My son is 11 yrs old and playing in 11-12 yr old little league. We have a very talented 11 yr old left handed pitcher on our team who is throwing in the middle 60’s. The problem is our coach is overpitching this kid. Last Tuesday, he threw 116 pitches and it was very apparent that he was strugling at the beginnig of the fifth inning, but the coach would not take him out of the game.
This coach, in my opinion, is obsessed with this kid. This kid is contunually throwing over 100 pitches in games week after week, and he is also throwing 60 or so pitches in batting practice each week. You can tell when he is getting tired, because he swings his hand at least a foot behind his head to throw the ball. It is like he is trying to compensate for a tired arm by swinging his arm to keep the velocity up. The coach even yelled at him in the fifth inning that his velocity was down and he needed to crank it back up.
I hear the other parents in the stands saying “wow, Jack is pitching again” and “Jack sure looks tired” and “how many pitches has he thrown?”
I finnally looked on the internet about pitch count and this kid is way over the recommended pitches for this age. I know I have opened up a can of worms, but I sent the coach an email of two links which discusses this just to bring it to his attention. This was two days ago and now his will not respond to my emails or phone calls.
I am at a lost and would like some guidance. We have a game tomorrow and I can just see that my son is going to be benched for my comment to him and the coaches ignorance.