DD has decent locations, but everyone hits

[GunnerShotgun]

My daughter is first year 10u. We practice a lot. She puts in a lot of time, and she has progressed a ton. She's throwing strikes about 70-75% of her pitches. Right now she hits her spots dead on about 40% of the time, but she misses by just a bit if she does miss. We're definitely still working on all this, but she is tiny. I mean tiny. Smallest on her team and maybe smallest in the league. Fastest I clocked her at is 36, one girl in her league I have her clocked at 49.

This is rec, I'm HC. Our no. 1 pitcher isn't my daughter and she's throwing about 42. My daughter has had one walk in like the last 9 innings but something like 20+ hits against her in the same time. Honestly our lack of fielding is a decent part of that, but still it seems like every time I have her throw anything other than a changeup they hit it.

I think she probably is top 3 in how accurate she is in hitting her spots in the league. But she's probably one of the worst pitchers in the league with runs scored against her.

I figure we start out in the weight room through the summer hopefully get her a few MPH. Most of the reason I'm writing this is to just crowdsource some thoughts on how I should call her pitches. Do I intentionally have her throw out of the zone in hopes they'll reach for it? I'm not doing that at all. But I do have her hitting the corners, which again she hits about 40% of the time right on, but if it's not right on it's usually still a strike.

I have her throwing a lot of changeups which she kills. They reach for them almost every time. But if I throw them three in a row, they get a read on it and hit it. But the second I go back to the fastball, boom a hit. Our other pitcher throws fewer strikes (not on purpose), but when she does throw a strike they are almost all meatballs down the center and they barely hit, I'm assuming because of the speed difference.

My daughter also has a "riseball" it doesn't rise or anything I think because it's just not going fast enough and doesn't have far enough to travel, but it has some nasty spin on it. She does pretty well with that and most of the time the hits aren't great, but they still hit it and our infield is just not bringing it.

Anyways long post I know, I just feel bad because she works so hard and I feel like I'm failing her here a bit with calling the pitches, and also I have this existential worry that I'm dooming her to fail in something because she's probably always going to be small (if I'm looking at her parents).

Any advice is appreciated! She has a great IR pitching coach and we've talked about this before, but just figured I'd crowdsource a bit and see if anyone had any more suggestions or have had success in situations like this before.

If speed is a concern going forward I would teach her a change-up as her primary pitch. These pitchers are very rare but I do see them at the higher levels.

 

[Hawk_]

The "strikes thrown %" is the worst stat ever. Stop throwing so many strikes. Get ahead foul balls are great is she is slower (inside pitch) then move outside, then more outside if you get the outside corner called. 0-2 count should be an unhittable. 1-2 unhittable. 2-2 might bounce it back inside.

 

[JJsqueeze]

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. The goal is to build a pitcher not throw a strike. Here is the order of development

Mechanics first.

It doesn’t matter if she hits the girl, the zone or the mascot…if her mechanics are progressing then she is doing it right. The worst thing you can do to a 10 year old is tell her to throw strikes.

There are miles of threads and videos on the drills to develop mechanics and slow motion analysis of good mechanics. Or just hire one of the resident experts for remote lessons or in person lessons.

Think of this as the chassis of the car…the structure to contain the high horsepower engine. If the chassis can’t handle the engine then the car is useless.

Speed second. Once again doesn’t matter if she is hitting the opposing teams coach, her own center fielder or the lights…as long as she is throwing hard (notice this comes after mechanics are sound so she doesn’t hurt herself).

Location is third. But if she has good mechanics and has practiced a lot then the location mostly takes care of itself. When practicing location remember to “aim small-miss small”. So she should not be trying to hit the glove. She should be trying to hit “the third lace closest to the thumb on the webbing”, or the “little oily dark spot about an inch from the bottom of the glove.

Then different pitches. Start with a change up.

And for the love of God. Never…ever…ever…ever

Did I mention ever?

Say the words riseball and 10u in the same sentence.

Enjoy the journey. Hope she takes to it and you get to watch her for a long time.


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[bjenkins24]

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. The goal is to build a pitcher not throw a strike. Here is the order of development

Mechanics first.

It doesn’t matter if she hits the girl, the zone or the mascot…if her mechanics are progressing then she is doing it right. The worst thing you can do to a 10 year old is tell her to throw strikes.

