That is good advice for the most part but not entirely true. Why do I bring this up and feel the need to post about it well let me tell you....
I have noticed a growing pattern of kids coming to me saying the same stuff so here is one such example: A parent contacted me, and told me that he would like for his daughter to see some live pitching to challenge her a bit more. They came and met me at the cages I told the young lady that I would start the first round off with drop balls inside outside at a very hittable speed for round 1. We did that she made good contact. I told her for round 2 I would pick up the speed of the drops and throw some offspeed pitches as well. She struggled a little bit with the offspeed stuff but seem to hit everything else fairly well. I told her for round 3 I would continue to do the same and add in some riseballs, and that’s when she dropped it on me. “I don’t need to see riseballs why would I ever swing at one of those, those are not strikes,” Imagine my surprise!!! So I told her, “very well I’m going to throw some in there anyways just for you to see them” she didn’t seem very happy about it... Long story short I threw her quite a few riseballs most of which were strikes and the ones that she swung at she wasn’t even close. The look on her face was pure frustration....
At the end of the session her parents as well as the young lady came to me and said, “we were always told to lay off of riseballs because they are never strikes” I went on to tell her that as she gets older she’s going to face more and more girls that know how to locate a riseball with correct spin for a strike. Granted she had never seen a riseball with that much movement on it before but that doesn't negate the fact that she had no plan of attack for that pitch. I told the parents there is a difference between a high pitch and a riseball unfortunately some instructors don't know the difference or how to attack those pitches. So they just say don't swing at those she will come down to you....SMH