her and hit her pretty good.