Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Pitch Speed?

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Every time I read a thread like this I look for a salt shaker to get a a couple grains of salt.

 

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At least as far as speed is concerned.

 

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fpitchdad, I was talking about walk ups when doing this drill, now that I read Sammys post again, I realise he was talking about pitching from a still postion. If that is what were talking about, I definitely agree with what your saying. We do a walk up version of this and you can definitely pitch from the outfield when doing walk ups.

 

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philbob,

It kind of reminds me of old fish stories. They always seem to get a little bigger as time goes by. I've been to hundreds of tournament games, especially watched pitchers, having one in the family, and I've never seen one of these many proclaimed 50+ ten year olds pitching when I'm there. Just a coincidence I guess. If these 10 year olds are throwing 50+ from 35 feet and can throw strikes, they must be undefeated, because there not going to get hit.

 

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It goes both ways. When my DD played 10U I had people asking me about my DD that they heard could throw 60! She was hitting 45 on a good pitch... :lmao: Her first travel coach even got into a conversation with a guy who was telling her about this great pitcher she just had to recruit that could throw 65! She of course wanted a name and number. When she finally discovered it was my DD who she already had on the team she wanted to know why she was pitching so slow. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

On the flip side, I personally know of 2 girls that were throwing 50+ last year at 10U. It's the exception rather than the rule, but they do exist.

 

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Lasers Gold at 10U had 2 that were the exception to the rule and our team had one, but even at 10 we teach the girls to hit 50mph during batting practice and as they get older we start to turn the dial up. Keep in mind, from 35' it's hard to have any pitch have movement if you throw above 45mph (JMO), just not enough time for short distance traveled to allow the ball to move a ton. If everyone remembers the Lasers Gold at 10U they were undefeated til nationals and I believe I got a stat that they had only allowed 20 runs in 50+ games. I'm sure someone out there can confirm that? I know we played them twice and we didn't score, as they put us out at Pony Nationals in 5th place and daugter will never forget that game, and to this day wishes she could of finished, but illness got the best of her. 10U Gold was tough!!!

 

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After a few years away from this and I left out the most important part!!

After reaching the farthest distance (where form falls apart), have her start moving back towards the pitching rubber, again by 3 paces at a time. When she reaches the pitching rubber and throws from there, she will surprise you and herself by how much more energy she is putting into her pitches!

The progressive moving back is a gradual process to force her to throw harder. Moving back as she gradually shortens the distance, she should retain the energy of the motion at the longer distance.

For you diehards, try using your radar gun for a "before & after", and show her the results. Take an average reading from the pitching rubber. Take another average when she gets back to the rubber.

If you do this at the end of a pitching session, try using just 2 pitches at each spot. Or do this drill at the beginning of a session before she's tired. In our case, we typically did it AFTER the pitching session to force some stamina. REMEMBER GOOD FORM!!

I'm convinced this drill has contributed to DD being able to "pitch marathons" when needed. She set the record for season innings pitched last year as a junior in college. She had some arm soreness - muscular - but never has had any injury related to pitching. I'm sure that being in good physical shape contributes a lot too.

I'd be interested in anyone else's results (NOT the speed, just the percentage of increase in speed).

 

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fpitchdad, I was talking about walk ups when doing this drill, now that I read Sammys post again, I realise he was talking about pitching from a still postion. If that is what were talking about, I definitely agree with what your saying. We do a walk up version of this and you can definitely pitch from the outfield when doing walk ups.

I am talking about walk-up or walk throughs too.

 

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Lasers Gold at 10U had 2 that were the exception to the rule and our team had one, but even at 10 we teach the girls to hit 50mph during batting practice and as they get older we start to turn the dial up. Keep in mind, from 35' it's hard to have any pitch have movement if you throw above 45mph (JMO), just not enough time for short distance traveled to allow the ball to move a ton. If everyone remembers the Lasers Gold at 10U they were undefeated til nationals and I believe I got a stat that they had only allowed 20 runs in 50+ games. I'm sure someone out there can confirm that? I know we played them twice and we didn't score, as they put us out at Pony Nationals in 5th place and daugter will never forget that game, and to this day wishes she could of finished, but illness got the best of her. 10U Gold was tough!!!

