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by slapperdad » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:46 am

lol, I've heard this a thousand times. I could not agree more, learn how to locate a fastball and MASTER a C/U.

The other thing, is there a 14U bucket dad who doesn't think his DD is throwing 60 MPH?
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by David Lauck » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:57 am

I agree as well. Pitch location and control are essential. It doesn't really matter (at most levels), how many "pitches" a girl has if they can't throw them for strikes.
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by scott dalton » Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:53 am

My daughter has pitched for 7 years and has never had an arm/shoulder injury (sore yes), thanks to her first pitching coach. He taught location, location and location then the change up until she was second year 12's. He lost a few students along the way because the PARENTS wanted their DD to have several pitches, movement comes with speed.

Q: how many pitchers do you know that stopped because of injuries by 16U?

Think long term!
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by slapperdad » Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:28 am

Scott, great points. One issue I see is young coaches get caught up in winning games. In 10U they jump on the kid who matured faster than everyone else, brings the heat, ride her like a mule, and they collect a bunch of trophies. 6-7 years down the road, the kid is burnt out, hurt, etc. There's no one who's more competitive than I am, I want to win, but good grief, see the big picture! When they're 10, lets teach fundamentals, learn the game, have some fun, and make sure they WANT to come back next year.

Some parents will get it, or at the very least they'll listen to those who've gone before. Other's already have it figured out, and there's no talking to them.

Another Q: How many kids just say screw it when they specialize at a young age, and practice Softball (insert sport here) 24/7/365? How many instructors demand they do lessons 12 months a year, and shame them if they want to take time off?

Parents for the sake of sport, no one knows your kid better than you do, pay attention to what they tell you, and know when to say when.
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by slapperdad » Thu Sep 17, 2015 11:27 am

My experience, elite travel you'll see a few 18U throwing it 60 MPH. Elite travel 18U are only a year or two away from moving on, by that stage of the game, you need to be moving it around. I'm more a fan of moving it up and down, some like to move it in and out, pick your poison. Mastering a C/U however is still a devastating pitch.

It should be noted as well, there's a difference between hitting 60-62 once in a while with your instructor, and consistently throwing that hard in a game.

I often use my own kid as an example, multi sport athlete, she had D1 Softball coaches go watch her play Basketball during the recruiting process. Basketball was an escape for her, she just played for fun. She often still plays in pick games at school or when she's home in the summer. When it was time to work on Softball, she worked hard at it. But when it was time to be away from it, she got away from it. We had set down time during the year, where she didn't do anything Softball related. Was our approach perfect, probably not. But I talked to another parent just this week who has a senior college Basketball player. She specialized in BB when she was in the 5th grade, was in the gym every day of her life, she was hating life even in high school, she's been hurt for the last two years, and basically leading a miserable existence, just trying to get thru it. Her dad told me her body is just done. What the hell is the point in that? So you can say you played college Basketball? Sports are suppose to be fun, remember when we were kids, and just played pick up games in the back yard, no parents, no umpires, no supervision, we just played because we wanted to. And when we got done with that, we got on our bikes and rode all over town.
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by artomatic » Thu Sep 17, 2015 3:43 pm

Most are enamored with speed, including college coaches.
I tell dads of young pitchers who throw hard to make sure they learn a good change because at some point hitters are too good and catch up to speed.

My kid had a change up since she was 8, and since she isn't the biggest or hardest thrower, the change has allowed her to continue to compete going into her junior year of college.

The one thing I would do differently is give her more down time growing up.
The summer after her freshman year in college, she played in a local womens open league. This past summer she said she needed a break, so she worked out all summer, pitched batting practice for some local travel teams, but didn't play in any games.
It's in her hands now, and that's what she felt she needed to do.
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by fastpitchdad05 » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:02 pm

artomatic wrote:Most are enamored with speed, including college coaches.
I tell dads of young pitchers who throw hard to make sure they learn a good change because at some point hitters are too good and catch up to speed.

My kid had a change up since she was 8, and since she isn't the biggest or hardest thrower, the change has allowed her to continue to compete going into her junior year of college.

The one thing I would do differently is give her more down time growing up.
The summer after her freshman year in college, she played in a local womens open league. This past summer she said she needed a break, so she worked out all summer, pitched batting practice for some local travel teams, but didn't play in any games.
It's in her hands now, and that's what she felt she needed to do.


Arto, I'm sure there are some girls that can just go non-stop year-round, but I know that when we gave our daughter the fall off last year she came back more mentally fresh and played better than she had in a while. Hopefully the same will happen for your daughter.
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by slapperdad » Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:17 pm

What my daughter found was after a college season, her body needs to heal, and she needs rest. She doesn't do much in the summer, lift, run, some speed and agility stuff. She starts hitting about mid July, doing some D work end if July to prepare for the fall season.
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by Sftbll4ever » Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:27 am

My DD had a change up in 8U (only because her sister was a pitcher and she wanted to do whatever she was doing). She also had good speed and good movement. She ONLY wanted to go to east coast schools. Summer going into her freshman year of college she was actually being recruited by MANY top DI schools. After a HORRIBLE experience, she quite softball for a year and a half. Decided she wanted to play again and is playing at a D1 on the west coast now.

She had trouble spotting her fast ball when she returned, but, then again, she never really throws it in a game at the D1 level. How many pitchers in college actually throw a fast ball? My kid mostly throws her movement pitches.

I agree in the younger ages that you MUST NOT focus on speed, get your locations down first and foremost and take time off. If you have a pitching coach that discourages that, you are not seeing a good coach!!!
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