Pitching Development
Hi all my daughter 11u plays for an ok A level team. They have a handful of capable pitchers including my daughter. 3 of the other pitchers are coaches kids and the two others are originals on the team we joined this year. Compared to most teams we are blessed,but this depth means my daughter doesn’t get many opportunities to pitch in game. She is an excellent 1b and hitter that plays nearly every inning. It’s pretty clear she’s burnt out and flat out bored with 1b as the team doesn’t use advanced fielding techniques with her. She doesn’t field bunts and 2b doesn’t cover on balls near her so she’s frustrated playing the game the little kid way instead of the big girl way she’s been working on the past two seasons. The last 3 tournaments she has been warmed up pre game, but never used and this week I think it finally broke her spirit after watching her teammates struggle. She is basically stuck in the mindset she’s not good enough to pitch since her coaches choose to go with others that get lit up. I’m out of pep talks as the coaches keep letting her down. She throws hard low 50s, gets the change up over. She has great movement that her travel catchers struggle to handle since the lack of reps keeps the movement unfamiliar and frankly the team is weak at that position. We signed her up for Little League hoping she would get a chance to gain confidence with the reps, but she was deemed too dangerous (throws too hard, hits too hard, team didn’t have a catcher that could hang on to her fastball) to play majors and asked to move up to juniors where first game she had 9ks over 3 innings with 5 walks as she’s trying to adjust to the 43 feet. The LL team thinks she’s the best pitcher in the district at 12 years old, but doesn’t understand the 40-43 foot difference and how we see this as skipping the necessary development phase. There are travel teams offering to take her on and give her pitching opportunities, but this would mean stepping down from our A level team. My wife and I are torn on how to handle this as she doesn’t want to keep team hopping year after year. My concern is the lack of game reps year round will slow down her development and cause her to lose that edge a pitcher needs. Has anyone had experience with a player that excels at their regular position, but needs more time to develop in the circle?