Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Pitch Speeds

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What are the avg. pitching speeds you can expect to see in both a 9yr old and a 10yr old pitcher both with 2 yrs experience?

 

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Not very fast.

 

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Please search the forum - there have been countless threads in past years on this subject.

Here - SBF posted some relevant data in this old post (see post #16).
http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/4739-pitching-speed.html

 

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Put the gun away for a few years. At this age - just work on mechanics and control. Speed is a natural progression as they get older.

 

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Yep

Mechanics are WAAYYY more important than speed.
If the mechanics are not right then the speed will never really come. And being a great 10U pitcher means absolutely nothing. Being a great 18U Gold pitcher......now you have something. And if they have poor mechanics, when their bodies get big and strong, they will have injury problems because they will literally tear their own body apart with the poor mechanics.

The best pitching coach in the Midwest IMO never uses a gun.......he just teaches mechanics and tells the girls that when they hit 16-17 years old the speed will come if the mechanics are correct.

 

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As already stated, mechnics and movement or placement of the pitch is just as important as speed. People tend to focus solely on speed, but it doesnt matter how fast a pitcher is if she cant hit her spots. (I.e. K. Rickets, 2012 wcws)

 

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So true, karma ... my DD was the slowest pitcher on her team the last 2 years of high school and all 4 years of college, but she was the most effective pitcher 5 of those 6 years, and that was with throwing a 40mph change (knuckle ball) ... the only year she wasn't overly effective, she realized later that she wasn't totally focused on throwing each individual pitch in a place to beat the batter and she was able to correct that the next year.

 

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We all have heard several times on here that there are quite a few 10U's throwing mid to high 50's. Unfortuantely, we have never witnessed those but maybe it is because they are playing on the 10U SHOWCASE teams

Mechanics is the way to go & everything else will follow. This has been my personal experience not only in softball but in my ex-baseball career. If you know me, I did not get my speed from being tall & using leverage, all mechanics!!! Also, who cares how fast you are throwing if you cant throw strikes - the only one that cares in this situation is the backstop!!!

 

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At 10u I think a change up that is 8-10 MPH drop from what ever the fastball is will make the pitcher very effective, especially if she can throw it more than just 0-2 counts! ;&

 

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Well most of the pitchers my dds team saw this year I would say threw 40-45. But we did go and watch the 10s at laser nation and saw some smoke throwers. A coach gunned a laser pitcher at 54 and i would say grand slam,ice and north coast all had pitchers throwing close to 50... But like it has been said mechanics are key and a change up is a big help!!!

 

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Well most of the pitchers my dds team saw this year I would say threw 40-45. But we did go and watch the 10s at laser nation and saw some smoke throwers. A coach gunned a laser pitcher at 54 and i would say grand slam,ice and north coast all had pitchers throwing close to 50... But like it has been said mechanics are key and a change up is a big help!!!

Here we go again...54mph, 10y/o..

 

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Idk just over heard coaches and one had a gun in there hand..... True or not true I have know idea but she was big and threw hard!!!

 

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I would say that 10u pitch speeds are between 30-60 depending on who's parent your talking to on that day.......

 

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I've said before that the designers of this game thought things out pretty well.
SO - for all those chest-thumping dads out there, let's put things in perspective:

A 10u throwing a pitch @49mph from 35' provides a batter with roughly .445 seconds to react from release point to hitting zone.
A college pitcher throwing a pitch @62mph from 43' provides a batter with roughly .440 seconds to react from release point to hitting zone.
Pretty close in batter reaction time.

So you see? It's not so much about how FAST the actual pitch is, but rather how much time the batter has to react. It's called age-appropriate effectiveness.

Now, to burst your bubble: There are about as many Ohio 10u kids throwing over 50 as there are Ohio 18u kids consistently throwing over 62.


P.S. - HINT: If you do the math, remember that the pitch is not released at the front edge of the pitcher's plate, nor is the beginning of the hitting zone at the back tip of the white on home plate.

 

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We all know 10u throws no slower than 50. And no faster than 70 MPH! :lmao:

 

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A little off topic here...... At 2 tryouts so far, one had a pitching machine set at approx 40 and the other was at probably 32ish... Of coarse the 2nd one all the girls were crushing it. How does this benefit the coaching staff to see that girl can tattoo a slow pitch? Are they just looking for contact and swing mechanics? To me, it would make more sense to set the machine to what they would expect to see at live games. I always tell my daughters, practice like you play.

 

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A little off topic here...... At 2 tryouts so far, one had a pitching machine set at approx 40 and the other was at probably 32ish... Of coarse the 2nd one all the girls were crushing it. How does this benefit the coaching staff to see that girl can tattoo a slow pitch? Are they just looking for contact and swing mechanics? To me, it would make more sense to set the machine to what they would expect to see at live games. I always tell my daughters, practice like you play.

Probably trying to simulate fastball & change-up.

Regardless of pitch speed, after about 10 pitches a coach should have enough information to recognize poor approach and poor mechanics at 10u. Crushing a slow pitch can be done swinging the bat with extreme bat drag, or even an all-arm swing. But just because the kid hit the pitch doesn't mean they will be effective in a game situation against competent pitching. It doesn't take fast pitching to expose poor approach and poor swing mechanics. The worst ones can be spotted taking practice swings. Experienced coaches should not need 55 mph pitches to expose a 10u with a bad swing.

I would guess that the coaches were looking beyond the pitch speed, and paying close attention to other clues in the swings. You can qualify a kid with decent swing mechanics, then bring her back for another session where you can throw a variety of speeds, and see how she reacts.

 

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at asa/usa nationals there were many 10 year olds throwing in the 50's !!!!!!

 

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at asa/usa nationals there were many 10 year olds throwing in the 50's !!!!!!

I saw 2 all year throwing in the lower 50's. Granted my dd is older but I still try to watch some of the younger girls. One from grand slam the other from muskie chix

 

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I saw a ton of 10u girls this year and gunned all of them including the two mentioned here. Got both of them at 51...which is absolutely filthy at that distance. No other girls came close. I would say the average 10u pitcher at lasers was around 43.