I see this all the time with our 16U Gold girls. Much tougher to hit the long vertical axis than lateral. In fact, the pitchers these D1 prospects find the most difficult to hit hard (not necessarily just getting the bat on the ball) are the girls who have mastered the peel drop. A good one can literally tell the girl up to bat that she is going to throw three in a row and a good hitter won't be able to do much with it if the pitcher can spot it well. Lots of groundouts and a few strikeouts, the Ks coming when a girl gets behind early and has to swing at one out of the zone.
10U Pitching Question/Frustration
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- Mar 28, 2013
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Had a long time PC tell me that the reason you don't see allot of rise/peel drop combo pitchers is that the body position is so different between the two that its hard for one pitcher to be consistent with both. My older DD had a very good peel drop pitcher on her team last year, she was vey effective with many Good hitting teams. Her kryptonite was a combo of patient batters and a umpire that would not call a strike at the knees forcing her to bring it up, the batters crowded the front of the box.
Yeah, that seems to be the nemesis of riseballers, too (an ump who won't call the letters and a team that won't swing above the waist).
You sure don't see many who can do both. Dallas Escobedo comes to mind but her "riseball" really doesn't have classic rise spin and her drop isn't a peel. Damn hard to hit, though, working both the way she does.
DD is a late starter to pitching. Didn't even pitch in 10u. She's starting to ask about learning to throw a curve ball bc a girl on her team throws one. I've seen it. It tails about 3 inches and doesn't move south much. My first thought was "What? You're trying to get your CU working to be more effective. Why fool with another pitch."
Then, it hit me.....my DD is coming to ME wanting to learn MORE. So we compromised. She spend a little extra time spinning the ball into the net at about 15 ft. Guess what happened next? Her drop ball has even more movement than before. She's not trying to do anything different on the drop. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I like it.
Her curve is so far from ready it's not even discussed. Personally, I don't care for the curve unless it drops, but I'm not the one spending 8 hrs per week on pitching, plus another 15 hrs on other softball practices. If this keeps it fun for her, I'll support it.
btw...When one of "those" parents come up to me and ask how many pitches DD has, I say 5. Their eyes open wide a bit, and I say, "Drop ball for a strike, drop ball for a ball, CU for a strike, CU for a ball, and a belly high fast ball that goes a long way in the wrong direction. "
Then, it hit me.....my DD is coming to ME wanting to learn MORE. So we compromised. She spend a little extra time spinning the ball into the net at about 15 ft. Guess what happened next? Her drop ball has even more movement than before. She's not trying to do anything different on the drop. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I like it.
Her curve is so far from ready it's not even discussed. Personally, I don't care for the curve unless it drops, but I'm not the one spending 8 hrs per week on pitching, plus another 15 hrs on other softball practices. If this keeps it fun for her, I'll support it.
btw...When one of "those" parents come up to me and ask how many pitches DD has, I say 5. Their eyes open wide a bit, and I say, "Drop ball for a strike, drop ball for a ball, CU for a strike, CU for a ball, and a belly high fast ball that goes a long way in the wrong direction. "
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DD #3 was throwing a CU before anyone knew about it (except me). Her PC and her TB coaches were all rather surprised.
Turns out her PC showed her how to throw a CU. DD practiced it with me a few times. Once, when her PC was busy doing something else, DD #3 talked to PC's DD about the CU. PC's DD helped DD #3 with her CU.
Right after that, DD #3 started using the CU intermittently in rec ball games, but the coaches hadn't really caught on to what she was doing. She didn't want to use the CU in TB yet.
Fast forwards to the end of rec ball season. The local Little League put together an all-star team for a couple of tournaments, The coaches for the all-star team are the same as her TB coaches. Some older girls were helping out. One of the older girls, who pitches and catches, volunteered to catch for the pitcher tryouts. The coaches agree to have each girl pitch 5 times.
DD #3 pitches 5 peel/drop style fastballs. Then, older girl says: "That was good. Let me see your change-up" DD #3 throws the best CU she had ever thrown so far. Look of pleasant shock on the faces of the coaches.
After the tryouts, DD #3 stayed late to work with the AC, and his DD, who is a catcher. They worked on the signals for DD #3's two pitches. Then I told DD #3's PC, who had no idea DD #3 was throwing a CU. We worked with him the next day to iron out her CU.
That weekend the coaches had DD #3 use her CU in a tournament for the first time.
EDIT TO ADD: She was 1st year 12U at the time.
Turns out her PC showed her how to throw a CU. DD practiced it with me a few times. Once, when her PC was busy doing something else, DD #3 talked to PC's DD about the CU. PC's DD helped DD #3 with her CU.
