Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Fri Jan 3 17:54:17 2003

I have a daughter who is extremely competitive in 11-12 year old boys little league baseball. I understand physically she won't be able to do that at some point in the future and will need to go to fast pitch softball. My question is will she gain more from the baseball at this point or should we make the move to softball as soon as possible. I believe she will be challenged more in the baseball and hope that will make her continue to improve. Any advice on which way to go to improve her as a ball player would be greatly appreciated.

Good question.The main thing to work on in girls who switch late from bb to fp(in high school because bb opportuniyies dry up or they want to get an fp scholarship)is hand-eye coordination for hitting since they are not used to picking up the release point and recognizing pitch trajectories.Otherwise they are usually quite skilled and transition easily.Quite a few of these have played both bb in spring ball and high level fp in Summer which is a good way to go.

High level fastpitch can be just as challenging as any bb.Make sure hitting mechanics are the same for both or there will be great confusion.Refined rotational mechanics as detailed here are the way to go for most(?quick lefties excepted?).