- Aug 21, 2008
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Your last sentence lost me, 'most natural'? What do you mean by that?
Need More Than 3 Pitches?
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- Aug 21, 2008
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The part about this, that is the elephant in the room as far as I'm concerned is every kid is in a rush to post on social media about their speed and their new pitch that is incredible. So many naive parents think their kid is going to be special by learning 8 pitches from a "pitcher who played in college" so they buy all that this PC is selling.
But where the major issue arises is when these kids are taught too many "different" pitches so young in their life. I put "Different" in quotes because we all know 99% of the time a young kid's pitches all spin identically. They don't have 8 pitches, they have 1 pitch that they throw 8 different spots!!!!
As they are being taught all of these new and exciting pitches, almost none of them seem to realize that they are constantly hurting their own pitch development by trying to do too many things before they're actually ready. They work on pitch A for a few months, then boom they are taught pitch B. But, pitch A wasn't actually solid yet and working on pitch B is having a negative effect on pitch A's development.
The best example is riseball. I've said before, if you work the rise first (which can take years to do right) then the curveball will be extremely easy. But doing the curve first is going to make the rise harder to do. Let me clarify, the chances of having a riseball with backspin decrease significantly when learning the curve first. Curves usually require some wrist turn or action, which is an easy muscle memory thing to establish. But with the rise, your wrist is not your friend and is the cause of bulletspin. But all too often I get told by a parent of a student that the team's coach is wanting her to have more pitches. They're not asking to make what she already has better... NO!!!!!!!!!! They want something new. SMH.
But these trophy hunting youth coaches out there, who are more worried about winning a random tournament in June seem to be willing to trade what is good for the pitcher's overall development in exchange for some trophy they won at a local tournament. So they put pressure on kids to get more and more pitches, they'll tell mom/dad that the kid needs more pitches to be successful. And far too many families fall into this situation, and it does hurt the development of that young pitcher. Yet, the OP shared a video of the women's game's #1 pitcher telling everyone that this myth about 8 pitches isn't true.
But where the major issue arises is when these kids are taught too many "different" pitches so young in their life. I put "Different" in quotes because we all know 99% of the time a young kid's pitches all spin identically. They don't have 8 pitches, they have 1 pitch that they throw 8 different spots!!!!
As they are being taught all of these new and exciting pitches, almost none of them seem to realize that they are constantly hurting their own pitch development by trying to do too many things before they're actually ready. They work on pitch A for a few months, then boom they are taught pitch B. But, pitch A wasn't actually solid yet and working on pitch B is having a negative effect on pitch A's development.
The best example is riseball. I've said before, if you work the rise first (which can take years to do right) then the curveball will be extremely easy. But doing the curve first is going to make the rise harder to do. Let me clarify, the chances of having a riseball with backspin decrease significantly when learning the curve first. Curves usually require some wrist turn or action, which is an easy muscle memory thing to establish. But with the rise, your wrist is not your friend and is the cause of bulletspin. But all too often I get told by a parent of a student that the team's coach is wanting her to have more pitches. They're not asking to make what she already has better... NO!!!!!!!!!! They want something new. SMH.
But these trophy hunting youth coaches out there, who are more worried about winning a random tournament in June seem to be willing to trade what is good for the pitcher's overall development in exchange for some trophy they won at a local tournament. So they put pressure on kids to get more and more pitches, they'll tell mom/dad that the kid needs more pitches to be successful. And far too many families fall into this situation, and it does hurt the development of that young pitcher. Yet, the OP shared a video of the women's game's #1 pitcher telling everyone that this myth about 8 pitches isn't true.
Previous to social media it happened that people talk about their successes and the yada yada. That is not new. Social media simply exploded it all over the place.
Don't think it is correct to categorize only coaches in that statement.
It might be interesting but I think it's totally true. I've seen so many pitchers who have 4 pitches which they throw on all for balls of the walk. I'm not saying you don't try new pitches, but really until you can master 1 or 2 (and that's a relative term by age) to try and add another is less than productive. Now I will say as a PC (which I'm not) if a P is having trouble with a certain pitch it might be worth trying a different one that they might be able to control better.