Right after that, DD #3 started using the CU intermittently in rec ball games, but the coaches hadn't really caught on to what she was doing. She didn't want to use the CU in TB yet.
Fast forwards to the end of rec ball season. The local Little League put together an all-star team for a couple of tournaments, The coaches for the all-star team are the same as her TB coaches. Some older girls were helping out. One of the older girls, who pitches and catches, volunteered to catch for the pitcher tryouts. The coaches agree to have each girl pitch 5 times.
DD #3 pitches 5 peel/drop style fastballs. Then, older girl says: "That was good. Let me see your change-up" DD #3 throws the best CU she had ever thrown so far. Look of pleasant shock on the faces of the coaches.
After the tryouts, DD #3 stayed late to work with the AC, and his DD, who is a catcher. They worked on the signals for DD #3's two pitches. Then I told DD #3's PC, who had no idea DD #3 was throwing a CU. We worked with him the next day to iron out her CU.
That weekend the coaches had DD #3 use her CU in a tournament for the first time.
EDIT TO ADD: She was 1st year 12U at the time.
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I'm not making this up. While waiting for practice at parent tells me that her DD (14) throws 65 mph. Has a fast ball, curve, screw, rise, drop, and CU. She's working on a drop/curve right now.
- Oct 22, 2009
- 1,779
- 0
I'm not making this up. While waiting for practice at parent tells me that her DD (14) throws 65 mph. Has a fast ball, curve, screw, rise, drop, and CU. She's working on a drop/curve right now.
Heck that ain't nothing! All the 10u's around here do that!
Last year I had 3 10u's that threw mid to upper 40's. All played All-Stars and competed against each other in local tournaments. I know what upper 40's looks like.
A couple of months ago there was a dad working with his DD at the pitching area I instruct at. I watched his kid, about 9, chunk balls all over the place as he called out different pitch after different pitch. Maybe maxing out at 35-37.
He comes up to me after my lesson and asks what the average speed for 10u was and I told him around 40mph, with the older 10's around mid 40's.
So then he goes on to say that that is what his DD throws at 9, and her instructor told him she'll be way over 50 at 10.
I just looked at him and said, "Awesome".
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
My 10 year old throws a straight 40mph, and has a fastball. She has a special pitch we call the hip hit curve that comes off with great curve spin but also excruciating pain. You would be surprised how often if finds it's way over the plate.
I do however yell out "great riseball" at games when she sails one over the catcher's head and "great dropball" when it is in the dirt. I am not sure everyone knows that it is an inside joke however.
I do however yell out "great riseball" at games when she sails one over the catcher's head and "great dropball" when it is in the dirt. I am not sure everyone knows that it is an inside joke however.
- Mar 28, 2013
- 769
- 18
For some reason about 3 times a season the ball slips out of my younger DDs hand at about 4 o'clock bounces hard on the ground behind her and it roll toward 2nd base.I yell out to her, Great pitch, cant believe she was able to lay off that one. If looks could kill Id be dead.
Mine had a hip changeup last year. She threw it 3 times and all were strikes. Unbelievable how slow they were. I even had one ump ask what it was.
Nothing wrong with working on new pitches that young. I'm guilty of it but our main emphasis is being able to pitch up and down and in and out. If a batter chases high she can go right back to the same pitch to get another strike. We also make sure she gets her change up in the correct height consistently with just enough speed to fool the batter. I'm fine if it's hit since even then they are poorly hit anyway.
She is mostly a drop ball type pitcher since that is what we worked on most initially and she is good at it. Adding in being able to go high at will and then have to worry about the C/U makes it really tough for batters at 10U.
Her travel coach asked me if she would be working on a curve ball a couple months ago and I was sort of non committal. She just turned 9 so to me it's planting the seed with her by showing her how to throw the riseball and curve. When we work on them it's just for a change of pace, no rush at her age.
Nothing wrong with working on new pitches that young. I'm guilty of it but our main emphasis is being able to pitch up and down and in and out. If a batter chases high she can go right back to the same pitch to get another strike. We also make sure she gets her change up in the correct height consistently with just enough speed to fool the batter. I'm fine if it's hit since even then they are poorly hit anyway.
She is mostly a drop ball type pitcher since that is what we worked on most initially and she is good at it. Adding in being able to go high at will and then have to worry about the C/U makes it really tough for batters at 10U.
Her travel coach asked me if she would be working on a curve ball a couple months ago and I was sort of non committal. She just turned 9 so to me it's planting the seed with her by showing her how to throw the riseball and curve. When we work on them it's just for a change of pace, no rush at her age.
