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How do you play 68 games in 2 years?
made it to the state finals in Indiana 08 30-4
last yr 28-2 and lost 4 games to rain
sorry 58-6......... kept thinking about the total number we should have played
How do you play 68 games in 2 years?
fastball, change up, drop ball. Not a fan of the curve. But I'm a Bill Hillhouse fan. Talk to any elite hitter and the hardest pitch to hit is the rise. Next year in high school the drop will be a better weapon at 43 feet. As Sammy posted few master the rise ball. Those that do, are some of the toughest pitchers to hit. Your team will know it when you face one. I was lucky to have a girl last year. She would average 14 K's a game , because in high school coaches still have them move up in the box. Watch Emily of the Doom 95 , if you want to see a young girl destroy you with the rise! Doug knows he can hang with anyone with her pitching.
fastball, change up, drop ball. Not a fan of the curve. But I'm a Bill Hillhouse fan. Talk to any elite hitter and the hardest pitch to hit is the rise. Next year in high school the drop will be a better weapon at 43 feet. As Sammy posted few master the rise ball. Those that do, are some of the toughest pitchers to hit. Your team will know it when you face one. I was lucky to have a girl last year. She would average 14 K's a game , because in high school coaches still have them move up in the box. Watch Emily of the Doom 95 , if you want to see a young girl destroy you with the rise! Doug knows he can hang with anyone with her pitching.
You may not be a fan of the curve, but the worlds best pitchers (female) live on it. Tincher and Finch (two great ones) throw more rise than curve, but Cat, Hollowell Abbott and Fernandez throw tons of curves. It is by far Cats best pitch.
In working with Cat.
Wow, can you tell us how you work with Cat? That's impressive stuff.
Agree that not all pitches are throw for stirkes. Show me a pitcher who can spot pitch(up, down an corners), can throw a strike anytime she wants and has a good change and I'll show you a pitcher.
In working with Cat she will tell you that 90% of the time she throws her drop. She is able to spot the drop any where around the plate. Her other pitch is the curve ball as mentioned. Her view point is mastering the movement pitches. Good movement will create Ks on and off the plate.
I do not understand why a coach would prevent a kid from 'working' on all these tools and even try them out in games. To restrict pitchers to only 3 pitches until those 3 are perfect does not make sense from any point of view. Each kid is different and how do you pick which will be her 3 go-to pitches without allowing her to learn them all. These go-to pitches will change over time and even from inning to inning. 'Perfection' is never achievable but 'effective' is. It's great to hit your spots AND throw your breaks AND have multiple tools. I think that all these skills need to mature at the same time.
To do otherwise would be like demanding perfect spelling before you teach them read. I would bet that although Cat throws mainly drops as a mature player that she has learned all the pitches known to the game and has selected what works best for her by trial and error.
...To do otherwise would be like demanding perfect spelling before you teach them read.
Different; You are wrong in that we teach both reading and spelling at the same time. It makes no sense to teach one or the other until mastery is achieved in isolation. This is the same with pitching. Expecting a young pitcher to master a fastball before moving onto to a change is counter productive. When their arm speeds up or they develop hips they have to relearn the fastball and every other pitch. They must create a continuos learning environment, just like life.
Their go-to pitch does change and not because of them being an average pitcher. The umpire strike zone changes. The offensive team makes an adjustment at the plate. The wind changes straightening out the curve but increasing the break on the screw.
There are a thousand reasons to make certain in practice that a pitcher has options on the mound and has the confidence to throw those pitches. These dominate pitches do not spring fully developed and announce themselves. They are introduced in practice and worked on away form the game. They are tried in a game in a non-critical situations. As the pitch slowly grows in quality it shows up more and more in games and then in critical situations. There is simply no other way to learn a pitch and then make it a main horse than to try it out.
Sammy; You are right that each kid learns differently and at a different pace. It is also true that they wil lhave individual skills and their pitches will move differently. A 10U that is trying to throw her first curve in a game on a Sunday should be encouraged. Just because it wasn't perfect or got hit hard is no reason to not use it again and then again.