- Jun 12, 2015
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My experience in travel ball has been average 12U speed is 45mph on the low side to 55mph on the high side. So, average would be about 50mph. Certainly there are outliers, but we are not playing in California PGF either nor playing glorified rec-ball teams.
At 12U some girls are done growing and some girls are just getting started. So I don't think speed parlays 100% into 14/16U. At 12U there are a lot of girls with bad form that can throw hard by sheer athleticism and strength. At the older levels form is going to become more important and (bad) form more difficult to overcome.
I've wondered about some pitchers I've seen in 10U and 12U with really poor mechanics, but obviously very athletic. If they'll be able to get by on athleticism if someone doesn't correct the poor mechanics. There are way too many bad pitching coaches out there setting pitchers up for failure.