lack of pitchers ????

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Typical pitchers parent. 2 weeks off the mound is NOT considered down time. Down time, IMHO should include a complete break from the sport, mentally, physically, and financially, for 4-6 weeks. This is what DD's PC says. This is what her strength coach says. This is what I say, too. In reality, I am like Bementb, 2-3 weeks no pitching; OK fall showcases start first week October! Hard to find a balance. What do people in Cali do where there really is no off season?

Well I will put in my 2 cents......

4-6 weeks is allso not real either .... At least not all at 1 time .... I feel younger pitchers need to stay working hard at there craft to continue to improve... Sitting idle for 4-6 weeks is counter productive IMHO...im allso a big fan of quality over quantity.... playing on a elite team that plays a tough schedule and plays fall tourneys/friendly, winter indoor,and then starts outdoor in apirl(or school ball) that dont leave a hole lot of time for a pitcher to sit idle for a long time and still be at the top of her game when entering the circle ....

I do agree that there needs to be a resting period and a time to work on the next level of your pitches but there is a fine balance to make it all work and still be ready to go when called apon..... i feel down time can still be part of a very light work out (very low pitch count )or even just working on spins .......all of the great stud #1 pitchers i have been around work all year round and do not shut down from the sport for 4-6 weeks they allso dont throw 46,000 pitches a year .....
Not sure why there are not more girls out there able to pitch at a #1 level but my guess wood be work ethic and getting quality instruction .....as they say if it were easy evey one would be doing it !
for new pitchers starting out i would work on soild mechanics build your foundation on doing it right if you only throw 50 pitches to the dad on the bucket make sure they are with good mechanics and do a little bit every day !

 

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If you want to develop a DI pitcher, DON'T let her pitch (OR play softball) year round. The best athletes play multiple sports - just talk to any qualified trainer or sports physician about the benefits of "mixing it up". Is it any wonder there are so many young kids with overuse injuries? Let them go play volleyball and basketball in the fall and winter for a change of pace. Great athletes are nearly always multi-sport for many good reasons. Muscles need balanced work, and changing gears to another sport activity is great for this.

The benefit of rest (both mental and physical) is a very important aspect of a pitcher's development. If your daughter has been getting excellent training for her pitching skills, taking two months off won't hurt her at all. A good athlete can easily be back in the saddle after a couple pitching workouts. IMO, they will be both physically AND mentally stronger for it.

 

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If you want to develop a DI pitcher, DON'T let her pitch (OR play softball) year round. The best athletes play multiple sports - just talk to any qualified trainer or sports physician about the benefits of "mixing it up". Is it any wonder there are so many young kids with overuse injuries? Let them go play volleyball and basketball in the fall and winter for a change of pace. Great athletes are nearly always multi-sport for many good reasons. Muscles need balanced work, and changing gears to another sport activity is great for this.

The benefit of rest (both mental and physical) is a very important aspect of a pitcher's development. If your daughter has been getting excellent training for her pitching skills, taking two months off won't hurt her at all. A good athlete can easily be back in the saddle after a couple pitching workouts. IMO, they will be both physically AND mentally stronger for it.

Sammy please let us know who you know that is a d1 starting pitcher in collage right now that did not play softball year round ???? most collage players i know have played other sports but still played softball year round ! just saying !
over use injuries is more from bad mechanics than playing year round im not saying pitchers cant have a injury but i see over use problems in kids that pitch 4 full games in 1 day than being in a good rotation and playing all year with good mechanics ......

 

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Regardless of what past players have done, with everything we know these days about training and overuse injuries, it only makes sense that these girls should not be working year-round. While my own daughter played pretty much year-round and practiced most of the year as well, I wish that she hadn't. We did start figuring out her last couple of years of high school that it was burning her out physically and mentally. Of course she loved it, and was afraid that she might get behind or let her off-season team down so she kept at it most of the time. I believe that high school girls who play in the spring, and many of whom play in the winter indoors with their school teams, should probably be taking the fall off from pitching at least, and that younger girls should probably take off the winter. Just my opinion ...

