Pitching practice - drills or full pitching? (12u)

[Caredeocr]

My 11y/o takes an hour lesson once a week and we do our best to go to the field and pitch twice a week on our own. Our sessions are usually a warm up and then full pitching (locations, fastballs, changeups, a simulated inning or two) and end with some long toss.

We don't do the type of mechanical drills she does in her lessons. Should we be doing those in our sessions or focusing more on quality full pitching?

Probably not a right answer, just curious your thoughts.

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[Mike-Coach Q]

Practicing the drills support the pitching position, timing, and pitched ball. Like practicing spelling. You might brush up on the easy words and put more effout in to the tougher ones.

I’ll do an abbreviation time wise of the drills and pitch more. Post video for assessments , lots of helpful coaches.

 

[Chilixa]

I always give my daughter a lot of input on what she wants to do when she is pitching with just me, even when she was young. Some may think that is dumb but I thought it was her journey and I am just here to help her. If she isn’t the one interested in doing it you likely aren’t going to get full effort.

Now I usually gave her different options that went along with what her pitching coach was wanting to work on. Sometimes we did drills, other times we just did full pitching and sometimes we made up games to make it interesting. Not sure there is a right answer. As long as she is working on something I think you are ok, especially at younger ages.


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[CoachCeetar]

I always give my daughter a lot of input on what she wants to do when she is pitching with just me, even when she was young. Some may think that is dumb but I thought it was her journey and I am just here to help her. If she isn’t the one interested in doing it you likely aren’t going to get full effort.

This is good advice, in and out of softball imo. Makes 'em think about what they're struggling with, what they're doing well. self-evaluation.

 

[ArmWhip]

I would also try to add some time pitching to hitters. For young, inexperienced pitchers having a live hitter in the box can be a hurdle, they're afraid of hitting them. See if you can find someone to stand in the box, or better yet find someone to catch and you stand in the box. If she has a good amount of game experience pitching to hitters then don't worry about it.

 

[BigSkyHi]

I am not a pitching coach but do love the mental aspect of the game.



Find this to be a cool setup for the backyard. Have no opinion on the technique.



Does this make sense?

 

[curveballer124]

Long toss with emphasis on throwing the ball with a high trajectory. It forces the hips back under the body very well. Also spend a lot of time pitching from 5 to 10 feet further back and concentrate on throwing strikes from that distance..


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[Caredeocr]

Thanks for the replies and ideas everyone.

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[steve1244]

My daughter is a first year 14. We tend to change it up depending on how she's feeling and what's going good or bad.

Before anything we'll play catch to warmup and work on spins.

Baseline at-home bullpen is sets of 6-8 pitches for each of her pitches (curve change, screw, offspeed, drop, rise).
Sometimes we'll just do a warmup and 40-50 long tosses.
Sometimes warmup and the horizontal spin axis pitches or the vertical spin axis pitches.

 

[earlg3]

My daughter is a first year 14. We tend to change it up depending on how she's feeling and what's going good or bad.

Before anything we'll play catch to warmup and work on spins.

Baseline at-home bullpen is sets of 6-8 pitches for each of her pitches (curve change, screw, offspeed, drop, rise).
Sometimes we'll just do a warmup and 40-50 long tosses.
Sometimes warmup and the horizontal spin axis pitches or the vertical spin axis pitches.

Maybe a silly question, but when you play catch specifically to warm up for pitching practice, do you play overhand catch or underhand catch? I've done overhand, but not sure if it makes more sense to do underhand.