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Command And Control
by Dave
Thursday, October 08, 2009
The private coach watched his high school-aged student pitch for a while and then asked the question which had been on his mind for some time. "Do you just aim for the middle of the strike zone and then throw?" The student looked confidently back at her coach and answered his simple question. "Yes, that's pretty much what I have always done." The coach drew his hand across and down his face to his chin, pondered the issue, tried to craft the right thing to tell his student, and spoke in measured tones. "That's the wrong approach. You need to start pitching to spots or you're going to get hit."
There are two basic kinds of wildness. One involves the ability to throw strikes a majority of the time. This is the kind of wildness which yields excessive amounts of walks. The second variety involves what is often called "wildness in the zone." This wildness doesn't usually yield many walks but it does lead to other problems in fastpitch softball.
In the first case, usually we are talking about pitchers in their early years. When girls start learning the windmill, there are so many moving parts that it is often difficult to throw a strike using proper mechanics. Girls can perform parts of the motion in isolation drills but when they try to pull it all together into one smooth movement, the ball goes all over the place.
Even if the kid is not frustrated by lack of control, the practice catcher, parents or coaches often are. The inexperienced father complains, "just get it over" or "just try to throw strikes." The beginning pitcher gets frustrated with the reaction her lack of control induces and she begins altering her delivery to satisfy her critics.
Unfortunately too many young pitchers try to "just get it over" by using improper mechanics like bending at the waist, throwing with a bent arm, or making other gross motor adjustments. This is the pathway to future problems that cannot be resolved.
I remember a conversation I had with a 10U all-star coach who "informed" me that the most important element of softball pitching was the ability to throw strikes. He didn't care so much if his pitchers threw via conventional underhand soft toss, modified fastpitch, or a true windmill. If they could not throw strikes, they could not pitch. I could not help thinking "OK, you could not be more wrong but I must work with you so I won't argue the point. Just let me keep my own kids away from you."
The overall control problem is most effectively resolved via frequent pitching practice sessions. Each kid will get her basic control in her own time. Girls must learn proper mechanics and practice them without any worry whatsoever about where the ball goes. You'd be an idiot to think such girls don't care whether they throw strikes or not. But it takes a lot of practice to get the thing right. And there is no timeline which fits every individual.
I've written a fair amount about what parents of aspiring pitchers should and should not do at this point. The keys are:
1) don't have her pitch in games until she is ready because that exposes her to coaches and others who will display frustration whenever she can't get it over;
2) don't get frustrated with her lack of control - get yourself a bucket of balls and have her practice where you have some sort of backstop so you don't spend your time chasing balls (cut down the amount of time between pitches when practicing);
3) encourage proper motion/mechanics - don't encourage throwing strikes;
4) have her throw often to gain the feel of it and to learn the proper release point; and
4) keep her away from people who encourage throwing strikes by modifying the motion.
The result will invariably be a degree of control which will improve over time. If you instead encourage her to modify her motion or allow others to do so, you can plan on having her ready to pitch games earlier. You can also plan on her giving up pitching earlier. Heck, maybe that's a good thing!
The second kind of wildness appears in girls who have mastered the mechanical basics, begun to reliably throw strikes, and are now pitching in games. She no longer walks very many hitters. If she is strong and throws hard, she probably has experienced a good degree of success. She is getting hitters out for a variety of reasons and she is no longer being hurt by her excessive walks.
Many people, especially those with baseball backgrounds, think of this wildness in the zone as "effective" wildness because 1) it is prevalent in hard throwing baseball pitchers and 2) at first it seems to be effective in softball as well. But as girls move up in levels, the hitters become far more skilled and hit pitches that are not thrown to spots.
When we examine the notion of "effective wildness," we are generally talking about a pitcher who throws hard or who has movement on the ball which he or she has not yet harnessed. These pitchers get young batters out because the hitters are not comfortable facing them. They get hit or see others get hit by hard pitches. They see what they think are going to be strikes and wind up swinging at pitches well out of the zone. Eventually, they will become less fearful in the box and hold their ground. They will learn to better predict where a mnovement pitch will cross the plate. They will learn to hit pitches no matter how hard they are thrown. They will learn to adjust their "mental strike zone" to the natural movement of the pitch, especially after watching a couple from a particular pitcher.