 

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i think some kids can handle a big work load and others cant over use injurys are more commin I THINK in situations like pitching one kid every game on sunday to win .... pitching year round is not a big cause of over use all though im sure there are cases of it ! i do feel that there are a few kids that are big studs that can go multible games back to back with know problems ...... 1 kid in mind is that big horse from marshall that just graduated and i think she pitched every inning of every game this year .....

 

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G3 ... no doubt about what you're saying ... looks like the Marshall pitcher did pitch a little over 80% of her team's innings. My daughter pitched 70% of her team's innings her sophomore year in college (D3), but I can tell you for a fact that she took a good 2-3 months off that summer before she picked up a ball again.

 

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If you want to develop a DI pitcher, DON'T let her pitch (OR play softball) year round. The best athletes play multiple sports - just talk to any qualified trainer or sports physician about the benefits of "mixing it up". Is it any wonder there are so many young kids with overuse injuries? Let them go play volleyball and basketball in the fall and winter for a change of pace. Great athletes are nearly always multi-sport for many good reasons. Muscles need balanced work, and changing gears to another sport activity is great for this.

The benefit of rest (both mental and physical) is a very important aspect of a pitcher's development. If your daughter has been getting excellent training for her pitching skills, taking two months off won't hurt her at all. A good athlete can easily be back in the saddle after a couple pitching workouts. IMO, they will be both physically AND mentally stronger for it.

Agree wholeheartedly, my daughter plays multiple sports and takes significant time off much to many people's dismay. If you are an athlete, it doesntntake long to hit the circle and back in form. No burnout no overuse. I also am not concerned with the top level competition every tournament. I want good instruction, mental preparation, quality practice, and learn to be a pitcher, not a thrower!

 

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Someone asked how they do it in CA. Being from there and coaching there it's pretty simple, they don't stop playing. They also don't pitch 1,000s of pitches a week. They play multiple sports at the same time as well. Due to weather you can year round. Everyone always says they play year round and that's their advantage. It is true however, serious tournament play is still during the same time frame. They might have 1 or 2 big ones during the Fall and Winter but it's still a Summer Game. Players simply don't stop playing and rest time is actually done typically by the level of the game. Pitchers are not going to pitch every single game in CA. Trying to compare CA to what we have here isn't going to work. Players play for multiple teams at different levels. From baseball side of it, I played for 3 different teams during the same time frame. School ball is still important in CA and they start in Jan. Their season is typically Feb through May/June. During that period travel coaches are hands off. We practiced or played every wwekday and some Sat for 4-5 months. Pitchers did not need to throw 1,000s of pitches and most of the time during school ball those girls are shut down with instructors as well. They are already putting in 3 hours a day at minimum with school coach. I've heard good conversation about rest periods. I can tell you girls in CA don't have rest periods. They might be a ******, volleyball, basketball, tennis player during season but on weekends are playing softball. I went from HS football practice straight to baseball games and I have seen girls do the same.

The biggest issue I have seen here in Ohio is the burn out factor. Rec leagues are getting worse with their, imo, stupid everyone wins ****. This has 2 effects: 1 girls to move up to travel saturating the travel curcuit and 2 for girls that do not LOVE the game forces them to quit too early. PGF is attempting to start Leagues through out the West to ensure Rec isn't continuing its downslide and decreasing the number of elite travel teams. In the past to be a travel team you had to have players that were dedicated and hard core lovers of the game. Now anyone can throw together a Rec team and say we are travel. We have all seen them at tournaments. Same goes for your pitching question. There are only a few really good ones out there and there are way too many so called travel teams that were forced into existence by shabby rec league Boards trying to pacify every child. Ok off soap box

 

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Agree wholeheartedly, my daughter plays multiple sports and takes significant time off much to many people's dismay. If you are an athlete, it doesntntake long to hit the circle and back in form. No burnout no overuse. I also am not concerned with the top level competition every tournament. I want good instruction, mental preparation, quality practice, and learn to be a pitcher, not a thrower!

how about winning ?

