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Pitching Ideology
by Dave
Thursday, August 11, 2005
I often am a bit of a crusader when it comes to pitching. You may not completely agree with what I am about to say. But I ask you to consider it if you are in any way involved with a youth softball league.
I start my crusade with a tale of two leagues. Both are self-defined as rec leagues. One league which is 8-9 years old begins identifying pitchers at a young age. They offer clinics at which the fundamentals of windmill pitching are taught. Anyone who pitches in the league must attend one of these clinics and, more importantly, pitch windmill. The league does not allow walking of batters. If a pitcher walks a batter, a coach from the batter's team pitches until the batter hits the ball or strikes out. They encourage pitchers to throw as hard as they can.
The usual rub against this sort of approach is the batters will learn to wait out the pitcher and then get a chance to hit off the coach. This is actively discouraged. Coaches are told to teach their kids to hit off the pitchers. All-stars from the league must be frequent hitters of kid pitching. A player has no hope of making the all-star team if she waits until the coach comes in to hit. Eventually pitchers begin locking down their motion and as they age, they do begin throwing strikes. The batters gain incredible experience by learning to hit real softball pitching.
The other league which is 10U offers little in the form of pitching instruction. Anyone who the coach allows to pitch can pitch. The league president makes a point of instructing coaches that pitchers must throw strikes. He tells the coaches via e-mail that their pitchers must practice regularly and only those who throw strikes should be allowed to pitch. Because the league does allow walking, the team which walks the fewest batters typically wins the game. Although the league does not keep standings, every coach seems to want to win games. As a result pitchers generally do not throw windmill and batters do not become accustomed to facing real softball pitching.
Once upon a time a girl with a remarkable arm was born into the second league. Her father loved the game of baseball almost as much as he loved his daughter. When he discovered that she loved softball almost as much as he did baseball, he set out to learn everything he could about windmill pitching. The girl practiced hard and excelled. She often struck out every batter she faced. Parents became upset at watching games in which one team always seemed to win and their team never seemed to even get a hit. The league, being the democratic institution it was, changed their rules so that no pitcher could ever pitch an entire game again. They reasoned that they are just a rec league and the girls are supposed to have fun.
These two leagues are at opposite ends of the country and opposite ends of the pitching spectrum. One produces not only the greatest number of high level college players in this country, but also a huge number of kids who fill the scholarship slots at second and third tier colleges. The other league seldom, if ever, produces a kid who can play at any college level. Nobody from the league ever even pitches in junior high. The town is not entirely devoid of decent players. Those who can play the game at a high level eventually migrate over to travel teams and then when they are older, these "travel" kids fill the junior high and high school team as well. The kids who play rec ball wonder why none of their number can make the school teams.
Did I forget to say which league is which? The league that does not emphasize pitching is the league which never produces good players. The league that demands windmill pitching is the league which produces the tremendous number of college scholarships as well as happy, long-term softball players. The second of these leagues, the one without pitching, wonders why it is unable to keep kids as they grow older. There are the travel kids who leave this sub-par competition because it hurts their game. The girls who do remain in the league become disenchanted when they realize they cannot make their school teams and eventually they leave the sport altogether.
So much for a tale of two leagues. Now I have a tale of one team which I recently heard. I know of a girl who is absolutely in love with the sport of softball. She started a little later in life than your typical softball kid but immediately sought out instruction. Her parents were lucky to find one of the premier instructors. She became a great hitter and a good fielder. Then she went to junior high school and joined the team there. Her team had no pitching but since she was a team player who saw that her teammates were good in all other aspects of the game, she decided to bite the bullet and begin learning to windmill.
Her parents sought out numerous coaches and she practiced daily. She got to the point where she could throw pretty hard. She learned a drop, riser, curve, and a solid change-up. She began to pitch pretty well for the team. They won frequently with her in the circle. For a first year pitcher, she was remarkable. Then one day she got a little wild. Her coach called time and came out to the mound where he angrily told her to "stop trying to throw so hard and just throw strikes." As a good, coachable athlete she complied with her coach's wishes. After a couple of games of getting the ball over and watching hitters tee-off, she decided to give up pitching for good. She'll never go back.
I have a daughter who is nine years old (8 by ASA and 2006 Little League rules). She loves to dance. She sees the motion of a real windmill pitcher as a dance so she decided she would try it. She was good at it. She throws right around 40 mph which is pretty good for an "8" year old in her first year. She was pitching a game in which she threw a lot of balls. She was told to throw strikes and began to "short arm" her pitches to throw strikes. "Short arming" occurs when a girl does not keep her arm straight as her arm approaches the release point. When a girl wants to throw strikes, she wants to control where the ball goes, and she begins short arming in order to "aim" it.
It took me two months to get my daughter to stop short-arming the ball. She is torn between my desire to teach her to throw properly and rely on the quality of her motion to eventually throw strikes. I was forced to "make fun" of the coaches who say she should be throwing strikes. I never let an opportunity go by to point out a girl who is not throwing properly but is throwing strikes. I make fun of the words of coaches who say "just get it over" so I can drive home the point. She is now beginning to throw strikes at will.
I know of a fellow whose daughter is often referred to as a real "tom-boy." She is a ferocious athlete. She plays several sports but I sense that softball is her favorite. She took some pitching lessons and began to learn windmill. But her father became upset that his darling daughter who used to be able to throw strikes all of a sudden could not get the ball over. He stopped sending her to lessons and now says, "they were too expensive." But I know this is not true because he is considering sending her to another place for lessons. As he said it, "she is still not closing her hip." Not closing her hip? She's not windmilling.
