Pitcher digs a lane before pitching?

[SJVCoachingDad]

Saw something yesterday that I hadn’t seen before. I’ve seen pitchers fill holes in front of the rubber before pitching, but a girl yesterday spend about a minute toout a lane about 2” deep, 6” wide, and 2‘ long in front of the rubber before she threw her first pitch. Does this happen at other levels of play?

 

[chinamigarden]

No. And with the new leaping rules I can’t see the benefit.

 

[Northball]

What age? I presume it was straight forward from the rubber. May have been creating her own version of a foot box to keep her drag foot going forward a ways before curving off to the side. To me that is something that should be taken care of in practice and not carried over to a game.

 

[SJVCoachingDad]

What age? I presume it was straight forward from the rubber...

10U Rec League, and yes it was in front of the rubber. I'd never heard of or seen a pitcher do this and nothing came up when I used the forum search. It didn't bother me because I really didn't see what advantage it gave her, just thought it was weird, so I figured I'd check with people who know more than I do. Thanks for the replies.

 

[wheresmycar]

Saw something yesterday that I hadn’t seen before. I’ve seen pitchers fill holes in front of the rubber before pitching, but a girl yesterday spend about a minute toout a lane about 2” deep, 6” wide, and 2‘ long in front of the rubber before she threw her first pitch. Does this happen at other levels of play?

They should send the parents a bill to repair the field. So many parks that are otherwise in good shape, except for the canyon that has been dug in front of the pitchers plate.

 

[El Oso]

put her parents in charge of repairing the area after the game with new mound clay and I bet she refrains from doing it in the future. Easy to tear stuff up when someone else has to repair it.

 

[Northball]

At 10U you could tell her she's getting about as deep as the last snake's nest that was found on the field. Might stop the digging.

 

[EDen]

Writing as a National Level 18u Pitcher

Was the dirt on the field very Loose? When I pitch I have a very heavy back foot drag. And when there is loose dirt filling up the hole in front of the mound, that makes me more unbalanced and unstable when pitching. So I have been known to kick out any looser dirt in the hole before i take my first pitch. If the field was hard clay and was level, i don't see why she would do that. But if the mound was like a sandpit it was most likely for her to keep her balance better on the drag and not have to worry about accidentally rolling an ankle if it gets stuck in the loose dirt. Hope this helps!

 

[Dabears17]

Writing as a National Level 18u Pitcher

Was the dirt on the field very Loose? When I pitch I have a very heavy back foot drag. And when there is loose dirt filling up the hole in front of the mound, that makes me more unbalanced and unstable when pitching. So I have been known to kick out any looser dirt in the hole before i take my first pitch. If the field was hard clay and was level, i don't see why she would do that. But if the mound was like a sandpit it was most likely for her to keep her balance better on the drag and not have to worry about accidentally rolling an ankle if it gets stuck in the loose dirt. Hope this helps!

Saw a pitcher doing this last week on my DD's high school team. When I asked my DD why the pitcher was doing this, she said it was because it was so sandy with loose dirt.

Back when I was a coach I would take a bucket of water out there after a game with me to the pitcher's mound to try to keep it from being so sandy. Would do same thing with right hander's batter's box and for the catcher's box.

 

[EDen]

Saw a pitcher doing this last week on my DD's high school team doing it. When I asked my DD why the pitcher was doing this, she said it was because it was so sandy with loose dirt.

Back when I was a coach I would take a bucket of water out there after a game with me to the pitcher's mound to try to keep it from being so sandy. Would do same thing with right hander's batter's box and for the catcher's box.

Yep! Water always can help, but you have to find the happy medium between just packing the dirt down, and not turning it into a sticky mud puddle. Whenever I'm playing home games for high school, I used to take a water bottle out to the mound and pour some on the loose dirt if i could, just to make it stay a bit better. Unfortunately you can't really do this at tournament when they have a grounds crew. So I normally just end up digging it out.