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One For The Bucket Brigade!
by Dave
Friday, January 29, 2010
Tom writes in to ask, "How about doing one for the bucket dads? Everyone talks about the kids!"
You know, Tom, I would do something for the bucket dads and moms but I don't want to wallow in self-pity. So I am going to try to stick to anecdotes you and others have sent me, as well as some interesting stories I have heard or seen. I will, of course, talk about some of my personal experiences because those are the ones I know best.
Tom complains of pain he got while returning the ball to his two daughters when they practice pitched to him. As he notes, "there are no points for throwing it back on the fly." I'll add that there are no points for looking like a pro when you throw the ball back either!
I have not only caught a lot of pitching sessions, I have watched others do almost as many. One of the more comical things I have noted is the father or mother who squats like a real catcher and then tries to whip the ball back to the pitcher, again, like a real catcher. I know the mentality. I did this a few times and gave it up for personal safety reasons and to avoid pain.
Even funnier than the would be major league catcher is a fellow I know who wanted to work his daughter's ability to protect herself from line drives by whipping the ball back at her as hard as he possibly could each and every time. His throws probably maxed out at 50-60 mph. Nobody hits a ball back to the pitcher that softly beyond 10U. It doesn't do any good to whip the ball back at her if that's the best you can do. It just gets your blood up and makes her dislike you. It also will eventually burn out your arm.
Let me provide some advice to all parent catchers and this same advice was mentioned to me by Tom. Flipping the ball back on one hop is not a shameful act. It will save your arm. If your daughter is really, really going to grow up to be a pitcher, you are probably going to have to catch 2 - 4 times per week for 100 pitches and returns at the very least. A good average might be 3 times per week for 150 pitches and even that is a bit understated. That is 450 return throws per week, 44 weeks per year, over the span of perhaps an 8 year career, yields 158,400 throw backs. If you, like Tom and I, have 2 daughters, figure it out. You are going to hurt your arm!
I have a pretty bad right, throwing arm. I broke my elbow playing football when I was 15 and still have shards of bone on the inside of the elbow. I know the shards are there because my doctor warned about this at the time of the injury and, quite a while ago, I hurt it and it locked into place. When I had X-rays done, the doctor noted that he could see the shards and it was the swelling around them that had caused the lock-up. Years later, when my kids first got involved in softball, I threw a little too hard with another father before practice one day. My arm was sore for weeks after that.
Once you get the knack of throwing it back on one hop, it may actually save you time because you won't suffer all those bad throws as you try to emulate Pudge-Rod. Tom suggests that bouncing the ball back will make them better fielders. I'm not sure if it is true or not. But it certainly does not hurt their fielding ... or your arm.
The knees are probably your most abused joints. If you ski, snow or water board, that's more so. If you value your ability to walk around, up the stairs, into an elevator, I suggest trying something besides the standard catcher crouch. I am fully aware that there is a little known Medicare benefit for which you might qualify. I am slightly jealous of all those people on the TV who got their Power Chair and didn't have to pay a penny out of pocket for it. But if you are in your 40s, you will look silly making your way to the restaurant/bar/supermarket in an electrical chair. The alternative is a knee replacement but those replacements need to be replaced after a decade or so. You can count on having to replace your bad knee(s) as many as 5 more times during your life if you need your first one at 40 or so. Save your knees, get something to sit on during pitching practice!
Tom suggests a high bucket. He recommends this because 1) he has sufficient room to toss the ball back underhand and 2) he is able to get out of the way of a wayward pitch very quickly without stressing his knees too much. I prefer a lower bucket. I use one of the shortest buckets around, one I used on my boat before I got rid of the boat in favor of softball lessons. I like the shorter bucket because I can set a lower target and I want my kids to throw a lot of low pitches in order to induce grounders. But I may rethink my approach very soon as I am missing out on the benefits Tom noted.
I do not suggest spending money to get the item I have seen in stores and online. That is a stool which stands on one leg and is sold specifically for bucket dads and moms. I got one for Father's Day. It is not very convenient and I have fallen off it several times. The thing about a bucket is you can use it as a bucket in which to carry gloves and balls. It is sturdy. One cheap little plastic bucket will probably survive your kids' pitching careers and you will be able to will it to them when they become parents.
At this point I have to tell you a story or two story about buckets. I learned about them my first year of travel. The warehouse superstore was selling seeds in a bucket for a very cheap price and we decided to buy one for the team. I had hoped to recoup the bucket after the seeds were gone because it looked like it might make a good seat. But when the seeds were depleted, the team's manager, a father of a pitcher, grabbed the bucket and made it his own faster than I could possibly have grabbed it back. A month or two went by and someone took the top of that bucket and attached a proper seat cushion to it for the coach. He still has my bucket today! I think he is rather proud of it.
Another bucket brigade dad I know often catches his daughter when she pitches. He does so in pitching lessons and practice sessions, at team practices and before games. I noticed that he sits sideways on the bucket in order to protect his potential to produce children in the future. After years of watching this, I commented to my wife about it and was surprised by her reaction. She told me that when she first saw him sit sideways like that, she lost all respect for the man! She said he should sit like a real man!! So if you are at all concerned about the way people perceive you as you sit on your bucket, sit straight and protect yourself through other means.
Yet another bucket dad I know has a daughter who is a good pitcher but not always that successful when pitching against the best kids. We were conducting a tryout for catchers one day and she was pitching to them. I asked her if she had a dropball because I wanted to see the catchers block. She said she did and proceeded to throw several very good ones. I was genuinely impressed, not with the catchers but with this girl's dropball. So I asked the father about why he never had her throw the drop in games. He looked at me with a puzzled expression and said,
"Well, she really doesn't have a drop. I mean we don't work on it at all. I can't stand catching the thing. So she never works on it. I didn't think it was very good because I haven't seen her throw one in many months."
I informed him that she does indeed have a good drop. I also told him that she practices it when she throws with her younger sister, a catcher. I strongly suggested that he begin calling the pitch as one of her main ones in games. Do you know, that pitch has become her mainstay and she is a much more effective pitcher now than she was before she started throwing the drop a lot.
Yet, I understand why a father would not want his daughter to spend a lot of practice time working on the drop, at least not while he was catching it. The drop is the bane of many bucket dads' existence. I remember talking to one father who had a daughter with a good drop. He was catching her in the yard one summer evening when one pitch pointed out a tree root he had not completely removed from their throwing area. He was struck in the knee by a drop that bounded off the tree root. For months afterwards, he walked around with a softball sized bump on one leg. This guy used to wear shorts in weather above 25 degrees. But during July and August of that summer, he wore long pants due to his embarrassment.
Speaking of embarrassment, another father of a talented drop ball pitcher I know took one off his shins. He had to go in for X-rays after a few weeks of hobbling. The pain was excruciating. But this guy had some trouble with the doctor because he refused to tell the man flat out that the injury was caused by catching his daughter's pitching! The doctor wanted to know how it happened. He said "never mind." The doctor persisted relentlessly. I think the doctor finally accepted some explanation about a foul ball at a high school baseball game.
The moral of that story is shin guards are advisable. I actually don't wear them because I can't stand them. I caught until I was 18 but I never really loved wearing guards. And as an adult, I really can't handle the feeling, especially when I wear shorts. That's not a very good excuse and I have chipped bones on my shins too, though nothing that hindered my ability to walk. I guess I am pig headed and one day my daughter's dropball will convince me to wear the shin guards I have.
Tom has some advice if you also refuse to wear baseball/softball shin guards. He uses soccer style leg guards. I may have to look into this because it makes a lot of sense. But I may have trouble finding anything that fits properly. If you don't have football shaped calves, you might want to look into soccer shin guards to protect you while catching.
I have one final dropball story for you. I was at the field one day and noticed a bunch of guys from our organization standing around a pick-up truck chatting. As I walked towards them, they were laughing and making all kinds of odd faces. As I got close, one yelled out to me, "hey Dave, have you ever taken one in the ... you know?" I replied, "yes, many times, it ain't pretty, it's always the darn dropball." As I uttered the beginning of the word "dro" they all broke out into hysterical laughter. They were all pitchers' dads. They knew exactly what I meant. They all had the same experience.
I understand what Tom is saying about the higher bucket. If you are catching a dropballer, it is best to get the heck out of the way once that ball hits the ground. It has a lot of spin on it. You really do not know where it is going to go. The faster you can get out of the way, the better.
Still, I cling to my low bucket. And one of my kids is a dropballer. I have worked a way to protect myself and that is: I stay closer to the plate and when the ball hits the ground, usually it is right around the plate. I go forward rather than trying to block it like a catcher. I attempt to short hop it right near where it hits the ground so it doesn't have the opportunity to jump. It doesn't matter to me if I catch it or merely knock it away. Just so long as it doesn't jump me. So far, that technique has worked.
The worst I have ever been struck is actually on a change-up. My kid's change is pretty good. It moves and dives. When it hits the ground, it is difficult to know which direction it will bounce in. She once threw one that hit the plate, bounced up, and caught me in the chin. I saw stars. I got a nice little knot on my face that stayed there for several months. I think perhaps the bone was chipped but I never sought medical treatment because I was a little too embarrassed. I didn't need to hear another human being suggest I wear a mask. So I won't go into proseltyzing you about wearing a mask. I'll just say that there is a good reason to put one on, and leave it at that.
So to recap, a bucket is better than squatting. I prefer a low one but Tom likes a high one and he can offer some sound logic for choosing that size. Protective equipment is probably a good idea though I admit to wearing none. You must be hyper vigilant to protect yourself. And those of us too proud to admit it hurts when we get hit should probably rethink our manhood.
Speaking of manhood, I don't want to shortchange the many women who catch their daughters' sessions. I know several who, for one reason or another, do the job. They may be better athletes than their husbands are. They may just be the only one available when their daughters take their lessons. I think I know of more fathers than mothers but there are penty of each and all have their own war stories.
