Girls Fastpitch Softball: February 12, 2006

A Guide to Girls Fastpitch Softball For Parents and Kids

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National Pro Fastpitch Senior Draft

by Dave
Friday, February 17, 2006

National Pro Fastpitch conducted its senior draft this week. Here are the selections by round:

1st Round:
Connecticut, Cat Osterman, P, Univ. of Texas
Philadelphia, Stephanie VanBrakle, P, Univ. of Alabama
Connecticut, Andrea Duran, 3B, UCLA
New England, Kristin Vesely, OF, Univ. of Oklahoma
Arizona, Alicia Hollowell, P, Univ. of Arizona
Akron, Jennie Ritter, P, Univ. of Mich
Texas, Emily Zaplatosch, C, UCLA
Akron, Caitlin Benyi, 2B, UCLA
Chicago traded with
New England, Kristi Durant, 3B/C, Univ. of Tennessee

2nd Round:
Philadelphia, Sarah Fekete, OF, Univ. of Tennessee
Connecticut, Adrienne Alo, IF/OF, Oregon State
New England trade from 1st round with
Chicago, Stacy May, 3B/SS, Univ. of Iowa
(Chicago also gets New England’s 4th round pick next year)
Philadelphia, Harmony Schwethelm, OF/IF, Baylor
Texas, Serena Settlemier, P, Kansas University
Akron, Sara Larquier, 3B, Univ. of Virginia
Chicago, Amanda Williams, OF, Marshall University (West Virginia)

3rd Round:
Philadelphia, Haley Woods, C/1B, Cal Berkeley
Connecticut, Aimee Minor, OF, Univ. of Washington
New England, Tiffany Stewart, OF, Univ. of S. Florida
Arizona, Desiree Serrano, P, Arizona State
Texas, Krystal Lewallen, P, Univ. of Louisiana (Lafayette)
Akron, Lindsay James, OF, Cal Berkeley
Chicago traded with
New England, Lisa Allen, C, Oregon State

4th Round:
Philadelphia, Courtnay Foster, P, Northwestern
Connecticut, Stephanie Hill, IF/OF, LSU
New England trade from 3rd round with
Chicago, Missy Beseres, P, Penn State
Arizona, Lauren Lappin, IF/C, Stanford
Texas, Tina Boutelle, OF, Univ. of Texas
Akron, Ashley Smith, C, Univ. of South Carolina
Chicago, Jessica Williams, SS, Marshall University (West Virginia)

Personally, I would like to see Jennie Ritter pitch so I'm going to try to see Akron play. Another of my favorites is Stephanie VanBrakle, ace of Alabama, who was very excited to get the chance to play in her home state for the expansion Philadelphia Force. The Force plays its home games in Allentown which while not particularly close to Stephanie's hometown of Chambersburg, is still in the state where she played most of her youth ball and is driveable - about 2 hours. If you watched Stephanie play youth or high school ball, try to go see her and support the team.

The NPF has grown this year by adding two teams, Philadelphia and Connecticut but, I believe, lost the New York based team the NY/NJ Juggernaut, which played in New Jersey its first year and then on Long Island its second. The existing teams are: Akron Racers, Arizona Heat, Chicago Bandits, Connecticut Brakettes, Philadelphia Force, New England Riptide and Texas Thunder.

According to NPF, the 2006 schedule will kick-off on Wednesday, May 31st with the first of 12 series for each team. The 48-game schedule will include seven (7) four-game home series and five (5) four-game series on the road. Each NPF team will host five fellow NPF teams and two International Teams. China, Chinese Taipei, Canada, Team Denso (Japan) and the Japanese National Team have all confirmed their intent to participate in the 2006 NPF Season.

ESPN is expected to broadcast some NPF games this summer, including the All-Star Game. I caught the World Cup but missed most NPF on ESPN last year. They do a nice job of covering games.

If you've never seen NPF, it is a great opportunity to see high caliber softball for a very reasonable price. Tickets are in line with minor league baseball game costs and usually you get a very good view of the goings on.

The NPF formed just a couple years ago while the Japanese professional league has a longer history. If you want this sport to grow, you've really got to support the league. You won't be disappointed by the level of play.

