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Practice To Be ... "Imperfect"
by Dave
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
For many years, coaches have written me with a question which goes something along the lines of "I have very little pitching on my team and what little I do have consists of girls who know nothing more than a fastball. What should I try to teach them?" I have written back any number of replies including suggesting they learn change-ups which I still think is appropriate. But what any pitcher who has few pitches ought to focus on in the short run is learning to throw less than perfect pitches. What I mean is, pitches that are not right down the middle.
I strongly believe pitchers should start working change-ups and movement pitches as soon as they have the basic windmill down. There's no reason to wait until the fundamental motion is as near to perfect as it will ever be before trying new pitches. Kids improve their mechanics over many years. Even most 18U and college pitchers can improve their mechanics. That is a never ending process. And at some point, within probably the first year, pitchers need to work on something other than the common fastball. Some do not and these are the ones I believe the coaches are referring to in their questions.
I believe such girls ought to get instruction from competent pitching coaches in regards to their changes, drops, etc. But while they only have a workable fastball, they can still pitch and experience some success, provided that they learn to throw pitches to several locations.
Years ago, I published something along the same lines but I want to revisit the topic because some folks are hesitant to read anything more than a year old. And most likely, these are the very people I am after with this piece.
So where do we begin discussing location? Let's start with the strike zone which runs vertically from the top of the front knee to the solar plexus. It used to extend upwards to the armpits but was moved down a year or so ago. Some umps still call anything below the pits a strike but let's assume the solar plexus is correct to make it easy.
The strike zone, obviously spans laterally across the plate but in thinking of this, what we mean is with the center of the ball right around the edge of the plate on each side. It should be clear to anyone involved in the sport that the zone is somewhat wider than that in practice because many umpires call anything inside the inner lines of the two batter's boxes a strike nut let's assume that the outer corners are marked by the midpoint of the ball crossing on the plate, again, just to make things easier.
If we map out the zone in our minds, and then create a grid with lines marking the outside edges and two horizontal ones plus two vertical ones creating a grid, we are left with 9 equal sized boxes. To make this a little more effective, shove the lines outward, away from the center by about one third. What we are left with is a grid which contains a large box in the center and 8 smaller boxes surrounding it. If you do not follow me, please start over using paper, pencil and a ruler instead of your imagination.
You should notice that 6 of the boxes, on the outer edges, are about the same size and two of them are much larger - the up and down, middle of the plate ones. These should really be made smaller up and down so that the very middle box is even larger but let's not get carried away.
Now place a huge, bold, red X in the middle box. We never want to throw the ball into that large square once we are warmed up. We do not want our catcher's setting targets there although they may start there before the pitcher starts into her motion but that's a subject for another day.
There are 8 grid boxes into which the pitcher should begin practice throwing her game ready pitches. And this is our first layer of work to begin immediately. The fun does not nearly stop there.
Most folks practice their pitching "inside" and "outside" perhaps adding "up" and "down." That's fine but one really ought to think in terms of 8 boxes surrounding the no-go zone, down the middle. That is, locations within the strike zone should all be practiced. These consist of 1) low - a)inside, b) outside and c) down the middle; 2) belt high - a) inside and b) out; and 3) high - f 1) low - a)inside, b)outside and c)down the middle. If it makes things easier for you, you can mark each box appropriately, 1-a, 1-b, 1-c, 2-a, 2-b, 3-a, 3-b, and 3-c. Obviously, inside and out are relative terms because it depends on whether you have a righty or lefty at the plate. Let's not worry about that issue.
The next level of what we should be concerned with is the areas right outside our grid. In order to make it somewhat simple, let's extend our grid lines outward a few inches and think of this as being approximately two to three balls in distance. A standard fastpitch softball is a couple inches across so our actual distance is maybe 6 inches or so. Draw a line around your new, extended grid. You can number these new boxes if you like but I think we might be getting carried away. The bottom line is you have gained 16 new boxes into which the pitcher will throw her practice sessions giving us a total of 24, though precision is not important. If you do not see this in your head, get paper. If you do not see this in your drawing, find some graphing paper.
These new outer zones are probably the single most important aspect of pitching. Most umpires will give one or two sides of your overall grid but not the other 2 or 3. That is, most umpires will tend to call strikes for pitches outside the zone, in or out, up or down, or some combination of these. It really matters who is calling the game. Some umps like the upper pitch but not the lower ones. Some like the outside pitch but not the inside. In games, pitchers have to adjust to the umpires called strike zone because that is the only thing that matters on a called ball or strike.
The outer lateral edges of your new strike zone grid span from the inside line of the righty batter's box to the inner edge of the lefty batter's box. The top and bottom lines span from the batter's chin down to her shins. So that is, in summary, 24 boxes from batter's box to batter's box, chin to shin.
