Teaching Pitchers and Catchers to Call the Game

Hey There Friend!

I get emails regularly from youth coaches about how to call the game and ways to communicate pitch calls with pitchers and catchers. I thought it might be a topic that many of you would be interested in as well, so I put together some of my thoughts for you today!

I believe that one of our greatest responsibilities as coaches/parents is to TEACH our athletes/daughters that they are "students of the game" and that the more the learn, the more weapons they have to improve themselves and their teams.

Learning how to set hitters ups to get them out is one of the most FUN parts of the game and yet many coaches don't take the time to teach their pitchers and catchers HOW to do it themselves. Instead, they choose to call every pitch from the dugout and players tend to become robots! I believe youth coaches do this because they see college coaches doing it. Most college coaches would LOVE for their catchers to be able to call the game. If you ask them why their catchers don't do it, the majority of them will say it's because they never learned HOW to do it when they were younger and don't have the knowledge/confidence to do it at the college level.

Let's start to break this chain by helping our pitchers and catchers understand this super fun part of the game. You will be amazed how good they are at doing this once they've had the opportunity to practice together!

PART 1

1. Make sure that EVERYONE (pitcher/catcher/coach) knows what the pitcher is BEST at doing! Pitch calling should be based primarily on a pitcher's strengths.

• Take the time to chart your pitcher during practice/scrimmages so that she and her catcher both know what pitch(es) she is BEST at throwing for strikes AND which locations (high, low, inside, outside) she is most consistent hitting. I talked about this and gave a PDF chart in a previous post. If you missed it, HERE it is again.

2. Teach your pitchers and catchers that their MOST IMPORTANT job is to throw strikes so that they get and stay AHEAD in the count!

• When opening a count, P's & C's MUST find a place IN the zone to get ahead. Make sure your pitchers and catchers understand that being too fine on the corners on the first couple of pitches is not what we want! When a hitter is behind in the count they must be more aggressive. They don't get to take pitches and wait for "their" pitch to hit, they must swing at any pitch that they believe is in the zone. When this happens, and the pressure is on the hitter to swing, WE (P's and C's) win the majority of the time! When we get behind and hitters have the luxury of watching pitches and waiting for their pitch, their confidence grows and they become more successful. It's frustrating when it's 0-0 or 1-0 and I watch pitchers throw their perfect "out" pitches that the hitters simply watch and the umpire calls a ball. Now they are behind 1-0 or 2-0 and the hitter has the advantage. Don't be afraid to throw ON the plate! I think some pitchers/catchers/coaches think that you can never throw on the white part of the plate and that is just not true. The key is P's & C's HAVE to throw on the plate in the correct situations so they GET to throw their "out" pitches later in the count.

3. The further ahead in the count P's & C's are, the more on the edges of the zone they GET to throw.

• Once a pitcher has 2 strikes on a hitter, everyone has to understand what her best option or options are to get hitters to either swing and miss OR make weak contact. Teach your pitchers and catchers to throw their BEST stuff on the edges of the zone or just out of the zone when they have 2 strikes. The 0-2 or 1-2 pitch MUST be believable to get a hitter swing. Throwing an obvious ball just completely takes the pressure off the hitter.

4. Teach your pitchers and catchers that they can and should use the change-up anytime in the count IF they can throw it for a strike!

• I've seen pitchers be VERY successful at the top level of the game (D1, Power 5) using ONLY a fastball and change-up! The key to being successful with 2 pitches is getting the hitter to believe that you WILL throw the change up anytime in the count and in any game situation...first pitch, behind in the count, ahead in the count, full count, bases full, bases empty. IF a pitcher can throw her off-speed for a strike consistently it will change her entire game in a very positive way! Many pitchers/catchers/coaches will only throw the change-up when they are ahead in the count. Start teaching your players that it's a pitch that should be used just as consistently as their best pitch once they have command over it. The only time I would suggest staying away from the change-up is if a pitcher is completely dominating a hitter with speed.

PART 2

1. Create signals that are very simple for your pitchers and catchers to remember and use. The catcher calls the pitch/location, the pitcher can shake her head if she wants something different. Make sure that you make time to practice this in some bullpens and live scrimmages so that they get to work together and learn to be on the same wavelength going into their games!

• Let's say your pitcher throws 3 different kinds of pitches, a fastball, drop ball and change-up. Assign a hand signal for each pitch. For example: fastball = 1 finger, drop ball = 2 fingers, change-up = fist.
• If you want to move the ball in, out, high or low all the catcher has to do after she gives the pitch sign is touch her leg on the side she wants the pitch thrown (for inside or outside) or point up or down (for high or low). Really easy!

2. If you'd like to have an option to call a pitch in from the dugout on occasion, create a simple number system for you to be able to do that easily.

• Give each pitch a number. Let say a fastball is a "3", drop ball is a "5" and change-up is a "7".
• Call out a 3-digit number from the dugout. Determine before the game which digit is "on" for that game. For example: Let's say the 3rd digit is "on" today. If you called out "403" they would know you wanted a fastball; "357" would be a change-up; "925" would be a drop ball.

CONCLUSION

I believe you will really enjoy teaching your P's & C's this super fun part of the game! Once they get comfortable figuring out how to get ahead and how to get hitters to swing out their "out" pitches confidently, you can start introducing some hitter situations to them.

BUT, they don't have to know EVERYTHING to get started calling the game! If they simply understand the things I discussed above, they are absolutely ready to give it a try!

Have a fabulous weekend ! Can't wait to chat again next Friday!

All my BEST,
Myndie