Open Letter to Pitchers' Parents

[Sam]

Hey Sam,
I guess this coach and the parents don't subscribe to your philosophy.

Just so we are clear, I agree with Sam, I would never let my DD throw four games in one day and I don't agree with the decision of OC Fierce to let their pitcher throw four games in one day. All I was doing was giving the girl props for hanging tough.

Our team has three quality pitchers and each threw a game yesterday, no overuse issues on our team. How do you avoid throwing more than one game in a day if you have to play four games and you have three pitchers?.... just curious. Even the OC Batbusters, who played four games yesterday and have 14 girls on their roster, used their #1 at least twice yesterday that I saw.

Its going to take a change in the softball game management paradigm...youth travel baseball teams carry 6-8 pitchers. That is what softball could do. Baseball teams don't play over 3 games on Sunday in a tournament. Tournaments are routinely held over multiple weekends. Softball could do that and eliminate the need for the 6-8 pitchers AND they could actually play 7 inning games.

There are still too many people (mainly HS and college coaches) that promote the idea that the softball pitching motion is natural and doesn't hurt the pitcher's arm. It's BS....and they know it....but they will continue to promote it because it helps them....they can destroy the arms of young ladies with a smile on their faces because they don't have to put the scalpel to the skin.

[artomatic]

There has been much talk about the CTS 12u pitcher who pitches every inning of every game for her team. I heard this weekend that the parents would like to move her to a new team but won't consider a team that has other good pitchers on it so she can continue being the only pitcher! Insane parents and the coach of that team ought to be ashamed to allow it...

Yep, a very common reason for one kid pitching all the games. Not just the coach, but the parents also placing their kid in a situation where she will get the majority of pitching time.
So not only will the parents put their kid on a team where she gets most of the innings, they also find the coach that goes along with this train of thought...

Sorry about repeating this story, but I will refer to my own experience with my kid in 10U back in 2006.
We were in rec, and we entered Garden Grove's one-day rec tournament they have every spring.
My kid threw all 4 games, 24 total innings.
She did great, and in fact had 19 k's in the final.
But about 3-4 days later, she complained of pain in her back/shoulder blade area.
This caused her to compensate and change her mechanics. It was a good month before she was back to normal.
It really opened my eyes to all the talk about "this kid can throw all day" this kid pitched X games that day", etc...

So these kids might seem ok with all the innings, or more important, all the pitches thrown. But it is not the "natural motion" that we have always heard. Alot more overuse injuries these days, and not just arms/shoulders, but backs, knees, hips, etc...

[Sam]

There has been much talk about the CTS 12u pitcher who pitches every inning of every game for her team. I heard this weekend that the parents would like to move her to a new team but won't consider a team that has other good pitchers on it so she can continue being the only pitcher! Insane parents and the coach of that team ought to be ashamed to allow it...

Yep, a very common reason for one kid pitching all the games. Not just the coach, but the parents also placing their kid in a situation where she will get the majority of pitching time.
So not only will the parents put their kid on a team where she gets most of the innings, they also find the coach that goes along with this train of thought...

Sorry about repeating this story, but I will refer to my own experience with my kid in 10U back in 2006.
We were in rec, and we entered Garden Grove's one-day rec tournament they have every spring.
My kid threw all 4 games, 24 total innings.
She did great, and in fact had 19 k's in the final.
But about 3-4 days later, she complained of pain in her back/shoulder blade area.
This caused her to compensate and change her mechanics. It was a good month before she was back to normal.
It really opened my eyes to all the talk about "this kid can throw all day" this kid pitched X games that day", etc...

So these kids might seem ok with all the innings, or more important, all the pitches thrown. But it is not the "natural motion" that we have always heard. Alot more overuse injuries these days, and not just arms/shoulders, but backs, knees, hips, etc...

My DD never had a chance...I was a bad manager as well as a bad parent.

