? for parents of established pitchers

[jofus]

Just curious, for those with DD's that have been pitching for years...

How many pitches does your DD feel comfortable pitching in game situations?

My daughter's pitching coach is constantly showing her new pitches (or new "combo" pitches, new twists on different pitches, whatever you call them), and he has always said that there are a couple or 3 that you about "have" to be able to pitch, like some sort of rise ball, a drop ball, some sort of changeup, etc. (actually, he has her pitching 2 different changeups), you have to have more than 2 speeds, etc., which I understand.

I was just wondering what a "normal" selection is for pitchers that pitch tons of games a year.

This week they started working harder on the rise ball, and then he was showing her a rise-cut which my buddy who filled in for me catching (I was out of town for work) said looked like it could be a very good pitch for her to work on. They also worked on a variation of a screw-ball/rise combo or something similar too.

Thanks in advance, just mainly a topic that I thought may be interesting to discuss that I hadn't seen on here yet. Maybe not as interesting as Lannie's (dad's) bowel situation, but still worth a post or 2 maybe

[kls_hittingacademy]

My DD has been pitching since 4th grade is now a senior. She use 4 pitches in a game. Peel drop, Change up, Rise, Screw ball. The one she uses the most is hitting her spots. Next is change up. She tends to stay away from pitches like the curve because it stays on the same plane.

[artomatic]

my kid started pitching when she was 6, playing in the 8u division.
she is 12 now, so she's in her 7th yr of pitching...that sounds crazy...
not sure if this is the norm, but this is what my kid throws.

the pitches she throws the most are:

curve
rise
straight change
2 seam (late drop movement-use this in fastball situations)

she also throws these a few times during a game:
screw
drop change
drop
off speed curve

she only throws fastballs in her pitching workouts, for the most part...
she learned the rise pretty early (9), and seemed to pick it up pretty quickly.
the screw took her the longest, and she only started throwing that one in games last season.
she just learned the offspeed curve a couple months ago, and she has just started throwing it in games.

sometimes i worry that she has a lot of pitching miles on her young body, but except for some knee pain last season, which i think was growing pains, she has held up pretty well...she puts in the work on the side, and i think thats really important for staying healthy. she also ices her shoulder alot more after the games are finished, which also helps recovery time.

a word of caution:
in 2006, 10U rec, we entered a one day rec tournament. she threw all 4 games (24 innings).
although she did well, and finished strong, about 3 days later, she complained of pain around her shoulder blade, upper back area. this caused her to change her mechanics, and it took about a month for her to get back to normal. I always hear about how girls can throw forever, but i think you really have to be careful about throwing a ton of games in a short time. she can throw 2 games in a day without a problem, but i dont think its good for a kid her age to throw more than that. thankfully, we have her and another kid that share the load on our team, and a third who also gets some time, the last few seasons.

[Cannonball]

Jofus,

I don't know about "established" but my child has been pitching since she was 8. She's 14 now and pitching 16U. Albeit, I don't know how well. She can throw several pitches and was encouraged to experiment. However, she was also coached by her pitching coach to experiment a lot but make sure that she throws 3 pitches in games on a regular basis. Rise, Drop and Change. She spots a fastball to get ahead in the count and throws a curve. The curve she typically throws is at the #3, #4, #5 hitter's knees. Those first 3 pitches account for about 90% of what she throws. We've gone to a lot of college clinics and almost to an institution, they want 3 pitches that can be located and thrown for strikes. That's it. Most discourage the curve, screwball etc. Oh, she threw approximately 50 games last year at 14U. Didn't do bad.

[Sftbll4ever]

My dd started pitching for fun (without lessons) when she was 6, (only because older sis was pitching). At 8 she started with a pitching coach. Now she is 13 and still loves to pitch.

She has the following pitches:

Fastball (I say this as she hits her spots with this and is not used as often)
Curve (throws it inside and outside)
Off Speed Curve
Screw
Change (Money pitch, can hit her spots pretty good with this too)
Rise
Drop
Drop Curve (well she hasn't used this in years)

Her coach likes to call her curve at different locations, change, rise, and fastball (not very much though). Do they all work??? Not all the time she is starting to throw the screw a lot more and loves to throw it to the righty batters. She may have been taught a lot of pitches, but they do not all work all the time.