As a matter of fact, I know that one of the guys who laughed at my comment above no longer catches his daughter's lessons. Instead, he has his wife do that. The reason is he has become very good friends with the pitching coach. When the coach sees him, he likes to talk endlessly. The guy not only feels as if his daughter is shortchanged due to the coach's excessive conversation, but also he is concerned because he too often gets distracted from the job at hand. His daughter has hit 60 on the gun. But she is a little wild, especially when throwing movement pitches. l; He often finds himself nearly getting hit because he is too engaged in conversation. So now his wife catches the daughter at lessons. And she's the one sporting the injuries most of the time.
I really urge you in the strongest terms possible to not allow yourself to be distracted when catching. Even a 50 mph pitch can do some damage when it hits you in the head. Talking with others is possibly the most insidious form of being distracted. I just heard on the radio that the result of laws prohibiting cell phone usage behind the wheel actually have accomplished one of their objectives - to lower the rate of usage while driving. Unfortunately, the laws did not accomplish the main objective. Accident rates did not go down. While hands-free devices are used to a much higher degree than before, it turns out that they do not prevent accidents. It is the talking that yields the distraction, not the use of hands. If you try to hold a deep conversation while catching your daughter, you're gonna pay a price.
I have on many occasions found that I am not quite as wide awake as I should be when catching. Sometimes my concentration drifts. Sometimes my relatively weak eyesight takes me out of focus. That is not good.
I strongly suggest that before you get behind the plate, you make certain you are wide awake. I now very often drink a full cup of coffee before catching. I sometimes take a shower beforehand. I will try almost anything to ensure that I am as awake as possible. It is no fun to recognize that you almost got hit by that pitch.
Speaking of those times when you feel like you almost just got hit, it is difficult for those whose daughters don't yet throw hard or those who have never been part of the bucket brigade to understand our plight. The best way I can describe this is via analogy.
Do you know that feeling which immediately follows a near miss auto accident? Your adrenaline pumps at full throttle. You feel sweat start to well up in all the usual places despite having been relatively cold before the incident. Your heart pounds. You feel throbbing at your temples. That's an almost car accident. Almost being hit by a pitch is not as bad. I would say that on every pitch my daughter throws, I feel about 5 percent of the car feeling. And when I almost get hit, I suspect I reach to about 10 or 15 percent of that extreme. During the winter, we catch down in my basement which is very large. The basement is also rather cool, perhaps 45 - 50 degrees. But after we are done, I am always sweating. And when I almost get hit, I sweat profusely.
Women have more sense than men. They are more willing to don the full gear. Men are often either too lazy or too stupid unless or until their daughters become demonic hard throwers. I know of a Division one pitcher whose father always puts on the equipment. He does this because his daughter has been clocked around 67 and for one other reason. When the kid throws to him, which she still does on occasion, he abuses her psychologically. When he does this, she usually throws harder. And she, I believe, aims to hurt him. He throws the ball back at her hard a lot - he doesn't follow my one bounce advice and when he does throw it hard at her, I believe he aims to hurt her. Their sessions are rather violent. He dons the gear as a matter of survival. She should consider pitching with catcher's gear on too. Then again, she throws harder than he does.
One other item about gear, as a person who has suffered several concussions, not as a result of catching, I urge you to use the old style of catchers mask which is generally more protective of your brains. I know the newer, hockey style masks are more in vogue and look better. But the helmet part is intended to deal with foul balls. I personally do not think you need to use a helmet. And the hockey style mask provides less cushion when the mask is struck. That is my opinion formed after doing some research. You can do your own thinking and research.
The plight of the bucket dad or mom is not a well respected one. Those of you who regularly catch your daughters know of what I speak. We in the bucket brigade suffer all manner of injuries and humiliation. A little common sense can go a long way towards reducing the number of our injuries. And learning from others is at the heart of the human condition. So take Tom's advice and mine. Don't let your pride get in the way of protecting yourself. Also, when your daughter can throw a projectile hard enough to kill you, it is best not to anger her too much.Labels: parenting, parents, pitching, safety
Permanent Link: One For The Bucket Brigade!
 
Now Is The Time
by Dave
Monday, November 30, 2009
Many, if not most, of us are in the off-season. Yes, elite travel players aged about 14 and up are working towards winter showcases in Florida and elsewhere. Many warm weather states are playing their winter seasons. And in the cold states, some few are making plans for indoor winter ball or their indoor workout sessions. But that's travel ball and what I'm about to discuss has nothing to do with that. Right now, my thoughts are with rec programs around the country. Officers and other league officials are making plans for the coming season including tryouts which will happen for many right after the holidays. In going with the catch phrase of 2009, how about thinking about some sort of "change" for the 2010 season?!
When my mind drifts back to rec ball, a couple images come to mind. For one thing, there are those eternally long games between large teams (15 or more) of girls aged 7 to 10. Another image that comes to mind is of girls in the 12U division who really are not interested in playing softball at a high level but just want to get out and socialize with their friends. The final image that comes to mind is of the older divisions which have depleted rosters either because most of the skilled players are somewhere else, perhaps in travel, or because softball is competing with school and other activities.
These are macro images and when I think of each, a couple sub-set images come to mind. In the 10U age group, typically you have about half the girls who have never played anything beyond tee ball and about half the girls who have already played a full year, possibly more, of real softball. Of those who have played some, there is a smaller sub-set of girls who have attended clinics on their own or possibly gotten involved with travel ball someplace where they played 50 games outside the rec league, practiced all winter and developed their skills well beyond the newbies.
Generally, the pitching stinks in this category except for a very small group of girls who have actually taken lessons, perhaps even pitched travel ball for a year. There are not nearly enough of these girls to go around to all the teams and because the league restricts girls from pitching more than say 3 innings a game or week, the games almost always degrade into walk-fests with a few hits when the pitcher finds the strike zone and the wrong kid, some travel kid, is at bat.
Games usually have some sort of time restriction like 2 hours and thank goodness for that because nobody could take any more. A game might start out with a bunch of walks and then somebody hits a grounder that exceeds the reach of any infielder and rolls past the outfielders. Finally the last outs are recorded and the teams switch. the next half inning might proceed like the first or the other team might have one of those travel pitchers. In any event, it continues until the score is pretty high, the travel pitcher ends her permitted number, or some such. Nobody has really gained from the experience. But everyone goes out for ice cream or speeds off to a family party or other event. Meet back here Tuesday or next Saturday and we'll replay the same game against another team.
At 12U, most of the girls are more coordinated and there is more "quality" pitching. A few teams have one travel pitcher, possibly two. Some teams do not. Generally the teams that have pitchers will make it to the playoffs by blowing out the others. And then there are some quality games, quality for the more serious players, that is. The less serious, less skilled kids will be either at home because their team is no longer playing or stuck out in the outfield and overwhelmed by the opposing pitching. Games are shorter throughout the season and particularly in the playoffs. Bragging rights are established. And many girls start considering leaving softball for something a little more interesting and exciting, or something they can actually excel at.
In the older age categories, there is a massively reduced number of players because girls have left for other activities because they have absolutely no confidence on the softball diamond. Some play although they are not serious about the game because they can still hold their own and there is nothing else much that interests them. When basketball or some other event conflicts with their rec softball games, they choose the other activity which causes teams to have trouble fielding 9. There are fewer and fewer teams and age groups are often combined in order to have enough teams with enough kids to play games.
This is the rec softball pyramid. We start out with too many kids to count at age 7 or 8 and end up with too few kids to bother counting by 15 and 16. Competition stinks in the early ages. It gets marginally better in older ones and then degrades as the number of participants depletes. It is a shame for a truly great game.
But what do we do about it? Like I said, right now is the planning stage for many rec programs. If I have accurately described rec softball, ultimately, We can really do only one of two things. We can leave it alone and assume nothing will make it any better, or fooling with it might make it worse. Or we can try to make some positive changes. What some of these changes could be are the subject of today's discussion.
Some leagues divide up the girls between 8U and 10U or 8-9 and 10U while some have leagues where 7 and under are relegated to tee ball while everyone over 8 and under 10 plays in a single league. The differences in coordination, strength, athleticism, etc. between a youngish 9 (let alone 8) and an older 10 is considerable. IMHO, girls aged 8 should not be playing with the 10s. It would be preferable if programs could establish separate leagues for 8U and 10U, even perhaps divide up the 9s and 10s into competitive and less competitive play.
If for example, you have 8 teams of 10U in which all different skill and age levels are represented, what would be wrong with creating 2 divisions, based partly on age and partly on skill. These would then play against just 3 other teams rather than having a single 8-team league in which some kid who could not field a grounder or make a decent throw to first must play against another who has played a year of travel ball in addition to rec. So my first recommendation is to consider dividing up your 10U league into competitive and less competitive divisions. If you do not wish to do this at 10U for whatever reasons, consider doing it for 12U.
Next, it is almost painful to watch the pitching at 10U in most rec leagues. Yes, there are some which train their pitchers and that is generally a better league. Many just conduct tryouts and leave the teams to their own devices. One team has one great pitcher and many poor ones. Other teams have decent pitchers who do not walk the world. But overall, the total quality of pitching is very poor.
Right now, when budgets are being established and plans for the season are being laid out, why not consider addressing the pitching issue? What you can do is bring in a professional instructor to train a group of pitchers at weekly clinics. If a professional trainer is not within the realm of budgetary possibility, comsider talking to local high school coaches to get a kid pitching at that level who would volunteer to work with the kids. Every high schooler who aspires to go to college must perform a minimum number of hours of community volunteering. This would be a fun way to earn one's required points.
These clinics could be conducted during the late winter months in some school gymnasium or other facility. Presumably the local rec league can gain access to a school gym for free or some sort of nominal charge. You get your space, some balls, an instructor and see how things develop.
The pitching clinics should not be some sort of free benefit provided by the league that anyone who wants to come whenever they want to come can feel free to attend. It should be mandatory for all girls who state they want to pitch in the league. There could be a nominal fee to cover expenses. If a professional instructor would accept $200 for a two hour clinic and you were able to squeeze 20 kids into a lesson, $5 - $10 per kid is not bad for one or two hours worth of Saturday afternoon baby sitting for a girl to gain the opportunity to stand in the circle. Add to this the other costs and divide by 20 or have the league pick up those costs. The point is, this could be accomplished for very little cost per aspiring pitcher.