Permanent Link: National Pro Fastpitch Senior Draft

Working The Zone

by Dave
Monday, February 13, 2006

There is almost nothing in sport quite as pleasurable as getting batter after batter out whether it is on a strikeout, a weak ground ball to an infielder or a can-of-corn pop out to the outfield. Making batters look foolish, meek or mild is a wholly satisfying phenomenon. But just like singing the blues, you gotta pay your dues and you know it don't come easy. My aim here is to make all you young pitchers think a little bit more about what you do when you are out in the circle.

I want to address this topic as logically as I can so I'll break it down into slow steps. Feel free to jump around as you like but read each step which interests you completely.

Step 1

First, let's introduce figure 1, the strike zone:

Note the numbered blocks, 1 - 8, which are actually in the zone and the lettered areas, A - D, which are outside of it. Take a good look at this and think about it for a second. Notice that we have nothing marking "down the middle" and for good reason. You don't have to be concerned with this area of the zone. It feels really cool for a ten and under pitcher to hit that spot down the middle but after a year or so of pitching competitive ball, that is the last place you'll want to throw a pitch.

Step 2

Now let's add something about the batter. The batter's position in the box and her stance in general are important aspects of deciding how to work the zone. The first consideration is the nature of the stance. A "neutral stance" is one in which the batter is neither closed nor open - her back foot's big toe is about even with the instep of her front foot before the pitch is delivered. An open stance is one in which the front foot is away from the plate relative to the back foot. A closed stance is one in which the back foot is significantly further away from the plate than the front one. In a "neutral stance," you see the side of the batter. In an open stance, you see her front and in a closed stance, you see mostly her back.

Next, a batter can crowd the plate, stand in the middle of the batter's box, or be far away from the plate. So, if you combine these two concepts, the batter can be closed, neutral or open, and in each case be crowding the plate, be right in the middle or be at the outer edges of the box. That's three times three or nine separate types of batters.

Now consider whether her knee-bend results in a stance that is crouched, neutral, or tall. Three times nine yields 27 different theoretical positions. Now consider that she can be in the front of the box, middle or back close to the catcher. Three times 27 yields 81 possible "types of batters." Now consider that batters often do not stay in one position either during a single at bat or even during a single pitch. There are a number of charts out there which presume to tell you when to throw which kind of pitch when a batter is:

In front of the box,
Standing overly erect,
blah, blah, blah!

I want you to throw out those charts right now. There's both more and less to pitching than a simple chart and 81 different types of batter's stances. But it is still good for you to form a mental exercise of visualizing where a batter might be and how she might be standing. So go ahead now and just write out a chart of your own with all the various components and how a batter might appear to you from the circle. You won't use this to decide which pitch to throw but it is useful to get an idea. I'll talk more about the batter's position in Step 5.

Step 3

The next thing I want you to do is form an inventory of the pitches you throw. You may only throw one pitch in which case I suggest you consider adding something like a changeup to your pitch selection but that's a subject for another day. If the only thing you throw is a standard fastball, jump ahead to step 4 below and skip this brief section.

There are places to throw particular pitches and places not to throw them. I won't go through them all because that would take up too much space but here are some very fundamental considerations:

Keep your changeup low in and out of the zone. On the chart above, that is, ideally, positions C and D, or at worst, positions 6, 7 and 8. You want to stay away from throwing your changeup above these positions unless you intentionally throw it up and well out of the zone as a waste pitch for a batter you think is over anxious.

Similarly, if you throw a drop, you want to keep that down in the zone. A high drop ball is a batting practice fastball. That means the batter will likely drive it well out of the infield and perhaps over the fence. You should try to work your drop ball to the positions right beneath the 6, 7, and 8 spots. Ideally hitting C or D is very effective with the drop just as it is with the changeup.

If you throw a screwball, you are looking to hit 3, 5 or 8 to a right handed batter or 1, 4, or 6 to a lefty. Your average lefty with an overall neutral stance is a good low ball hitter so maybe you should stay away from position 6 and stay within 1 and 4 on your screwball. -; Keeping your screwball inside to a batter forces her to hit a spinning ball with the bad parts of the bat. This should result in a foul ball or a weak grounder to one of the corners.

These are general rules and not intended to be absolute. The only absolute I will tell you with respect to your pitch selection in this discussion is to never throw your changeup in the strike zone from the batter's waist up.

Step 4

Now that we have briefly considered the batter and your inventory of pitches, we are getting to the real crux of pitching. As in many things in life, the trick to pitching is location, location, location. If you consider a batter standing in good position and extending her arms, the place she would like to have ball meet bat is right down the middle of the zone. If you can hit any of the numbered or lettered positions on figure one, you have an advantage because unless she adjusts, she just isn't going to get the fat part of the bat on the ball.