To this, I want to add one final layer of lines. The bottom and top of the final layer are dirt to visor of batting helmet. The outer lines are the batter herself. I am losing patience with the idea of numbered boxes so let's skip the idea for a little while. I just find that sometimes drawings and numbers can be useful to develop a concept. Now, these newest boxes are obviously balls in anybody's book but they are still important locations.
So, again to just summarize where we are, we have 3 layers of boxes which include the rulebook strike zone, the potential umpire's strike zone, and places where pitches would definitely be balls. Let's talk a bit about why we have these locations, what they are good for, and how to work on hitting them.
The various locations are more critical to softball pitching than they are to baseball pitching for a very good reason. Our regulation 12 inch softball is much larger than the standard baseball. If we throw down the middle, no matter how fast, somebody is going to hit the ball well against us.
The first layer is important because, if we want to get outs whether by strike outs, grounders or pop-ups, there are really only two ways to do it. We must make batters swing by throwing strikes and/or we must make them swing at pitches as far away from their particular hitting zones as possible so they miss pitches or miss-hit some. If we just fire the ball and wait to see where it goes, a high percentage of pitches are going to get whacked. If we hit spots, certainly some pitches will be hit hard but most will not.
The second layer of locations is extremely important because, if we are able to hit these spots at will, we can get called strikes on pitches that are not generally hittable. Early in our games, we test the spots to see what the ump will call. If he or she is calling inside, low, outside or high, we mark this down in our brains to use as the game progresses. More importantly, if the ump has expanded the zone, we should use this in order to get batters out not only by the K, but also by making them hit balls very poorly.
The third layer is important too but for more insidious reasons. This is a little more advanced but, in essence, we can alter the batter's perceptions about the strike zone by going well inside and outside it sometimes. For example, say we are facing someone standing at about the middle of the batter's box. If we throw inside, off the plate, right on the batter's box line, we make them forget some about the outer corner. We can get them punched out with strike three on the outside corner and they'll return to their dugout certain that the ump made a bad call. Similarly, if a batter adjusts to our constant banging of the outside corner by moving in, we can make them forget about the inside corner by throwing one or two outside off the plate, out of their reach.
Location is critical to getting hitters out. We dissect the strike zone, build zones just around it and then beyond those in order to have the sort of pitch command necessary to get them out. Once we have reasonably good control, we must learn to develop command so we can defeat almost any batter.
When I speak of "control" I am really talking about a pitcher whose 60-80% throw zone is in and around the strike zone. Such a girl may walk some kids because she is unable to "just throw a strike" but the number of walks issued this way is relatively small. This is distinguishable, in my world, from "command" which refers to the ability to hit specific zones inside and out of the strike zone at a high rate of frequency with deliberate effort.
Lest somebody write in to complain that I have always advocated speed before all else, let me clarify. For many years, I have scolded those who preach, "just get it over, dear, please!" I have stated that one should not try to throw strikes and parents and coaches should not implore their pitchers to throw those strikes. Rather, it would be best if pitchers work to perfect mechanics and throw as hard as they can without any regard to where the ball goes. Basic control will come about as a result of good mechanics, repeated iterations of throwing, and learning one's release point.
A pitcher does not try to throw wildly. She is not trying to incur the wrath of her parents or coaches. But if she is told to "just throw strikes" or "try, please for God's sake, try to throw strikes," what she will do is alter her mechanics until she throws that strike which will shut up her detractors. I have seen this dynamic play out many times and the results are rather ugly. What you get for your learned instruction of "just throw strikes" is a pitcher who shortens her stride to remain in control of her body, one who bends at the waist or elbow as she releases the ball, some other funky adjustment, or all of these things. The result is generally a pitcher who will be done before long because she will lose speed and power, not be able to master additional pitches, or suffer a bad injury. Mechanics are the key to early pitching, not control regardless of what your little league experts tell you.
If I have two pitchers before me who have the same instructor and the same amount of experience, I'll take the harder throwing, wilder one every time, assuming her mechanics are superior to the other, slower, much more controlled girl. The second girl may experience more success early but within a year or two and definitely after that, our wild thing will be the superior pitcher.
When kids begin pitching, they are trying to pull together a very complex motion and then find a release point to throw strikes. They throw the ball all over the place. As things come together, the majority of pitches will land in a range of locations, closer and closer to the strike zone. Eventually, the beginner pitcher will be able to throw everything fairly close to the zone and her practice catcher's mood will dramatically improve. This can take quite a long time for some but let's assume that the specimen pitcher is able to throw the ball inside a reasonably small range and hit the strike zone or right around it about 60-80% of the time. This is the right time to begin working locations.
