10UA playing 12UB before nationals

[BROBO]

I coach a 10u TB team and was looking for advice on whether or not to play in a 12U tournament two weeks before we go to nationals. Is it too close for my pitchers to readjust to the 35' and 11" ball? I'm looking for a challenge without killing too much confidence.

 

[fastpitch]

I understand what you mean. We are looking for a local tournament to minimize travel before 12U nationals and the only option might be a 14U weaker A tournament. I'm concerned about the distance change too mostly with the movement pitches. I don't know if you have any girls throwing movement pitches at 10u but the movement pitches are all affected with the distance change.

IMHO, it really depends on your pitchers. Some girls have a harder time adjusting. For some girls its not that bad. 10U to 12U is more pronounced than 12U (40') to 14U (43').

My DD played 12U travel/LL as a 10 yo so she used the 12" ball all spring. She came back down to 11" for 9/10 all stars and found she could go back and forth without too much issue. Coming down to 11" and 35' seemed almost unfair as she was throwing harder with the 11" than with the 12". Another girl we know was just all over the place when going back and forth between distances and it took longer for her to adjust (meaning several days).

You should also think about the distances for hitting. Your hitters seeing the ball at 40' have more time and they will probably be able to see the ball better as opposed to 35'.

We played a lot of 14U B teams at 43' over the fall and winter. Some of the 14U pitchers were throwing in the mid-upper 50s (at 43') and our 12U team could hit pretty easily. But mid 50s pitching with good location at 12U and 40' would be very difficult for some of our girls. Basically, while nice to do well against older teams the 14U B games felt far easier than most of our 12U A games.

Since you have 2 weeks, I guess if I were you I would probably schedule the 12U B tournament. Just be careful with how your pitchers prepare and have them back to the 11" ball right after.

 

[BROBO]

Yea I was kinda leaning that way. My #1 throws 49 - 51 consistently with primarily a changeup for off speed. My #2 throws 41-43 with a screwball (not alot of movement). I'm definitely going to scrimmage some 12U in the spring to get a better feeling of the adjustments for the hitting aspect. (and I can live with a couple days of readjusting)

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I would have your pitcher doing long toss. I move them back slowly, when they move to 12U. We change to the 12inch ball, but pitch at 36 feet, for a few days and then, 37 feet and so on.

She will not have a problem going back to 35 feet and the smaller ball, after about 5 minutes.

 

[Daddylawman]

If you are talking ASA be very careful. If you play up in any tournament that leads to a berth you can NEVER move back down.

 

[BROBO]

Thanks for the heads up daddylawman. USSSA is predominant in IL. Wish we could play ASA.

 

[absdad]

USSSA has alot of rule changes this year also, with regards to playing up/down for teams and players. I'd check first with your local rep.

 

[Coaching99s]

We had the same question last season (our last year at 10U). We had similar pitchers (#1 high 40’s great location with okay change-up, #2 mid 40’s with great change-up, #3 high 30’s/low 40’s with good change-up). Between fall and spring TB season we played 100 games total. 10 games in the mid-spring were against 12U B’s. We did as expected going 6-4. The pitching wasn’t much faster, but we hit better because of the distance. The 12U teams hit our pitchers much better, so it exposed defensive weaknesses we hadn’t seen before and we were able to see many different defensive situations to work on in practice. I do think it helped our pitchers on showing them the value of hitting their spots. Our #1 pitcher also played 12U rec ball in both the spring and fall, (22 games total) so we varied her pitching workouts with both distances and balls. None of our pitchers struggled with the change back and forth so we varied their weekly workouts to pitch at both distances and ball sizes. As the bucket dad on the team, I noticed that when they did switch back to the 11” ball, they did pop my glove better. IMO it made them stronger. Pitching effectively to the corners was the key to our success in 10U. Most 10U teams struggled with the outside pitch. Once they make the adjustment and moved closer to the plate, then the inside corner became the focus. Work on hitting their spots the most. The extended colored home plate is a very effective training tool (red,yellow,green,brown,black) when used to hit spots. All the 12U workouts did make the transition to 12U this past fall much easier. Good luck this season!