Opinion about playing up

Same here. She didn't want to wear one either but I saw a girls teeth knocked out in burlington 3yrs ago and went the next day and bought the game face and told her to get used to it because it was not a choice she was going to wear it.
You have to throw alot of movement pitches to the older girls and I don't know many 12u's that have mastered that yet. The last tournament that my dd pitched in she thru a total of about 4-5 fast balls everything else was movement pitches. If you throw it straight you better be quick enough to get out of the way.

 

I call my daughters pitches and she only threw one fastball last tournament. Rarely do we ever throw a fastball to any hitter. Throwing junk has been her way since early on because she used to always be the smallest kid on any team. Power pitching has never been her been her game. She has just gotten her speed up pretty good but we still don't throw the fastball!

 

Great
, most her age have not mastered all the movement pitches but even the movement pitches have got to be as quick as the fastball. good luck this weekend.

 

I will try and look you up while I am there. I will be the shivering guy on a bucket calling pitches when #5 is in.

One of the teams you are playing(Georgia Crusaders) is mostly a 94 birthday team with a few 93's. We played them last week and we stunk it up on D. They are another reason we are playing so we can try and redeem ourselves.

That team will small ball you to death if they find you can't defend it. They have a ton of team speed. The pitching is the only week area with that team. They throw strikes but don't have a dominant pitcher.

I can't tell you about the East Cobb team since they are in our organization. They are pretty solid all the way around. It seems you know about them anyway.

 

We were lucky our pitching coach had a philosophy of showing movement pitches to the girls early on. Some pitching coaches wont let you move to another pitch until they think you have completely learned the fastball etc...

I won't use the word mastered but we had been taught and were using eight different pitches before she was done in 10U.

 

Luckily for me the first time my daughter saw one was in her first travel tournament and she thought they were cool. She has worn one ever since.

She politics about taking it off at times and the answer is always NO!
She also wears leg guards that have saved her several bruises.

 

Masks are good but no substitute for ....

for real good mechanics that have her finish in a defensive posture. Remember, masks protect the face but the reaction of ball hit at the eyes will be to turn the head.

It is very tough to work line drive defense with a pitcher. The best thing to do is have them pitch (regular motion) against a resiliant surface and field the ball as it comes back to the them. This way the girl has control. Gradually have her throw harder, higher or shorten the distance to the wall. Most girls don't like doing this but it's absolute necessary.

I'm appalled at the fielding skills (lack of) that some pitchers have. I think it's irresponsible to have a kid out there who can't field.

 

I have first hand experience with this one. Until we started school ball last year she had never had a practice where pitching defence was covered. I don't understand why but most coaches consider it a waste of time.
We are lucky that it gets covered with her current travel team and the school team. She will square up on a ball but I am not sure she wont duck when a ball is hit at her head. That makes her mask useless in that situation.

 

I guess I do have a choice to not let her pitch. I am not crazy about it but we are going to try it. She did pitch against older girls in school ball last year and that went good. The difference I see is that hitters 1-9 will all be strong hitters and that isn't always the case in school ball.

Not sure about NC but in SC where we are 7th graders can play high school sports if they aren't provided at the middle school level.

 

You are correct--- there's alot of difference between school ball and tb. Hope she does well, it sounds like from what you have said- that she is a good pitcher but she will have to be carefull on every pitch to every batter because you miss to one of those older girls and it's not a single hit up the middle it's a hard hit to the fence.