 

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Well said trueut

 

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My DD plays other sports, but she is a pitcher and she is dedicated to Softball and pitching year around..............I have three pitchers on my team and use them all. they don't always get equal pitching time....I go with the best arm of the weekend when I have to, but I will start one and finish with another....keep batters off balance.......I also believe some kind of restrictions are coming for Girls, innings or pitches in a day etc.............It's already in LL Softball..so just a matter of time....it's not as strict as the boys but it will happen.....and these teams that ride one pitcher will be in trouble............

 

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Sammy please let us know who you know that is a d1 starting pitcher in collage right now that did not play softball year round ???? most collage players i know have played other sports but still played softball year round ! just saying !
over use injuries is more from bad mechanics than playing year round im not saying pitchers cant have a injury but i see over use problems in kids that pitch 4 full games in 1 day than being in a good rotation and playing all year with good mechanics ......

Well, the gal in the upper left corner of all my posts for one. I also know a former UM pitcher, and two former OSU pitchers. None went to collage that I know of... where is that??

Maybe taking time off isn't for everybody. But in our family it was mandatory. IMO, by focusing on quality over quantity, proficiency comes much quicker with less pain... with an added bonus of having a little downtime. PS - That downtime allowed recuperation from a "nose to the grindstone" travel schedule that included frequently pitching 3 games on Saturday, and then the opportunity to often pitch 2 - 3 games again on Sunday. If your daughter gets the opportunity to pitch at the DI college level, you'll understand the importance of an off-season.

 

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Typical pitchers parent. 2 weeks off the mound is NOT considered down time. Down time, IMHO should include a complete break from the sport, mentally, physically, and financially, for 4-6 weeks. This is what DD's PC says. This is what her strength coach says. This is what I say, too. In reality, I am like Bementb, 2-3 weeks no pitching; OK fall showcases start first week October! Hard to find a balance. What do people in Cali do where there really is no off season?

Wow, a lot of differing viewpoints on here and it would be interesting to see the age groups represented by each. People that have been through SoCal travel ball are aware of the epidemic of overuse injuries and are advocating teams not overwork pitchers so much and take longer breaks between seasons.

I see 3 distinct groups in SoCal and will address each separately.

1. Rec has 3 seasons with good breaks in between.
- Spring runs end of Jan through early May with 1-2 games per week. Our rec league had rules limiting the number of innings a pitcher could throw to force teams to develop and use at least 2 pitchers.
- All-Stars ran early May through June and was very intense with 4-5 practices during the week and tournaments on the weekends.
- Fall Ball ran Aug through Nov with 8 weekly DHs and 3-4 weekend tourneys.

2. Pre-HS travel (mainly 12U and first-year 14U) runs year-around because MS ball is almost non-existent here. Well-run teams gear their schedule for most of the year toward developing their team for championship play and only view a few tournaments as meaningful. Teams practice and/or work out 2-3 times a week and play a 3-game friendly on most Sundays. My DD was fortunate to play on a team that took 3-5 weeks off after Nats and another 4-5 weeks in the Winter.

3. HS varies greatly from one local school that starts strength training in August to others that don't start until Jan. Our HS is like many that have a 6th period Athletics class for the entire year, although ours doesn't do much softball for the first 2 months. Some HS teams play scrimmage games late Fall and Winter before the official season begins end of Feb. Travel ball teams do 3-6 showcases in the Fall and most do a 2-3 events in Jan-Feb. The smart ones only do a showcase in early Jan because most college coaches are too busy with their own teams after that. The summer schedule is packed for most teams between showcases and qualifying for PGF Nats.

A lot of the overuse injuries become significant during HS with the increased load of playing on 2 teams, HS and travel. There were usually inklings of them prior to HS, but they were manageable with a little rest.