I often think of the development of a pitcher as consisting of 1) getting the right motion, 2) throwing a lot of practice to get the muscle memory going and lock down the basic motion, 3) finding the strike zone, 4) learning to hit spots. Right now, we're talking about hitting spots. Hitting spots is not a matter of adjusting your motion or stepping in a different place with your front foot. I like to think of it as similar to what a luge driver does. The luge sled moves at incredible speed. The driver makes extremely slight adjustments to steer the sled. A drastic change results in over steering which will cause the sled to crash. Pitching is similar in that when you are trying to hit spots - to steer, if you will - what you are trying to do is very slight in nature.

Learning to hit spots is a function of how hard you want to hit them and loads of practice. Early pitchers throw and throw while just trying to hit someplace near the strike zone. Once that is accomplished on a fairly regular basis, the very next thing to do is to try to hit some spots within the zone. Don't change anything about what you are doing but simply try to will the ball to hit a target on the inside half of the strike zone. You warm up with hopefully some snaps and other drills then throw a few pitches without regard to where they land. Now tell your catcher to move his or her glove to the inside corner. Then tell her to move it back into the middle of the zone but aim to hit the spot from her left knee to her left shoulder. This sort of drilling should be at least half of your throwing session.

As you progress in your ability to throw an ordinary fastball right down the middle or inside - at will - the next thing to do is work on hitting the outside corner. Again, start by having the catcher move her glove to form the target, then progress to aiming at the knee to shoulder area. Once you are able to throw in the general vicinity of inside, middle and outside, work all three simultaneously. Have your catcher call inside, outside or down the middle on each pitch after the simple warm up.

After weeks and months of drilling this way, the next logical thing to do is inside and high, middle or low, outside high, middle or low. On the chart, we are referencing positions 1-4-6 and 3-5-8. At this point I think you can drop the down the middle stuff. Then after having mastered inside and outside, high, middle and low, the next thing is in the middle of the zone but high and low, or positions 2 and 7. I discuss these places after learning inside and outside, then high middle or low because at this point I think it will become easy for you to work positions 2 and 7.

Now, let's be clear, I'm not talking about a five week or two month process of learning to control your pitches. My time frame is really years. If you can master this stuff quickly, more power to you. But any girl who has trouble doing the location thing should not get frustrated. If you cannot control your pitches for years while it takes your pitching partner only 5 weeks, that means absolutely nothing. Any skill you learn over a long period of time is one you will own. If it comes too easy to you, there will be a tendency for you to never really respect the thing enough to say you own it.

After you have relative ownership over the numbered positions, it is time to begin working areas just outside the strike zone, positions A through D. These positions are where real pitching takes place. If you want to be a big time pitcher - even if big time only means winning your high school conference - these are the places where you will want 80% of your pitches to land. You see, most batters just cannot tell the difference between, for example, position 8 and position D, most of the time. It would take a highly skilled and disciplined hitter to hold up on a 1 - 2 pitch to position D. the same is true of the other lettered positions. This is true because umpires will often call these spots strikes. All but the very best hitters never really get to know when a ball just outside the zone is in or out. And if the pitch is truly outside the zone there is almost no chance of a hitter getting the sweet spot of the bat on it. If you own these spots, you pretty much own the hitter.

Step 5

Let's go back to the batter's position and stance. I wanted to go over other aspects of pitching before developing this topic more because it really does get complicated. We talked about how a batter can take one of several positions in the box prior to the delivery but there's more to anything than there first appears. if you watch any game of softball or baseball, watch the batters with the most extreme stances very carefully. the batter with an open stance does not stay in that position. Most of the time she closes it down to a neutral stance as the pitcher finishes her windup and gets ready to actually deliver the ball. Similarly a batter with a closed stance tends to open up right before delivery. A batter in a heavy crouch tends to stand up a bit as the pitcher gets ready to release. Even the most erect hitter tends to bend at the knees at delivery. You can argue that these are terrible habits for hitters to get into but what I want you to acknowledge right now is that the batter's stance as you enter your wind up is seldom her stance as you release the pitch.

