nkysoftball

I agree with you completely about summer ball. But most of the summer teams now are selling "college showcase" tournaments and how many college coaches are going to be at the tournaments they play in. You want some amusement. Go around to all of the select tryouts in August and watch the same kids looking for the best offer and the coaches working their sales pitch. Pretty entertaining, actually.

I wonder the same thing. Unless it is just about staying home. With the number of NAIA and D-2 schools in Kentucky alone that give athletic money, why choose to play at the bottom level and not receive athletic money? It kind of kills the whole theory of playing travel ball and taking lessons for all those years to earn that college scholarship. Congratulations to her though, Great kid.

I think we agree, it is what is more important that we might be disagreeing on. 30 minutes per week of instruction without practice is totally useless, and like someone mentioned before most of the grips and drills can be found online with a little research. The hardest part is trying to critique while your kid is throwing pitches at you at 50+ MPH. The problem for pitching instructors is they can give the best instruction in the world and the kid doesn't practice they will not get better. Then do they tell the kid to quit coming(loss of income) or keep instructing with no results(loss of credibility).

I'm not sure who you thought took a jab at Chip, it just seems to me that people are dying to throw their money at anyone and hope that will make their kid a star. Bottom line, the only thing that is going to make a kid a great pitcher is hours and hours of practice. Are you ready for that?

Sarge, I think your team is probably the most consistent in the area so far.

Tell me a team in NKY you would bet on any given day?

Lol, I hope that was a tongue-in-cheek comment from Chip. I'm not sure there has been a "top tier" pitcher in this area that Chip has instructed.

Can you tell me some players that Chip has worked with? That is always a good indicator of the kind of instructor he may be.

Do you mean to leave out Boone and Grant?

not ssc, but go to sports then high schools then there is a drop down with sports, pick softball, then you will see a stats link. They mixed the Cincinnati and Northern KY stats this year so you have to wade through a lot of mixed in Cincy stats.

I'm trying to remember this as I read it. It has something to do with how much speed is needed to make the ball actually jump upward. A true rise ball will actually leave the plane that it is thrown on, a high fastball will continue to rise from the time it leaves the pitchers hand until it either hits something or gravity starts to pull it back down but never leaving the plane it was thrown on. All other pitches may actually be more effective if not thrown too hard. If thrown to hard they may not have time to start their movement before reaching the plate only 43' away. Don't accept all of this for fact, just the way I have read it from scientists and some pitching coaches.

That would be like saying a curve was a curve just because it had the right rotation but did not break. A true rise(a ball that jumps up near the plate) has to be thrown at a very high rate of speed. The pitch that a lot of girls like to refer to as a rise is just a fastball that is still getting higher when it reaches the plate and high fastballs can be very effective. Google riseball and see what the experts say.

Read the same thing, that is wasn't scientifically possible to throw a rise unless it was thrown close to 60. Basically it is a high screwball or fastball at lesser speeds.

Very good hitter, I would say longshot for POY. The last 4 POY's Smith,Miller,Morgan,Allen all were pitchers.

You pitch real softballs to that kid of yours from 20"? Good god man, I would be scared to throw marshmallows to her at 20".

Ryle lost some really good players.

This may be Conners best team in a while. Solid senior class and it looks like their pitcher is having a better year than last.

Scared might not be the right word, maybe comfortable with the pitching machine. IMO, and only an opinion, hitting off the pitching machine is relaxed, the kids sit back and take good swings and live bp is the same to an extent. The problem is when the spotlight comes on and your facing a girl with a strange delivery, wildness, and between one day and the next you may see between a 10 and 15 mph speed difference those "good swings" go out the window and crazy things happen. I'm sorry, I have not seen a pitching machine yet that hits the same spot every time, my kid has been hit several times by either a machine or at a batting cage somewhere.

Here is the problem... unless you have 3-4 pitchers on your team that can throw bp "effectively" then you can't do live pitching. Soft toss and tee work have their place, but the pitching machine is the easiest way for batters to see pitches coming at them at a high rate of speed. Good hitters are effective using the pitching machine. I'm amazed that some "guru" somewhere said "pitching machines aren't effective" and people just jumped all over it. If they can hit off the machine and can't hit live pitching sounds to me like they are scared.

SSC, I think your statement here supports my argument that coaching is NOT the problem in NKY. You believe that the Beechwood coach is hands down the best in the area and the best she can do with the talent she has is lose 17-0 to possibly the worst NCC team since they started playing fast pitch. High School coaches play with the hand they are dealt, summer coaches get to discard and draw. Whole lot easier job.

Final

Looks like they are having trouble scoring.

according to the paper it was the little one.

I believe SK will be alright, they started the season 3-0 giving up just one unearned run in the process.