Wanted: A Better Strategy for Developing Young Pitchers

[Jeffrey]

At the end of the summer I volunteered to help with the pitching for a local 10U startup for a travel organization. I knew the parents of some of the kids. At the first practice the coaches asked who wanted to pitch, 10 of the kids raised their hands. I took them to the side in pairs, I demonstrated 'lock it in' and had the girls throw into a fence while I watched and gave them pointers. I selected 5 of the 10 girls and I went to the first hour of the Saturday practices to work with them. I had to 'cut' one of the girls because she couldn't even handle 'lock it in'. I worked with these 4 girls for 6-7 weeks doing very basic IR drills. All four asked for private lessons, one dropped pitching after 2 weeks. I've had 5 lessons with 2 of the girls, about 8 with the other one. Two of the girls are 9, one is 10. So where do they stand now, not good, they can not reliably reproduce the basic IR arm action which, for me, is the one nonnegotiable in pitching. In years past I have had several other 8-9 year old students with the same issue. This is what makes me think that there is a certain level of physical development that must be reached before a child can learn to pitch.

I'm running into this too...the part about this "they can not reliably reproduce the basic IR arm action" -- All I can do is look for glimpses into proper technique and encourage it. For example: can she at least get on the side of the ball coming down past 9:00? I charge them the beginner rate, and just keep working!

 

[tomorrow]

My daughter could pitch to the strike zone since she started pitching at age of 8. There were 6 wanna-be-pitchers on the team, and 5 of them were the coaches' daughters (there were 6 coaches on the team.) My daughter got to pitch an inning once every few weeks, and pitched about 7-20 pitches to end the inning. Then she had to wait her turns again. In the meantime, it was a walkfest with the other pitchers, and a game may get 2 innings at most. We ended up paying for pitching lessons about once every 3 weeks. No reason to pay for lessons when she didn't get to pitch.

She's also a SS. Most teams she's on would either make her the dedicated pitcher or the dedicated SS, but not both. The teams she's on played tons of games, so you'd think the coaches could let her do both, but no. A month ago, we've decided she's done with pitching so she could focus on fielding. I spent way too much time driving her to pitching lessons (an hour away) just for her to either not pitch or pitch way too much.

We hear coaches complain how there aren't enough pitchers around. I'm sure more pitchers would continue to pitch if the coaches listen to what they want to do. Like my daughter, who likes to pitch, also likes playing SS. I am sad she's done with pitching.

This is just another one of the ways coaches contributed to under developing pitchers.

 

[JayW]

Is it possible that there isn’t really a problem? There seem to be more than enough pitchers to fill the college ranks. In our area, pitching is good enough at 12u rec to have relatively low scoring, competitive games. Same with 10u and up travel ball. High schools have multiple good pitchers. The main problem seems to be at c level travel. There are so many travel teams that there just aren’t enough pitchers for all the teams.

 

[ArmWhip]

We all see this issue through the lens of softball in our area. In this area it is weak, the HS teams are weak and the teams of the one local travel organization are weak. There are no pitchers that can throw strikes at the 10U level. My solution here would be coach pitch to start the season, midway go to half coach-half kid, and adjust from there.

To add to the story of the 10U startup. The parent organization scheduled home and home scrimmages against another team from an area that is a hot bed of softball. They are centered around a five field complex, whereas here it is school fields and a few poorly maintained public park fields. The other team had 2 pitchers who threw the ball with good velocity for the 10U level and OK control. They only hit 4-5 of our batters in each game, ouch! But they had poor mechanics, basically fast bowlers. At the end of the summer I was contacted by a pitcher's parent from this area for a 2nd opinion on his now 14U daughter, she was stalled at 50 mph. This girl had just pitched her team to the 12U State rec championship. I looked at this pitcher and she was also a 'fast bowler'. I went over the basic mechanical issues and started her with the same drills I was using with the 10's that I was coaching. It was going to require a complete rebuild from push off to landing, posture, shoulder alignment, arm/hand action and finish to convert her to IR. I backed it up by showing them some recent video that I had taken at a showcase. They seemed enthusiastic and I thought that the daughter had a good understanding of what changes were needed. But they never called back and at a fall tournament I saw her still bowling. I guess my point is that developing pitching is a complex issue with several levels to be considered.

 

[JayW]

I guess it’s the unique nature of bat and ball games. None of the other players on either team can play a real game without a competent pitcher. Can’t really think of any other team sport that depends so much on one player. Most of the other team youth sports don’t require such specialized instruction for individual players.

At rec ball level and lower travel ball, however, maybe having slingshot pitchers is not so bad to keep the games rolling along.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

At rec ball level and lower travel ball, however, maybe having slingshot pitchers is not so bad to keep the games rolling along.

