10u pitch count?

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May 18, 2019
278
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Hi all, my daughter is a pretty good 10u pitcher (11 soon) that is P1 on her team. She's tall and strong and has a good change and a developing curve. I'm trying to make sure we keep her healthy and have been doing a fair amount of core and glute work. She has good form after a couple years with a pitching coach.

I'm getting wide ranging advice on safe pitch counts. I've seen guidelines from the university of Florida at around 100/day, 200 for a two day tournament and have also gotten heard safe counts as high as 500 for a tournament weekend. Any advice from some experienced coaches or dads on what is safe? At this juncture I'm using Florida as the baseline but going up or down based on how she seems to respond to the load.
 
May 20, 2016
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It's funny you reference Florida's pitch count standard after they had Barnhill throw 163 in a game not counting warm ups or between inning. Then had her go out the next day and do it again.

Their really is no magic number. Everyone is different. You can tell though when a kid is getting gassed. Start loosing posture and velocity. That's when you pull them.
 
May 1, 2018
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It's different than baseball. Watch your girl, pull her before she wants to be pulled. Make sure you are communicating honestly about how she is feeling.
 
Sep 28, 2015
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Generally speaking.....these are some mental triggers I have for my 14u DD pitching that she is about done.
These are numbers that I feel comfortable using from our own experiences which include throwing too much. Your MMV and likely less for a 11 yr old.

1 inning: 30
1 hr game: 60
1.5 hr game 80-100
1 day: 2 games, 120 pitches
2 day: 3 games, 180 pitches
3 day: 4 games, 240 pitches

Keep in mind these are numbers to stay healthy and pitch the next day.... So she can go heavier on any of these days and still be fine but it will take from the next day. Lots of variables.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 18, 2019
278
43
It's funny you reference Florida's pitch count standard after they had Barnhill throw 163 in a game not counting warm ups or between inning. Then had her go out the next day and do it again.

Their really is no magic number. Everyone is different. You can tell though when a kid is getting gassed. Start loosing posture and velocity. That's when you pull them.
Good point on Barnhill. Do as I say not as I do I suppose. That and dept of athletics trumps dept of Orthopedics
 
Oct 4, 2018
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113
My DD is 9. I agree with others that I go more on "feel" than straight pitch-count. But I most certainly compare the "feel" to the pitch count. Sometimes that day between games, sometimes a day or two later.

I'll go into game changer and see that we pulled her after 2.1 innings and that it was 48 pitches. So in my head I start forming a "Sally gets tired around 50 pitches" and that helps guide me in the next tournament.

When girls are "on", they might go 150 on a single day, 6 game tournament. I always ask the next day (or next practice) how their arm felt the next day and such.

My girls need about 20 pitches to get through an inning. Luckily I have 4 girls who can pitch. Of course some are better than others, but I have enough to shake things up and not rely on one girl too much. I'm very quick to rest a girl, even if it mean losing a tournament. I'm not about to be that coach.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Scuba diving they took all the navy's studies and cut them by 1/2 for guidelines for general public. IDK if Florida study for young players or college players?

DD was pitching more then she was used to and told her to ask coach to slow her down, which she did and they did.

We had a pitcher that if had an opportunity would warm up for an hour, lucky to get an inning out of her. She was tired before she got into the game.

I have seen a few pitchers blow their arm out, Both baseball and softball.

At her age error on the low side.

At 12U or under why are they blowing their arms out? Making the pros maybe.
 
Aug 29, 2018
83
8
Sadly so few coaches adhere to these pitch count guidelines when they have a good pitcher. I see all the time. As a pitchers mom, I monitor pitch count. I’ve only had to interfere 2x when dd pitch count got too high and she got stuck with no relief throwing upwards of 40-50 pitches in one inning after throwing 60-70 in the game already to a very tough team. She can usually last 85 pitches over 5 inningS.

This weekend she was supposed to be relieved after the 3rd inning, but the girl who was supposed to pitch didn’t want to do it for some reason so dd had no relief until the last batter. Drove her pitch count from 70 to 110 in 1 inning. After holding the score 2-1 and 3 very successful but tough innings, (the day before the team beat us 8-4.) she walked 4 players in that inning alone.. No time out and no relief. The catchers also get fatigued and make errors when the pitcher overdoes it so 2 more run scored on D3K and steal of home. This was the CS game on bracket day. My dh was very upset. I sent coach an email with the same pamphlet above to both coaches as a reminder about pitch counts. We were so close to winning...final score 4-3.

Walking 4 players after 3 solid innings is not being “off”. It’s fatigue being ignored by the coach or not planning for another pitcher if the relief pitcher doesn’t feel like it.

We are having a call tomorrow. I don’t want it to happen again. Not worth it to overdo it at age 11 so her arm is blown by HS.

My dd is 11 and last season of 10U.
 
Last edited:
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
We never had a set number. We kept an eye on the number but more, watched her. When they get tired their mechanics start to drift, and it seems like that's when they're at a greater risk for injury. We always kept an eye on how she was looking and would check in w/ her to make sure she was still feeling good. I believe that pitch counts are a good concept but the fact is, every person is different. Mine seems prone to repetitive stress injuries so we always tried to be extra careful.
 

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