First, I agree automatic icing is way old school. Ice is for pain and pain generally comes from overuse or poor mechanics. My 14 year old pitches a lot and never has pain.

It is so important to make sure you have good clean mechanics from early on because bad habits can be hard to break. I would absolutely get a pitching instructor and make sure they teach IR. What is your location? Maybe someone can recommend a pitching coach closer to you. As for the expense, I would consider going less often than going to a high school girl at 12. How far are you from Ashburn and Manassas? SixFour3 is a great place to try out a few different pitching instructors to see who your daughter clicks with. There will be one in Springfield soon (?) too.

Anonymous wrote:12-year-old DD started pitching last year and seems to have some ability. Her coach suggested she start doing private lessons. But between her travel practices and other child’s activities we have no more bandwidth for another thing after school. (We did reach out to the coach he recommended who was 45 min away, cost $90 a lesson and was only free around 430pm- how do people do this?!?!)
Are there things she can be doing at home to improve?

The most successful softball pitchers have buckets of balls, a tarp with a strike zone painted on it, and worn-away grass from throwing 100 pitches every day in their back yard.

That said, proper instruction is critical. Not just technique — are you going to do internal rotation or Hello Elbow? (I recommend IR). This could have an effect on arm and elbow health long time. An instructor will also help teach different kinds of pitches (drop curve, an effective change up, screwball, rise)…

An instructor can also help ensure bad habits aren’t acquired, especially those that involve illegal pitches (for example, stepping on the plate without the hands separated, separating the hands more than once, replanting, landing wide of the two-foot lane, having the hand outside the elbow on release). I call a lot of 14U games and can already see pitchers who have bad and illegal habits that will get them in trouble later.

Long story short, if your kid has the passion, you will know it because they will be throwing every day and want to throw every day. The only way they will rise to the top is work and instruction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a pitcher and unfortunately it’s almost impossible to really learn to softball pitch without a private coach. The low cost way to do it is to find a local HS girl who is a pitcher who will do it for more like $40 an hour and be closer. Since HS kids often drive they might even come to you or your local park. Even looking at more “professional” ones, You should also be able to find one that is closer to you. We used a college pitcher from a local college.
There are YouTube videos and of course you can get her a pitching net and a bucket of balls and she can just practice, but you really don’t want her developing bad habits since there’s a lot of muscle memory involved and of course you don’t want her to hurt herself. Be sure she ices her shoulder after training sesssions.

DO NOT listen to this person. Whilst they likely mean well, they do not know what they are talking about here. It is unnecessary for a softball pitcher to ice after every work out, every game, etc. Source: My daughter has been pitching for 6 years. Her coach is a former DII pitcher. Her pitching coach is a former DI pitcher. NEITHER of them have ever said to ice after every work out.

If you need additional assurance I am correct.

https://fastpitchlane.softballsuccess.com/2019/10/11/softball-pitchers-leave-the-ice-in-the-cooler-mostly/

Additionally, there are other resources online telling you it isn't necessary. My daughter does not, never has in six years, and has never had any issues because of not icing "after every training session. "

Different people have different perspectives. My daughter was told by trainers and the orthopedist to ice, but it may be because she has more joint problems that some girls have. YMMV, but I guess the point is -- take care of the shoulder. Pitching is a lot. Softball is different from baseball in that they don't rest the pitchers between games. My daughter pitched basically every game for her team so was pitching basically every day, sometimes multiple games a day. They say that the windmill mechanism is less stressful on the shoulder joint than the baseball pitch, so rest isn't necessary.
It's also helpful to lift weights to build the muscle strength.

I stand by my statement. I've been around a while. I have seen many pitchers and been on teams with many. Your seems to be specific to your child. I love this journey for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a pitcher and unfortunately it’s almost impossible to really learn to softball pitch without a private coach. The low cost way to do it is to find a local HS girl who is a pitcher who will do it for more like $40 an hour and be closer. Since HS kids often drive they might even come to you or your local park. Even looking at more “professional” ones, You should also be able to find one that is closer to you. We used a college pitcher from a local college.
There are YouTube videos and of course you can get her a pitching net and a bucket of balls and she can just practice, but you really don’t want her developing bad habits since there’s a lot of muscle memory involved and of course you don’t want her to hurt herself. Be sure she ices her shoulder after training sesssions.

