Softball pitcher - practice schedule

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Not to derail the thread too much, but for the A level coach, can you share what a girl’s arm feels like after throwing that many pitches in a weekend?

My son plays baseball and I knew from one of his teammates with a softball-playing sister that their teams might have 2 pitchers on them who go the distance in a tournament, whereas a baseball team needs a ton of pitchers to go deep in a tourney. I get that the motion is different and the stress/strain is not the same as a baseball pitch, but do their arms ever just feel tired? Like not hurt or sore, but just tired?

Coach here --

Yes, of course they get tired. And when they're tired, they need to rest. Although sometimes that fatigue is more general. When you play 4 80-minute elimination games and one 90-minute championship on a Sunday, that will wipe out anyone, coaches included.

A good travel team typically has a battery of 4-5 pitchers of varying degrees ok still (and different attributes). Typical strategy is to keep your best until last, although you do need to win your three games on Saturday in order to be seeded favorably on Sunday so you don't have to throw your ace immediately.

A-level teams will complete 5 or 6 innings in an 80-minute game. Sometimes you'll even get in all 7. Lower level teams (B, C) might only manage 3 innings, although pitching counts won't be THAT much lower because of all the walks).

From a coach perspective, I know what each of my pitchers can do. I know their stamina. I know their work ethic. I know what their best pitch is. And I generally know our opponents or can size up opponents really quickly.

And so, I'm throwing my slowest pitcher against the hardest hitting teams, because they'll get frustrated and overswing. I throw my player with the best drop ball against teams that tend to stand in the back of the box.

And I try to reserve my ace, who can hit her spots like no one's business.

And then I'll swap 'em out midgame, depending on what is happening or if I'm trying to preserve pitch counts.

But there ARE situations where the ace throws more. She might pitch a game on Saturday. And then on Sunday the first game against a lower seed is tighter than I might have expected, so I bring her in to close. And then I start her in game two with the objective of getting a lead for her and then benching her for a different pitcher, but then the lead doesn't materialize because the bats run cold.

But the question was about what does it take to be a HS pitcher and what kind of prep. And basically what I"m saying is if your child wants to pitch for a competitive program in HS, your child needs to have the drive to be out there throwing practically every day. They need to WANT to do it. Set up a tarp in the yard with a strike zone painted on it and give her a bucket of balls. Take her to the bullpen yourself.

If she's tired, rest. Listen to their bodies.

But, the ones who succeed in HS (and go on to play college) want to do it everyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Not to derail the thread too much, but for the A level coach, can you share what a girl’s arm feels like after throwing that many pitches in a weekend?

My son plays baseball and I knew from one of his teammates with a softball-playing sister that their teams might have 2 pitchers on them who go the distance in a tournament, whereas a baseball team needs a ton of pitchers to go deep in a tourney. I get that the motion is different and the stress/strain is not the same as a baseball pitch, but do their arms ever just feel tired? Like not hurt or sore, but just tired?

Yes, of course they do! There has not been nearly as much research on this subject as there has for baseball, but there is some and I would not be surprised if 10 years from now we have pitch limits for youth fastpitch. As a parent, I monitor pitch counts and have discussed (somewhat flexible) limits with my daughter's coach based on discussions with her (a pitcher herself), my daughter's pitching coach, and the research I have seen. I have seen tons of coaches overpitching their aces though. Its all about the Ws for a lot of coaches. Read this as just one example of some of the research that is out there: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8645320/

I think there will be pitch count limits for softball at some point. There were not always pitch count limits in baseball and now they are widely accepted.

Once we start seeing more girls with overuse injuries, parents will hopefully become more aware of the issue in softball also.

I think there are just more baseball players so more awareness of the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a daughter who plays/played softball and her primary position is pitcher - how often did she practice? Did you work with a pitching coach? What was done outside of team practice or time with pitching coach? I have a 13 year old who plays 14u and preparing for HS. TIA

DD pitches for her HS team, we never did a private tutor but signed her up for a variety of clinics and camps and she worked with the older pitchers at her school. She also plays basketball, so not much softball practice in the winter. I guess I'll have to tell her to pack up her glove and bats since she isn't good enough for A level travel or division I college.