One league I have spoken about in the past puts the word out that anyone who wishes to pitch must attend their pitching clinics which have a paid instructor plus some high school volunteers. A good instructor can easily handle 20 kids but give him 2 high school aged, softball playing girls and everything goes very smoothly. Attendance is taken at these clinics. Girls who want to pitch must attend, regardless of excuses provided. If your clinic consists of 8 to 10 sessions, you might allow any one girl to miss 2 but more than that and they are no longer pitchers. yes that's tough politically but if you want your league to provide a quality experience, trust me, this is a necessary step.
Girls who attend their own private lessons, could be exempted or have a reduced number of sessions, provided that it is clear that they are actually attending lessons and do not need additional work in a group setting. This can easily be seen in tryouts or at a first clinic session at which skills are evaluated. Don't simply accept anyone's word that a particular kid is in lessons and therefore has a valid e4xcuse not to show at your clinics. Otherwise, you will most certainly see more kids laying claim to being in lessons while your league's pitching improves only a bit.
The point about improving pitching is not merely some way to alleviate parental pain caused by sitting through horrendous walk-fest games. There is a better reason to take the plunge and do this. While hitting is very much a mechanical issue that should be addressed in a vacuum, it is also critical for hitters to see decent pitching, as mush as possible. When walk-fests take place, nobody benefits, not the struggling pitchers, not the bored fielders, not the batters who never get to take swings. When a league's 10U pitching improves, everybody benefits. Batters take their cuts. Fielders field balls because batters are hitting them. And the game moves along so nobody is caught yawning either in the stands or out in right field.
It should be noted that when 10U pitching improves, 12U games are better too as kids move up having actually pitched somewhat well. Others have fielded real grounders or flies. And batters have real experiences of seeing strikes and ripping at them.
As a side note, there is another pitching related issue which can be addressed to improve your local rec league. That issue can be addressed either in a non-competitive 10U or, if you have a 9U or other pre-10U league, there. That issue is walks.
One way to deal with the issue is to alter the number of balls required before a batter is walked. At young ages, 6 might be the magic number which changes the game for the better. If that doesn't cut down the number of bases on balls, there is another approach which is guaranteed to. Abolish them. That is, do not permit walking. When the pitcher throws 4 or 6 balls, have a coach pitch.
One league we were involved with had a rule which limited walks to 4 per inning. After that, a coach pitched the rest of the inning. That did not really work all that well. Almost every inning began with 4 walks followed by, of course, coaches pitching. if you want to do that sort of thing, why not put 3 runners on base, give the batting team a run and then have coaches pitch the whole thing? Of course, this also solves nothing. So, instead, consider doing away with walks, just at this low level, and allow pitchers to try to throw strikes to each and every batter without facing the risk of boring their teammates to death.
A peripheral issue involves the way teams are set up. Say you have 8 teams in your league and 16 kids have attended the clinics. That works out nicely since 2 pitchers could be placed on each team. But that is never the way it works unless you design it as such. if you want to improve your league's games along with the pitching, conduct separate drafts of pitchers and other players. The teams which go first in the pitcher draft go last in the player draft. And do not allow two parents who also happen to have their kids in pitching lessons to coach on the same team. Split them up. I don't really care who is friends with whom. The league exists for the good of the largest possible number of participants, not to ensure that Sally gets to play with her best friends.
This raises an issue unrelated to generally improving a rec league but I want to address it nonetheless because it is a thorn in my side. How many times have you seen this kind of thing happen: Matt, Sara's dad who is coaching the Marlins or Phillies has Sara, an ace pitcher on his team. His daughter knows Jane and Mollie who are very good softball players that can also pitch in a pinch. They know Maggie, Allie, Kristen and Lauren, also good players. The group conspires to go to tryouts and not really try. Matt is able to draft all 6 girls plus his daughter and they crush all comers in the league once games start. One of the 7 always pitches, another always catches, and the others make up the infield. They bat 1-7 with the "other girls" filling in remaining spots and sharing tim e on the bench. This kind of stuff cannot be allowed to go unpunished. It happens all the time across this nation and most other league participants are hurt in some fashion by it. Enough of that. If a league president knows about such shenanigans and is too spineless to put a stop to it, he or she should not be president.
So that is pitching and two related draft issues which could be addressed in order to improve a rec league. I believe that this issue alone, if it is resolved, will lead to a better rec league. But I'm going to delve a bit further into other areas because I do not believe resolving this issue alone will lead to better participation, particularly as girls age up.
Another area which can be addressed is fundamental defensive skills. So many kids progress through rec softball without ever really knowing how to field a ball or make a throw or catch that it is mind boggling. Kids come out for the lowest levels and coaches do make an effort to teach their teams how to field and throw. But before long, they come to the conclusion that half the kids can do it and the other half cannot. They also conclude that the only way they are going to win games is to take the kids who can field and throw, put them in the infield, and then teach them where to throw. They encourage these more naturally gifted kids to take over control of the game. If the ball is hit to the outfield and you can get it, go get it. Don't wait to allow the others to try to make a play. Just take charge and make every play you possibly can. While there is nothing wrong with the philosophy of going for everything in general, it can devolve into the old "Bad News Bear" scene in which one kid races back and forth and catches the ball right in front of another kid. That's not good.
A better approach is to require coaches to teach basic skills. That's tougher than it sounds since most coaches: A) do not have the slightest idea of what basic skills are, let alone how to teach them; B) see the rec league as a way of raising their own egos or providing their kid with a winning experience; or C) do not want to be told how to coach or structure a practice since they played college ball and the league officials did not. Leagues must coach their coaches.
If you go watch a very good rec league, one of the elements of play which will strike you is the fundamental skills of the players. This league might just be blessed with better water or soil which yields a better crop of athletes. But if that happens year after year, most likely the water and soil have nothing to do with it. There must be another reason. Most likely they teach all the participants those fundamental skills.
Many towns have certain requirements their coaches must meet. They have to attend the safety training class. They must attend a meeting which tells them that they should emphasize certain things like fun, basic skills, and team work, not winning. But even when these perfunctory meetings and classes are conducted at which all the good intentions are laid out, nothing much changes. We have to find a way to force or coerce coaches into teaching sound fundamentals, putting the emphasis on the right thing, or otherwise improving everyone's experience and learning.
The first issue is to make sure coaches know fundamental skills. For this, perhaps a film session followed by an open discussion would suffice. There are videos out there which teach fundamentals. Most are addressed to players but there is no harm in having coaches watch them. An alternative is to bring in a competent local high school or travel coach. I say competent because there are plenty of incompetents. I know of some high school coaches who parents of players would like to sit down and teach the basics of the game to. If the local high school coach is merely taking additional pay for the least possible amount of effort, perhaps a travel coach would be willing to come in and help out. If he or she pulls many of their players from the local area, this can only benefit their program.
The second issue is finding a way to make sure the coaches teach the skills to their players. It is nearly impossible to draft up a specimen practice regimen, require its use, and then enforce the requirement. Nobody takes kindly to this sort of control from league officials. But some sort of requirement for teaching skills is absolutely necessary at young ages.
There are a couple ways to resolve the issue. One is to require coaches to conduct practices of a certain duration consisting of a certain amount (say half of practice) of fundamental skills teaching and practicing. [; The second half is theirs to do with as they choose. This can be tough to police unless a league rep can attend practices regularly and watch in order to enforce the rule. A secojnd, more effective way to enforce the requirement of spending a certain amount of time working fundamental skills is to take away the practice time and put it into "clinic" time. You have 8 to 16 coaches looking to practice their players. You have say 160 girls looking to practice. Rather than conducting separate practices by team, use half the time to conduct clinics at which the team coaches are instructors under the supervision of a coordinator who directs what is to be done, when and how.
A league which, for example, plays its games on Sunday and Wednesday could establish some sort of Saturday clinic schedule and then allow teams no more than one practice outside the clinis per week. Coaches might work with their players for some of the time but be supervised by league officials or the coordinator while conducting the drills. There are many ways to conduct these clinis but you can figure this out for yourselves.
As a final comment about clinics as opposed to practices, I find that many leagues do this sort of thing but only at the youngest age levels. It would be best if these kinds of skills clinics could be continued at least through 10U. It would be better if they continued up to at least 12U, though in more sophisticated form.
And as a final comment about coaching or policing coaches, some sort of evaluation program should be implemented. It should be formal and standardized. It must involve the players, parents or both. Each participant's family ought to receive an evaluation form concerning how the team was run. The form should contain a questionnaire which grades coaches ability and willingness to teach fundamental skills. The questions must be objective such as:
"Fundamental skills" (circle all comments that apply)
"I (my daughter) was taught fundamental skills more than / less than half of all practice time"
"I (my daughter) had ample / insufficient time to learn these skills"
"The coach was knowledgeable / needs work on his understanding of skills / ability to communicate those skills with the kids."
I think you get the idea. No, I don't have a specimen questionnaire for you to use. You need to draft one up which mirrors your organization's values. But keep in mind that you want a high level of participation in the process. Getting 50% or less of these questionnaires back is not only a good thing, it makes the entire batch completely useless. You cannot evaluate coaches based on a half return rate. You need a minimum of 75%. Also the process must be anonymous. Specific comments, if you allow parents to provide them, cannot be read back to the coach. When the process is over, the overall grade is the only thing which you share with the coach.
For example, a coach might be told, you had an overwhelming response which indicated that you do not like to teach fundamentals or you need to work on your communication skills. A coach might be told that the majority of respondents felt that you put winning too high on your list of priorities. Again, I think you get the idea and can do for yourselves.
So, these are my suggestions to you to improve your rec league. I have no vested interest in this. It really just popped into my head this morning. I suppose I know where it all came from. I was discussing some softball issues with a web friend. He directed me to a forum which discussed all sorts of softball issues in his state. I was struck by how similar the discussion was to similar forums regarding my state. I was also struck by how many of the same issues pop up all over the place.
