Throwing Balls

[bsbs]

My daughter is 13, her goal was 65% strike rate this summer. 80% seems pretty high.

 

[Rolling Hard]

My daughter is 13, her goal was 65% strike rate this summer. 80% seems pretty high.

I guess it matters how many balls she is throwing purposely trying to induce a chase or weakly hit ball.

 

[Rolling Hard]

The coach simply calls the pitch. Curveball.

There's no location on the armband/card. Does she want it over the plate, off the plate, backdoor, backdoor off the plate?

No one knows...

Wow! That's hard to believe. Sorry to say this but your HS is unqualified. Your DD should ask the coach to include location. I mean we had pitch locations at 10U.

 

[BucketDud]

My daughter is 13, her goal was 65% strike rate this summer. 80% seems pretty high.

80% in 10u-12u might be a good thing, but can't imagine that high of S% would work in college or even older TB.

We generally shoot for 60-65% and less than .333 BB/IP.

 

[uncdrew]

Wow! That's hard to believe. Sorry to say this but your HS is unqualified. Your DD should ask the coach to include location. I mean we had pitch locations at 10U.

Right?

We're honestly flabbergasted. My DD is very polite and this pitching coach thinks she's some guru and knows it all. So suggesting things to her might result in benching. We've debated how best to handle this.

1. At the end of this freshman season, show her the travel armband she will be using the next 8 months and say "this is what I'll use the next 8 months, perhaps we can move to it for high school since it's what I'm used to".

2. Ignore pitching coach. Our #3 pitcher is now doing this. It's getting her benched after 2-3 innings, but she's more effective than she was when she pitched what the coach called.

3. Have DD try to talk to pitching coach again.

4. Have DD talk to head coach.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I defend catchers quite often, especially on this team. If a girl throws fast and the catcher has no clue where the ball might go, it's not fair to get on them for some passed balls.

Maybe have the coach try to catch in that situation?

 

[Nuwin]

3, 4, 2. 1 is probably just going to be perceived as an insult.

They all have the possibility of being benched for questioning authority. But be direct. Demand a location. You're not a mind reader. "If you don't teach me how you want me to set up hitters, I am going to revert to what I have had success with from TB." Ball is now in coach's court to be an educator.

And be prepared for the consequences. It's unfortunate but you may as well learn that not everyone will see your value correctly.

 

[daywalkerdad]

Pitchers throwing strikes have a way of not being benched for long.

To me as much as it is a pitcher issue it is a catcher issue. Maybe have the catcher bring it up?

BTW kudos if you daughter can execute this, not easy.

 

[heman1202]

I am having trouble understanding this. Is she getting hit quite a bit? You said the coach came out to talk after a strikeout. How does the coach know your daughter is not hitting locations? Is she standing behind the fence watching? Is the catcher telling her? Is she specifically talking about high/low?

 

[uncdrew]

I am having trouble understanding this. Is she getting hit quite a bit? You said the coach came out to talk after a strikeout. How does the coach know your daughter is not hitting locations? Is she standing behind the fence watching? Is the catcher telling her? Is she specifically talking about high/low?

Good questions. My daughter is hitting her locations. Well, she's hitting the locations she wants to hit. She aims for corners. But there is no location on the pitch calling. Simply "Fastball". And the catchers don't know, so basically my DD throws where she thinks she should. It's bizarre. Catchers are not experienced catchers. They are good players and good athletes, but none play catch on their travel teams. No training so they're not much help here.

It's quite a mystery. All of it.

I have no idea how the pitching coach in the dugout (and these dugouts at our home field are set far from home plate) can tell where a pitch is pitched. She doesn't ask the ump or catcher where it missed. And the "too many strikes"? I don't know - perhaps if they swing it means it's a strike and they're swinging too much?

When the #3 pitcher just stopped pitching what the coach called, she did really well. Was effective. But got yanked after 3 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts because she wasn't doing what she was told to do.

My DD pitched the last four and did fine. Gave up several hits, only 1 strikeout. Not great, but good. Thing is, she would call a screwball, girl would hammer it down the third base line foul. Next pitch called is a screwball, hammered to the fence, one foot foul. Next pitch called is a screwball, double off the fence one foot fair.

Even the non-pitcher parents were looking at me like WTF?