Pitch Calling

Jdaddy said:

TRUTH!

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If a college coach does not communicate with the pitcher and catcher during a game, find another college

RADcatcher said:

24 years As a fastpitch catcher. Calling pitches from behind the plate.
Add coaching years 49 years in s.b.
My opinion,
Fastball is LEAST called pitch.
In fact, hardly ever use it.

It is generally not the fastest pitch either.
It is a flat pitch that screams
CRUSH THIS PITCH
In fastpitch, pitches start in
the strikezone (pitchers knee).
Fastballs start as a strike and make a bee line path to the hitters bat.
No movement. Straight line.
( not like baseball where pitches start out of the strikezone and come into zone)

Strategize pitch locations by remembering in softball the spin moves out of the zone!
Up and down
In or out
Use only the edges of the plate.
And the river.
Even further off plate to waist pitches and get batters to chase.
Mix in change ups. They make every other pitch faster!

Amanda Freed great words to learn by setting up a batter!

Thats my simple take
on pitch calling.
Success is in the books!

Enjoy

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I Agree most fastballs do make a bee line straight to the bat, but I've seen a few that were thrown by certain pitchers that did have downward movement.
Some it was based on spin of the ball and some were how they held it.

Coachv21 said:

LOVE jamming slappers-we also throw a lot of CU to slappers to disrupt timing. Wondering what your thoughts on that are? I am also a fan of back to back change ups as most kids don't expect that.

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Personally, I didn't throw change up to slappers until I had 2 strikes. A REALLY good slapper will simply drop a bunt on a change if they recognize it early enough. They're less likely to do that with 2 strikes.

Of course, a change up can work before getting 2 strikes, no question. But again, playing the percentages, I wait until I have 2 strikes if I know they're a really good slapper with really good bat control.

Bill

Here's a great chart!

Coach904 said:

I Agree most fastballs do make a bee line straight to the bat, but I've seen a few that were thrown by certain pitchers that did have downward movement.
Some it was based on spin of the ball and some were how they held it.

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Well that is a novel take on what causes a pitch to move. How does that work?

Coach904 said:

I Agree most fastballs do make a bee line straight to the bat, but I've seen a few that were thrown by certain pitchers that did have downward movement.
Some it was based on spin of the ball and some were how they held it.

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Add-
Some would consider a fastball that moves down to be a peel drop.
From enjoying attending mutliple different pitching instructors lessons.
Grips, mechanics, spin movement,
different verbage, perception, phylosophy and goal....
All tend to play a role!
Certainly there are many who have experienced these factors!

GO SOFTBALL !!

If its straight it will be hit...Can you imagine if Greg Maddux didn't have movement on his pitches especially later in his career. Location is important but when you can locate with movement you can own hitters.

riseball said:

As I said my DD was into the 70's when she brought gas but would never dream of throwing a pitch that did not move. YMMV

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Hillhouse said:

Personally, I didn't throw change up to slappers until I had 2 strikes. A REALLY good slapper will simply drop a bunt on a change if they recognize it early enough. They're less likely to do that with 2 strikes.

Of course, a change up can work before getting 2 strikes, no question. But again, playing the percentages, I wait until I have 2 strikes if I know they're a really good slapper with really good bat control.

Bill

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Great point you made about dropping the bunt when they see it's a CU. Depends on the kid and how good they are at seeing it. At 12U and junior high, I haven't seen kids be able to do that routinely yet. I am sure it is something at the higher levels they become really good at. Like the idea of throwing it with two strikes bc takes away the bunt option most likely.

There is some really great info here and I may end up repeating what some have set. I have watched coaches call my DD who obviously had no clue, I have watched coaches call my DD who called what they wanted with success at the early ages 10u and 12u but as the hitters got better, "Their pitching routine" was less effective. Stats will prove that no one calls my DD as well as I do but I have also proven to call other girls better than some of the other coaches who were calling them before I was allowed to take over. What I learned by observation, a passion for understanding pitching, and the willingness to put ego a side, is that the more you get to know your pitcher, both mentally and physically, the more you pay attention to batters (much like mentioned in the Amanda article on page 1) AND the more educated your pitcher is on being a true student of pitching, the easier they are to call.
I sat half a season behind the fence for one of my DD's teams, always sitting to one side of home plate so I can watch spin and strike zones. What I observed on this team I has noted on other teams as well. I was asked to fill in one day on the coaching staff while the HC had to leave for a family emergency. It allowed me to start questioning the pitchers to see if they fully understood location for certain pitches, pitch counts, and situations. It was obvious that know one had ever fully explained ball locations in relationship to the plate and for the count. I later offered to step in to help the pitchers understand these things, the HC went ahead and put me on the coaching staff and turned over all pitching to me. Just by educating the pitchers on where to pitch, getting to see what pitches they were best at, and reading batters, all of the pitcher's stats begin to drop drastically. Their stats started showing their full potential and we started winning a lot more games.
Not knowing their pitchers and not understanding setting up a batter is one of the biggest issues I see coaches make when calling pitches. My DD's high school coaches are the worst at this. It makes me and my DD want to set ourselves on fire.
Take the time to catch your pitchers, see their spins, know if they are truly throwing what you are calling or if all 4 or 5 different pitches look like the same pitch. Don't over use your best strike out pitch. Know that over using some pitches may have a negative affect on other pitches. Work off of 3 or 4 pitches as long as you can then (if they have 1 or 2 others they can throw) mix those in during the later innings after everyone has seen the other pitches 2-4 times already.
Also, know what your catcher is capable of catching, know which teams you only have to respect batters 1-4 and which teams you need to respect 1-9. And please dont ever call a CU on a #7 hole batter than was late on your first 2 pitches.

Watched DD's high school coach continue to call changeup after changeup to a team whose batters were so far behind they were fouling the ball off between the backstop and the 1st base dugout. Why on earth someone would slow the ball down for someone that far behind is beyond me but I saw it time and time again. There is definitely skill involved in calling pitches. There are MLB catchers that have hung on in the bigs for years based greatly on their ability to call a good game.