One of the issues which was raised had to do with "how do we bring our state's softball up to the level of California?" In that discussion, one of the readers wondered why CA players were so good. All sorts of reasons were givewn and most I take issue with. For one thing, there is this assumption that the only good ball is played in CA. Last I looked Florida is making some large inroads. Further, there is very good softball being played in Texas, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Georgia, etc, (sorry if I missed your state).
For another thing, everyone assumes CA has better softball because it has such great weather. yes, they do have great weather but not everywhere in the state. Some places are way too hot to play ball in the summer. Some places actually get snow. Some places are just grand to play softball 365 days per year but, you know, I know of some teams that play in colder, less pleasant climates who play over 100 games per year, play indoors whenever the weather is no good, and otherwise ought to be able to compete with CA teams. Yet there must be other reasons because one particular organization which does this and who I am thinking about is good but hardly the best around.
The fact is CA has been at this fastpitch thing longer than most places. In my state and many others, girls were playing slowpitch or modified for many decades before they gradually moved over to fastpitch. Heck, there are some high schools which still play slowpitch in a few places around the country. Fastpitch hasn't really been around many places for very long. I think that people either don;t know or forget that colleges in the SEC and ACC have not fielded softball teams for very long, mostly less than two decades. Until the game has been around for longer and things have sorted themselves out, just a few places will continue to yield the largest, highest quality crop of softball players and teams. The question cannot be what does CA have that we'll never have which allows them to produce better softball. The question has to be, what can we learn from other places about how to improve our softball. One, important place we can improve is the quality of our rec leagues. If we drastically improve our rec leagues, the entire game in our region will improve. But not only that, also more and more girls will come to appreciate our game. More and more girls will have fun p[laying softball well. That is why I wrote this today.
"Change" is the catchword of today. We do need to make changes in many aspects of our lives. It cannot be change for change's sake. It must be change for the sake of improvement. I've laid out a few areas in which our rec softball leagues can change. Pitching is key. Fundamentals are almost as important. As you, the league officials, plan for the coming rec season, how about thinking about some positive changes?Labels: coaching, fielding, instruction, little league, parenting, pitching, pre-season preparation, Youth recreational softball
Permanent Link: Now Is The Time
Stable Of One?
by Dave
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I received an e-mail from a regular reader which suggested I put a little something into the blog regarding the overuse of pitchers. I have to note that in the past, I have tended to fall on the side of the argument which believed pitchers could throw as long as they liked and as long as they were not generally worn out. But my views on this are undergoing some changes and I'm about to put forth arguments which differ from what I have said in the past. This subject is somewhat controversial. I know I will hear from the other side in short order.
When I was first involved with this sport, somewhere along the way I read about how underhanded pitching was a much more natural motion than overhand. That is a somewhat obvious observation although not, in my view, a very careful analysis of the realities of windmill pitching. The notion was proffered that softball pitchers could throw virtually endlessly. They would wear out their legs and brains long before their arms or shoulders showed signs of strain. That is why, I read, you see so many of the top pitchers throwing so many innings, especially in the championship setting.
For years, medical professionals have warned us in the softball community that while the overhand and underhand motions do effect the joints differently, we would be mistaken to conclude that windmillers could go on forever, without ever suffering serious consequences to their joints, tendons and ligaments. We know that very often pitchers do suffer injuries. Yet we have seen so many very good teams on which the ace of the squad pitches 14 or more innings on a single day, sometimes on back to back days. We also recognize that there are not enough good pitchers to go around. We take these observations and conclude that if a girl is going to be a top caliber pitcher, she had better get used to pitching more than a single game on any day and be prepared to drive herself to physical exhaustion in championship brackets. Coaches put together teams knowing that they only have one true A level pitcher but reason that if they can get a kid here and there to just eat up one of their three games, the ace will take care of the other 14 innings.
Softball is just different. It certainly is not baseball. I saw the pitcher from (insert top 25 NCAA Div I team) throw 16 innings to keep her team alive on the WCWS. Obviously, good windmill pitchers can go the distance more than their baseball counterparts.
Let's take a look at just a little history. Long ago in baseball, pitchers threw a lot more than they do today. Some baseball pitchers threw full double headers. Some pitched back to back days, some back to back to back. A few baseball pitchers threw one game with their right arm and another with their left. Pitchers often played other positions when not pitching. Remember, Babe Ruth was a pitcher in the major leagues before he began to focus exclusively on hitting home runs.
When sports grow older, they often go through transformations. In the early days of football, not only did they wear very little padding and their helmets were laughably inadequate, but also players often played both ways, offensive and defensive teams. As the sport progressed, teams recognized that they got better results with 11 guys dedicated to offense and a different 11 to defense. nbsp; They had themselves specialists for functions like punting and field goal kicking but that was about it. Later on, they discovered certain position players were more well suited to certain types of plays. Certain blockers were better at pass blocking, run blocking or pulling and other types of plays. The same held true for other players like running backs and tight ends. And the same held true on the defensive side of the ball. Players were shuttles in and out based on expectations regarding the type of play likely. Defenses and offenses got more and more sophisticated to the point that coaches established whole "packages" of players for defensive situations. Now almost half the defensive team comes off the field to be replaced by another "package" of players depending on what is going on with the down and distance. Football has become almost as sophisticated as baseball!
(If you find that you are a purest who believes football teams are wrong to run players in and out on every play, you should consider that offensive teams do not generally agree with you. That is why the whole no-huddle offense was created - to take away time for coaches to make up their minds which package to send in and to sometimes prevent them from making any changes at all.)
Baseball, at least in terms of pitching, has become perhaps the most complicated sport on Earth. Like I said, in the day, pitchers threw often. They also often pitched complete games. Later, pitchers got into a rotation in which they threw every 4, then 5 days. Then, as time wore on, there came an era of the "fireman" who was a relief pitcher that was as dominant as a good starter. The fireman would come in when the pitcher seemed to be out of gas, generally in the 7th or 8th inning, sometimes earlier, sometimes in the 9th. The fireman typically pitched innings, not batters.
Teams noticed when their competition stopped trying to stretch out their pitchers to a full 9. They took notice when a fresh guy came in after the starter walked the leadoff hitter in the 7th and the fresh guy shut their teams down. Before long, the fireman was something they had to have. And the number of complete games dwindled. In the current era, we see things much more complicated than that. There are middle relievers, 7th inning guys, 8th innings guys, and closers.
Not very long ago, the only guys anybody worried about were the starters and the closer. Then it began to be recognized that teams without a true 8th inning guy were losing games when maybe they shouldn't. All of a sudden, the 8th inning guy became more important. Then the same became true of the 7th inning guy. Today it is fairly normal for a starter to go no more than 6, possibly 7 innings, another specialist or two to come in and throw just one inning in the 7th or 8th, and then either the 8th inning guy or the closer comes in to try to seal up the victory.
Even more extreme, many baseball teams carry a guy just to get out a single lefty, perhaps two, late in the game. These guys are probably the oddest breed of them all. Can you imagine a point in your pitching career where your warm-up pitches are 3 or 4 times more numerous than your game ones? These guys sometimes warm for 15 minutes and then come in to throw a single pitch! And I have heard team general managers complain that they are dissatisfied with the guy who is their "lefty specialist" and the market for such players is too thin!!!
There seems to be some dissatisfaction amongst purests regarding this kid-glove treatment of pitchers. They seem to think that teams are babying pitchers and this is leading to a weakened state of the game. Notable amongst the purests who want to extend pitchers in terms of innings and pitches is Nolan Ryan, whose pitching record stands in stark contrast to the way pitchers are treated today. He threw complete games. He was not beholden to any sort of pitch or inning count. He just gutted it out when he got tired. And he is going to try to get things back to the way they were with the team he runs.
Only time will tell if baseball will move back to a more rigorous pitching schedule. But one thing is for certain, the results, not anyone's philosophy, will push the action. If stretching pitchers out results in wins, particularly world series wins, then everyone in baseball will eventually follow suit. If it does not, it will not continue. And, even if we see more complete games in the future, we will not see the role of good relievers diminished very much, if at all.
Some of the reasons that baseball pitchers do not go as long today as they once did have to do with the ball and game conditions. Some of them have to do with the batters. Some of them have to do with medical reasons. And some are just plain common sense.
When baseball decided it wanted more balance between offense and defense because folks were not happy paying big money to go watch a pitchers' duel in which one team had 3 base hits and the other 1, they began taking steps to "level the playing field" between offense and defense. In the old days, outfield fences stood out near the horizon. Those were brought back in by large percentages. The pitchers mound was lowered. The ball was juiced. In the olden days, a pitcher threw what was practically a bean bag at a batter way down there who needed to hit the thing 450 feet just to hit the fence. Today, the baseball pitcher throws a super-ball straight at a batter who, if he check swings too hard and makes decent contact, has a very real chance of going yard.
Batters have much more sophisticated training today than they had in Ty Cobb or Ruth's generation. They have more video analysis than NASA once did. They have machines which train their eyes to hit all manner of pitches at all speeds, even those not humanly possible. There are numerous folks with doctorates in medical fields analyzing the most efficient swings. Coaching has become more and more sophisticated because, as anyone with a sports page this time of year can tell you, there is gold to be earned in them there hills. If hitters are not better trained today than they were 20, 50, 100 years ago, I'd be shocked speechless. These guys take batting practices in which there are video screens set up with tapes of the guy they are going to face tomorrow throwing. The hitters of today are more well prepared, if perhaps not better athletes than those of yesteryear.
They also undergo more strength and athletic training which is geared to hitting homeruns or just plain hitting. Pitchers have sophisticated prep too. But that does not diminish the prep batters have before they face them. Batters also get customized laser vision correction which sometimes gives them incredible vision comaprable to the games greats when their genetics would have failed them. The worlds of video analysis coupled with medical and sports training professionals has tailored training regimens to make them more effective. The entire world of technology seems destined to make baseball pitchers' lives more difficult.
