#1, My dd's pitching coach wouldn't let her throw the movement pitches till she was 12 and kept it very limited till she was 14. Fast ball, change up and peel drop was it. Her coach was concerned that the movement pitches put too much stress on her arm bones and growth plates and other stuff I don't know anything about. DD is now 16, throws some pretty freaky stuff (hence my screen name), sometimes throws 3 games in a weekend and has never had any issues with her pitching parts.
What ages/levels advanced pitches
- Thread starter fivepotsogold
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Bruise
Given the right development routines and drills and following time lines for development any good pitching instructor could and probably should be starting to develop a young pitcher learning ball spins and grips for different pitches before 12 years old dependent on when they started pitching.
I base this on personal experience with my DD and now with all my students. DD had a killer curve before she was 12 and had a nice screw ball and change up to go with it. In the 8 years that she pitched from 10 to 18 not one time did she have an arm or shoulder injury.
Her curve was her bread and butter pitch. Threw it all the time. At the 12U level.
I do not credit "Luck" for this accomplishment. I credit her instructor who knew exactly how to develop her to be able to reach those levels at such a young age without risk of shoulder or arm injury. The routines and drills he did with her are the foundation of what I teach today to my students.
Those drills enhance development of the arm and shoulder complex to help strengthen and create stability where its needed even in young pitchers under 12. The mechanics they develop are designed to support pitchers of all ages.
This is just my opinion but if your DD is now 14 and is just throwing 3 pitches besides the fast ball she is behind in her development. Based on what your stating I would guess her pitching instructor is a male fastpitch pitcher? Not that that is a bad thing at all. Its just the men who play the game today tend to throw and I would guess teach fewer pitches in the game than the women use today. Most men are rise, change up, drop and thats about it.
Being much stronger they can get away with that in the mens game.
Elliott.
Given the right development routines and drills and following time lines for development any good pitching instructor could and probably should be starting to develop a young pitcher learning ball spins and grips for different pitches before 12 years old dependent on when they started pitching.
I base this on personal experience with my DD and now with all my students. DD had a killer curve before she was 12 and had a nice screw ball and change up to go with it. In the 8 years that she pitched from 10 to 18 not one time did she have an arm or shoulder injury.
Her curve was her bread and butter pitch. Threw it all the time. At the 12U level.
I do not credit "Luck" for this accomplishment. I credit her instructor who knew exactly how to develop her to be able to reach those levels at such a young age without risk of shoulder or arm injury. The routines and drills he did with her are the foundation of what I teach today to my students.
Those drills enhance development of the arm and shoulder complex to help strengthen and create stability where its needed even in young pitchers under 12. The mechanics they develop are designed to support pitchers of all ages.
This is just my opinion but if your DD is now 14 and is just throwing 3 pitches besides the fast ball she is behind in her development. Based on what your stating I would guess her pitching instructor is a male fastpitch pitcher? Not that that is a bad thing at all. Its just the men who play the game today tend to throw and I would guess teach fewer pitches in the game than the women use today. Most men are rise, change up, drop and thats about it.
Being much stronger they can get away with that in the mens game.
Elliott.
I am sure you are right Elliott. Hopefully #1 has found a responsible coach like yourself. I do think you need to put out there that there is potential for problems if the young pitcher isn't developed properly and there are coaches out there that aren't neccassarily in the best interest of the player.
In our case my dd's coach may have been overly protective of her but as I knew very little I am glad we found him and not one of the other kind. DD is now 16 with a slew of pitches that she can throw but her strength still lies in the heavy ball and change up. She is in Colorado at the Indy right now and will be in Kentucky for the Nationals later this month. I just beam when the other team starts showing up behind the backstop trying to figure out why they're not hitting her. It's not always but when her best stuff is working she is very difficult to hit.
In our case my dd's coach may have been overly protective of her but as I knew very little I am glad we found him and not one of the other kind. DD is now 16 with a slew of pitches that she can throw but her strength still lies in the heavy ball and change up. She is in Colorado at the Indy right now and will be in Kentucky for the Nationals later this month. I just beam when the other team starts showing up behind the backstop trying to figure out why they're not hitting her. It's not always but when her best stuff is working she is very difficult to hit.
Going back to my original post relative to elite pitchers: Pay special attention to how they move from the 12 o'clock position to release. They are all very similar regardless of how tall or short they are.
The weird looking stuff happens prior to or after these two points.
Rick
The weird looking stuff happens prior to or after these two points.
Rick
- Jul 2, 2008
- 4
- 0
This is the info I was looking for. Although she is only 10...she does have the ability to throw more pitches accurately than the average 10 yr old...I just want to make sure they are not over using her or over throwing these pitches. In the opinion of my husband, he doesn't want her throwing the breaking stuff more than 20 % of the time. I agree with him but since we don't call the pitches....just wanted to make sure we were on the right page.
#1, Here is a link to a good short article on taking care of pitching arms.
Softball West Magazine -
Lots of stuff to do and watch out for.
Softball West Magazine -
Lots of stuff to do and watch out for.
