Teach kids how, when, and why to throw pitches. Have them work with their catchers as a team. You can't read a book or watch a youtube video to learn how to call a game. No pitch calling needed. Besides have a huge guy hollering out ridiculous numbers while sitting on a bucket is embarrassing
Pitch Calling Basics for 12 Year Old
- Thread starter briang
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- Feb 7, 2013
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I don't care what age or level a pitcher is at, if she can consistently throw a fastball to a location, at a minimum, you call pitches to the 4 different corners and have your catcher set-up to that location. If she has a change-up, use it liberally especially at 12U. Make the game fun and exciting for the pitchers and catchers so they will want to practice and get better over the coming seasons. I like challenging my players, not dumbing down the game by throwing fastballs right down the middle of the plate every pitch.
Thanks MNDad, at one point I was one of those dads! I've met and made friends with a lot of those dads who said "yeah, I'll do it!" I was consumed with learning, I know/knew baseball and baseball rules but found out that really has nothing to do with running a TB team, keeping girls busy to keep from being bored, and..............dealing with parents!!!!! Learning drills, finding new drills, and on and on. The 12U team me and another guy coached was just a fun, small team, but looking back it was a very talented team. One proud moment for me was finding out that every girl on that team who tried out for MS softball made their team and was a starter, very proud moment! This was the team that for two years, we practiced twice a week and the last 45 minutes of each practice we scrimmaged, every practice! It was us two coaches, and three other dads who were "former" players. Every practice we'd pick two different girls to pick sides, us five guys would play on both sides of the ball and play where ever we were needed to make the numbers work. Here's the thing, we played hard, didn't cut them ANY slack! And I purposely always played on the opposite side from my DD so I could strike her out or throw her out from SS. We would stop mid play after a screw up and go over it, and fix it. We did it until we got it right! We would put them in certain situations in a certain count, talk about what we expected and then run the play, always hard and at game speed. I swear I feel those girls got more out of those scrimmages than your average generic practices. In fact several would scream "hey coach, it's 7:15".
MNDad, wasn't trying to come across as a jerk yesterday, and definitely wasn't outraged. Sorry if that's how it appeared! But calling pitches in 12U is an absolute must, it changes the dynamics of the game in every aspect! That team was your average church/rec team in 10U, one day me and the coach said "let's try our hand at travel ball"...........very eye opening, lots of butt hurt! We went from getting killed in "BB" ball to winning a world series ASA tournament that we were WAY over our head in at Tyger River in Spartanburg, SC. We beat the #1 seed at Tyger in the main stadium field and it was a moment that clicked very loudly! Even to this one girl who is a outstanding athlete and was a serious pain in my rear....the hard work light bulb went off even in her thick skull. To the OP, there's talent and potential on your DD's team, the coaches just have to find and harness it!
- Nov 18, 2013
- 2,258
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Not a jerk at all. I should have just said surprised. I’m with you on the calling pitches. 12U C is the bottom level here and just really inexperienced. If you’re lucky a pitcher will hit spots 50% of the time so any strategy in pitch calling doesn’t make sense, We did it just to get the girls used to it. Some of the hitters had to be told which hand goes on top so exploiting flaws wasn’t really an issue
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Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
Which makes it an excellent opportunity for coaches to teach serious catchers to learn the pitch calling ropes IMO.
Pitch calling and reasons why certain pitches are called during certain scenarios is very important to be a successful pitcher. I call pitches for all my pitchers during games and during practices work with catchers and pitchers together so we all know why i call what i call. We set up game scenarios and batter counts and ask pitchers what they think we should call for next pitch. Catchers play a huge role. Depending on who's behind the plate and their experience,certain pitches I won't call depending on current game situations. Pitchers should know what pitches are working "today" and relay that info to who's ever calling pitches and hopefully make adjustments between innings to fix what ever pitches aren't working.
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