Open Letter to Pitchers' Parents

[Softball-Mom]

Wow, this is the first time I've heard this. I can't wait to share that article with my husband. We've been of the "it's a natural motion" mindset for years. We have a 13yo pitcher, thankfully the team she's on now has a great pitching staff of 4. Thank you so much for getting the word out, I'm so thankful I found this now, I know it will make a difference in her future.

We were at a tournament in the summer with our 15yo daughter (not a pitcher), the team was down to one pitcher (the only other one was injured). The girl pitched five games in one day, then another one first thing the next morning. We were SSOOO impressed that she could do that...everyone was. We were so proud of how well the team did under the circumstances. Not once did we hear anyone talk about overuse. I will share that info with her parents, and the coaches, in the hopes they never let that happen again.

Thanks again, this is valuable info!

[Canocorn]

Our team carries 3 quality pitchers and an emergency pitcher. All 3 get a lot of innings, not necessary 33% each but close. Coach told pitchers parents the first day that there is no number 1, all will get innings win, lose, or draw. Not going to ruin a kids arm to win a game.

[softball_parent]

Please listent to Sam. My daughter is turning 22 and she is one of those that can't blow dry her hair without her shoulder hurting and she had the surgery. She didn't start pitching until second year 14U. All the biggie pitching coaches in the SoCal area said she had good mechanics. All her close team friends that are pitchers have had surgery and some have had it twice. From her 16U team all had surgery and there were 4. Some like mine couldn't make it through college softball even though they were on good scholarships. One thing that Sam hasn't mentioned is that in pitchers chest muscles get overdeveloped and the back muscles are weaker causing the body to be out of alignment. This causes additional wear and tear on the body. You need to have your daughters do specific training for the back muscles. I had my daughter go twice a week to a physical trainer who played softball in college so her body wouldn't be uneven but nobody had that information then. Even with that one of her hips is higher than the other and her body looks very uneven. Physical therapists that specialize in sports and specifically softball and baseball have commented on it because it is that noticeable.
There is alot that parents have to pay attention to and you don't know until it is to late. My daughter says she feels old in her body for her age. Please parents be proactive.

[ddsdad]

I just had this conversation on another topic. Do these coaches really feel that it is so important to win these meaningless tournaments that they cannot get all their pitchers some time? My kid has seen some of my old soccer pins and medals and asked me about them and I can barely remember much about any of the tournaments. I remember I had fun traveling around with my friends, but not much about individual tournaments. These coaches need to take pride in teaching these girls the game and helping them get to college instead of winning some tournament at the expense of one kids arm. If you want to kick it up a notch when it comes to a National Qaulifier and Nationals, so be it, but you had better work really hard to develop all your players because when you get to the big show and number 1 can't remember how to throw a strike and you have not taken the time to grow number 2, 3 and 4 during the season, then what?? I have seen a lot of coaches and parents make it about their own ego and not the kids and it is real sad. JMO

[SoCalFPDad]

Some really great info guys and gals. From a father of a injured softball pitcher Sam I appreciate your honesty and all for the input. This info will help alot for her and her future playing and pitching time.

[jofus]

[quote="Sam] Don't make her throw 100 pitches per day practicing. [/quote]

Serious question here....how much pitching during the offseason is enough, without being too much?

Right now my DD (who is 13, 14 in February, in 8th grade) is going to her pitching lesson one day a week, for an hour and a half, but that includes warm-up, cool-down at the end, and usually a mix of pitching her 3 or 4 main pitches and lesser time working on new pitches/grips that she is trying out or just learning (yes, I know that a pitcher really wants to focus on 3 or 4 pitches, but we're still in the process of figuring out what her 3 or 4 are gonna be down the road ).

Other than that, my goal is 2 more days a week (or possible 3 more a week, tops) with just dad sitting on the bucket catching, pitching something in the neighborhood of 100 pitches each time, maybe a little less depending on how things are going.

Is that enough? not enough? too much? I'm just looking for some second opinions, this is pretty much what her pitching coach recommends, along with some strength and conditioning workouts (she is also playing middle school basketball) and it makes sense to me, but I know there are people here who have already gone through this and have some good first-hand experience

[DD's Dad]

DD's 18G team used four pitchers (one was used only occasionally) throughout the fall showcase season. A typical 3 game day had 2 girls per game (one pitched 4 innings, the other 3, as time allowed) and each girl ended up with 6 to 7 innings per day. Occasionally, a college coach would request to see one of the girls and she might get an extra inning or two, but this was pretty much how it went. During the D1 recruiting window, we went 17-0-2 with no sore arms and no injuries. From a "being seen" point of view, the 3 pitchers on our team who were not committed (2 - 2011, 1 -2012), all received "attention" from some top 25 D1 schools.

Sam is right about this and it can be accomplished on a competitve team.

[NumeroUno]

I hope people listen to Sam and everyone else on here that have told their story. In my opinion this is the most useful information this site has ever had.

[ballguy]

Lannie--thanks for posting the article link. It was very informative and has made me re-think my DD's pitching program. I also have a 13 yr old son who travels and they do use pitch counts. His team let them get no more than 70 pitches per weekend. Evan with that we were getting an unusually high number of sore arms and small injuries. After some time a friend came to watch a tourney and his first comment was " they sure throw a lot of pitches on the sideline". The kids whi were getting ready to pitch next would warm up 2 innings on the side line and in some cases throwing more pitches than the pitcher who was in the game. I quite catching my son at home and he never had a sore arm all season. I thought my daughter's team was pushing it using 3 pitchers and rotating every game. In effect the girls pitch evry 3rd game. This makes me think maybe we need a 4th or 5th pitcher!

[onthejuice]

Sam thank you for sharing the info, I will take note and limit the number innings for my pitchers. We played that OC Fierce team on Sunday in their 2nd game of the day, so I too give the girl props.
But with all this talk about pitchers I would like to hear everyones thoughts on how many games a catcher should catch in a row.