DO NOT listen to this person. Whilst they likely mean well, they do not know what they are talking about here. It is unnecessary for a softball pitcher to ice after every work out, every game, etc. Source: My daughter has been pitching for 6 years. Her coach is a former DII pitcher. Her pitching coach is a former DI pitcher. NEITHER of them have ever said to ice after every work out.

If you need additional assurance I am correct.

https://fastpitchlane.softballsuccess.com/2019/10/11/softball-pitchers-leave-the-ice-in-the-cooler-mostly/

Additionally, there are other resources online telling you it isn't necessary. My daughter does not, never has in six years, and has never had any issues because of not icing "after every training session. "

Different people have different perspectives. My daughter was told by trainers and the orthopedist to ice, but it may be because she has more joint problems that some girls have. YMMV, but I guess the point is -- take care of the shoulder. Pitching is a lot. Softball is different from baseball in that they don't rest the pitchers between games. My daughter pitched basically every game for her team so was pitching basically every day, sometimes multiple games a day. They say that the windmill mechanism is less stressful on the shoulder joint than the baseball pitch, so rest isn't necessary.
It's also helpful to lift weights to build the muscle strength.

Pitching requires a huge commitment outside of regular practices, expensive private lessons, and extended practices.

Anonymous wrote:I had a pitcher and unfortunately it’s almost impossible to really learn to softball pitch without a private coach. The low cost way to do it is to find a local HS girl who is a pitcher who will do it for more like $40 an hour and be closer. Since HS kids often drive they might even come to you or your local park. Even looking at more “professional” ones, You should also be able to find one that is closer to you. We used a college pitcher from a local college.
There are YouTube videos and of course you can get her a pitching net and a bucket of balls and she can just practice, but you really don’t want her developing bad habits since there’s a lot of muscle memory involved and of course you don’t want her to hurt herself. Be sure she ices her shoulder after training sesssions.

Yeah, the second sentence is clutch here. Learn bad habits = undo over the course of six months to a year, if ever. My daughter first learned outdated pitching mechanics and breaking down and redoing her entire pitch was a slow, painful process.

Anonymous wrote:I had a pitcher and unfortunately it’s almost impossible to really learn to softball pitch without a private coach. The low cost way to do it is to find a local HS girl who is a pitcher who will do it for more like $40 an hour and be closer. Since HS kids often drive they might even come to you or your local park. Even looking at more “professional” ones, You should also be able to find one that is closer to you. We used a college pitcher from a local college.
There are YouTube videos and of course you can get her a pitching net and a bucket of balls and she can just practice, but you really don’t want her developing bad habits since there’s a lot of muscle memory involved and of course you don’t want her to hurt herself. Be sure she ices her shoulder after training sesssions.

DO NOT listen to this person. Whilst they likely mean well, they do not know what they are talking about here. It is unnecessary for a softball pitcher to ice after every work out, every game, etc. Source: My daughter has been pitching for 6 years. Her coach is a former DII pitcher. Her pitching coach is a former DI pitcher. NEITHER of them have ever said to ice after every work out.

If you need additional assurance I am correct.

https://fastpitchlane.softballsuccess.com/2019/10/11/softball-pitchers-leave-the-ice-in-the-cooler-mostly/

Additionally, there are other resources online telling you it isn't necessary. My daughter does not, never has in six years, and has never had any issues because of not icing "after every training session. "

I had a pitcher and unfortunately it’s almost impossible to really learn to softball pitch without a private coach. The low cost way to do it is to find a local HS girl who is a pitcher who will do it for more like $40 an hour and be closer. Since HS kids often drive they might even come to you or your local park. Even looking at more “professional” ones, You should also be able to find one that is closer to you. We used a college pitcher from a local college.
There are YouTube videos and of course you can get her a pitching net and a bucket of balls and she can just practice, but you really don’t want her developing bad habits since there’s a lot of muscle memory involved and of course you don’t want her to hurt herself. Be sure she ices her shoulder after training sesssions.

12-year-old DD started pitching last year and seems to have some ability. Her coach suggested she start doing private lessons. But between her travel practices and other child’s activities we have no more bandwidth for another thing after school. (We did reach out to the coach he recommended who was 45 min away, cost $90 a lesson and was only free around 430pm- how do people do this?!?!)
Are there things she can be doing at home to improve?