I recently went to a game this girl pitched in which the other team could not hit her because for some reason. Every time she threw a ball or got behind in the count, her father yelled from his spot in the outfield, "that's alright (so-and-so), you're doing great. Just throw strikes baby." As I said, the hitters, for whatever reason, didn't do damage against her. She even struck out several. I'm sure her dad is very proud of how she pitched and figures everything he has done so far is right. After all, you do eventually have to get the ball over. But her success won't last. It can't. Girls who face this girl's regular underhand throwing motion will eventually tee-off on it. She's still pretty young and when girls start to go through puberty and grow like wild weeds, they also begin really progressing as hitters. I give here one, maybe two, more years of pitching at the current level. She won't be pitching for her junior high team. She may even learn to hate this "stupid" game once she realizes that she is a lousy pitcher.
In American society we want our children to achieve success. What we don't seem to recognize is that our kids also want to achieve success. They'll do whatever we tell them. But before they can achieve success, they need us to define it for them. We tend to desire long-term, meaningful success but we are unwilling to set aside desires for short-term success in order to achieve it. Our kids grasp onto this instant gratification ethos we do not openly espouse yet most frequently act upon. The girl who hears her father saying "just get it over" will begin saying the same thing to herself. She'll sacrifice being a good junior high or high school pitcher in order to throw this one strike.
If a first year pitcher is taught to throw strikes by short arming or not even trying windmill pitching, she may achieve success right now but this is going to dissipate as soon as real pitching begins to rule the game and as soon as 13 and 14 year old girls begin hitting soft tosses for 200 foot home runs. If you are satisfied with current success even if it means eventual abject failure, then go ahead and teach your kid to throw strikes. But please remember that ten or twenty years from now when your daughter is sitting alone somewhere contemplating her life, she is going to look back at her softball days as failure, not success. She is going to remember the times she got rocked when she was 13 or 14, not the times she struck out the side or won the game when she was 8.
Permanent Link: Pitching Ideology
 
Finding A Fastpitch Softball Team
by Dave
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
The summer is certainly not over yet but out there on the horizon is autumn. Summer softball is winding down as the few teams left playing will determine championships in Little League, ASA, etc. Girls are beginning to get anxious for the start up of fall ball. They're playing catch a little more frequently. They're asking to go to the batting cages. They're anxious. In short, they're driving you crazy.
Maybe you are looking to step up to the next level or maybe you just want to move out of rec ball and into a "travel" team. Whatever it is you seek, finding appropriate local teams is a difficult task. There is no single source for locating teams. The only way to go about it is to use every resource you can find. You need to be diligent, untiring, and persistent.
The local newspaper probably has some listings for tryouts or signups. This is a good first step. Also many newspapers have online forums for discussing a myriad of subjects including youth sports. Check every newspaper you generally think of as relating to your area to see if they have web sites with forums and, if they do, see if there is one for youth softball. These sorts of forums are great resources for all sorts of softball discussions. Often team managers and others post dates and times for tryouts. Get into the habit of checking these daily if you can.
Probably your best source of team information is the grapevine. If your team competes in tournaments, take note of opposing teams. Even if your team isn't competing, go watch games in local tournaments and talk to people. Make a habit of jotting down team names and where they are located. You may want this information at a later date when your darling daughter is ready to look for a more competitive team. Freely converse with the parents of the teams against which you play, if they'll talk to you! Word of mouth is the best way of finding teams which might be a good fit for your kid.
Your local batting cages or softball training center probably has a bulletin board where local teams post tryouts. You have to check back every week or so to see what new listings there might be but this can be a good source of information. While you are at the cages, you may want to take a look around to see if any girls there are wearing team shirts. If they are, don't be too timid to approach a parent watching their kid hit. They may know of a tryout or be willing to discuss not only that team but others they have played for. Softball is a communal sport. Ask participants questions and freely share any information you have. What goes around comes around.
Another place to find teams is the internet but this can be rather disappointing. Many teams do have web sites but these are sometimes difficult to find and often the sites are not kept up to date. Site addresses and domain names often go dead or the site becomes neglected. Sometimes you can find a team that perfectly fits your daughter and when you contact the coach's e-mail address, you don't even get a response. When you do get a return e-mail, you are often frustrated to learn that the 12U team you are seeking has graduated and is now a 14U team. Such is softball life on the information superhighway.
One of the best places to surf while looking for local teams is eteamz.com. Eteamz is probably the largest host of softball team sites on the web. Another newer site is League Line Up. League lineup seems to have just recently opened its doors to softball and, therefore, has far fewer teams than eteamz. There are other sites besides these. Some teams are very sophisticated and internet savy with their own domain names and fully functional sites. Most, however, are barely functional sites with some pictures of the team but very little in terms of parental information.
We are in the process of putting together a Team Directory but this is just beginning. As we receive more visitors and these folks submit their team sites, this will grow. If you take a look through our listings but cannot find your team, please fell free to Submit a Team following our guidelines.
I wish you the best of luck locating teams suitable for your darling daughter. It is a difficult search, especially for the newly initiated. Be creative and friendly and before long everyone will be coming to you for advice.
Permanent Link: Finding A Fastpitch Softball Team
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