Probably the first thing a coach or parent will want to do is work inside or outside corners of the plate. This can take quite a long time to master. The important thing to note is that like all of pitching, it requires many repeated iterations. If one is practicing by throwing 100 fastballs after drills, it would be best to stop trying to throw down the middle as soon as you are warmed up. Let's assume a pitcher is warm after 20. The remaining 80 should be to locations in and out.
Trying to throw pitches to locations can be somewhat aggravating for the pitcher. She can also become bored pretty quickly with throwing to a single location. Think of yourself practicing at say darts. You try to hit the middle but fail numerous times. After a while, you have to do something else or you will go mad. So you try to throw to the right or left side, up or down. Then after perhaps 10 throws, you move to another zone on the board, then another. The same concept should be applied to pitching practice. You warmed for 20, now throw 10 inside corner, then 10 outside corner, then 10 in, end so on. Variability is the key to avoiding boredom.
What I like to do when working out a pitcher is have her warm, then work vague areas on the inside and outside, then move to a third layer of practice in which she tries to throw 10 inside on the plate, then 10 inside off the plate, 10 outside on, 10 outside off, and then start to wind things up or down by hitting one of each at a time. You can have her face theoretical batters in a game situation in which each location is a strike and anything else is a ball. By the way, in these scenarios, anything into the red X zone is a homerun!
I believe that practicing merely inside and out is very limited and can result in much boredom. Before long, your inside on and off, etc. practice will get very boring too. &nb sp; Even before your pitcher has mastered her command in and out, on and off, you should add further variability. I would start with the grid boxes in the strike zone. I would also choose the places which will provide the greatest benefit to actual pitching. If you go back to your first layer of grid with the numbers placed into the boxes, these would be the, to a righty batter: up and in or 3-a; down and away or 1-c; anything up on the 3 line; or anything low on the 1 line.
You next layer of practicing ought to involve the full spectrum of possible locations within the two first layers of the grids. The pitcher should work to hit spots within the strike zone, up, middle or down, in, over or out. Then she should move on to throwing pitches right outside the zone up, down, etc. It probably best to work in these diverse locations over several weeks, perhaps months, assuming about 4 practice sessions per week.
There is never a need to be overly concerned with a pitcher's inability to hit spots or hit all the spots soon after beginning to work in this way. Command is, like mechanics, a career long project. But so many pitchers are trained and worked without any regards to locations that I want to at least go over the subject in some details on my meaningless blog. Pitchers need to work locations so they have relatively good command. If nobody ever works this into the practice sessions an d makes sure a good number of practice iterations occur, there is little chance she'll just naturally learn to do this on her own.
So, now let's assume a pitcher and her coach / practice catcher / father / mother learned fundamental mechanics, got to the point where she threw her fastball pretty well, is working on getting other pitches game ready but relies about 70-90% on the fastball, has practiced location and can now throw them pretty well, what is she to do with this ability?
First of all, what we want to do is make sure not to pound one particular location over and over again. In 12U travel ball, many pitchers ply their trade hitting the outside and low corner. They can get away with this because hitters mostly do not make many adjustments at that age. A coach can tell his lineup of 9 to move closer to the plate in order to defeat this strategy and perhaps 4 or 5 of the girls will actually do that. But from 14U on up, hitters do make adjustments whether they are instructed to do so by a coach or not. So the 12U pitcher with decent command can get away with pounding the outside corner byut sooner or later she'll face good hitters and they will hit that. When she ages up to 14U, most hitters will adjust to constantly banging the outside.
What you can do in order to avoid hitters making successful adjustments against you is to work the full zone or work particular parts of it to open up certain other zones. Want to get the hitter out down and away, use your inside and high location. Want to get her out up and in, try up and out. Set the hitters up so they are never sure where you are going to throw the pitch. If you do that, you might just be able to get 21 hitters out with just your down and away stuff or whatever. You just have to work the other locations so they are guessing as to where you might be throwing this next pitch.
On yet another level, you must learn to be imperfect. That is, you must learn and practice to throw pitches that are balls. You should always start games throwing a strike or two though on the edges so you can begin to delineate exactly where the strike zone is for both you and the umpire. But you are really going to want to learn to hit spots outside the zone.