So why is this important? The by-the-chart method of pitching to a hitter tells you to work a batter with an open stance outside. I suggest to you that if a batter has an open stance which she closes as you are about to deliver and you work her outside, she is going to hit your pitch a long way. Similarly, the charts tell you to work a batter with a closed stance inside but if she adjust to a neutral stance, she's going to drive that inside pitch. The same can be true of crouched and erect batters, those who crowd the plate and those who stand far from it. The best hitters with the most unconventional stances always adjust before any pitch is thrown.

The "right" place to pitch a batter must be based on where she is when she actually commences her swing. Your catcher is the single most important person on the field, including your coaches, to clue you in on where the batter is really positioned. That is because the adjustments are frequently slight and not visible from the dugout or even the circle when you are concentrating on so many other things. If you are a catcher reading this to work on calling pitches, as I hope many of you are, consider that your position on the field is unique for evaluating batters. You have a better position than anyone else to know if some open hitter is closing. If you are a coach trying to learn about pitch calling, you simply must work not just with your pitchers but also your catchers and take advantage of your catchers' eyes during games.

Step 6

Location is not an absolute. You don't find a good location you can hit for a particular kind of batter and then throw every pitch there. A good batter will see this and then simply adjust. If you pitch by the chart and work the good batter with an open stance on the outside corner, she will begin to close that stance at delivery and then really drive the ball. The trick is to alter the location. This works whether you have a full repertoire of pitches or only throw a fastball. This works regardless of where or how the batter stands.

Let's imagine our batter with an open stance and you begin by pitching her outside. The next pitch she will probably close down at the delivery point. What a great time to pound the inside corner. She'll be completely out of position which should result in strike two. Now you are free to work the outside corner again in which case she'll probably fail to close and will miss the ball. Batters usually adjust so if you adjust counter to what she does, you will probably make her look really foolish.

So you may have one of those charts which tell you how to pitch to which kind of hitter. Or maybe you've developed your own. Well, that's OK when you are formulating a game plan (I'll get to that in step 8), but you should never view it as an absolute. You always want to move the ball inside and out, up and down, to keep the hitter off balance. And you never want to assume anything like pitching the closed stance inside since hitters make adjustments.

It takes a lot of work to constantly move the ball around and remember what you did to each hitter in the last at bat - you never want to get into a pattern since that makes it easier for the hitter to adjust and time you. But you always want to change each pitch just enough to get her guessing. Guessers guess wrong the more options there are. If you're pitching to all the numbered and lettered position in the chart, chances are pretty good you'll be able to fool the hitter. And if you have several pitches on which to rely, that makes the hitter's guessing game even more difficult.

Step 7

This brings us to mixing up your pitches. If all you've got is the fastball, I think this brings the session to a close. You can jump ahead to the conclusion, if you like. But if you have a repertoire of different pitches, this and the following section are intended for you. Here what we are after is really keeping the hitter off balance by mixing up pitches and locations to accomplish the task of making the batter do something she doesn't want to do.

Each pitch should never be looked at in a vacuum. Pitches are part of a sequence. The pitches you threw to a batter her last time up help the batter formulate an approach to what you are likely to do this at-bat. If you do exactly what you did last time, she is going to have a better chance of getting a key hit. Similarly, if you treat each batter the same and work each the same, as the game wears on, the hitters are going to "solve" you and start hitting you hard their second and third times through the order. You've got to always evaluate what you just did and change it somewhat. If you always throw your change when the count is 0 - 2, I know I would like to hit against you. If you always throw the screwball as your first or second pitch, somebody is going to wisen up and hit it down the line for a double. You've got to work with your catcher and avoid patterns as much as possible.

Earlier I wrote of some general rules like keeping your change and drop in the lower sections of the strike zone. You don't always have to do this but doing otherwise is really for the advanced pitcher. In addition to other pitch selections I favor, I also like throwing the change up and outside to position A on a righty or B on a lefty. This is not a pitch intended for getting the batter out but rather to set up the next pitch. Each pitch is part of the sequence so if last time you got her 0 - 2, then threw the change down and inside which caught her off balance and struck her out, consider that if you get her 0 - 2 this time, she might be looking for that. Now you can throw her the change but make sure it is in a position she can't hit and far away from the last time, maybe up and away. If you're lucky, she is going to think you made a mistake and swing at a bad pitch. If she takes it, you have probably set up your next pitch.

