need transition advice for moving from 10u to 12u

[josie]

You guys have always been helpful before! My 06 daughter will be moving up to 12u. Her primary position is catcher, however she does pitch and her coach uses her to pitch an inning here and there. She wants to pitch more next year. She went to an excellent pitching coach last spring. However she is not available for the next few weeks. How can I best prepare her for the change of distance and the 11" ball? I am pretty certain we will stay with the same organization for 2018 so I am not too worried about fixing things immediately for a tryout with a new team. Any advice will be appreciated! Oh, and I am probably more concerned about this than my 06 DD. She is a pretty tough kid who adapts to change better than I ever did. Thank you!

 

[CARDS]

Most pitching coaches would want the lady to play anywhere else but catcher. Both require a lot of time to master. Decent pitchers are hard to come by so if you have one you do not want to risk a foul ball off the hand/body or a bat contact injury that tends to happen more often under 14...

As far as the ball and distance change...Get her a squeeze ball and have her use it regularly. She can even take it to school.
Use a slightly weighted ball (only at a short distance) while working on over hand throws with a game ball 60 feet then work on longer throws moving back 10 feet or so over a period of time as she gets more strength and can do long toss.

I am sure your previous pitching coach had her make a pitchers tool kit with stretch tubes, 8 to 10lb medicine ball, jump rope etc. in the bucket.
My dd had 5lb dumbbells in hers but I have seen ladies with kettle bells 2 to 5 lb.
The jump rope will be the most used piece in that kit. It will help her pitching and if she decides catching.

 

[wow]

Cant pitch and catch, just not practical. Let her choose one and work to be really good at it. As soon as 10U is over drop the 11" ball. Pick up 12". Get to 40' ASAP. As stated above use the weighted ball, its a great tool. Get a TON of reps in the fall and winter. Walkthrus/long toss/drive offs. Fall and winter may be rough but by spring it will be all good.

 

[Pride Coach]

Long toss worked great for my daughter during her transition to 40' and the bigger ball. As part of her warmup have her throw 5 fastballs from 40' then 5 from 45' then 5 from 50' now progress back ...5 from 45' and 5 from 40' (she will look at you like you're crazy at first but it works

 

[pitchersdad26]

Speaking from a pitcher's dad point of view, to find a really GOOD catcher is almost as hard as finding a good pitcher. There is so much more involved than just catching pitches, they are the anchors of your defense and I think it's the most difficult to play and play well. A good catcher can make an average pitcher better ,it all comes down to what she wants to do. My DD pitches for her college team and I will tell you this, most coaches only look for girls that throw 3-4 pitches and if she doesn't throw hard, no matter how good the movement is they aren't interested. I wish you luck and hopefully she gets to that point, but most of all what she wants to do is what is most important

 

[josie]

Thank you all, this has been helpful. She really isn't a catcher by choice - more of a team player who does whatever coach asks, if that means playing catcher most of the weekend and filling that void on the team. I don't even own catching equipment! But we will definitely talk about what position to focus on in the future. When you are 11, you see the pitcher get all the props and the catcher is just there, even though us adults tell the catchers how important they are. But I really do appreciate all of the advice and am open to hearing more. love love love the softball zone!