And on top of these developments, batters have become more well schooled as the game has progressed. They make adjustments to pitchers, pitches, and to situations. All the knowledge of the previous generations has been passed down in the game. The hitters of today truly stand on the shoulders of those who went before them. The result is pitchers get run out of games earlier and earlier. Few pitchers have nearly as much success the second time through the lineup as they had with the first. Very few survive their third time through. &nbvsp; Only the absolute best can do more than that.
To go further, medical professionals have had many more years of examining the results of over-pitching in baseball. Each and every year, better and better understanding of injuries occurs. Over much time, we have come to understand that the pitching motion is very hard on the body. We have cut down the amount of pitches to the point where things like the "Joba Rules" in which a young pitcher for the New York Yankees had his number of innings and pitches held to a very low number in the name of preserving the longevity of his career, are becoming more commonplace despite the wisdom of the Nolan Ryans of the world.
So that's baseball and, to a lesser extent, football, two games which have a longer history than softball in the sense of person hours spent playing and examining the structures of the game in order to put together more wins. In both, a high degree of specialization has formed. Teams whose success and failure rides on their ability to win games and, hopefully, championships have instituted relatively high degrees of specialization. Nowhere is that more drastic than with baseball pitching.
To contrast baseball with fastpitch softball does not take a genius. I suppose that is why I am able to do it! Fastpitch softball much more resembles the baseball of Ruth and Cobb than it does the game of today. Teams will often use just one pitcher in the semifinal and championship games. Girls are called upon to throw 10 innings on Saturday and 14 or more on Sunday. Pitchers play the field when not pitching on today's lean travel team rosters. They very often have Ruthian hitting skills. Teams can sometimes jump on the back of one pitcher and ride her to high levels.
The result of seeing these pitchers aligned against us throw back to back games and play when they are not pitching is we come to the conclusion that we should expect this out of our best pitchers. We should search for an ace who can carry the entire team on her back. And the result often is that the team's best pitcher is expected to pitch one heck of a lot of innings, sometimes more than her body can take.
Our game is also becoming far more sophisticated. If you doubt this, consider the that 30 years ago, the SEC and ACC schools didn't even field teams in fastpitch. High schools in most states had either slow pitch or modified fastpitch. Softball did not merely take a back seat to baseball, it was required to ride in the pickup trucks' bay with the feed and livestock. And that was during hail storms.
Today there are fastpitch teams everywhere. More pop up every year. Schools are dropping slowpitch in favor of our game. Position players are going to see position specific private coaches. All players at pre-college higher levels are going to see sport-specific trainers. Batting instructors are far more numerous than they were 5, 10, 20 years ago. Teams travel all around the country to play against better competition. Whereas players from Florida were recruited for just church leagues twenty years ago, today it is becoming somewhat rare for a college team to not have some kid from there. A team from Florida actually won ASA Gold one year. And other states are quickly following suit by developing their programs to compete with the best.
As far as the game itself goes, the pitcher's plate was moved back to 43 feet from 40 with the specific idea of balancing the game's offense and defense. Some few dominant pitchers continued to strike out batters in droves but overall, there are more balls hit into play than there once were. While baseball is still the money sport and the money provides much of the sophisticated training, there is naturally a crumb phenomenon in which the best baseball technology becomes available to softballers. Hitters are better and the deck is stacked somewhat against pitchers.
On top of these developments, we are coming to recognize that pitchers, be they windmill or overhand, all have pretty high incidences of injury. The truth is there is nothing particularly natural about any pitching motion. Underhand may be more natural than overhand but it ain't something that is easy on the body. Pitchers can develop back problems, knee issues, and, of course, shoulder and arm injuries from overuse.
Further, it would be one thing if everybody in windmill pitching threw mostly fastballs with a few changes or a curve mixed in the way baseballers do. But that's not our game. Our game consists of rises, drops, screws, curves, etc. Again, it does not take a genius to recognize that windmillers contort their arms to make the ball dance.
I recall seeing a still photo one time of a pitcher right at ball release. This girl was wearing your typical uniform top so you could see her entire arm and shoulder. She was throwing a drop or a curve in the shot. She was a fairly skinny kid with not particularly much flesh to hide her muscles, tendons and ligaments from view. In the picture, as she released the ball, the muscles on her arms looked like elongated rubber band balls. You could see the actual fibers straining underneath her thin skin. The strain in tendons and ligaments was also apparently visible. The overall picture was one of almost her skin being transparent. Strain was plainly visible.
I would hazard a guess that this kid threw as many as 50% of her pitches using that particular pitch. Girls in our game do come to rely on one or two pitches as their bread and butter while using other types of pitches for set up or to throw the batter off their mainstays. And that "out pitch" or pitches is generally something that requires considerable strain, well beyond the mere fastball. It is common for an ace to be a dropballer, riseballer, or some such. The result is an incredible amount of strain on muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments, more than is evident in the statement that underhand throwing is more natural and less stressful on the body than overhand.
We do see college squads using more than just the ace in most istuations beyond the conference or NCAA championships. Typically, many colleges have three or four pitchers who see a fair amount of action. Typically, the same kid will not appear in both games of a routine, middle of the season, double header. When she does, it is usually for just a part of each game or most of one and little of the other. And many times, when she is used in more than one game, it is due to an injury to one or more of the other pitchers.
High school squads usually do not have the depth to use more than one pitcher most of the time. They may have a kid who fills out innings when they are playing weaker teams. But against the mediocre and good teams, a single kid is used unless they find themselves in one of those rare games in which they luck into a big lead. Sometimes, when scheduling puts demands on a team, the same kid might throw 7 innings in the morning and 7 in the evening. Very often, the same kid is pitching complete games on multiple consecutive days. It can be quite a grind.
Travel rosters, typically consisting of no more than 12 kids, sometimes 11, rarely find they have tremendous depth in pitching. Certainly a few fortunate teams have a wealth of pitching. But, as anyone in travel can tell you, if you have too much pitching today, you won't for very long because the pitchers who see too little action will quickly leave. Travel teams often have one ace plus a couple other pitchers who vary in terms of abilities. I have been involved with or known teams that have one good pitcher and several mediocre or below. I have been fortunate to involved with teams that have a good amount (3 or 4) of pitchers who can each throw 4-7 innings successfully almost any day. That's a real luxury.
By far the most common circumstance I have seen occurs in which a travel team has one kid who is head and shoulders above the other pitchers. Maybe she is an absolute flamethrower or perhaps she has a great mix of speeds. Maybe she is one of the few who can truly master the rise or maybe she is really a refined girl destined to play D-1 softball and be good at it. In any event, these teams often overuse these aces.
They start out Saturday with a plan of giving each kid a game and alternating their relief pitchers. Then they get to their first game and the number 3 struggles so they bring in number 1 who is still scheduled to start game three. She works four innings and then goes back to CF for game 2. Then in game 2, number 2 pitcher does very well until maybe the 4th or 5th when she loads up the bases. The team would like her to finish but they lost the first game, need to win this one, and are currently leading by a couple runs. So, in comes the ace to throw a couple more innings. There is a one game break and then game 3 starts. Of course, the ace is scheduled and will pitch it like usual. She's gone 13 or 14 on the day and tomorrow she will be expected to pitch 14 or more depending on how deep into the tournament the team goes.
This tremendous workload for the ace pitcher is done all the time in the travel world. There, luckily, the games come just once a week, unless the team scrimmages a lot during the week or has the ace pitch live batting practices a couple times. Still, it places tremendous stress on the pitcher's muscles, tendons, ligaments, and lest we forget, brain.
I was talking to someone on a fairly typical travel team the other day. His daughter was a pitcher at 12U for an ambitious team. They played something like 100-110 games during one year. That is a lot even for top travel clubs, at least in my experience. This team was the typical travel club in that they had 3 pitchers. One struggled that year because she was younger. The number 2 was pretty good but could not get batters out after the second time through the lineup. The ace, this guy's daughter, pitched the lion's share of the innings. In about 100 games, averaging perhaps 6 innings, yielding about 600 innings on work, this guy figured his kid pitched about half to two thirds. That's 300 to 400 innings! You know what? After that season, she got hurt.
There are more injuries to windmill pitchers than anyone likes to talk about. Sometimes these injuries are traced to non-work-level reasons. Sometimes the tracing is done for self-serving reasons. I have often heard folks talk about how their ace pitcher got hurt because she is generally out of shape or because she must do something wrong with one of her pitches. It isn't the pitching that caused the stress, it was the kid's fault. Many times, the injury is pegged to a reason that isn't the kid's fault but is just one of those things. I think she slept on her shoulder wrong. Her parents have bad shoulders (knees or whatever) and she inherited them. S0ometimes it is game related but not in any way related to pitching. She hurt her foot running the bases and was over-compensating for that when she pulled a muscle in her arm while pitching.
Excuses are like ..., everybody has one. Everybody has more reasons to explain something than they have excuses!
We examine data in order to trace and locate cause and effect. Pitchers, by the numbers, get hurt. It does not so much matter that we can use anecdote to blame something other than overuse. Co-incidence does not necessarily indicate causality but one has to wonder about the relationship between pitching too much and other factors. On top of this, we have the whispers of medical professionals in our ears. They are warning those of us who believe firmly that windmill pitching doesn't cause strain that perhaps they are wrong. They are telling us that the strains of the windmiller are similar enough to those on baseball pitchers to take a closer look. They are telling us that we need to have more pitching and to use it.
I hope I am at least causing travel and other coaches to think about how much they use pitchers. I hope I am getting you to at least think about it. The game is quickly maturing though it will never mature as much as baseball or football - there just is not that kind of money around. As it matures, there will be more and more need for more pitchers. I think we are starting to see this development in the college game. Eventually that may make its way down to high school though depth will still be a problem. We need to at least consider it for the travel game. Parents of ace pitchers should watch the amount of time (innings and pitches) their daughters work. m Pitchers should not allow themselves to be used when they are overtired. A stable of one is just not enough.Labels: coaching, pitching, youth tournament teams
Permanent Link: Stable Of One?
