Velocity vs accuracy

[radness]

Sara Groenewegen told one of my pitchers that she didn't even have a change-up until college.

Not surprised coaches would want a pitcher to be able to do that.

Adds an element batters have to make an adjustment to.

 

[lostcreek1]

Throw strikes as hard as you can.

 

[Tazman]

My DD that is a 2012 and been in lessons about a year is consistent in the mid 40's. High 40's on good day. She is accurate and knows how to pitch with placement even if a coach isn't calling the pitches. My question is which is better. Placement at 45-47 or slinging it 50? She uses a fastball and change up which is good and mixes in a curveball here and there. Curveball isn't that consistent so it only comes out when she is ahead. My question is at 10 years old which is more important? Velocity or accuracy? She could throw faster I'm sure but with less accuracy. She has really been doing good lately. My question is should I keep pushing accuracy over Velocity? The different pitches are working their way in.

Depends on your objective. At 10 years old speed and strikes is all you need to mow down all but the best teams. The hitters catch up between 10 and 14 so for the long haul I'd say placement is next followed very closely by movement especially at 14s and above. We never thought about the short term. It's always been the long term plan so I'd focus on proper technique which eventually leads to more speed and better spin and spots (and fewer injuries)... All 3, no major tradeoffs long term! My favorite thing being a bucket dad is every time we (usually her amazing coach) find a mechanical flaw, correct it, get worse for a couple weeks, and emerge even better looking for the next opportunity. 1mph, one inch at a time. It adds up long term.

 

[Rolling Hard]

My DD that is a 2012 and been in lessons about a year is consistent in the mid 40's. High 40's on good day. She is accurate and knows how to pitch with placement even if a coach isn't calling the pitches. My question is which is better. Placement at 45-47 or slinging it 50? She uses a fastball and change up which is good and mixes in a curveball here and there. Curveball isn't that consistent so it only comes out when she is ahead. My question is at 10 years old which is more important? Velocity or accuracy? She could throw faster I'm sure but with less accuracy. She has really been doing good lately. My question is should I keep pushing accuracy over Velocity? The different pitches are working their way in.

The coach or the catcher should always be calling pitches.

 

[CoachJD]

Not surprised coaches would want a pitcher to be able to do that.

Adds an element batters have to make an adjustment to.

I agree. I think the change is vital to success for 99% of pitchers. I was tacking on to LEsoftballdad's post with another example.

She's one of the top pitchers of the past decade, and it wasn't until she was already at a D1 school that she really learned to throw one.

She got to where she was presumably because she had that strong foundation of mechanics, so she threw hard with accuracy, and the college coaches figured (correctly) that they could teach her other pitchers.

 

[Tango]

DD is 16 and hits spots at an elite level. Normally with FB, change, drop, and curve, rise isn’t elite. She is 55-57 most days and we are always looking for speed. She normally hits spots and if she misses it is out of the zone but when she is over the plate she gets hit.

Best friends DD is 14 and 62-65 and always working on location and off speed. Walks or hits one or two an inning. It seems everyone is 3-2 count and throws some straight down the pipe but she strikes a lot out and doesn’t give up many hits.

Old buddy- at some point you are what you are and get better at what you are. Kinda hit home a few weeks ago. Lol

 

[_MIA_]

Old buddy- at some point you are what you are and get better at what you are. Kinda hit home a few weeks ago. Lol

This is probably true but I don’t think “some point” is 10 YO

 

[LEsoftballdad]

DD is 16 and hits spots at an elite level. Normally with FB, change, drop, and curve, rise isn’t elite. She is 55-57 most days and we are always looking for speed. She normally hits spots and if she misses it is out of the zone but when she is over the plate she gets hit.

Best friends DD is 14 and 62-65 and always working on location and off speed. Walks or hits one or two an inning. It seems everyone is 3-2 count and throws some straight down the pipe but she strikes a lot out and doesn’t give up many hits.

Old buddy- at some point you are what you are and get better at what you are. Kinda hit home a few weeks ago. Lol

As sad as it sounds, the girl throwing 62-65 will get looks from D1 coaches because of her velocity over a girl throwing mid 50s with better control. I know one 2024 who got several calls from high-end D1 schools this week who throws 65+ but has no idea where the ball is going more than half the time. Those coaches all think they can fix her, and maybe they're right, but it's her speed that makes them take notice. Wrong or right, that's how it seems to go.

