Still Value in Learning to Think Like a Pitcher

[Ken Krause]

These days, even at the younger levels, it seems like the goal is to turn softball players into robots. Nowhere is that illustrated more than the way pitch calling is often handled these days. In many instances, perhaps even most, coaches are calling pitches from the bench. This occurs whether they actually know how to […]

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[HunterMO]

These days, even at the younger levels, it seems like the goal is to turn softball players into robots. Nowhere is that illustrated more than the way pitch calling is often handled these days. In many instances, perhaps even most, coaches are calling pitches from the bench. This occurs whether they actually know how to […]

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This article is timely for DD and I. She went through her first JH school ball season. It was great and a positive learning experience. As a young TB team we’ve never called pitches. So this school season was DD’s first time with coaches calling hers. It worked fine and was a good experience.

While DD, and our other pitcher, played their school seasons we played in a TB league with the rest of our girls and a fill in pitcher. I let the catcher/pitcher work to call their own strategy. We would sit down during practices and talk through reading hitters/swings, knowing the count, knowing their outs, and how to take base runners into account. I want our pitchers to know when/how to adjust and feel comfortable doing it. We may discuss a high level team strategy, but I want them to learn how to read the situation and pitch accordingly.