There are miles of threads and videos on the drills to develop mechanics and slow motion analysis of good mechanics. Or just hire one of the resident experts for remote lessons or in person lessons.

Think of this as the chassis of the car…the structure to contain the high horsepower engine. If the chassis can’t handle the engine then the car is useless.

Speed second. Once again doesn’t matter if she is hitting the opposing teams coach, her own center fielder or the lights…as long as she is throwing hard (notice this comes after mechanics are sound so she doesn’t hurt herself).

Location is third. But if she has good mechanics and has practiced a lot then the location mostly takes care of itself. When practicing location remember to “aim small-miss small”. So she should not be trying to hit the glove. She should be trying to hit “the third lace closest to the thumb on the webbing”, or the “little oily dark spot about an inch from the bottom of the glove.

Then different pitches. Start with a change up.

And for the love of God. Never…ever…ever…ever

Did I mention ever?

Say the words riseball and 10u in the same sentence.

Enjoy the journey. Hope she takes to it and you get to watch her for a long time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks we've spend pretty much all our time on mechanics. Spent a long time in here reading through and watching videos and found a good IR pitching coach who is happy with her mechanics so far. Still more to work on for sure, but feel good about her direction.

I said "riseball" in quotes because that's just what we call it there's no rise/break or anything to it. Her pitching coach just wants her to practice spinning the ball. I dunno if there's a better name for it, that's what our pitching coach calls it.

Aim small miss small was helpful!

 

[Sweetclemens]

Bjenkins we have been converting from HE to IR for a while now. We are still having a problem w leading w the elbow and palm up in the back. She can do it slow but when she speeds up she tightens up. Did your DD have this problem?


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[bjenkins24]

Bjenkins we have been converting from HE to IR for a while now. We are still having a problem w leading w the elbow and palm up in the back. She can do it slow but when she speeds up she tightens up. Did your DD have this problem?


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My daughter didn't have a ton of experience with HE before moving to IR, so I think the move was probably a little easier than a more experienced pitcher. But we did a lot of lock it in/unlock it from the pinned IR in the classroom. She stopped pitching pretty much completely and just did those progression into IR drills until it was burned into muscle memory. Then we got her IR pitching coach which was surprised how close she was. It was in the summer when she wasn't pitching anyways when we changed to IR. It was a lot of grueling work, but her PC is happy with where she's at there now.

We tried her whole pitch when I was yelling "palm up" and "lead with the elbow". It didn't help at all until we took it back to these isolated movements and stopped pitching altogether.

 

[ArmWhip]

Bjenkins we have been converting from HE to IR for a while now. We are still having a problem w leading w the elbow and palm up in the back. She can do it slow but when she speeds up she tightens up. Did your DD have this problem?


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When working with an experienced pitcher directing her attention to the body (elbow, palm) in order to bring about a mechanical change is often not effective, it works better with beginners. Try telling her to make a smaller ball circle, this will force her to keep her elbow bent. Using a task or drill is more efficient when trying to make a mechanical change than using the brain to direct the body, that's a long road.

 

[fistafury17]

The toughest pitchers to hit against are the ones who are "effectively wild."

I love this. Exceptionally fast pitchers in 10U are typically effectively wild, the best throw 50% strikes, strike out the same number of batters they walk and rarely get hit. If they run into a team that does start hitting them, the wheels come off the train and it turns into "the wild wild west".

 

[efastball]

Technique trumps strength by a long shot

Work on speed, using technique.

Maybe better pitch/location selection (ahem).

 

[YOCOACH]

No disrespect but, #1 it's rec ball and #2, it's 10U rec ball. It's not like she's pitching in the championship game of the WCWS tomorrow. She has a lot of time to develop with some work before she needs to worry about being the V starting pitcher for the HS V team. Listen to the outstanding, very solid advice you've gotten so far and relax a little. If your DD sees anxiety, frustration or whatever you're feeling about the situation while practicing with her, she will feel it as well and can affect her negatively. Be positive and make a lot of good memories. Take lots of pictures and enjoy the ride. Before you know it, you'll be walking her down the aisle thinking, "What hell happened to the last 15 years?!"