My DD's new team is unique as it's in the midst of taking 6 weeks off after PGF 18U-Premier Nats. They filled their openings with a combination of invitations to 3 known players in the org and private tryouts for 2 players from outside the org.DD has always come back after a break throwing harder than before and it only takes 1-2 weeks to regain her pitch execution after a 4-6 break.

We've also noticed the number of pitchers in college worn out before the NCAA tournament starts and/or breaking down after a heavy season. Almost all the NCAA D1 teams with the best ERAs are doing it by spreading the innings across pitchers and not wearing out the #1. Looking at the top 15 team ERAs, the #1 pitchers threw 55.8% of the innings and the #2 pitchers threw 34% of the innings. Galati (Hofstra) threw the most with 88.5%, which was way more than the next 2 pitchers - Luna (Texas) with 61.9% and Ricketts (Oklahoma) with 61.5% (238.1 IP was least in her career and 18.4% less than 2012's 292.0).

 

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how about winning ?

Ha! My daughter played for a team this year that went 0 for!!! First time ever for her. Maybe the best thing that happened because she learned to lead, maintain composure, and try to encourage others in a lpositive, mature way. Now, we have changed teams and I'm hoping the complete package as a pitcher comes through. Winning is overrated especially by parents. I want good, bad, learning experiences with a real coach who coaches athletes, not machines who are programmed.

 

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SoCal Dad ... loved the stats! Lots of people throw around "facts" and generalizations, and it turns out the stats and real facts don't support them.

Back to the original posts on a couple of related threads, there are no doubt more "teams" out there than there are quality pitchers and some of this is surely due to the amount of time and money it takes to be a quality one. There is also no doubt that the hitting and all the good instruction and coaches out there have begun to catch up with the pitching, which has significantly raised the bar on what it takes to be a good pitcher. The same pitching skills that might have dominated most hitters 10-15 years ago wouldn't necessarily do so today ... making pitching even more work and less fun (for some) than it used to be. I would guess that there are actually more good pitchers than there used to be, but the increase in the number of teams and the improvements in hitting just make it seem like less.

 

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From the previous comments I don't think most people realize how hard these pitchers work throughout the year in order to become an elite pitcher. In a single hour workout most pitchers will throw 180 to 240 pitches. If she is working out 3 times a week she will throw at least 500 pitches a week. these pitches will be considered and adjustments made. Add in games and lessons and you do the math. The answer is in the tens of thousands every year for your top pitchers. To do this she has spent over two hundred hours dedicated to just practice.

Go ahead and count your daughters pitches next workout and correct my math. This is clearly why they are so good and why there is so few of them. An elite athlete cannot become an elite pitcher at the the highest level of our game without this dedication and work ethic.

 

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we are currently looking for a team, and the teams we have tried out for have one decent pitcher and that is it. When I coached and now that I am just an observer all we are looking for is a girl that can throw strikes. They don't need to throw no-hitters, just don't walk batters. Walks equal runs. I think maybe it is more difficult than most of us think. I know I struggle to throw BP! My DD is a very good athlete but after 2 years we had to drop the pitching lessons as she just could not throw consistent strikes. She dreams of being a pitcher, but it just is not in her make up.

 

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Wow, a lot of differing viewpoints on here and it would be interesting to see the age groups represented by each.

DD is second year 14U.

 

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Sammy you are right on the money regarding taking a needed break and its not just for pitching but from any sport in general. Physical and mental fatigue, stress, etc...burns out players in the long run faster than anything. Those that think that taking at a minimum 4 to 6 weeks off don't know what they are talking about. Playing another sport is tremendous for the mental and physical health as well.

 

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Sammy you are right on the money regarding taking a needed break and its not just for pitching but from any sport in general. Physical and mental fatigue, stress, etc...burns out players in the long run faster than anything. Those that think that taking at a minimum 4 to 6 weeks off don't know what they are talking about. Playing another sport is tremendous for the mental and physical health as well.

??? so are you in favor of a break or not????