Just my perspective but I like the approach of "slow and steady" thoughout the year to stay in optimal shape. My DD pitched from 7 - 16 years old and she/we practiced pretty much year-round only taking a two full weeks off, twice a year (end of July and end of December).
With that said, here...
Good rule in my opinion and it's consistent with the high school rules which almost all college girls play coming up the ranks. Now, if they would allow a "leap" like the men do, the pitching game will be complete.
One thing to remember, it's not just the number of pitches during innings its also a) pregame warm-up pitches (40-60+?); and pitches between innings (4).
For example, if you are playing a timed game tournament with games typically going 5 innings. 5 inning x 20 pitches + 50 pregame + 20 (5...
Titled up, bullet spin "riseballs" work well because they are not dropping as fast as say a curveball or drop ball and the batter swings under it. It never, ever "hops over the bat" or "bananas up" which is one of the fallacies in fastpitch as no human can throw a softball with enough backspin...
Armor up! Get a mask, catcher's gear and most importantly steel-toe boots. My DD's old pitching coach told us that one father was catching in flip flops and the ball hit him right on the big toe and he lost the nail, ouch! There is no pride in getting beat up behind the plate...
Confused too. In a perfect world for a RHP's perspective, the screwball will be spinning from right to left (3 o'clock directly across to 9 o'clock, the opposite of curve ball spin) creating side spin to make the ball move to the right. Since most pitchers never get perfect side spin on their...
They also might be referring to the motion when she puts the ball in her glove on the right side, she moves the glove and hand to the left side and then pulls the hand out of the glove when its back to right side (kinda right, left, right). It looks odd which might look to the ump that the ball...
Having gone through this with my DD from age 6 - 17yos:
1) Find a reputable pitching coach that teaches Internal Rotation (i.e the proper and ONLY way to produce good arm whip), a good drag, Brush Interference, and see him/her reguarly (once a week, twice a month, monthly, whatever you can...
If this is a travel ball team you better care about what the parents think as they are the ones paying the monthly dues, etc. and will jump ship at a better opportunity in a heartbeat. If it's rec league, not as much of an issue but all families want their kids to get playing time, taught by...
A few points:
I would count the pre-game warm-up pitches and pitches between innings when assessing how many pitches to throw. For example, you might throw 50 pre-game pitches, 4 pitches between innings x 7 innings (28) plus 15 per inning average x 7 innings (105) = 183 pitches per game. As...
When you say the bats "break" are you talking about losing some "pop" and performance or actually cracks in the bat? I have rarely seen bats "break" and were unuseable. With that said, I would think that with normal use you should be able to about 1 year out of the bat and then use the "old...