Hitters come to the plate with their own idea of where the strike zone is and is not. They also have their own particular sweet spots where they love to hit the ball. Additionally, they have their own particular weaknesses for pitches outside the zone where, under certain circumstances like 0-2, runners in scoring position or whatever, that they simply cannot help themselves from swinging at bad pitches. Your job as pitcher is to be capable of executing pitches to each of the targets you have in your head, to discern where the strike zone is and is not, to keep hitters off balance by moving it around, and learning where your opponents hot and cold zones are. We'll leave styles of hitting and their fundamental strengths and weaknesses for another day. We don't have time to go over every possible adjustment the hitter might make. Right now we are focused on the pitcher learning to be able to hit the spots in each of our layers within the grid we created in our minds or on paper. if you can throw only a fastball but have reasonably good speed and can hit these targets, you have a lot. You can be an effective pitcher with just these tools. If you are a coach working with limited pitching talent and you train your pitchers only in this aspect of their craft, without touching their mechanics or trying to teach them a pitch when you are not otherwise a competent pitching instructor, chances are pretty good your pitchers, your team, and you will survive the season.
There are a couple important peripheral issues I would like to address regarding this piece. One is the issue of dealing with under-skilled catchers. On many teams other than our highly competitive travel club with catchers who go to instructors or otherwise really know how to be good receivers, we, the pitchers will have to deal with catchers who do not set targets beyond down the middle. Pitchers should drill not only locations when the practice catcher is setting targets. What I like to do with my pitchers is have them hit some targets using the glove as aim point and then try to hit those targets when the glove is situated right down the pipe. It isn't enough to merely be able to hit spots. You';ve got to be able to form a mental picture of the desired pitch location and then hit it regardless of where the catcher is. So please practice that.
The second issue involves pitching in accordance with the count and game situation. If the count is 0-2, I never want you to throw the ball into the zone, particularly not the red X box. I want you to throw what should be called a ball though not a pitch so miserable your grandmother wouldn't swing at it. When the count is in 0-2, you have at least 2 opportunities to throw a really good pitch which barely grazes or just misses the strike zone the ump is calling that day. This is what we call "expanding" the zone. You do not want an 0-2 pitch to be hittable. The batter can hit it but she cannot hit it beyond the infield and it will be an easy out if she does put it into play.
0-1 and 1-2 are other counts in your favor. They just aren't quite as good as 0-2. Still, you have at least one opportunity to make a really good pitch without falling behind the batter and needing to groove one to get a strike. Take the opportunity.
We never want to go 3-1 or 3-2 on the hitter because the options are limited. But going 1-1 on an 0-1 count or 2-2 on a 1-2 count are totally acceptable. We do not want to ever give up a big extra base hit on 0-2 and 1-2 counts. The count provides opportunities to make good pitches and if we do not endeavor to do that, we will get hit.
Likewise, game situation dictates much of what we try to do out there in the circle. Being ahead in the count with a 7 run lead in the last inning might dictate that we throw something down the pipe. Similarly, being way behind, at risk of being run rules, might prevent us from being aggressive with pitch location because we cannot afford to walk a batter. These are elements of pitching which we cannot necessarily control. Situations can limit our choices. But if our team coaches are telling us to throw the ball down the pipe for their own reasons, that doesn't mean we have to listen. Nobody is so perfect that they can throw one into the red X box at will 100% of the time. Coaches shouldn't ever do this to pitchers but they do. Pitchers need to ignore these kinds of instructions and throw to where they think they should throw, even during batting practices!
The final issue is that circumstance we all hate to see where the ump has established an invisible pipe into which, for whatever reason, he or she wants the pitcher to throw. Of course, if you want to get a called strike, you are going to have to roll the ball right into that pipe. But let's not forget this is only for a called strike. That pipe does not prevent a batter from swinging.
Batters come to the plate, as i said, with their own notion of where the strike zone is. Their perceptions are altered by the count and game situation. You want to get ahead and probably need to throw a pitch down the ump's pipe to get a call but not every first pitch to each batter should be there. If you struck this batter out or she hit a double off you, you need to perhaps throw one outside that pipe. if you are ahead in the count, you should try to throw one inside that first layer of boxes but not the red X box where the ump is calling strikes. You are stuck with the ump's invisible pipe but you do not have to throw there. Just remember to move the ball around, work the count while keeping it in your favor, stay away from hot zones for really good hitters, and make lemonade out of lemons.
OK, I thought this would be a short one. I wasn't sure how I could fill up a whole piece with simple location stuff. I guess I was wrong. The important things to take away today are: you should envision the strike zone as the rulebook lays it out, add to it zones or boxes just outside the book zone, and then add on additional boxes beyond those. Pitchers should practice hitting these spots, all of them. They should practice hitting such spots whether the catcher's glove is there or not. Coaches with little pitching talent should focus on this aspect of pitching in order to survive. Pitchers need to consider count and game situation when calling locations but regardless of any of that, no fat pitches on 0-2, please! Pitchers will practice hitting locations in their lessons and practice sessions but they also need to practice this in games, against real hitters. If you find yourself playing against some really bad hitting team or throwing batting practice, that is a great time to work on this. As always, I hope this adds a little something to your game.
 
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