To me this the answer. Start with palm up to palm down sling shot and see where it grows.

This would also eliminate the confusion with "IR" vs "Hello Elbow" at the younger ages.

 

[injnyr]

We all see this issue through the lens of softball in our area. In this area it is weak, the HS teams are weak and the teams of the one local travel organization are weak. There are no pitchers that can throw strikes at the 10U level. My solution here would be coach pitch to start the season, midway go to half coach-half kid, and adjust from there.

To add to the story of the 10U startup. The parent organization scheduled home and home scrimmages against another team from an area that is a hot bed of softball. They are centered around a five field complex, whereas here it is school fields and a few poorly maintained public park fields. The other team had 2 pitchers who threw the ball with good velocity for the 10U level and OK control. They only hit 4-5 of our batters in each game, ouch! But they had poor mechanics, basically fast bowlers. At the end of the summer I was contacted by a pitcher's parent from this area for a 2nd opinion on his now 14U daughter, she was stalled at 50 mph. This girl had just pitched her team to the 12U State rec championship. I looked at this pitcher and she was also a 'fast bowler'. I went over the basic mechanical issues and started her with the same drills I was using with the 10's that I was coaching. It was going to require a complete rebuild from push off to landing, posture, shoulder alignment, arm/hand action and finish to convert her to IR. I backed it up by showing them some recent video that I had taken at a showcase. They seemed enthusiastic and I thought that the daughter had a good understanding of what changes were needed. But they never called back and at a fall tournament I saw her still bowling. I guess my point is that developing pitching is a complex issue with several levels to be considered.

It still surprises me that most people are afraid of losing what they have, even though they have a chance to surpass their current selves. They see it as a sprint and not a marathon.

Back as a 2nd year 10U and 3 months away from PGF Nationals, we made the decision to have my DD transition to IR mechanics and drop HE cold turkey. She was stuck and in looking for ways to grow, we came across the IR discussion here on DFP. My wife, her dad, and my daughter all looked at me as if I was evil and wanted to ruin her, but I told them that they have to trust it, she will be even better. She went through 3 really tough weeks and then 3 more weeks of refining her accuracy. By the time PGF Nationals came around, she had increased her speed by 5 mph and was more accurate. It takes a lot of work and some don't want to do that, they want to do it their way. Everyone has different ways of seeing things...

 

[injnyr]

My daughter could pitch to the strike zone since she started pitching at age of 8. There were 6 wanna-be-pitchers on the team, and 5 of them were the coaches' daughters (there were 6 coaches on the team.) My daughter got to pitch an inning once every few weeks, and pitched about 7-20 pitches to end the inning. Then she had to wait her turns again. In the meantime, it was a walkfest with the other pitchers, and a game may get 2 innings at most. We ended up paying for pitching lessons about once every 3 weeks. No reason to pay for lessons when she didn't get to pitch.

She's also a SS. Most teams she's on would either make her the dedicated pitcher or the dedicated SS, but not both. The teams she's on played tons of games, so you'd think the coaches could let her do both, but no. A month ago, we've decided she's done with pitching so she could focus on fielding. I spent way too much time driving her to pitching lessons (an hour away) just for her to either not pitch or pitch way too much.

We hear coaches complain how there aren't enough pitchers around. I'm sure more pitchers would continue to pitch if the coaches listen to what they want to do. Like my daughter, who likes to pitch, also likes playing SS. I am sad she's done with pitching.

As stated by others, don't give up! My DD was in the exact same position as yours. She had been on one team for all of 12U and although she could pitch and play SS well, she was always overlooked on the rubber because the team "needed" her at SS. She'd get her innings here and there, but still the 3rd pitcher only because they needed a solid fielder. She talked with her coach and I followed up a couple times to see what she needed to do to get more opportunities. They told her she needed more speed although her spins and spots were right on. So she buckled down and worked hard on refining her mechanics and getting stronger. She caught up to the faster pitchers twice; in fall 2020 she grew 10 mph (from 40 to 50 mph) then 7 mph a second time in summer 2021 (from 50 to 57 mph). Come 12U PGF Nationals last summer, feeling as if she had earned herself a spot in the rotation, she played SS for the whole tourney. This really deflated her, wondering if she was good enough. We knew a switch had to occur for 14U and we changed teams right after Nationals. Now she is on a team that provides plenty of time on the rubber and at SS. I hope there is a similar opportunity for your DD out there! Don't let anyone make her believe that a multi-position player or utility player mindset is less valuable than a single position player as it's the other way around. On my DD's current team, most all girls can play and are rotated at 3 positions as this will develop them into better players.