Lesson Buyer Beware
by Dave
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
As if life were not complicated enough, we Americans are charged with significant responsibility via the simple phrase, "ignorance of the law is no excuse." We are obligated to know all the laws applicable to these United States when those laws and everything which explains, defines, and clarifies them would fill a very, very large library with so many pages that it would be impossible to read them all in a single lifetime! That body of law is constantly increasing at almost an exponential rate. There are attorneys who spend their entire professional lives working on tiny portions of the overall body of law. And these individuals find that they learn something new about their area of specialty on practically a daily basis. Even these studied, experienced professionals make monumental mistakes. When it comes to using a professional attorney, the client must endeavor to understand the law and to "supervise" the hired professional lest his or her mistake cost the client in ways that cannot ever be rectified. So it is with lawyers, so it is with all experts.
Ignorance is unacceptable when it comes to the law. It is also at least inadvisable in every other aspect of our lives including sport. We must constantly keep abreast of the entire body of knowledge pertaining to our own pursuits. We must therefore endeavor to gather and assimilate as much knowledge as possible. I can't speak for you but I know I learn something new about softball on a daily basis.
There are so many sources regarding mechanical and other issues that I know I could never have enough time to read, understand and evaluate them all. I struggle with this. I'm one of those who wants to hear the right answers and to understand the complete logic string which underlies them. I do an imperfect job but I do try.
When I am dealing with a subject about which I know too little, I almost always defer to experts. They not only know their subject far better than I can learn it in a short time, they also are able to explain it much better. So, when my kids wanted to play softball and then to pitch, I knew I was out of my league. I had to defer to an expert. Actually, I have deferred to several experts to teach my kids about pitching.
I am not the type of person who normally can be a passive buyer of these kinds of services. Many are passive about their daughters' pitching lessons. I see them all the time. They are the ones who sit in their car while taking phone calls or engage in unrelated discussions during their kids' pitching lessons. They don't know a lot and because they are busy in other aspects of their lives, they do not have the time to delve into things. I understand and respect that. Loads of people just do not have the time to go further. But I am not able to take that same approach. I have to understand what is being taught. And I question almost everything. Sometimes, I get unexpected surprises from sources previously unknown to me.
I am going to get into pitching from a mechanical perspective today. But before I do, I want to at least mention something about batting which contains a parallel lesson. From the time I first got involved with fastpitch softball, I heard about something called the "west coast swing." The very term insulted me. I heard it as "this is the way the softball hitters in California do it and, since CA has the best softball, they must be right." I started t0o try to understand what the west coast swing was and what its underpinnings were. After a while, it became clear to me that those who talked about this swing were really talking about a style which was often referred to as "rotational." I dug further and was fairly easily able to trace it back to essentially the Ted Williams school. It became clear to me that the question was not one of fact but rather of opinion. I read Charley Lau and others who had written books and articles on the mechanics of hitting. Before long, it became clear to me that many of the claims of "west coast" swing instructors just were not true. I won't go into the details right now but basically, I came to understand that the swing was not a new style, was not endemic to the west coast, and was not necessarily superior to other types of swings. It also became clear to me that loads of people made trade specifically by touting the "west coast swing" and they were loathe to admit any fallacies which were promulgated by them or their kindred. In fact, they were willing to argue every single point whether they believed their position or not. Some of these experts were quite wrong but they stuck to their guns.
More recently, what I have observed is a much lower frequency of folks referring to the "west coast swing." I have also heard many of the professionals who teach swinging start to move away from a purely rotational mechanical style. Many have stopped referring to "rotational hitting." Most no longer argue all of the points they once touted.
As I said, this piece is about pitching. There are several aspects of fundamental pitching mechanics which have given me trouble over the years. One of these is the stride. Another is hip closure at release and thereafter. There are a number of conflicting pieces of advice and "expert testimony" on these issues which I had consumed over the years and now I am trying to sort it all out.
I could not fail to hear Michele Smith talk about pitchers and the degree of angle of their hips. She always speaks about a 45 degree angle. This advice was in direct conflict with what most of the pitching experts I have seen were telling me. Yet, I am somewhat convinced that I merely misunderstood someone or everyone. So let me see if I can explain the issue and why it caused me so much consternation.
When a windmiller pitches, she stands with two feet on the pitcher's plate - her shoulders and hips are necessarily square to homeplate. We call this "closed." As she goes into her windmill and the arm is over the head, she has her hips and shoulders square to third base (first base for a lefty). We call this "open." So the pitcher opens the door and then pitches. What follows ivolves the subject of closing all the way or partially.
I have often disputed Michele Smith's charterization of a pitcher maintaining the good 45 degree angle with her hips as she released the ball. It seems counter intuitive to me because if you try to duplicate it, what you end up with is a motion in which the pitcher must hold herself back - prevent her hips from closing after releasing the ball. It is sort of a linear pitching approach, if you will, b ecause she is sort of slamming her back side leg and hip into the front side after ball release. This puts stress on the front leg, particularly the knee and also seems to hold back natural force from body momentum. But I think I slightly misunderstand Michele.
Recently, a reader of this blog, a friend of mine over the past several years, asked me about the timing of the various parts of the pitching motion. I have struggled with his questions and comments for quite a while and still have not answered him. I suppose it is difficult to put it all together. And hip closure really complicates things.
One of my daughters is more "hippy" than the other. Their pitching coaches have always advocated hip closure in order to promote speed as well as ball rotation on certain pitches and as a way of better controlling the location of pitches. When I questioned one the instructors, he told me that the pitchers who advocate hip openness are generally six foot tall girls with long arms who throw 65-70 without really trying. He went on to say that everybody else needs to close their hip in order to generate the speed needed to compete with these ladies.
That was a simple enough explanation and I bought it since it seemed somewhat logical to me. I saw many girls pitch with open hips and they did generally seem to be taller kids with tremendous speed. Then I saw the Japanese great Ueno and noted that she closes her hips. She throws faster than most - she may actually be the fastest pitcher in softball, I'm not sure. And Ueno is rather diminutive when compared to most Olympic pitchers. She's something like 5-6, 5-7. That cleared things up for me since my kids' coach was validated. Still, I was left with some unresolved issues because of something which happened repeatedly over several years.
Have you ever experienced anything like the following? Your kid is pitching practice when she swings her arm around and strikes her leg with the ball as she comes to the release point. Now that's an interesting occurrence. First of all, the pain must be absolutely excruciating as it drives her body to the ground. Tears follow shortly thereafter. But the pitch itself is something I wish I could bottle because some of the most fantastic curves I have ever seen in my life usually result. I mean, we're talking about a curve which has double the sideways action of anything I have seen world class pitchers throw! If you could harness that pitch - obviously without the pain - you could put out just about any fire in any game at any time. What's possibly worse than the pain, however, are the bruises that result. If this kind of thing happened anytime close to a regular doctor checkup, I'm sure I would find myself locked up and my kids in protective custody. Nobody would believe such a bruise would be self-inflicted. It looks as if it was caused by an adult striking a child with a bat while using all their strength!
In any event, I think this striking of the leg with the pitch is caused by excessively early hip closure. Girls have their curves and it is probably impossible to both close the hip and have a decent arm circle. If you try to do both, what you get is agony and ugly bruising. So there's got to be a better way.
The arm needs to stay in a nearly perfect circle. If it isn't on that track, frist of all, you lose power. Secondly, and more importantly, if the arm is not on a nearly perfect circle, you put too much stress on the shoulder. if you do something in your motion which takes the arm off track, you may cause shoulder injury, perhaps significant injury. This injury potential is really the subject of this piece and how I learned of that conclusion - it isn't my own - will be explained toward the end.
So, if a pitcher cannot pitch the ball around her hip, if she must be open to some degree, then Michele Smith has to be right. On the other hand, if you test this out, you will find that in order to keep the hips open, you have to hold yourself back and that will reduce power, and so she has to be at least partially wrong. The answer is the hips must be open at ball release and nothing should be done to hold back the ball side after release, which means that many or most pitchers should be closed when their bodies come to rest after the pitch.
In fact, it is worth noting that pitchers cannot gain any additional force by forcing their hips closed at the end since that must happen after ball release and it is impossible to get any additional speed on the ball at this point. Once the ball leaves the hand, it is going as fast as it ever will. More to the point, once the back leg pushes off the plate, it has no impetus from which to add any additional force. After push off, the pivot leg has used up its potential to generate force. Thereafter, anything it does to the pitch is caused by its enertia, its forward momentum. Allowing that momentum to continue is what caused the hips to close. Closing the hips doesn't add force but, I believe, preventing the hips from closing causes speed to be diminished since it requires force in an opposite direction. You shouldn't cause your hips to close. It should just happen as the result of an otherwise correct motion with good arm speed.
To sum up, a pitcher needs to keep her arm in a nearly perfect circle from the time she starts upwards until she releases the ball. In order to accomplish this nearly perfect circle, the pitcher must have her hips open in order to get the arm through to release. Hip closure cannot add force, it follows proper mechanics. Ueno closes her hips because her motion causes this to happen. That is, I believe, that. Michele Smith is not wrong but you do not need to keep your hips open at 45 degrees after you have released the pitch. My daughter's coaches are wrong because they believe closing the hips causes force to be added. And, most of all, trying to affirmatively close the hips may knock the arm out of its nearly perfect circle which can cause injury. So, buyer beware.
The second issue I said I would discuss is the length of the forward stride before ball release. Here I have real issues since some of the coaches we have seen emphasize this while some are diametrically opposed to a long forward stride. To understand the issue, the first coach of my kids told them to stride out very hard with an aopparent objective of a landing spot about 5 feet away. This was more or less of a leap in which the back foot was dragged forward. And my kids were little at the time so 5 feet is about right. Now that they are bigger, over 5 feet tall, the stride comes to around 6 feet.
