Daughter's pitching coach wants to teach the curve before the drop - thoughts?

[Suzanne74]

Hi all,

My daughter is a Aug 09, but is playing up at 14UB this season with the rest of her team (combo of 08/09) She is doing well at 43 ft and has mastered the flip change pretty well. Not perfect and sometimes she releases too late and it rainbows. Most of the time it is pretty deadly, especially now that they moved up to 43. I would say since turning 12 and moving back to 43ft last month, her average speed is around 46mph.

Last lesson her pitching coach wanted to start incorporating spin and practice starting the curve ball mechanics She sees that she tends to cross over a bit and has natural spin to her ball and thinks that is the best pitch for her to learning next. The other pitcher is just starting to learn a drop with a different pitching coach. 3rd pitcher is still mastering the CU with another coach as well.

We are not looking for D1 college or even possibly playing in college right now. The goal is to pitch in high school and continue on with this team at the B level, eventually getting to A level maybe. But she isn't the 24/7 fanatic of softball that some kids are and that is okay. My oldest had D2/3 offers and decided to go to a D1 college for astro engineering and only play club softball. She is extremely happy. So we have been pretty laid back with this one too.

So this 12yr old loves being a P/1B and a power hitter. She is usually in one of those positions so she can be in the batting line-up Anyway, not sure if she has the strength/speed for a curve yet, or if it is even needed, but I don't want to overstep the pitching coach. It seems most coaches teach drop first. Of course my 12yr old was thrilled, so I guess if it motivates her, I let her try it a few weeks and see?

Thoughts on if I am going about this right or wrong?

 

[Shiloh]

What pitch does your DD want to learn next?

 

[efastball]

Why not both? How do you know which she will excel in?

 

[Suzanne74]

What pitch does your DD want to learn next?

She doesn't care. She was excited to try any new pitch.

 

[cnardone]

My dd (12) learned the Change then Drop. My dd wants to learn another pitch (and I don't want her to as she is not consistent with the drop but that is another story). Anyway, PC does not want her to learn the curve. It could be because when she is off, she pulls to her left side. If we go too long between lessons, everything outside suddenly becomes a curve / slider.

One of the pitchers on her team learned the curve first.

 

[Shiloh]

She doesn't care. She was excited to try any new pitch.

well ask her where she prefers. And go with that

 

[YOCOACH]

I have several thoughts on the subject which I will share as both a longtime TB Head Coach and a longtime Hitting Coach. From the TB HC's perspective, I hear numerous times a year how many pitches various pitchers have. I'm not saying your post mind you. Just in general. As far as I'm concerned, no pitcher at the 14U level is considered to "have" a pitch unless they can consistently hit each spot/corner 8 out of 10 pitches. Unfortunately, so many parents don't realize how important mastering each individual pitch is before moving onto learning a new pitch. Also unfortunately, many pitching coaches give into the demand of those parents wanting to learn a new pitch instead of losing the student to the PC down the road that will teach it regardless of whether their ready or not.

From both the TB HC and Hitting coach point of views, I want my hitters swinging on plane with the ball. Any coach worth his salt wants the same thing. That means the bat is traveling (with the bat facing East to West) almost as if it were traveling across a piece of flat glass tilted on axis. What does a curveball do? Travels on a flat plane East to West. You'd be much better served by having your DD learn the drop since it doesn't stay on an East-West plane. It travels North to South. Thus, it's much harder to hit than the curve.

 

[Shiloh]

so many parents don't realize how important mastering each individual pitch is before moving onto learning a new pitch.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee

You'd be much better served by having your DD learn the drop since it doesn't stay on an East-West plane. It travels North to South. Thus, it's much harder to hit than the curve.

^^^^^^^absolutely^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Suzanne74]

I have several thoughts on the subject which I will share as both a longtime TB Head Coach and a longtime Hitting Coach. From the TB HC's perspective, I hear numerous times a year how many pitches various pitchers have. I'm not saying your post mind you. Just in general. As far as I'm concerned, no pitcher at the 14U level is considered to "have" a pitch unless they can consistently hit each spot/corner 8 out of 10 pitches. Unfortunately, so many parents don't realize how important mastering each individual pitch is before moving onto learning a new pitch. Also unfortunately, many pitching coaches give into the demand of those parents wanting to learn a new pitch instead of losing the student to the PC down the road that will teach it regardless of whether their ready or not.

From both the TB HC and Hitting coach point of views, I want my hitters swinging on plane with the ball. Any coach worth his salt wants the same thing. That means the bat is traveling (with the bat facing East to West) almost as if it were traveling across a piece of flat glass tilted on axis. What does a curveball do? Travels on a flat plane East to West. You'd be much better served by having your DD learn the drop since it doesn't stay on an East-West plane. It travels North to South. Thus, it's much harder to hit than the curve.

I agree on mastering the other pitches. Her nor I brought up the new pitch. It was definitely the PC and maybe she has learned others leave, but that isn't how our family works. Like I said, we aren't demanding anything but learning and fun. Not looking for anything beyond high school yet. And our area high school is not that competitive.

My main concern is my daughter is only pitching mid 40's as she just moved back to 43ft. Sometimes gets it a little faster. I thought increasing accuracy with corners and increasing velocity on her fastball should be the priority. The CU she is good at, I am not going to lie. She used to rainbow it or leave it hanging at 40ft sometimes, but has improved that to knees or lower at 43ft.

I feel like she is still pretty young and not fast enough to get enough spin to even have a successful curve. The PC rationale was that at this age drop balls tend to sit and kids hit ground balls, but isn't that the point? Easy outs are almost as good as SO. Our team has the defense. I fear that a curve is a recipe for wild pitches/past balls.

 

[Lance Steckler]

considering it likely takes 6+months of practice for any new pitch to be remotely game ready...