Teaching Pitchers and Catchers to Call the Game

Hey There, Friend!

I get emails regularly from youth coaches asking how to call the game and how to communicate pitch calls with pitchers and catchers. I thought this might be a topic many of you are interested in as well—so I’ve put together some of my thoughts for you today!

I believe one of our greatest responsibilities as coaches and parents is to TEACH our athletes and daughters that they are students of the game. The more they learn, the more tools they have to grow as individuals and teammates.

Learning how to set up hitters to get them out is one of the most FUN parts of the game, yet many coaches don’t take the time to teach their pitchers and catchers how to do it themselves. Instead, they call every pitch from the dugout—and players end up becoming robots! I believe youth coaches often do this because they see college coaches doing it. But here’s the thing: most college coaches would LOVE for their catchers to call the game. If you ask them why that’s not happening, the majority will say it’s because their players never learned how to do it when they were younger—and now they don’t have the knowledge or confidence to do it at the college level.

Let’s break that cycle by helping our pitchers and catchers understand this super fun, strategic part of the game. You’ll be amazed at how good they get once they’ve had the opportunity to learn and practice together!

PART 1: The Fundamentals

1. Know Your Pitcher’s Strengths
Make sure EVERYONE—pitcher, catcher, and coach—knows what the pitcher does best. Pitch calling should always be based on a pitcher’s strengths.

Take time to chart your pitcher during practices or scrimmages so she and her catcher both know which pitches she throws best for strikes, and which locations (high, low, inside, outside) she hits most consistently. I talked about this in a previous post and shared a PDF chart. If you missed it, [HERE it is again].

2. Get Ahead in the Count
Teach your pitchers and catchers that their MOST IMPORTANT job is to throw strikes and get ahead in the count!

On the first pitch, they must find a spot in the zone to get ahead. Avoid being too fine on the corners early in the count. When hitters are behind, they have to be more aggressive. They don’t get to wait for “their” pitch—they have to swing at anything they believe is a strike. That’s a HUGE advantage for us! But when we fall behind, the hitter gets to be selective, their confidence grows, and our job gets a lot harder.

It’s frustrating to watch a perfect “out” pitch get taken for a ball early in the count—now we’re behind 1-0 or 2-0. Don’t be afraid to throw over the plate! Some think you should never throw on the white part of the plate, but that’s not true. The key is knowing when to do it. Get ahead first, and then go to your "out" pitches.

3. The Count Dictates Location
The further ahead in the count you are, the more you can work the edges.

With two strikes, pitchers should throw their BEST stuff on the edges—or just out of the zone. The 0-2 or 1-2 pitch MUST be believable to get the hitter to swing. An obvious ball just takes all the pressure off.

4. Use the Change-Up Anytime
Teach pitchers and catchers that they can—and should—use the change-up at any time, IF they can throw it for a strike.

I’ve seen pitchers dominate at the D1, Power 4 level using just a fastball and a change-up! The key is getting hitters to believe the change-up could come anytime: first pitch, full count, bases loaded, ahead or behind. If a pitcher can throw it consistently for strikes, it changes her entire game.

Many only throw the change-up when they’re ahead in the count. Start teaching your players that once they have command of it, it should be used just as often as their best pitch. The only time I’d hold back on it is if a pitcher is absolutely overpowering a hitter with speed alone.

PART 2: Communication & Signals

1. Simple Signals Work Best
Create signals that are simple for your pitchers and catchers to remember and use. The catcher calls the pitch and location. If the pitcher wants something different, she can shake her head.

Be sure to practice this in bullpens and scrimmages so they get comfortable working together and learning each other’s style.

Let’s say your pitcher throws a fastball, drop ball, and change-up:

• Fastball = 1 finger

• Drop ball = 2 fingers

• Change-up = fist

For location:

• Touch leg = inside or outside

• Point up or down = high or low

Easy!

2. Dugout Calls (Optional)
If you want to occasionally call pitches from the dugout, create a simple number system.

Assign each pitch a number:

• Fastball = 3

• Drop ball = 5

• Change-up = 7

Then call out a 3-digit number. Choose before the game which digit is “on.”
For example, if the 3rd digit is on today:

• “403” = fastball

• “357” = change-up

• “925” = drop ball

Conclusion

I believe you’ll really enjoy teaching your pitchers and catchers this strategic and exciting part of the game! Once they’re comfortable getting ahead in the count and using their “out” pitches with confidence, you can start introducing hitter-specific strategies.

But they don’t need to know everything to start calling pitches. If they simply understand what we talked about here, they’re absolutely ready to give it a try.

All my BEST,

Myndie