The coach opposed to this kind of a stride advocates a normal walking stride. For me, at about 5-9, and known for having short legs, a walking stride is about 2.5 - 3 feet. There's quite a large difference for anyone of any height and leg length between a normal walking stride and the pitcher's stride the other coach advocated. The pitching stride would be about double the walking stride.
What made me concerned about this issue of shortening the stride was I have seen all the top pitchers throw. I know the pitchers circle is 8 feet from the midpoint of the rubber. I watch these top pitchers routinely land near or on the line. Some come awfully close to exceeding it. When the coach who advocates the shorter stride asked one of these top pitchers about stride length, she agreed with him that it should be short. Yet when she pitches, she lands 8 feet from the rubber. She's just about 6 feet tall! Her walking stride couldn't be any more than 4 feet or so.
I was stuck on this issue of stride length for a couple of years. I didn't give it much thought because my kids continue to take fairly long strides. They haven't "corrected" themselves and shortened up. Now I am glad they haven't because I just read the definitive study on this.
On the link I am about to give you is a study of pitcher's mechanics. It was conducted at the 1996 Olympics. Its chief concern is injury. It seeks to explain pitching motions which cause the least amount of injury. The largest percentage of pitcher injuries in fastpitch softball are those to the shoulder. So the motion which puts the least amount of stress on the shoulder while generating the fastest pitch is the best. The link is here: http://www.softballclinics.com/olympic/olympics01.html
Please take the time to read this study because you really must educate yourself in its findings. You cannot simply rely upon the experts since they often disagree. And when it comes to injuries to your children, ignorance of the realities is absolutely no excuse. You are the buyer of pitching lessons. Let the buyer beware.Labels: lessons, pitching
Permanent Link: Lesson Buyer Beware
Somebody Always Gets Shorted
by Dave
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
I am happy that the high school federation decided to move the pitching distance back to 43. My state adopted it for this year, good move. I am also happy to learn that other youth bodies are likewise moving back to the same distance. It is insane to have pitchers in high school pitching from a different distance than they do in age group play. It is just too much to ask of kids this young. They throw for their high school team Monday through Saturday at 40 feet and then go play in front of, perhaps, college coaches on Sunday at 43. Windmilling is just too hard to have kids jumping back and forth in an effort to locate their pitches where they need to be. So the fact that most, if not all 16U and 18U youth play will be at the same 43 feet as most, if not all, high school play is undeniably a good thing. But, as usual, somebody gets shorted. And that somebody seems to be the 14 year old freshmen.
I have seen nothing about any sort of 14U play being pitched from 43 feet. Maybe some organization has adopted this distance and I missed it. But from what I have seen, ASA 14U is going to be pitched at 40 feet for the forseeable future. The same is true for USSSA, PONY, NSA, etc. I think this may be a mistake.
In some high schools, freshmen do sometimes pitch varsity. Of course, it is very likely that even if they do not, their JV or freshman games will be at 43. I know that the NFHS rule change was for varsity but I have not heard of any state which adopted the 43 feet for this year having a sifferent pitching distance for the junior circuits. There's good reason for that since JV and freshman pitchers are often brought up for a variety of reasons. Also, hitters likewise suffer when the pitchers are moved around.
It does not take a genius to figure out that 14 year-olds equate to freshmen. It does not take a genius to know that this is a tender young age at which the distance confusion is likely to take a significant toll. One could argue that perhaps freshmen should be excluded from varsity softball - indeed I know of one school which follows this policy - but from a practical reality point of view, many schools could not play competitively without their freshman varsity pitching ace. They do not want to see any sort of rule prohibiting 9th graders from participation in any sport, least of all softball.
The discussion does not end here since, 13 year-olds equate, generally, to 8th graders and middle school play is likely to continue at 40 feet. I would like to see that come to an end since the boys pitch at full distance from middle school on. But the other side of the argument is some middle schools use 7th, even 6th graders to pitch their games.
The bottom line is somebody is going to get shortchanged. I don't wish to continue the analysis infinitely. I do want to say that when I advocated for HS ball at 43, I had in mind a number of girls who I had watched struggle with their command at 40 feet after playing the winter showcases and other tournaments at 43. Then I watched them struggle yet again to acclimate back to 43. It was a bit too much. But I neglected to consider 14s doing likewise when, obviously, the struggle for them is yet more difficult. Somehow we must resolve this. And I do not believe that 14U ball should remain at 40 feet. If we leave it at 40, most talented pitchers will skip the 14U ranks and move directly to 16U. That would be very bad for 14U ball.Labels: pitching
Permanent Link: Somebody Always Gets Shorted
Command And Control
by Dave
Thursday, October 08, 2009
The private coach watched his high school-aged student pitch for a while and then asked the question which had been on his mind for some time. "Do you just aim for the middle of the strike zone and then throw?" The student looked confidently back at her coach and answered his simple question. "Yes, that's pretty much what I have always done." The coach drew his hand across and down his face to his chin, pondered the issue, tried to craft the right thing to tell his student, and spoke in measured tones. "That's the wrong approach. You need to start pitching to spots or you're going to get hit."
There are two basic kinds of wildness. One involves the ability to throw strikes a majority of the time. This is the kind of wildness which yields excessive amounts of walks. The second variety involves what is often called "wildness in the zone." This wildness doesn't usually yield many walks but it does lead to other problems in fastpitch softball.
In the first case, usually we are talking about pitchers in their early years. When girls start learning the windmill, there are so many moving parts that it is often difficult to throw a strike using proper mechanics. Girls can perform parts of the motion in isolation drills but when they try to pull it all together into one smooth movement, the ball goes all over the place.
Even if the kid is not frustrated by lack of control, the practice catcher, parents or coaches often are. The inexperienced father complains, "just get it over" or "just try to throw strikes." The beginning pitcher gets frustrated with the reaction her lack of control induces and she begins altering her delivery to satisfy her critics.
Unfortunately too many young pitchers try to "just get it over" by using improper mechanics like bending at the waist, throwing with a bent arm, or making other gross motor adjustments. This is the pathway to future problems that cannot be resolved.
I remember a conversation I had with a 10U all-star coach who "informed" me that the most important element of softball pitching was the ability to throw strikes. He didn't care so much if his pitchers threw via conventional underhand soft toss, modified fastpitch, or a true windmill. If they could not throw strikes, they could not pitch. I could not help thinking "OK, you could not be more wrong but I must work with you so I won't argue the point. Just let me keep my own kids away from you."
The overall control problem is most effectively resolved via frequent pitching practice sessions. Each kid will get her basic control in her own time. Girls must learn proper mechanics and practice them without any worry whatsoever about where the ball goes. You'd be an idiot to think such girls don't care whether they throw strikes or not. But it takes a lot of practice to get the thing right. And there is no timeline which fits every individual.
I've written a fair amount about what parents of aspiring pitchers should and should not do at this point. The keys are:
1) don't have her pitch in games until she is ready because that exposes her to coaches and others who will display frustration whenever she can't get it over;
2) don't get frustrated with her lack of control - get yourself a bucket of balls and have her practice where you have some sort of backstop so you don't spend your time chasing balls (cut down the amount of time between pitches when practicing);
3) encourage proper motion/mechanics - don't encourage throwing strikes;
4) have her throw often to gain the feel of it and to learn the proper release point; and
4) keep her away from people who encourage throwing strikes by modifying the motion.
The result will invariably be a degree of control which will improve over time. If you instead encourage her to modify her motion or allow others to do so, you can plan on having her ready to pitch games earlier. You can also plan on her giving up pitching earlier. Heck, maybe that's a good thing!
The second kind of wildness appears in girls who have mastered the mechanical basics, begun to reliably throw strikes, and are now pitching in games. She no longer walks very many hitters. If she is strong and throws hard, she probably has experienced a good degree of success. She is getting hitters out for a variety of reasons and she is no longer being hurt by her excessive walks.
Many people, especially those with baseball backgrounds, think of this wildness in the zone as "effective" wildness because 1) it is prevalent in hard throwing baseball pitchers and 2) at first it seems to be effective in softball as well. But as girls move up in levels, the hitters become far more skilled and hit pitches that are not thrown to spots.
When we examine the notion of "effective wildness," we are generally talking about a pitcher who throws hard or who has movement on the ball which he or she has not yet harnessed. These pitchers get young batters out because the hitters are not comfortable facing them. They get hit or see others get hit by hard pitches. They see what they think are going to be strikes and wind up swinging at pitches well out of the zone. Eventually, they will become less fearful in the box and hold their ground. They will learn to better predict where a mnovement pitch will cross the plate. They will learn to hit pitches no matter how hard they are thrown. They will learn to adjust their "mental strike zone" to the natural movement of the pitch, especially after watching a couple from a particular pitcher.
In baseball, we see the prevalence of the fastball. Baseball pitchers get generally more movement on their fastballs than softball pitchers for reasons I won't go into. They throw different varieties (2-seam, 4 seam, cut) of the fastball in order to alter that movement. The ball is very small relative to the softball. So hitters have more difficulty dealing with baseball fastballs regardless of where they are thrown. That's not to imply that effective baseball pitchers, especially at higher levels, don't throw to spots. But a hard throwing pitcher can be effective if he has good speed and movement but still cannot command where the ball is going. The term "effectively wild" is a common one in baseball.
In softball, we do not hear of top pitchers being "effectively" wild. That is because the ball is bigger, pitch movement is less, and hitters are trained to deal with speed. If a pitcher can throw strikes at will, has normal to good movement but cannot know with any degree of certainty whether this pitch is going to be on the middle 60-70% of the plate, on the outer two 15-20% locations, up, down or middlish, she is going to get hit. Certainly, on some days, she is going to get lucky and keep the ball out of the middle part of the zone. But she is going to be inconsistent and on certain days be hit very hard.
There is another reason aside from hitters' abilities that pitchers need command of their pitches. We see umpires' strike zones vary quite a bit. I believe the strike zone is broader in fastpitch than it is in baseball. Just the other day we had a plate umpire calling pitches for strikes when they were clearly a good foot up and out. We have experienced a few umps who make pitchers throw into a pipe but for the most part, the umpires we have seen, extend the zone in some direction. There are some who like the outside and low pitch, a few who like it up and out, some who like it up but not down, or down but not up, and some who like everything in but won't give you an outside "on the black" pitch no matter what.
