Pitching and Pitchers Discussion pitchers getting mound time

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dd is a 12 u pitcher for travel ball and wants to do nothing in life except go to school and play softball. was wondering some coaches opinions on letting a girl pitch for rec. ball just to get mound time and mound time only . in our situation , the rec ball coach would give her no coaching advise because he knows the coaching she is getting in travel ball is far more than he can do so he lets her do her own thing and hopes others could learn from her .his feelings r if she can get mound time then he is more than happy to have her there when she can be without interfering with travel ball schedule . any opions would be greatly appreciated

 

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Had the same thought with my dd a few years ago and let her play travel and rec at the same time. She got bored pitching to the rec girls. Was striking out 19 girls a game. Started pitching to their level so their was some other action other then her pitching. Also found it caused alot of issues with her batting when she played travel she would watch strikes go past her ,cause the rec teams had a hard time throwing strikes. The other problem was that her Rec team hardly fielded a ball and when she was'nt pitching they had a hard time making the outs. It was great for the coach he could play all the girls in the infield even if they could'nt play the postion the odds were they wouldnt have to field a ball,and all of the parents were happy because their dd played both infield and out field and they won alot of games.

If she having fun I would let her play,but if she gets bored she will find areason not to go to the rec ball games. Good luck

 

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Have the same situation with our DD. We are letting her play both. It does cause problems with her batting on her travel team. It usually takes several at bats to adjust to better pitching. Other problem is that her pitch selection is limited in rec ball due to the catcher not being able catch a drop or rise curve. However, it is important that DD has the opportunity to play with her friends from school and future team mates in high school.

 

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There is no good answer to your question. The potential effects on your DD's game have already been mentioned, do not trivialize them. I know nothing of your summer team, but taking a few at bats to make the adjustment to better pitching might cost her playing time. Look carefully at the reasons for doing this. Getting time in the circle is certainly one, but what happens to the pitchers that throw when she is not there? Relegated elsewhere. The night the team has an important rec game and the summer coach calls practice. Which group are you going to let down? I have very seldom seen it happen that the schedules mesh perfectly, with no conflicts. Whichever commitment you choose, there will be someone on the other team willing to grouse about it. All of this is assuming she is a regular pitcher on her summer team. She pitches Sat and Sun., some weekends it will include Fridays. Even the most rabid players need time to rest and to continue to practice their skills. Monday and Thurday rest, Tuesday and Wednesday to work out, take a lesson get better at her craft.

 

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I think that the biggest problem is matching the intensity level. Basically there is none in rec ball, and then she is asked to turn it on when she is facing a good team in travel ball.

I think that for a 10U ptcher it is OK but if she could play up in the 12U bracket that would be even better. At least she would see a few players who may be able to make contact. For a 12U pitcher the same thing applies. If she can play up maybe it could be usefull.

Alot of it depends on the player to. If she is a number one pitcher on a 12U travel team then she would more then likely not want to do it anyway. If she is battling for a spot, and simply needs the mound time then it may be helpful. Every case is a little different.

IMHO

 

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Let your daughter decide, if she has a lot of friends on the team she will want to play with them and it will keep her interested in the game. I know both of my daughters played Travel and Rec. The thing that is most important is that along the way she is having fun.

 

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The one thing I did with my dd was to switch her to the other side of the plate for her rec team.
It taught her how to be a swith hitter and also it did not mess with the muscle memory for her travel team when she hit from the right. I know that is not a universal answer, but it worked for her.

 

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I agree with MV-Xpress. Let kids be kids. My DD plays on three teams. She knows rec is rec and she has fun, but her traveling team and county league come first. Yes you have conflicts, but we have conflicts all thru life, let them work thru it. She is a pitcher. She only works a few innings in rec. and we work on mechanics, its like a practice. You can have them face a fast pitcher, by letting them play and practice against the older teams. She works about 40 innings a week. It tougher on the parents , since we are the shuttle service and trying to get from one practice to another in the same day can get confusing. She is having fun and this is the last year for Rec being a 12.. As they get older they will pick what they want and perhaps you may not like it.