Just confirmed it.... one of those girls is in the basement playing with my oldest DD this evening. Yeah, they were lights out. And she said 50....oh yeah and then some.

And the No1 from the Lasers this past year (5th at ASA's) was 50+ and we faced her as a sub player for the DOOM at 11u in August and she threw the 12" ball at 40' 52mph almost every single pitch. Go figure... "this lochness" does exist. And I know of a couple others right with her... one plays for me that avgs right about 50. Clocked the same game vs Lasers girl... and the Hawks guys did the radar check.

This is not normal... and most 10u's throw 40-45. The exception is the 45-48. The unreal is....well...out there but not very many. At least in my experience.

 

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A couple good reasons to not get too hung up on speed, especially at a young age:

Those 53 mph flamethrowers at 10u sometimes top out at 57 at 18u.
Several of those 40 mph average kids sometimes top 60 mph at 18u.

Neither case should be considered unusual or disappointing, because there are many very effective college pitchers that don't touch 60. Food for thought...

 

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A couple good reasons to not get too hung up on speed, especially at a young age:

Those 53 mph flamethrowers at 10u sometimes top out at 57 at 18u.
Several of those 40 mph average kids sometimes top 60 mph at 18u.

Neither case should be considered unusual or disappointing, because there are many very effective college pitchers that don't touch 60. Food for thought...

Good points, also consider the fact that if you are not clocking with a Jugs Gun and the pitch is not directly at the gun, it will not be accurate, those speeds vary up to and most of the time by 3-5 mph, and when the gun is in the Dads hand.....well you know the story from there.......I read 52 mph on almost every pitch in a post, so every pitch is being clocked??? Sure it is.

 

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Yeah, Sammy, good post. Like you said, there's also the Little League Pitcher syndrome that goes along with the early flame throwers. Some get their growth earlier and thus hit their upper limit earlier than others. Our oldest dd is about 6 foot and was also the tallest in her class. The baby dd has just been growing slow and steady and probably won't hit her height (and bigger arm circle) until high school. (At least that's what I'm hoping for -- the other kids have been 6 feet or better.)

 

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A couple good reasons to not get too hung up on speed, especially at a young age:

Those 53 mph flamethrowers at 10u sometimes top out at 57 at 18u.
Several of those 40 mph average kids sometimes top 60 mph at 18u.

Neither case should be considered unusual or disappointing, because there are many very effective college pitchers that don't touch 60. Food for thought...

So true!!!

It would be interesting to see where some of these 10U studs end up. I would bet a lot of them are not even the best player on their H.S. team, that includes all positions not just pitchers and any sport.

 

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Good points, also consider the fact that if you are not clocking with a Jugs Gun and the pitch is not directly at the gun, it will not be accurate, those speeds vary up to and most of the time by 3-5 mph, and when the gun is in the Dads hand.....well you know the story from there.......I read 52 mph on almost every pitch in a post, so every pitch is being clocked??? Sure it is.

in the ones I posted... yeah... two complete innings, every pitch. Good enough... and they were in the middle to later portions of the game.

 

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in the ones I posted... yeah... two complete innings, every pitch. Good enough... and they were in the middle to later portions of the game.

My DD actually picks up speed through the course of a game. Speed however isn't everything. I'd definitely take location and good movement over flat out speed.

 

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My DD actually picks up speed through the course of a game. Speed however isn't everything. I'd definitely take location and good movement over flat out speed.

Very true, but at the 10u level and the 12u level, it you got speed, thats all you need.

 

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Very true, but at the 10u level and the 12u level, it you got speed, thats all you need.

She's at 12U, and she's fine.

 

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Location, location, location...what else is there...