- Oct 3, 2011
- 9
- 0
Well yes - that is where the best ones are.
However I look at it differently - it goes back to 10U/12U.
Pitching is hard - it takes a lot of work to be just average. And softball teams in travel really only go for a 1-2 pitchers rotation - maybe 3 in pool games. So a lot of girls stop pitching for lack of circle time and either decide to concentrate on hitting/fielding or leave softball altogether. Especially in 10U/12U the best athletes/players tend to be on the better teams so a lot of potential pitchers are playing SS for that 10A or 12A team - I know on our 10UA team we had 3 girls who would have pitched and been #1 on any 10UB team but never threw an inning for our team. Already being a field player/hitter on a better team is more important to them than getting to pitch.
By the time you exit 12U the girls who are left pitching are where you are getting your pitchers from for 14U-18U until college. There are not that many pitchers who start later than 12U (yes there are exceptions but not many). Now have some of them stop playing softball because they don't want to put the work in/other sports/boys/school/other activity/sleeping/injury/stop playing for their parents and this pool of players gets smaller and smaller.
We also keep pushing this 'type' - you must be this tall, you must throw this hard, and so on - and if you don't then there is a pretty good chance you wont pitch.
And then there is the whole 'you need to be seen' so the college level pitchers end up in 16UA or 18U exposure teams the moment they hit high school eligible.
We kill the potential pitching pool in the younger age groups and then continue to do so with the way many coaches ride their #1 pitchers and minimal other pitcher development.
How many of the non prototypical pitchers made it after 12U. The too short, too skinny that hit a late growth spurt and became a force to be dealt with. My guess would be not many.