[artomatic]

"Most discourage the curve"

Tell that to Cat.

yeah, i havent heard that one..thats a pitch that my kid has alot of success with.
and the screw is very effective for taking back the inside of the plate.

[jofus]

Thanks for the responses so far

My DD is almost 13, and has only been taking lessons for a little over a year. I wish she had started sooner, but she never showed any interest until then (in pitching).

Her coach tells us that he is only showing her all of the pitches so she is exposed to them, and as she keeps pitching, she will figure out which ones are good pitchers for her. He keeps telling me that she has potential to be good if she sticks with it (of course, he does it as a job so we are paying him, so I wouldn't expect him to tell anyone to give up ), but I think he is being honest with us. She's pretty big (as in tall and long, not wide) for a 12 year old and has a fairly aggressive stride to the plate, so she is somewhat intimidating.

Obviously he has her warm up with fastballs, but I know that some pitchers never (or rarely) throw fastballs. After that, 2 changes (horseshoe and turnover), and the peel drop are the main ones he has her work on now, followed by rise, screw, and curve, although he says the curve especially is usually only used as a "throw away" pitch when you are way ahead, just to see if they will bite. I'm anxious to see what the cut-rise ball looks like, my buddy was impressed with it when he caught for her tuesday.

[Cannonball]

Jofus, I think another issues not often address with regards to "too much pitching, and injuries" is the amount of work that the pitcher gets in during the week. Along with that would be the type of supplimental work. My dd does band work everyday at lunch here at under the supervision of a trainer. Then, she throws every night. Now, she doesnt' throw a lot. She gets her work in and then its either off to the weight room or she does plyos. Pitchers have to have a lot of commitment. Wow, that's an understatement!

Regarding the comments on the curve, again, we've been to a lot of college clinics and that's the standard line. Some of those colleges have done exceedingly well in NCAAs. Our closest university is Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and they just won the NCAA D-II National Championship. Further, the coach that she just saw this week is a D-I coach who is a well known speaker at National Conventions. We are trying to get my dd in to him for lessons. His name is Russell Cooper. If you google his name, you'll see quite a resume.

To be sure there are girls out there that can throw all of these pitches with success. The trick then is to have them throw the ones with success that most of the colleges are looking for. Primary to almost every one of those places was the drop and the rise. However, they all LOVE the change and for good reason. Reference this past year's NCAA National Championship game. Interesting topic. Thanks for posting it.

Take care!

[jofus]

Darnit, I tried to put that pic as my avatar, but it's too big and I'm too much a noob to resize it correctly

Might as well see if I have a good one of the boy playing ball too, while I'm at it

[Lannie]

Lannie started pitching when she was 10. I have always made a point to have her coached by professionals. She has had 3 coaches and all seem to have the same mechanics. Her current coach is by far in my opinion the best. He stresses the 3 S's. Spot, Spin and Speed and in that order. Lannie is small in stature, but so far it hasnt mattered. Sometimes it actually give her an advantage. She has developed into a finesse type pitcher and has learned to keep batters off balance. She uses off speed as her bread and butter pitches. When she started pitching she was taught a drop curve that was her best pitch. But as she has gotten older she now favors her screw and change up. As an 8th grader she was the pitcher on the HS JV team. She had a record of 25-3 and lost those 3 games by 1 run each. This past year as a Freshman. She shared the pitching on Varsity with a Junior. She went 10-1 and her only loss was in the Region Finals Championship. Her district ERA was 0.00 and her overall ERA was 0.17. She won the district pitcher of the year and 1st team All district.
She did all this with just a change up and screwball. She would use the drop curve as a waste pitch or as a K pitch when she worked inside and the count was 3-2. Nine times out of 10 the batters would just look at it as it crossed the black on the plate.
Speed is a gift, but not all have it. All pitchers need to find their niche and perfect it.

Ohh, and my bowels are on fire. I sent NumeroUno another story about a Texas Chili cook off to make sure that it would be ok to post. I think he is going to post it for me. Should be a GASSER!