Discover a simple, yet effective way to keep your pitcher in charge.
Whether you’re the pitch caller or pitch thrower, staying in control is key.
In the last issue of the Insider I wrote an article titled, 5 Great Questions to Ask Your Pitchers. In that article, I talked about how important it was to ask your pitcher what she’s “great” at. Every pitcher has something that they do better than anything else they do, and that becomes their “great”.
When I say “great”, I’m not talking great in comparison to every person who has every pitched in the history of softball. I’m simply talking in terms of everything that your pitcher can do, what is the ONE THING she does way better, and more consistently, than anything else she does.
Keep in mind that thing will be very specific. For instance, her riseball might be really good, but it might be “great” up and in to a righthander. That’s a very specific location versus saying she’s “great” at the riseball.
Now once your pitcher has her “great”, then identify her “good” – a pitch, or even two pitches that aren’t at the level of the “great” pitch, but are still very reliable and consistent.
Once you’ve ID’d the “great” and the “good” pitches, then help keep your pitcher in charge of hitters by calling 2 greats and a good as often as possible. The more locations your pitcher can throw her “great” to, the better your pitcher will be.
It’s when we start calling a lot of “OK’s” mixed in with a few “Crappys”, that our pitcher really starts to struggle. Your pitcher’s best chance of beating the hitter is with her best pitch to its best location, which is her “great”. Throw this pitch twice and mix in a Good and your pitcher will be in a position to beat a lot of hitters.
NOTE: I will add, that if your pitcher can get her changeup to become one of her “Goods” then she’ll be a whole lot better!
In the coming months we will be adding all the great presentations from the 2019 Pitching Summit to our Pitching Summit Vault, but in the meantime, get our Pitching Summit Vault and get caught up on past Pitching Summits!
Terrific advice! Another example of why I keep coming back to your website for more.
I don’t know if I’ve ever replied to one of these, what you said about the change up is really key for my daughter, because she doesn’t have a God’s change up. She throws it to hard and when I see her teammates throw their nasty change, I’m envious