In baseball, we see the prevalence of the fastball. Baseball pitchers get generally more movement on their fastballs than softball pitchers for reasons I won't go into. They throw different varieties (2-seam, 4 seam, cut) of the fastball in order to alter that movement. The ball is very small relative to the softball. So hitters have more difficulty dealing with baseball fastballs regardless of where they are thrown. That's not to imply that effective baseball pitchers, especially at higher levels, don't throw to spots. But a hard throwing pitcher can be effective if he has good speed and movement but still cannot command where the ball is going. The term "effectively wild" is a common one in baseball.
In softball, we do not hear of top pitchers being "effectively" wild. That is because the ball is bigger, pitch movement is less, and hitters are trained to deal with speed. If a pitcher can throw strikes at will, has normal to good movement but cannot know with any degree of certainty whether this pitch is going to be on the middle 60-70% of the plate, on the outer two 15-20% locations, up, down or middlish, she is going to get hit. Certainly, on some days, she is going to get lucky and keep the ball out of the middle part of the zone. But she is going to be inconsistent and on certain days be hit very hard.
There is another reason aside from hitters' abilities that pitchers need command of their pitches. We see umpires' strike zones vary quite a bit. I believe the strike zone is broader in fastpitch than it is in baseball. Just the other day we had a plate umpire calling pitches for strikes when they were clearly a good foot up and out. We have experienced a few umps who make pitchers throw into a pipe but for the most part, the umpires we have seen, extend the zone in some direction. There are some who like the outside and low pitch, a few who like it up and out, some who like it up but not down, or down but not up, and some who like everything in but won't give you an outside "on the black" pitch no matter what.
Pitchers have to make adjustments just like everybody else on the field. But their most important adjustment is to the plate ump's strike zone. If the ump is giving you a particular location, it may not be necessary to hit it every time but if you cannot hit it at all, you are preventing yourself from taking an important advantage you would otherwise have. Many times I have watched pitchers who are good at hitting one particular spot pitch to an umpire who favors that spot. They have their best games in those circumstances. But in another game, they might have an ump who favors another location. If they cannot figure out what that location is and hit it, they have less stellar games.
To be successful at pitching, you must possess the ability to hit spots which batters cannot hit as well as those spots off the plate which an umpire is calling. The only way to gain that ability is to practice it.
Once a pitcher is throwing strikes (has control) with good mechanics, the next stages have to involve learning movement and change of speed pitches, and learning to hit spots (command). As this piece is about location, we'll leave the other stuff to another day.
The first elements to pitching command involve inside and outside pitches. The practice catcher sets up "on the black" and the pitcher throws to the corners where the glove is placed. I think of this as stage 2 - level 1 because it is not enough to just throw to the corners. In stage 2 - level 2, the effective pitcher will learn first to throw to the corners and then to throw off them. If the count is 1-0, she tries to throw a strike to even up the count but she still wants to be out of the center. If the count is 0-1 or 0-2, she wants to throw near the corner but off it.
There isn't a good reason to throw an 0-2 pitch which catches the plate. Instead, what you want to do is expand the zone by throwing something off the plate which may induce the batter to swing at a pitch she cannot hit well. So pitchers must practice throwing off the corners. Additionally, they must learn to throw off the plate in varying degrees. Stage 2 - level 3 involves learning to throw 2 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, etc. off the plate. This is because umpires might sometimes be giving you everything 2 inches off the plate causing batters to swing at outside pitches not in the "book" strike zone. And, if the count is 0-2, why would you throw a pitch that is within the ump's zone? Instead, you move a couple inches off that to see if the batter will swing at something she has no hope of hitting!
To recap, pitchers learn their motion, practice tirelessly to throw within the strike zone, avoid any "advice" about adjusting delivery to "just get it over," then progress to learning to pitch on and off the corners, to varying degrees in order to induce batters to swing at bad pitches and perhaps get umps t0o call strikes on pitches off the plate. That is command. That is the location goal but it does not stop with inside and outside corners.
Up and down are nearly as important as in and out. That's because some hitters can deal with, for example, the inside and low but not the inside and up pitch. Also, some umps will give you either the high or low but most often not both. Up and down can sometimes be more difficult than in and out. The pitchers I have observed who can move the ball to the corners and off it, usually go up or down by accident. They can comand the thing horizontally but not vertically. So the next stage (stage 2 - level 4) is command up and down.
In case you are wondering if we are just talking about fastballs in this discussion - which should get you upset since most realize that the fastball is not a commonly used pitch in softball, the answer is no. For all your pitches, command in and out, up and down are important. Obviously a screwball is almost always going to be in. There are the up and down are critical. We see many hitters who are very effective against in and down but who cannot hit an in and up pitch if their lives depended on it. If a pitcher does not have up and down command on her screwball, she is going to run into troubles against these kinds of hitters.