 

[Rolling Hard]

As sad as it sounds, the girl throwing 62-65 will get looks from D1 coaches because of her velocity over a girl throwing mid 50s with better control. I know one 2024 who got several calls from high-end D1 schools this week who throws 65+ but has no idea where the ball is going more than half the time. Those coaches all think they can fix her, and maybe they're right, but it's her speed that makes them take notice. Wrong or right, that's how it seems to go.

This ^^^^ is the sad truth. Unless the coach is a pitching mechanics expert, understands video analysis, and is really good at communicating they will probably just have a pitcher that can throw 65 mph.
Thinks might be changing. I know a SoCal pitcher that throws 61-62 with control and movement that got over 30 phone calls. Mostly D-1 programs.

 

[Hillhouse]

My DD that is a 2012 and been in lessons about a year is consistent in the mid 40's. High 40's on good day. She is accurate and knows how to pitch with placement even if a coach isn't calling the pitches. My question is which is better. Placement at 45-47 or slinging it 50? She uses a fastball and change up which is good and mixes in a curveball here and there. Curveball isn't that consistent so it only comes out when she is ahead. My question is at 10 years old which is more important? Velocity or accuracy? She could throw faster I'm sure but with less accuracy. She has really been doing good lately. My question is should I keep pushing accuracy over Velocity? The different pitches are working their way in.

what good is velocity if she cannot control it? Ponder that question for a minute. You don't want her to be a Bull Durham like pitcher getting 15 k's.. next to 15 walks.

Sluggers is right, the "8 pitch" pitchers are phony, even at the Olympic level. There's simply no such thing. Its funny to hear some girls list those 8 pitches, many will include a change up, then say they also have a "knuckle change"... as if there's a difference in the 2 pitches. A change up is a change up regardless of whether the knuckles are on the ball. All I can do is shake my head.

Many parents of young pitchers buy into thinking their kid has a curveball (for example) because the ball ends up on the other side of the plate and they confuse the movement with where the ball simply was thrown. In other words, kids throw the ball outside and the parents think it was a movement pitch. Same could be said for high pitches being labled a riseball, and low ones to be a drop. Regardless of what 2 Time Olympic Gold Medalist Michele Smith says on ESPN, sometimes a high pitch is simply a high pitch not necessarily a riseball.

One other big mistake is thinking your kid has these great pitches by getting 15K's per game at 10u. The reality is, if your kid can throw strikes, shes going to get a lot of K's at 10u because the majority of girls are terrified of being in the batters box, afraid of getting hit and just pray for a walk. So it doesn't necessarily mean she's a phenom at 10u.

Personally I think it's a mistake to teach girls "pitches" when they're still using the 11" ball. In many cases, when they jump to the 12" ball they almost have to relearn how to pitch because that bigger ball feels like a basketball to them compared to the smaller one. Going to the big ball is not a subtle difference for a lot of girls with small hands. Many alter their mechanics just trying to hold onto the ball. So those "8 pitches" they learned at 10u become irrelevant when they move up in age and have to spin a bigger ball. I wasn't always 6'3 with big hands, I was also an 10/11 yr old pitcher at one point struggling to hold the ball, let alone trying different pitches. I didn't have ANY real movement pitches at 12 yrs old when I had to pitch against grown men since there was no "boys fastpitch" for me. Unfortunately this was in the 1980's, long before I could just self identify as a girl so I could play in their leagues. LOL. I had to pitch against grown men, many were college baseball players, minor league players, and veterans of fastpitch softball while being 12 years old, trying to throw strikes without any thing on the ball for moevement. Yes, I got my a$$ kicked. Imagine your 12 year old having to pitch against Oklahoma, without any junk pitches. Yea, it went like you're probably imagining for me. lol

There should be a "sticky" thread on this forum of things to watch out for when seeking a pitching coach. Among those things is a coach teaching a girl "9 pitches" I'm not suggeting the OP has that situation, I'm just giving an unsolicited opinion.