Pitchers have to make adjustments just like everybody else on the field. But their most important adjustment is to the plate ump's strike zone. If the ump is giving you a particular location, it may not be necessary to hit it every time but if you cannot hit it at all, you are preventing yourself from taking an important advantage you would otherwise have. Many times I have watched pitchers who are good at hitting one particular spot pitch to an umpire who favors that spot. They have their best games in those circumstances. But in another game, they might have an ump who favors another location. If they cannot figure out what that location is and hit it, they have less stellar games.
To be successful at pitching, you must possess the ability to hit spots which batters cannot hit as well as those spots off the plate which an umpire is calling. The only way to gain that ability is to practice it.
Once a pitcher is throwing strikes (has control) with good mechanics, the next stages have to involve learning movement and change of speed pitches, and learning to hit spots (command). As this piece is about location, we'll leave the other stuff to another day.
The first elements to pitching command involve inside and outside pitches. The practice catcher sets up "on the black" and the pitcher throws to the corners where the glove is placed. I think of this as stage 2 - level 1 because it is not enough to just throw to the corners. In stage 2 - level 2, the effective pitcher will learn first to throw to the corners and then to throw off them. If the count is 1-0, she tries to throw a strike to even up the count but she still wants to be out of the center. If the count is 0-1 or 0-2, she wants to throw near the corner but off it.
There isn't a good reason to throw an 0-2 pitch which catches the plate. Instead, what you want to do is expand the zone by throwing something off the plate which may induce the batter to swing at a pitch she cannot hit well. So pitchers must practice throwing off the corners. Additionally, they must learn to throw off the plate in varying degrees. Stage 2 - level 3 involves learning to throw 2 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, etc. off the plate. This is because umpires might sometimes be giving you everything 2 inches off the plate causing batters to swing at outside pitches not in the "book" strike zone. And, if the count is 0-2, why would you throw a pitch that is within the ump's zone? Instead, you move a couple inches off that to see if the batter will swing at something she has no hope of hitting!
To recap, pitchers learn their motion, practice tirelessly to throw within the strike zone, avoid any "advice" about adjusting delivery to "just get it over," then progress to learning to pitch on and off the corners, to varying degrees in order to induce batters to swing at bad pitches and perhaps get umps t0o call strikes on pitches off the plate. That is command. That is the location goal but it does not stop with inside and outside corners.
Up and down are nearly as important as in and out. That's because some hitters can deal with, for example, the inside and low but not the inside and up pitch. Also, some umps will give you either the high or low but most often not both. Up and down can sometimes be more difficult than in and out. The pitchers I have observed who can move the ball to the corners and off it, usually go up or down by accident. They can comand the thing horizontally but not vertically. So the next stage (stage 2 - level 4) is command up and down.
In case you are wondering if we are just talking about fastballs in this discussion - which should get you upset since most realize that the fastball is not a commonly used pitch in softball, the answer is no. For all your pitches, command in and out, up and down are important. Obviously a screwball is almost always going to be in. There are the up and down are critical. We see many hitters who are very effective against in and down but who cannot hit an in and up pitch if their lives depended on it. If a pitcher does not have up and down command on her screwball, she is going to run into troubles against these kinds of hitters.
While many pitchers' curveballs can be throw in or out, as we discussed some time ago, the degree of out is very important. A curve right on the outside of the plate is probably going to be hit very hard by good hitters. But if it starts on the last tiny slice of the plate and moves 6 inches off it, that is going to be effective. Yet the pitcher probably needs to possess the ability to throw the curve for a strike on 3-0 counts. Further, if she can get a strike called or induce the batter to swing and miss at a curve which is a mere inch or two off the plate, she should throw it further off on the next one. She needs to find the edge of the ump's zone and then be able to hit that or move it off that, depending on the count.
Similarly, pitchers need command of the change-up. A change-up which is above the belt and in the center of the plate can travel a great distance if the batter deals well with the timing aspect. If it cannot be throw for a strike, it is not an effective pitch since many teams train their hitters to lay off the change unless they are way down in the count. Pitchers must learn to throw the thing inside the zone, keep it low, and move it to the outside corner as well as just off it, etc. I think we see more pitchers who have trouble landing their changes for a strike than with any other pitch. And once they are able to throw it for a strike, that seems to be anough command for them. But learn a good change and then learn to command it in terms of down and out, and you have a really effective pitch, perhaps the most effective pitch in the game.
Dropballs are almost always down and rises are almost always up. But if you can learn degrees of up and down as well as in and out on these pitches, you are much better off in the long run. Many batters cannot hit a drop well or even make contact with a rise. But these hitters learn to make adjustments with where they stand in the batters box and to lay off any marginal pitches they can't hit. So if a drop or rise pitcher cannot put these pitches inside the zone, they aren't going to be effective. And if she can control the up or down but cannot throw to the corners and off them, she is limiting her effectiveness since some hitters will be able to deal with outside drops or inside rises and some umps will give her certain locations but not others.
When pitchers are learning command of pitches to locations, catchers are often involved. The catcher sets up in or out, up or down and the pitcher throws to the location of the glove. This is fine for learning 9in practice and fine if you have a talented catcher. But I have often heard pitchers and parents of pitchers complain that catchers are not setting targets appropriately. If the pitch is called outside, yes, she sets up outside. But her outside target is always in the same place. She does not move slightly off the plate when the count is 0-2. I once heard my own daughter complain about this. The pitcher must not cede command control to the catcher unless that catcher is completely in sync with the pitcher's way of thinking and pitching.
What I do with my own pitchers is, when we practice, I might hjave them work on command by initially setting up at the location they are pitching to. But after some reps of that, I tell them I am now going to set up right down the middle and I want them to pick a spot, not in the middle, to pitch to. For example, say we are working on the fastball. She throws ten fastballs just to warm up the pitch. Then I move and have her throw 5 to the outside corner, 5 off it, 5 on the inside corner, and 5 off it. Next I have her throw up and down. Then I might have her throw 1 inside and up, another out and down, etc. with me moving the glove to the location.
After that location by catcher's glove location, I set up right down the middle and tell her to throw a strike on the outside corner at whatever height. Then I tell her to throw one off the plate by an inch or two. Then maybe further off. We work location by glove location and then location despite glove location. In this way, I teach her to throw where she wants it regardless of whether she is throwing to the gifted catcher on her travel team or the make shift one for the school team (or vice versa).
What I'm telling you is, yes you must learn to throw strikes, then you must learn command. You must learn these things up and down, in and out. You must learn to throw to your locations rgeardless of where your catcher is set up and regardless of how talented she is or is not.
Now, obviously, we are talking about degrees of magnitude here. If my pitcher is throwing 60-65, has five pitches including a killer change, can throw to specific locations at will 100% of the time, she is prepping for top 25 D-1! All she needs to learn at this point is stance / swing analysis, and then how to break down a hitter!! But your reaction to the discussion should not be one of "if it's that complicated, my kid is probably not going to pitch for more than a year or two after this 10U season ends." Rather, I am trying to give you a sense of where to take things after she gets the basic mechanics down and after she is able to reliably throw strikes.
Maybe you are wondering when you should introduce location and command to your young pitcher. I suppose it is never too early to start the introduction but my sense is, if she can't throw a strike about half the time, you are probably wasting your time trying to get her to throw an outside strike at this point. Half is a decent rule of thumb. If she can throw strikes about half the time, put in some attempts to throw outside strikes in her pitching practices. If, for example, you are throwing 100 fastballs in your session, try getting her to throw 20 - 30 of them on the outside corner.
Break things up a bit. Maybe you usually throw 50 pitches in the first phase of this practice and then call balls and strikes for the remaining 50. In that case, I would have her throw 10-15 of the first fifty on the outside corner. Then, when you are calling balls and strikes in the second fifty, every 5th pitch, call one outside. And don't forget to call pitches as strikes if she hits the corner or is slightly off it. Don't set your mitt on the outside of the zone, tell her to hit it, and then call "ball" when she nails your unmoving glove.
As you progress with this for a few weeks/months, you may have her throw some warm-up pitches which do not involve location but after those, everything should be to location, in or out, on the plate or just off it. And once this is accomplished to an acceptable degree (use 50% again) begin having targets in the zone, 2 inches off it, 4 inches off it, etc. The furthest you need to be away from the plate is about the inside line of each batter's box or just past it.
Once you start to work off the plate by degrees, also start working the up and down aspect. I would say that initially, all you need is above and below the batter's theoretical waistline. Then that should progress in 2 to 4 inch intervals. And don't stop at the bottom and top of the strike zone. Include parts above and below the zone as you are doing with the in and out.
The riseball pitcher who can land her pitch just below the upper reaches of the zone and get a called strike one, then paint the edge of the line for two, and then throw one about eye level is going to get a lot of Ks. The dropball pitcher who can throw her pitch for a strike and then bounce one just off the plate is also going to get most batters out easily. Location frustrates hitters like nothing else. You have to hate facing the kid who throws to the weakest part of your swing and then, when you adjust, puts it back where your wheelhouse was before you made the adjustment.
You may never get to the point where your young pitcher is throwing pitches precisely one foot outside, just above the shoulder of the batter with 100% accuracy. Mopst likely you never will be even close to that level of precision. Still, the idea is to work on these things to improve command. The pitcher who works location will be better off than the one who doesn't. Even if a girl is not able to throw 5 of 10 of a given pitch to location, her command will be better and she will be a better pitcher.
The trick is to practice the right way. As the parent, guardian, or coach of an aspiring pitcher, you do her a diservice if you allow her to stop refining whenever she regularly finds the strike zone. You are only 20% of the way home when that happens. Don't allow your pitcher to confidently aim for the middle and then just see what happens. This isn't baseball.Labels: pitching, practice
Permanent Link: Command And Control
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