Pitching Injury

Question
About 6 weeks ago my daughter, the starting varsity pitcher for her school, was pitching in a state tounament game and took a devastating line drive right back to her face. The batter, a big and powerful girl, was ranked the 4th best hitter in eastern Mass and there was no time to react. It struck her so hard that it bounced off her face hard and high enough to be caught by the third baseman. Miraculously, she suffered only a mild concussion and a lacerated lip requiring 20 stitches. A couple of inches any
other way and it could have been very damaging. She is completely healed thank God but is now gun shy. Always an aggressive pitcher she now takes about 5 miles off of every pitch she throws and trys to throw on the edges only.
She has just this week for the first time told me she is afraid and I just don't know how to help her through this. Unfortunately, this is the summer before her senior year and her timing could not be worse. Time is not on her side and because of the newspaper articles written about the hit and recovery she is still fielding questions daily.
Any ideas? Thank you.


Answer
Hello Ruth,

What happened to your daughter is a coaches and parents worse nightmare.  Unfortunately I don't know of anything other than time that will help her get past this.  I would definitely invest in a face mask for her to wear until her confidence returns.  It will in all likelihood feel awkward to her at first, but after pitching with it awhile, she'll regain her confidence.  These masks are very safe and many pitchers at all levels have began wearing them.  I think if she were to pitch with this mask she will eventually regain her confidence.  Stress that she bring her pivot foot through following release so that she is in position to field a ball hit back at her.  I wish you all the luck and be sure to tell your daughter that Coach Mike has had many pitchers get hit and they all feel the same way she does now until they get comfortable on the mound again.  Make sure she understands it is totally normal for a pitcher that had that to happen to feel the way she does.  Please let me know how she does.

Coach Mike