While many pitchers' curveballs can be throw in or out, as we discussed some time ago, the degree of out is very important. A curve right on the outside of the plate is probably going to be hit very hard by good hitters. But if it starts on the last tiny slice of the plate and moves 6 inches off it, that is going to be effective. Yet the pitcher probably needs to possess the ability to throw the curve for a strike on 3-0 counts. Further, if she can get a strike called or induce the batter to swing and miss at a curve which is a mere inch or two off the plate, she should throw it further off on the next one. She needs to find the edge of the ump's zone and then be able to hit that or move it off that, depending on the count.
Similarly, pitchers need command of the change-up. A change-up which is above the belt and in the center of the plate can travel a great distance if the batter deals well with the timing aspect. If it cannot be throw for a strike, it is not an effective pitch since many teams train their hitters to lay off the change unless they are way down in the count. Pitchers must learn to throw the thing inside the zone, keep it low, and move it to the outside corner as well as just off it, etc. I think we see more pitchers who have trouble landing their changes for a strike than with any other pitch. And once they are able to throw it for a strike, that seems to be anough command for them. But learn a good change and then learn to command it in terms of down and out, and you have a really effective pitch, perhaps the most effective pitch in the game.
Dropballs are almost always down and rises are almost always up. But if you can learn degrees of up and down as well as in and out on these pitches, you are much better off in the long run. Many batters cannot hit a drop well or even make contact with a rise. But these hitters learn to make adjustments with where they stand in the batters box and to lay off any marginal pitches they can't hit. So if a drop or rise pitcher cannot put these pitches inside the zone, they aren't going to be effective. And if she can control the up or down but cannot throw to the corners and off them, she is limiting her effectiveness since some hitters will be able to deal with outside drops or inside rises and some umps will give her certain locations but not others.
When pitchers are learning command of pitches to locations, catchers are often involved. The catcher sets up in or out, up or down and the pitcher throws to the location of the glove. This is fine for learning 9in practice and fine if you have a talented catcher. But I have often heard pitchers and parents of pitchers complain that catchers are not setting targets appropriately. If the pitch is called outside, yes, she sets up outside. But her outside target is always in the same place. She does not move slightly off the plate when the count is 0-2. I once heard my own daughter complain about this. The pitcher must not cede command control to the catcher unless that catcher is completely in sync with the pitcher's way of thinking and pitching.
What I do with my own pitchers is, when we practice, I might hjave them work on command by initially setting up at the location they are pitching to. But after some reps of that, I tell them I am now going to set up right down the middle and I want them to pick a spot, not in the middle, to pitch to. For example, say we are working on the fastball. She throws ten fastballs just to warm up the pitch. Then I move and have her throw 5 to the outside corner, 5 off it, 5 on the inside corner, and 5 off it. Next I have her throw up and down. Then I might have her throw 1 inside and up, another out and down, etc. with me moving the glove to the location.
After that location by catcher's glove location, I set up right down the middle and tell her to throw a strike on the outside corner at whatever height. Then I tell her to throw one off the plate by an inch or two. Then maybe further off. We work location by glove location and then location despite glove location. In this way, I teach her to throw where she wants it regardless of whether she is throwing to the gifted catcher on her travel team or the make shift one for the school team (or vice versa).
What I'm telling you is, yes you must learn to throw strikes, then you must learn command. You must learn these things up and down, in and out. You must learn to throw to your locations rgeardless of where your catcher is set up and regardless of how talented she is or is not.
Now, obviously, we are talking about degrees of magnitude here. If my pitcher is throwing 60-65, has five pitches including a killer change, can throw to specific locations at will 100% of the time, she is prepping for top 25 D-1! All she needs to learn at this point is stance / swing analysis, and then how to break down a hitter!! But your reaction to the discussion should not be one of "if it's that complicated, my kid is probably not going to pitch for more than a year or two after this 10U season ends." Rather, I am trying to give you a sense of where to take things after she gets the basic mechanics down and after she is able to reliably throw strikes.
Maybe you are wondering when you should introduce location and command to your young pitcher. I suppose it is never too early to start the introduction but my sense is, if she can't throw a strike about half the time, you are probably wasting your time trying to get her to throw an outside strike at this point. Half is a decent rule of thumb. If she can throw strikes about half the time, put in some attempts to throw outside strikes in her pitching practices. If, for example, you are throwing 100 fastballs in your session, try getting her to throw 20 - 30 of them on the outside corner.
