When should a pitcher start to see improvement in her pitching?

[AndyS]

Hello,

I have a 10yr daughter that pitched a little last year with no coaching and has pitched this year with a pitching coach. Myself and her mother are wondering when should we expect to see improvement in her pitching?
So far this year in 40.5 innings she has thrown 831 pitches, 380 strikes, 451 balls. She has 79 strikeouts and 71 walks.
We were hoping to see improvement over the last two months, but so far she seems to stay around 50/50.
When she practices (100 to 150 pitches a day), she throws fast and accurate. When in games she slows down and gets a little wild. She wants to be a pitcher so bad.
Are we expecting to much to soon?
Any input would be great, we want to see her succeed with her dream.

For what it is worth, the thing I have noticed with my daughter is it seems like there is little change for a period of time and then suddenly wham big things click. And alot of the progress my daughter makes is in the off-season where we have the time to really work on things in a deeper way with her PC. In the summer season she is pitching so many games it is hard to get in that quality time. Although we are lucky in that her pitching coach does attend her games when possible. But then you are balancing making big tweaks versus little digestible changes. Not sure that helps alot but is my experience.

The one thing I have learned is to just sit back and enjoy watching her do her thing. Earlier in her career I would get all wound up if she was doing this or that or the other. We still chat after the game on the right home but it is much more factual and me letting her do self-analysis versus me doing all the talking.

 

[cjusports]

Thanks

Thank you to all that replied to my question. You all have really opened me and my wifes eyes on this subject.

 

[obbay]

There's a lot of good info here! My DD has improved so much from when she first started and I would say the greatest leap has been mental. She used to be too easily frustrated and took a lot more practice throws before she could home-in on the strike zone. When pitching in the driveway (after an inadequate number of practice pitches), she would insist that I call balls and strikes. After doing it wrong for awhile I learned to not put the plate out and just let her pitch. if she would ask me to call balls and strikes, I would call any hittable pitch a strike. I still do that and she sometimes disagrees, but I've learned that kids do better when they feel better about themselves. If she disagrees, I remind her that it doesn't matter what she or I think, it's the Umpire's call and the accuracy of those calls vary with the Umpire.

Also in the beginning of the season (April) we saw more difference in speed between games and practice. She was thinking too much and being careful where in practice she had no inhibitions about letting the ball fly. Now, there's not so much difference, sometimes I'm even seeing better pitches in games.

She still has a long way to go but she is continuously improving and having fun.