[goodeye]

So these kids might seem ok with all the innings, or more important, all the pitches thrown. But it is not the "natural motion" that we have always heard. Alot more overuse injuries these days, and not just arms/shoulders, but backs, knees, hips, etc...[/quote]

# of pitches is what is important, not games or innings. And you also need to watch how many times during the day that a pitchers warms up. Is there a suggested maximum pitch count by age division? Little league recently went to that method - i.e. 75 pitches for 10 year olds etc.

[Sam]

So these kids might seem ok with all the innings, or more important, all the pitches thrown. But it is not the "natural motion" that we have always heard. Alot more overuse injuries these days, and not just arms/shoulders, but backs, knees, hips, etc...

# of pitches is what is important, not games or innings. And you also need to watch how many times during the day that a pitchers warms up. Is there a suggested maximum pitch count by age division? Little league recently went to that method - i.e. 75 pitches for 10 year olds etc.[/quote]

I don't think its a singular argument.....other than I think its a complete game...no more than 7 innings....pitches is an element but I think its a relative range of pitches and I think it depends on the relative size of the pitcher...but its pretty much a complete 7 inning game....roughly 100 -130 pitches per day. Pitching a second game after a cool down is a definite no.

[NumeroUno]

I don't think all cases are about being a bad manager or bad parent I think it has to do with not knowing what could happen. Did anyone inform you about over pitching? I think more people like you should stand up and educate the rest of us of what is right and wrong.
In all pro sports athletes get time off. College players get time off. Travel ball girls get home from 10 days at Nationals get 2 maybe 3 weeks off if your lucky and get right back at it. It is not just the physical thing either what about the mental aspect.
Look at the big picture you are only a kid a very short time of your life. I don't want my kids growing up at 12 years old. But we put them in these situations year after year.
ASA, Triple Crown and all the rest of them should stand up and do something about this.

[3'sDad]

On the subject of pitching, I have a question that hopefully Sam or the other more experienced coaches/Dad's can answer:

In modern baseball, The Closer (Hoffman, Rivera, Papelbaum, etc.) are huge intergral parts of a success organization....The well ranked and respected D1 collegiate baseball programs also have their "closer", who can come in and get 3-6 outs to preserve a victory.....this "closer" position doesn't appear to exist in softball yet...why?

[Sam]

On the subject of pitching, I have a question that hopefully Sam or the other more experienced coaches/Dad's can answer:

In modern baseball, The Closer (Hoffman, Rivera, Papelbaum, etc.) are huge intergral parts of a success organization....The well ranked and respected D1 collegiate baseball programs also have their "closer", who can come in and get 3-6 outs to preserve a victory.....this "closer" position doesn't appear to exist in softball yet...why?

Baseball was forced to get smart about pitchers' arms after the rash of arm injuries....guys were throwing harder than they were in 1920....and destroying their arms in the process. Baseball changed the nature of pitching with the emergence of the closer...and now with the setup man....lefty specialists....etc. It will be a long time before softball changes to protect their pitchers....the people at the top of our sport are imbeciles...they have no investment in these kids, so they don't give a crap about the physical effect on their players...look at Teresa Wilson....promoting her injured players taking painkillers to play while they are hurt...for whose benefit??? Not the players'....solely for her benefit....she should not be allowed to coach anywhere....but she immediately gets hired at TT and then Candrea hires her to be a pitching coach....there....the message is sent....do what you want to your players and you will be rewarded.

Things will not change until parents start standing up for their DD's.....EARLY....make your coach recruit more pitching. Don't enter tournaments with the possibility of playing 4+ games in one day. Don't have her practice her pitching more than 3 times per week....let her throw 50 pitches when she does practice...not 50 pitches of each pitch she throws.

[Lannie]

Since this article came out. I have opened my eyes.

http://www.training-conditioning.com/20 ... dmill.html

[Sftbll4ever]

One way to get more pitchers on teams is to say..... limit the amount of teams that can play in the qualifiers and then that way there wouldn't be so many teams with the talent all spread out.