 

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Good Point Evil Dad. When we play a poor team we have everyone bat from the other side and work on bunting and slapping. You can always learn something when you play. Even your pitcher can work on the pitches she needs help on. We put in a girl we would like to be a pitcher that doesn't get much work.

 

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I have seen a lot of girls do this and by the end of the season, most have wished they hadn't. Also, DogsDad brings up some excellent points. There are many negatives to playing part-time on multiple teams. Even though I would advise against it, we always had girls wanting to do both. I used to do the schedule for the whole rec league to make sure they didn't have any conflicts. That's the only way it should be done - no conflicts.

This will not be a popular opinion, but if you can't be at EVERY practice or game that the rec team plays, you are being selfish. Before everyone jumps on that - reverse the circumstance. If your travel team had a part-time player that just showed up when she could and was given your daughter's spot when she was there, would you be okay with it? I doubt that most of you would find that acceptable.

 

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My dd used club ball to get mound time. ;D It did a good job filling the void between indoor and our first travel tourney. I agree with the statement that part time players on any team create a definite problem.

 

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My dd plays both rec and travel. I think she has more trouble at the plate with rec than she does in travel. and she is a pretty good hitter.

as far as mound time... Our rec team switched to a different league this year so that we would face more competitive teams since we have several travel players split between two teams. So far we really haven't seen a whole lot of competition. But my dd gets a few innings a week on the mound for practice. Some of the problem is the coach is not a travel coach and only lets the travel pitchers (my dd and one other) throw fastballs and change ups most of the time. Every now and then he'll let them throw something else. So how much practice are they really getting? Not a whole lot.

 

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I guess we have it made. My oldest did the same thing 10 years ago. Rec is T-TH, County M-W, Traveling weekends.. I coach two of the teams , and from a high school prospective our best players did the same thing. I will admit the kid has to love to play softball. The good news , this is only for 90 days, traveling ball is the only program now that wants you to play all year., till you hit high school then they have to give you a break.

 

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I think it first depends on what she wants to do.i know when my daughter was 11 she played 3 weeknights plus travel and got burned out.it also depends on her experience level,can she hit spots consistantly and throw strikes consistantly.The less experienced she is, the better rec ball will be for her because she will still have to throw strikes.When my dd played ,very few rec players would swing the bat so she had to throw strikes.In her case she was very fast but had some control problems so it helped her out. You can also run into the problem of not having anyone that can catch her in rec ball. Hope this helps.

 

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My DD played rec last year and hated it. The game was too slow, too many walks and just fustrating for her. I know she got to play with her friends but she ended up riding them because they didn't know what was going on or didn't care. She wanted to quit after game two. They limit the pitching to three innings per game so after she pitched 3 innings it was a walk fest. After one particular agonizing game which we lost, one girl asked "Did we win?" Before anyone could respond my DD jumped on her and said, "Didn't you just play the same game I did? Were you asleep or playing in the dirt? WE LOST!!" I told her to relax, it's only a game, but deep down I was smiling.

The other issue that was hard on us, is that usually the travel player is the best player on the team. If you have a league tournament it will probably conflict with a travel tournament. Where is she going to play? The no-brainer is the travel tourney. However, a lot of rec parents take extreme offense to that because they see it as just abandoning the team when they need you the most. To them rec ball is all they have and they want to win just as bad as everybody else.

 

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In central Ohio there are select team leagues at 10U,12U, & 14U that play on M/W or T/TH nights - I270 League. The teams are for the most part community select teams (although some regional travel teams play in the leagues).

In the case of the regional travel teams, they use it as a way to get players playing time in positions different from the weekends. In the case of community select teams they use it as a way to develop a feeder system for the high school programs.

In our community (Olentangy), quite a few girls play tournament ball on the weekends with one team and community select during the week with another. It allows them to play different positions, play with their school friends and play for their community. Not sure if this is an option for you, but it is a nice alternative to rec and really worked out well for us.

 

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I think there are both positives and negatives to doing this. The positives would be that you get the extra time to work on your skills. Another big positive is that you can work on pitches that you're not comfortable with. You'll be more confident to try it against weaker competition. The negatives are that when you're facing weak hitters you don't have to be as precise. In other words, you can probably get away with throwing the ball right down the middle and that habit could carry over to travel ball.