MS Ball

This makes sense

Unfortunately, many parents can't seem to see the advantage in their DD's sharing time in the circle. It's one of the reasons there are so many travel teams! I never saw this as problem. My DD shared time in HS with two other pitchers (in fact she played JV as a freshmen while being arguably one of the top 10 HS pitchers in NC) and I actually moved her from a travel team where she threw all the innings to one where she shared with two other girls for 18U. Didn't negatively impact her opportunities at all. Still got multiple D1 full ride offers. Fact is, most girls will share time in college so its good they learn to do so early.

Her career is winding down. She'll finish with over 500K's at the D1 level and as the winningest pitcher in school history. She also has a medical file twice as thick as any of her teammates. If she had not shared innings from an early age I suspect her career would have ended several years ago.

 

Great Post Dukedog...

the reasons that we don't hear about the over use injuries to softball pitchers is the lack of scientific studies done. The one that you noted is a perfect example of what really happens to the skeletal and muscular systems during repeated stress.

I had a girl who came to me for lessons as a 12 year old who could throw low to mid 50s and had great control. Long story short, her mom made her throw 200+ pitches a day for at least 4 days per week and took her to an inexperienced pitching coach because I wasn't "pushing her enough".

After a year the mom brought her back to me to "straighten her back out", by this point she was throwing side armed at about 45 mph with no control and intense pain in her shoulder. She had to sit out her freshman year in HS and had to have shoulder surgery over the summer. She will never be the same again and it was all because her mom didn't know when to say no.

Please, please limit pitch counts...75 pitches a day, after warm ups, is enough for anybody and please make sure that proper technique is used at all times. If she is throwing side arm make her stop immediately. I have a real problem with any coach that makes one pitcher throw BP every day and pitch in games too???

 

those of you with up and coming pitchers should copy and print out what Duke has written here and use it as your blueprint moving forward. He has been there and done that... as they say.

 

Bingo!

We rarely threw more than 80 pitches in a workout (plus drills and spins) and almost never more than 4 days/week. Remember, the average D1 game is around 100 pitches.

Lost in all this is the issue of psychological burnout. Let's face it, pitching workouts are awfully boring. You can figure out lots of ways to provide variety but, ultimately, it's about quality reps and repetition is boring. Most pitchers really want to please their Dad, Mom and Coach. You really need to be careful not to "pitch the love of the game out of them". Better to only become 90% of what you might have been (had you thrown those extra 50 pitches per day) than to burnout physically and/or psychologically at 13, 15 or 17.

 

Tough

I know parents that have moved their girls all over the place so they can pitch every inning of every game their team plays beginning at 12U. I also know several big name pitchers that wanted and did pitch every game even games their team could win with a 10 year old pitching. Pressure to have big STATS as that might catch the eye of college coach. Anyway, three pitchers is a good number especially if you use them all and protect them with discussions and observation during the games. Showcase ball provides for multiple pitchers given the guarantee of games. I know on SC team that gives each pitcher 2 innings each every game.

 

Stats are for Dads

I don't know any college coach who pays a bit of attention to stats. Any parent who thinks so is fooling him/herself. Hitting stats are worthless since the star players mom may be the score keeper. The strikeout stat is semi-reliable since mom has a harder time manufacturing this one but it still does not account for the competition. I love numbers but when college coaches evaluate talent they mean virtually nothing.

 

Great advice!!!
Wish I had known this on the front side instead of learning as you go at my dd's expense.

 

For everyone who has posted there reply's about the Do's and Dont's on there DD's pitching, Thanks. My DD is just starting out as we have Dani Spaulding (UNC) as our pitching instructor. She has emphasized practice pitching as no more then 4 days a week with 45 minutes being the max time for practicing and as someone else quoted, "No more then 100 pitches per session". The more I read the more I learn. Thanks to all of you.

 

Respectfully disagree...

I don't think that is fair to say about all MS programs. Yes, some middle schools have actually developed 'programs' and have girls that can't wait to tryout for the team. I realize that those are in the minority but they are out there. I can personally site several examples where parents walked up to the two coaches and said our daughter has been looking forward to tryouts since 5th grade. The hardest thing about that is having 30 girls show up for tryouts (more than a lot of the HS tryouts I have been reading about here who are trying to field 2 teams) and only being able to keep 14.

Of course you only have two years in MS but don't underestimate what the right coaches can do in those two years. They may not be able to make super stars but they certainly can take an athlete or a young girl with the drive to succeed who has never picked up a softball before and teach her good fundamentals and most importantly the love of the game and to have fun!

IMO, we don't have a good feeder program but we got better every year (over 6 seasons) and last year we were able to go 13-1 against some pretty good teams and bring home a share of the conference championship.

Let me also say that we strongly encouraged ALL of our MS players to play rec and/or TB (depending on their skill level) during the summer and fall.

 

Back on topic...

I guess I should also respond to the point of this thread.

I absolutely agree that having 1 girl pitcher throw batting practice every day and pitching games is just flat out wrong. I have to wonder why the coach(es) are not the ones throwing for batting practice???

I also don't subscribe to the theory of having batting practice every day. I think you should have a hitting practice every 2nd or 3rd practice (of course it depends on your game schedules) and that is all you do. IMO, the girls will get a lot more quality reps with a dedicated hitting practice with several stations than they will trying to run all of the players through for 10 swings at the end of each practice.