For those of you whose DD reach a plateau with pitching I would like to share my DD story:
My second year 12U DD has been pitching since her first year in 8U. She had always been above average in height, weight and strength compared to her peers and from 8U through 10U was a dominating pitcher. In her second year of 10U tournament play she became the first pitcher in our league in a 3 year span to win games at state. She went into her first year of 12U with high expectations and optimism of continuing success.
Reality, on the other hand, was much harsher. First off she was suddenly just average in height and weight and a bit below average on arm strength when compared to the older 12/13 YO players. Combine that with moving back 5 feet and the larger ball and she went from being dominating to being an average pitcher. Her cruising speed was in the 44 - 46 MPH range which just happened to be the speed range we used in the batting cages. To say she was hit is an understatement. We had two games where we were mercy ruled by the fourth inning and many games that looked a bit like batting practice. She had 10 losses which is more than the total number of games she had lost in the previous 4 years. Her pitching coach at the time kept tweaking little things and it seemed to confuse my DD more than help. For the first time ever she did not make the Gold tournament team and instead was on the Silver team. Tournament season was not much kinder and by the end of the season she was talking about dropping pitching entirely.
She took a couple of months off and when winter ball started she decided to give pitching another shot. The first thing we did was change to a pitching coach that adapted her teaching method to my daughter's natural style. My DD has a natural spin and a minor change in her grip and release point allowed her to take advantage of this spin and maximize her movement. She also worked with my DD on her stride and explosiveness off the mound. These lessons helped her understand what she needed to do but they did not replace good old fashioned practice and hard-work. This is where my DD surprised me. Over the 10 week winter ball season she pushed herself physically to become better. Under the coaches direction she built up her arm strength by training with wrist weights. She expanded her stride almost 9 inches by pushing off up hill 25 - 30 times every day. She focused on core exercises to get her whole body in on the pitch. She also started throwing 50 pitches 4 times a week outside of practices and games.
This hard-work and perseverance paid off. We played 14 games in winter ball. The first couple of games were very similar to rec season. The older players hit her like batting practice. This time, however, she did not let it beat her down. She started to implement the lessons her PC taught her. Slowly but surely her movement, speed and location improved. By the mid-point of the season the older 12U girls were hitting less often and many of the incoming 12U players could not hit her at all. The last two games of the season everything came together. She mastered her stride and release. Incorporated a change-up and drop to offset the fastball and learned to pitch with her brain and not just her arm. End result is the last two games of the season she pitched a 1 hit shut out, striking out 12 over 5 innings and a no hitter striking out 14 over 6 innings. This success did not come easy, it came through hard-work and perseverance. From practice and listening to coaches. Most importantly it came from her remembering the most important lesson her PC ever taught. MLB named the award for its best pitcher after a guy who lost the most games of any pitcher. If you can't overcome failure you will never succeed.
Closing note: Using the methods taught by her PC and the hard-work and training she performed on her own she has brought her cruising speed up to 52 - 54 with a top speed of 57.
My second year 12U DD has been pitching since her first year in 8U. She had always been above average in height, weight and strength compared to her peers and from 8U through 10U was a dominating pitcher. In her second year of 10U tournament play she became the first pitcher in our league in a 3 year span to win games at state. She went into her first year of 12U with high expectations and optimism of continuing success.
Reality, on the other hand, was much harsher. First off she was suddenly just average in height and weight and a bit below average on arm strength when compared to the older 12/13 YO players. Combine that with moving back 5 feet and the larger ball and she went from being dominating to being an average pitcher. Her cruising speed was in the 44 - 46 MPH range which just happened to be the speed range we used in the batting cages. To say she was hit is an understatement. We had two games where we were mercy ruled by the fourth inning and many games that looked a bit like batting practice. She had 10 losses which is more than the total number of games she had lost in the previous 4 years. Her pitching coach at the time kept tweaking little things and it seemed to confuse my DD more than help. For the first time ever she did not make the Gold tournament team and instead was on the Silver team. Tournament season was not much kinder and by the end of the season she was talking about dropping pitching entirely.
She took a couple of months off and when winter ball started she decided to give pitching another shot. The first thing we did was change to a pitching coach that adapted her teaching method to my daughter's natural style. My DD has a natural spin and a minor change in her grip and release point allowed her to take advantage of this spin and maximize her movement. She also worked with my DD on her stride and explosiveness off the mound. These lessons helped her understand what she needed to do but they did not replace good old fashioned practice and hard-work. This is where my DD surprised me. Over the 10 week winter ball season she pushed herself physically to become better. Under the coaches direction she built up her arm strength by training with wrist weights. She expanded her stride almost 9 inches by pushing off up hill 25 - 30 times every day. She focused on core exercises to get her whole body in on the pitch. She also started throwing 50 pitches 4 times a week outside of practices and games.
This hard-work and perseverance paid off. We played 14 games in winter ball. The first couple of games were very similar to rec season. The older players hit her like batting practice. This time, however, she did not let it beat her down. She started to implement the lessons her PC taught her. Slowly but surely her movement, speed and location improved. By the mid-point of the season the older 12U girls were hitting less often and many of the incoming 12U players could not hit her at all. The last two games of the season everything came together. She mastered her stride and release. Incorporated a change-up and drop to offset the fastball and learned to pitch with her brain and not just her arm. End result is the last two games of the season she pitched a 1 hit shut out, striking out 12 over 5 innings and a no hitter striking out 14 over 6 innings. This success did not come easy, it came through hard-work and perseverance. From practice and listening to coaches. Most importantly it came from her remembering the most important lesson her PC ever taught. MLB named the award for its best pitcher after a guy who lost the most games of any pitcher. If you can't overcome failure you will never succeed.
Closing note: Using the methods taught by her PC and the hard-work and training she performed on her own she has brought her cruising speed up to 52 - 54 with a top speed of 57.