I have been to lessons with multiple different instructors teaching pitching. Have seen it happen that while one pitch frustrated and caused Havoc with the pitcher, soooo the same
pitcher tried a different new pitch to learn and it came much easier to the task of control and usefulness!
* more than one instructor has recognized that there is a time to learn new things. There is a time to evaluate what is being learned. How it is being implemented/ it's productivity, and what else can be learned to grow.
Again I say
Absolutely there is more than one way to reach success. There is no cookie cutter style that will work for everybody! People learn in different ways. Some people find what works the first time around but that doesn't always happen. Some people continue designing and refining and find better ways to be successful at other levels.
As far as mechanics I know this to be also true with hitting and mechanics in Catching and throwing.
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I meant that I'd begin with (after teaching a good drop, which should be first in my opinion) the pitch associated with the type of spin they achieve the easiest.
Where were all of these pitches at the CWS?
For a pitcher at the higher levels to "have" a pitch, they have to be able to locate the pitch and get it to "move" 9/10 times *DURING THE GAME*.
The usual situation is that Little Suzy and Dad are working in the backyard, and she tries to throw 50 drops in a row and then gets the last 10 to move. That's great...but, that isn't how it works in a game.
During a game, Little Suzy has to go back and forth between pitches. Then, of course, she has to locate the pitch--which usually means (1) moving the ball inside and outside and (2) adjusting the pitch a few inches up or down, depending on the umpire's strike zone.
By the time a kid has developed sufficient control over a movement pitch to use it during a game, her career is almost over. There just isn't enough time for most softball pitchers to fully develop a bunch of movement pitches.
If you look at the CWS, there were almost no movement pitches. Everyone was throwing bullet spin pitches.
IMHO, a pitcher should develop one great movement pitch and a great changeup.
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- Jun 18, 2023
- 543
- 63
You guys keep referencing this fictional 10 year old who's got all the pitches but doesn't really, but two things about that..
1. Why shouldn't a 10 year old (or a 12 year old) be fooling around with all the pitches? they're learning to pitch, they're learning the pitches, they're learning all the different things they can do. Touch 'em all! Yes, obviously they're not masters of these pitch, and we don't have to take that argument seriously, but so what? Let them be excited about learning and pitching! Most of the time they're gonna have to figure out that they don't really have that pitch the hard way anyway.
2. That doesn't mean having more than 3 pitches is necessarily bad because some over-excited to see what she can do with a softball kid (or her parent) is a braggart. It's not a binary between three pitches at 90% mastery versus 6 at 50%. It's a blend, there's a time and place for everything. Maybe one kid really masters one pitch, but struggles with getting pitch 2 and 3 to that level, but maybe gets 4-5 more pitches to say..70% mastery. Who's to say she can't be MORE effective that way, than if she'd mastered the three?
To soft-toss another cliche onto the pile, it's about being a pitcher not a thrower.
1. Why shouldn't a 10 year old (or a 12 year old) be fooling around with all the pitches? they're learning to pitch, they're learning the pitches, they're learning all the different things they can do. Touch 'em all! Yes, obviously they're not masters of these pitch, and we don't have to take that argument seriously, but so what? Let them be excited about learning and pitching! Most of the time they're gonna have to figure out that they don't really have that pitch the hard way anyway.
2. That doesn't mean having more than 3 pitches is necessarily bad because some over-excited to see what she can do with a softball kid (or her parent) is a braggart. It's not a binary between three pitches at 90% mastery versus 6 at 50%. It's a blend, there's a time and place for everything. Maybe one kid really masters one pitch, but struggles with getting pitch 2 and 3 to that level, but maybe gets 4-5 more pitches to say..70% mastery. Who's to say she can't be MORE effective that way, than if she'd mastered the three?
To soft-toss another cliche onto the pile, it's about being a pitcher not a thrower.
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