Softball Pitching Practice Plan for 11 and 12 Year Olds

The drive and stride join the circle, the zone becomes four rooms, and the change-up arrives: same circle, dead ball. Everything counted, everything logged.

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Overhand catch three minutes, then fifteen wrist snaps from close, five K holds, and eight half-effort full pitches ramping to comfortable game effort. The pieces get their daily inspection before the legs join.

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The legs, built: weight loading onto the pitching-side leg, a real PUSH off the rubber as the circle rises, the stride landing long and slightly closed on the power line (an actual chalk line helps enormously), hips closing as the arm brushes through. Ten pitches at three-quarter effort thinking only legs. Speed is allowed to happen; it is not allowed to be chased.

Ten more at game effort with one grade: the stride foot landing ON the chalk line, every time. Wild pitches at this age are usually wild strides wearing a disguise: landing off-line sprays the ball the same direction. The line is the cheapest pitching coach ever invented.

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Rounds of five at game effort, each round assigned a quadrant: low-away first and most (the fastpitch money room), then low-in, then the high rooms sparingly. Twenty counted pitches. Scoring: called quadrant two, zone elsewhere one, out zero, logged per round. Misses read like mail: everything arm-side high usually means the brush came early; everything low-and-wild means the stride line drifted.

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The grip chosen by hand size (flip grip, knuckle, or deep choke, whatever the instructor or the hand prefers), then close-range feel reps: full circle, same arm speed, the grip and a stiffer wrist killing the snap so the ball dies. Ten easy reps graded only on arm honesty. The circle must lie perfectly; the grip does all the slowing.

Ten to twelve counted pitches in game rhythm: two fastballs then a change, repeated, all at identical circle speed, the change aimed simply low. Graded from the catcher's chair: did it look like a fastball out of the hand and die? Location comes later; deception is the entire assignment this year.

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Six easy pitches melting down the effort ramp, ten wrist snaps to close the engine loop. The ledger out loud and written: today's count, the week's count across all teams, the next outing, the rest days located. One perfect K hold, done.

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What to watch today: the stride line, relentlessly. Almost every location problem at this age walks in through the stride foot, and almost every speed plateau is a push that never really pushed. Chalk the line, watch the landing, and coach the legs; the arm mostly coaches itself once the ground does its job.