Secondary sport for a pitcher

[CoachJD]

Let her play FH if she enjoys it. One day (in the not so distant future) she won’t have any more sports to play and she will be working for a living like the rest of us. Are there any other softball players on the team? If so, could they play catch right after practice every so often just to keep the feel?

I normally would agree with the sentiment in the first sentence, but in this case, a teenager who (as the OP states) has clear aspirations to pitch in college might need some adult guidance. This might be a scenario where just "do whatever is fun" isn't the best advice for someone who is driven to achieve a goal. She might have to sacrifice field hockey to achieve that goal, and while ultimately playing or not should be her decision, I don't know that it's bad for a parent to lay out the different scenarios here.

IOW, saying "If you truly want to pitch in college, you may have to give up field hockey this year to dedicate the time to achieving your goal" is not such a bad thing.

 

[GIMNEPIWO]

I am of the opinion that a decision does not have to be made until she wants to make decision ... If she thinks FH is too much, she'll give it up ... If she thinks pitching practice is too much, she'll take a break and potentially come back to it refreshed ... Given the opportunity, kids will lead you to where you need to guide them ... If we listen. Step in if her academics take a hit and make a suggestion ... She's only 2 short years before college and your opportunity to give her an opportunity to start calling some of her own shots.

 

[Tango]

She played one season of MS in the fall of 2019, and one season of JV in the late winter/early spring of 2021. COVID forced the cancellation of fall 2020 sports, so they moved them all to late winter/early spring in 2021. She didn't play last year because she thought her travel schedule was too hectic.

My thinking is that pitching requires more time than the other positions, but what the heck do I know? I know it's good for conditioning.

I posted above about my 16 year old. She/we have to drive 1:30 for TB practice and an hour for hitting lessons. When she was playing VB, she only practiced with her TB on the weekends. We didn't take hitting lessons during VB. We got the pitching in. Sometimes very odd hours. I had concerns with her playing VB (shoulder injury) but also have concerns with her not playing (jumping is good for pitching). Threw on Sat, Sun, Wed, and find a day.

 

[radness]

Truthfully, it makes it tough to get to lessons on a regular basis because practices are from 5-7 weekdays. Her trainer is 30 minutes away, so the earliest we can do now is 8:00 PM.

Good to have learned that to help you prioritize time and her goal.

Here is something for players to consider~
If they are exhausted from high school practice when going to a lesson directly after,
how effective will the lesson be?

Can say that have students who would tell even their softball High School coaches their goal is softball and certain day of the week they would be attending their private lessons versus going to practices with their high school teams.
Because of the importance of the lesson and training they were getting is beyond what the hs coach could offer.
Have to prioritize what the goal is
Recreation is great!
Goals are priority!
Type of thing.

 

[sluggers]

I'd say it's okay, but for a pitcher, I'm not sure. If the consensus is that she should focus on softball, I'll have her drop field hockey before the season starts.

To be a high level pitcher, she has to practice for 60 minutes, 4 or 5 days a week. 48 weeks of the year. No exceptions.

Your DD is at a critical time for softball. She blows an ACL playing field hockey, she can forget playing softball in college.

My DD#3 played hoops in college. She was an exceptional HS athlete--tremendous eye-hand coordination. She lettered in tennis (she went to state twice), softball, basketball and track in HS. She couldn't develop into a decent pitcher because she didn't have time to practice pitching and play the other sports.

 

[Towny9]

I normally would agree with the sentiment in the first sentence, but in this case, a teenager who (as the OP states) has clear aspirations to pitch in college might need some adult guidance. This might be a scenario where just "do whatever is fun" isn't the best advice for someone who is driven to achieve a goal. She might have to sacrifice field hockey to achieve that goal, and while ultimately playing or not should be her decision, I don't know that it's bad for a parent to lay out the different scenarios here.

IOW, saying "If you truly want to pitch in college, you may have to give up field hockey this year to dedicate the time to achieving your goal" is not such a bad thing.

I don’t disagree with either take on playing FH or not. I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer. Maybe it effects her ability to play in college and maybe it doesn’t. Fact is - if she is good enough it won’t matter and if she isn’t that good then I would hate to see her give up FH (assuming she enjoys it) to (maybe) reach a goal (college softball) that a lot of kids realize isn’t that great once they get there anyway.

 

[Tango]

To be a high level pitcher, she has to practice for 60 minutes, 4 or 5 days a week. 48 weeks of the year. No exceptions.

Your DD is at a critical time for softball. She blows an ACL playing field hockey, she can forget playing softball in college.

My DD#3 played hoops in college. She was an exceptional HS athlete--tremendous eye-hand coordination. She lettered in tennis (she went to state twice), softball, basketball and track in HS. She couldn't develop into a decent pitcher because she didn't have time to practice pitching and play the other sports.

Do you count Saturday and Sunday games as practice?

Have a friend that's DD came to him around 14 or 15 and said I want to pitch at the D1 level. He told her 5 days a week and throw every pitch at every locations with great speed and movement 5x. If you throw everything good then you are done. If it's bad you go until you hit the numbers. He told her the day you say I don't want to play D1 we will stop. He talks about sitting in the driveway at 1 am waiting for her to get home. Biggest fight they ever had and last one about pitching. She played D1. LOL.

 

[_MIA_]

Make her give up her cellphone for the semester before FH….j/k..kind of

While I tend to side with @Towny9 here, put a schedule down on paper to see if getting a reasonable amount of pitching work in(maybe not optimal, but reasonable) is feasible while still getting enough sleep. Game days (especially road games) are going to be the biggest problems I would think. Also,while hitters/position players still should be working 4 or 5 times a week once they get to that age if they are serious about it, a pitcher needs somebody to catch her which is going to be one of the biggest issues as you need to work around another person's schedule (hitters/fielders can get some work done on their own when it fits into their schedule).

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Make her give up her cellphone for the semester before FH….j/k..kind of

While I tend to side with @Towny9 here, put a schedule down on paper to see if getting a reasonable amount of pitching work in(maybe not optimal, but reasonable) is feasible while still getting enough sleep. Game days (especially road games) are going to be the biggest problems I would think. Also,while hitters/position players still should be working 4 or 5 times a week once they get to that age if they are serious about it, a pitcher needs somebody to catch her which is going to be one of the biggest issues as you need to work around another person's schedule (hitters/fielders can get some work done on their own when it fits into their schedule).

Since she broke my big toe three weeks ago, I'm relegated to being a retired catcher. Also, her older sister left for college last week, and she's her primary catcher. So what I did was go out and buy a 9 hole pitcher's pocket for her. It doesn't throw the ball back, but it's great for location and not breaking my toes.

 

[MNDad]

DD played basketball through 10th grade. It got to be too time consuming with homework and practicing basketball enough to play varsity and working on pitching enough to play in college. She was the only girl on the basketball team that wasn’t an AAU player and even at 6’3” she primarily played JV. A less competitive sport she probably could have stuck with.

I’d say it depends on the level your DD aspires to play at in college too. All of DD’s travel teammates that went D1 stopped playing other sports in HS. The ones that went D2 or D3 continued their HS sports.