Pitch Calling
THIS PAGE IS STILL IN PROGRESS AND WILL BE COMPLETED SOON
Regardless of age - you should learn pitches in this order:
Well located fastball. First work on throwing strikes.
-You should not work specific location at all until you can throw strikes. One of the biggest things I see with beginner pitchers is they will start getting pretty accurate, and then their coach will start calling locations and it messes them up and they start throwing balls.
-Once a pitcher can throw 70% strikes you can start working on location. Start simple with inside outside. Then move on to four corners (inside high, inside low, outside high, outside low). The best pitchers LIVE on the corners.
-Buying a nine hole (also known as pitchers pocket) is a great way to work on location. You can also just work with a catcher.
-When working on spots, pick a spot and don’t move on to another spot until you hit that spot. Work on spots for about 10-15 minutes.
-DO NOT AIM. When we aim we stiffen up and slow down. Keep your body loose, heavy, and fast for accuracy. Honestly, your mentality should just be “I hope I hit it”. The more pressure you put on yourself the more likely you are to miss. Think about playing catch - Whatever your mentality is when you have to throw the ball overhand to someone should be the same underhand. Feel your whole body following through to the target. Xiphoid and elbows are the best places to focus on for accuracy (elbow or xiphoid to the target). As I’ve said in other sections, for the younger kids they sometimes do better with fist to the target.
Change-Up: Having a change-up is the difference between a dominant pitcher and a great pitcher. If you can throw your change-up deceptively and locate it, you can destroy batters.
-Many head coaches make the mistake of not letting pitchers throw their change up for various reasons. Some coaches say, especially at the younger levels, ‘Well she’s blowing the ball by everyone, why would we throw change-ups?’ That might work in 10u, but you can’t get away with it forever. Montana Fouts is a great example - she went to try out for team USA and got demolished because she didn’t have a change-up.
-The point of the change-up is to keep batters off balance. Even if you’re a faster pitcher and the batter is “Behind”, a change-up will still confuse them and mess up their timing. Even throwing a change-up as a ball will make the next pitch harder for the batter to time after seeing a pitch that is 10-15mph slower.
-Best time to throw a change-up: Change-ups are great strike out pitches. You can throw a change-up any time you have 2 strikes on the batter. I also like to throw them as first pitch strikes here and there when I have a pitcher who has a really well located change-up. This is a great way to get ahead and most batters aren’t expecting this. Be careful about throwing two change-ups in a row. It does work sometimes, but a really good hitter will typically be able to adjust the second time you throw it.
-If you have a really good change-up, you can throw it up to 50% of the time. College coaches love to call change-ups. Timing is everything with hitting, so the more we can mess up a batter’s timing, the better.
Drop Ball: You can try drop ball, screw ball, and curve ball after you have mastered the change up and see what clicks best for you, but the drop ball is typically the easiest to learn. It should have the most dramatic break of any of our pitches because it works with gravity.
-This is usually thrown as a swing and miss pitch. It’s also a great pitch to throw when you’re trying to force a ground ball.
-Pay attention to where your runners are when you throw this. If we have a runner at first, 0-1 outs, we are trying to throw this pitch on the left side of the plate to get a ground ball right side and give an opportunity for a double play. If you have a runner at second or third, we are trying to throw this to the right side of the plate to get a ground ball toward the left side of the field and give us an opportunity to look the runner back or get them out at third or home.
Screw Ball: This is actually one of the easiest pitches to throw, but the way it’s typically taught with the hand turning motion makes this pitch slow and have little break. Throw this the way I teach, releasing like a fast ball and tilting the body to the throwing side slightly, and it will be one of your best friends.
-This is a pitch that will break inside to righties and away from lefties (If you’re a lefty pitcher, it would be opposite).
-You can also learn to throw this pitch “back door” where you start it more away and then come in for a strike.
-Being able to add some drop and rise movement to this pitch as well will make it deadly. Locating it at the hands or knees is where you will get more swing and miss. Locating it more at the belt will give you foul balls or jam the batter inside for a weak ground ball.
Curve Ball: If you can master the curve, you will ruin so many batters with this. The curve ball can break really dramatically in comparison to the screw.
-This pitch is so versatile because of it’s ability to break dramatically. You can throw it for a first pitch strike, a strike out pitch, a foul ball, a jam pitch, or any other time in the count.
-This is a great pitch to throw back door for a strike (Throwing it more inside to a batter) to then set up for a curve ball away for a swing and miss pitch.
Rise Ball: You have to be throwing minimum about 53mph to throw this pitch. This is one of the most effective swing and miss pitches. This is not a pitch you would throw for a first pitch strike. To get really good at this pitch, you want to be able to throw it down the middle and have it climb to about upper chest/shoulder level as it hits the catcher’s mit. You can locate it inside and outside as well, but what makes it so effective if that it looks like a homerun pitch down the middle and then it just climbs out of the zone.
-Pay attention to your batters when throwing this pitch. Some batters are extremely disciplined with the rise and know not to swing at anything high. Some batters are suckers for the rise and will just chase it pitch after pitch.
What pitches should I have at what age?
Ages 8-10: Be able to throw your fastball for strikes. The goal at this age is to limit strikes. That is the only expectation for this age group. You can start working on change-up at this age and I have some advanced 10U students who are starting to work on some movement pitches at this age.
Ages 11-13: Be able to locate your fastball at least inside and outside, but ideally you can hit the four corners. You should also have a change-up that you can throw with accurate speed and location at least 60% of the time. We should have one movement pitch we can throw well 60% of the time and should be working on at least one other movement pitch.
Ages 14-16: By now you should have mastered your fastball location (accurate 70% of the time), mastered your change-up (accurate 70% of the time) and mastered two movement pitches (accurate 70% of the time), and working on two other movement pitches.
Ages 17-22: Mastered location of all pitches. It is normal at this age to still struggle with one movement pitch.
Know Your Strengths and Work with Them
Good pitching calling can make a mediocre pitcher look incredible, and bad pitching can make an incredible pitcher look mediocre. Bad pitch calling will also make a mediocre pitcher look terrible.