Congratulations From the NCFSCA

Pitching

Has the association done any research to see if pitching more than one game a week has any detrimental affect on the young pitcher? Is there any indication that throwing under-handed in a natural motion causes damage? Do the members of the association watch softball? If this rule becomes effective, as cheeze says the rich get richer and the teams that may have had a chance with the one good pitcher they had, will fade. Out west and in Texas many kids have stopped playing HS ball and play year round travel ball! I sure hope it does not happen in NC but with crazy rules possibly being used, it will happen. I think we need a travel team association to let our voices be heard or all join the NCHSA to try and make the game better not handicapped.

 

Rodney, I am with you....lets join (or you may already be a member)and hope we can be heard as well. The tension between travel teams and HS coaches is bad enough now. Rules like this pass and it will only get worse. As you said...everybody will just play Travel Ball only.

 

PITCHING

So, does anybody care about the arm of that one pitcher?
Doesn't seem like it. Only the success of the program
Get real.
No matter how natural the motion is too many repetitions of anything
is potentially damaging.

 

I can understand why the states with the better players ( Cal. and Texas) are playing only travel ball and not high school. Look at all the rules and restrictions put on high school players and coaches. Some are good but many of the rules are rediculous. Dead periods & number of games are 2 that come to mind. My daughter works with her pitching coach who is an assistant school coach at her school and legally she cannot work with him during August and November because this is a dead period. VERY BAD RULE. November is a great month for girls to be learning new pitches and form as their are no games at this time of year.
Also look at how some of the schools pick their coaches. some will not hire a head coach unless they are in the school system. So we end up with a bunch of unqualified and uncaring coaches who are teachers that never played any sport in their life. I could go on forever but what it all comes down to is maybe we should look at getting our girls to play travel ball instead of schoolball. Better coaches (usually), less restrictions and better competition and less headaches and this is where the girls get seen for college not in high school

 

Fence

I have been coaching fastpitch softball since 1996. If pitchers are taught proper mechanics, use their legs, and are schooled by a skilled pitching coach, I do believe they can pitch several games during a day without damaging their arm. The "natural motion" is a Quote from an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in sports medicine. Can some girls hurt their arm, sure! Some can pitch one pitch and hurt it, some one inning, some one game.
Weigh lifiting is repetitons oriented, hitting requires repetition to get better, throwing, fielding, running, all these activities are done to train the body to react as to avoid injury and to react w/o the need to think about your every move. Done incorrect, U are right, repetition will cause harm and fatigue can also cause harm, coaches have to know their players limits. I do know of a young lady that injured her arm in college but they discovered a defect in her rotator cuff that contributed to the injury. Over 150 different girls in four different age groups have gone through the Blues organization during our five years and we have had no serious injuries to a pitcher. I do care about every girl that plays for me, they are like an extension of my family, if I felt we were harming a girl in any way, I would stop it immediately. I also think most coaches on this board would do the same thing. It is not all about the program or winning with ME! Most of the coaches we compete against during the summer i truly believe do it for the girls, heck most do it for free!!!!!!!!! Why? they care about the girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

agreed!!

gotta go work some young new pitchers Now

 

Great post, LBlues,

I seem to think that most of the travel ball coaches do it for the love of the game and also for the good of the girls.

 

thanks......fundamental pitching techniques are definitely the key to be sucessful! Being SHARP on all pitches works wonders!

conditioning oneself year round is helpful too!!