The best way to look at this is via an example. Let's assume you've got a good hitter who starts a little open and closes down to neutral. You start her off with a change down and away. She swings and misses. Next you throw the drop on the low inside corner which she takes for a ball, 1 - 1. Now you run your screwball on the outside corner and low for a called strike, 1 - 2. She is assuming you are going to throw something low - she has zoned in to the lower half of the strike zone and is ready to hit anything thrown there. Now would be an OK time to throw the change high and outside or run the fastball in under her chin. If you threw the change, follow it up with a screwball on the middle inside of the plate at position 5 (to a righty). if you ran the fastball under her chin, follow it up with a curve outside and low to positions 6 or even C. That should finish her off. And the next time she comes up, work her higher in the zone and finish her off low again.

Just to recap this section, the specifics are not what is important. The general rule is mix things up and don't get into a pattern. You don;t need to get inside the hitters' heads, they need to get inside yours and if you keep them off balance and guessing, you're probably going to come out on top.

Step 8

There are so many options in your repertoire and so many ways you can work the hitter, it boggles the mind. But nobody in sport or warfare ever creates a plan which survives first contact with the enemy. Formulating a game plan, then, is making some notes about approach. It is particularly useful to have a couple game plans when you face the same team over and over again. Just as any good hitting team will adjust to a really fast pitcher, they will also adjust to a good location pitcher who doesn't mix things up.

When you are formulating a game plan, the thing to do is not list the pitches and sequence you plan to use. Instead start by deciding whether you in general want to work batters with a particular sequence of pitches the first time through the order. Then decide how you will react to the way they react to your approach. You can't throw a fastball-curve-changeup-screwball sequence to every batter. But you can decide to work the lower half of the plate to the first three hitters by using a drop to the first hitter, a change to the second and a curve to the third. Your second pitch to each hitter will be based on what you and your catcher gauge as the hitters' reactions to the first pitches. Then the next inning, you can work curve, change, drop as first pitches to each of the hitters. You can also plan to work position 6, 8 and B in sequence to each of the first three hitters but then your second choice is going to change based on reactions and apparent adjustments.

A real pitching game plan is about thinking which pitches follow which sorts of reactions. For example, a long foul ball on your fastball that got away from you and ended up in the middle of the plate might be followed with a good change. An overly aggressive swing and miss on an inside pitch of whatever kind could be followed up with a curveball. The trick of deciding what to throw and when is what pitching is really all about.

There is one hard and fast rule I want to leave you with. This one seems to run counter to the notion of having a game plane or of mixing things up as much as possible. But it really complements these ideas. That is always use your best stuff. Some days your fastball is going to be jumping around like it is other pitches. Some days your curve or drop is going to break really sharply. When you are warming up, you and your catcher can see what is really working for you today. Work the stuff that is moving best during the game. That doesn't mean not wasting a change up to confuse the batter but it does mean when your curve is really sharp, try using that as your out pitch when the set up is right for it.

Conclusion

Well, we've discussed a lot of stuff about taking your pitching to the next level. We've talked about the strike zone consisting of eight places within the actual zone and 4 outside of it. Down the middle doesn't count. We've talked about the batter and her stance and positioning. But we've recognized that batters don't often stay in that position and often do make adjustments. Chart pitching is not the way to go because it fails to consider so many factors. Real pitching is both more simple and more complex than chart pitching or evaluating where and how the batter stands.

We've talked a lot about location and this is really what pitching is all about. Once you've mastered the general form, you've got to work location. Location is something which comes with loads of effort and practice. It may take years for you to get where you want to be but it is the secret of every successful pitching career.

Once you are able to throw the ball where you want, now it is time to look anew at the batter's position while keeping in mind that the batter will adjust and you catcher is the best resource on the field to tell you what the batter is doing. Now if you know what the batter is doing, you should work counter to her adjustments and keep her off balance. Use her adjustments to your own favor. You do this by working mixed locations and pitch selection. Move the ball around and throw different pitches in different locations if you are able. Remember, you don't have to get inside the batters' heads, they have to get inside yours. That's the pitcher's advantage.

I've told you not to blindly follow any charts, even your own, to decide which pitch to throw. You don't want to chart pitch and you don't want to become predictable. Pitching is about keeping the hitters off balance. Formulate a battle plan but remember that no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. And lastly, consider what your best stuff is each day, each game, and use it. A game plan doesn't allow you to factor in that your screwball is really sharp today. A game plan doesn't allow you to factor in the overanxious batter or the one just waiting for you to throw the curveball this next pitch. Your brains in the circle are what permit you to be a really good pitcher.

Labels: pitching

Permanent Link: Working The Zone

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