Break things up a bit. Maybe you usually throw 50 pitches in the first phase of this practice and then call balls and strikes for the remaining 50. In that case, I would have her throw 10-15 of the first fifty on the outside corner. Then, when you are calling balls and strikes in the second fifty, every 5th pitch, call one outside. And don't forget to call pitches as strikes if she hits the corner or is slightly off it. Don't set your mitt on the outside of the zone, tell her to hit it, and then call "ball" when she nails your unmoving glove.
As you progress with this for a few weeks/months, you may have her throw some warm-up pitches which do not involve location but after those, everything should be to location, in or out, on the plate or just off it. And once this is accomplished to an acceptable degree (use 50% again) begin having targets in the zone, 2 inches off it, 4 inches off it, etc. The furthest you need to be away from the plate is about the inside line of each batter's box or just past it.
Once you start to work off the plate by degrees, also start working the up and down aspect. I would say that initially, all you need is above and below the batter's theoretical waistline. Then that should progress in 2 to 4 inch intervals. And don't stop at the bottom and top of the strike zone. Include parts above and below the zone as you are doing with the in and out.
The riseball pitcher who can land her pitch just below the upper reaches of the zone and get a called strike one, then paint the edge of the line for two, and then throw one about eye level is going to get a lot of Ks. The dropball pitcher who can throw her pitch for a strike and then bounce one just off the plate is also going to get most batters out easily. Location frustrates hitters like nothing else. You have to hate facing the kid who throws to the weakest part of your swing and then, when you adjust, puts it back where your wheelhouse was before you made the adjustment.
You may never get to the point where your young pitcher is throwing pitches precisely one foot outside, just above the shoulder of the batter with 100% accuracy. Mopst likely you never will be even close to that level of precision. Still, the idea is to work on these things to improve command. The pitcher who works location will be better off than the one who doesn't. Even if a girl is not able to throw 5 of 10 of a given pitch to location, her command will be better and she will be a better pitcher.
The trick is to practice the right way. As the parent, guardian, or coach of an aspiring pitcher, you do her a diservice if you allow her to stop refining whenever she regularly finds the strike zone. You are only 20% of the way home when that happens. Don't allow your pitcher to confidently aim for the middle and then just see what happens. This isn't baseball.Labels: pitching, practice
Permanent Link: Command And Control
 
Suicide Sqeeze Is Painful
by Dave
Monday, October 05, 2009
The second most painful event in fastpitch softball happerns when you give up the go-ahead run on a suicide squeeze executed flawlessly by your opponent.
Your going along in a tied game, perhaps nothin-nothin, and the other team gets a girl on second. Maybe you are in ITB. There are no outs. You have two strikes on the hitter and you get your pitcher to waste something which might fool the batter into striking out, putting you in a great position to get through the inning without giving up a run. Let's see - a dropball short of the plate! That should do it! But the ball bounds away from the catcher and the runner at second moves to third uncontested.
Now you have no outs a 1-2 count and a runner on third. Your pitcher strikes out the batter, making you feel just a little bit better. You just need to get one more quick out, preferably with an infield fly or a hard grounder to your now pulled-in infield. Then you are confident that your team will get the final out and you'll be the one threatening to score.
It wouldn't be fair for your team to lose this game. This is the first runner they have had at third. You've had girls there all day. But you have failed to put across a run. It just wouldn't be fair for you to lose.
Everything is moving in slow motion now. Just as your pitcher comes around with her arm to the release point, the batter squares and lays down an average to poor bunt. You're sure your kids can hold the runner and make that play without giving up a run. For a millisecond, you are happy. But then you realize that the runner from third broke with the release and is coming full guns. Your pulled in third baseman snags the ball quickly and seems to know instintively that she must come home with it. She makes a decent throw. Your catcher makes a clean play and tags quickly. But the runner is already underneath her and you fix your gaze on the plate ump. It looks for a moment as if he is going to make the out call but he doesn't. Instead, he moves both arms and hands and does the unthinkable. SAFE!!
Like I said, that is the second most painful event in fastpitch softball. The single most painful event happens when it is your runner on third in the bottom of the last and you fail to pull off the squeeze.
You've got a runner on third for the first time this game. You got her there by giving up the first out of the inning on a sacrifice bunt. It just so happens that the baserunner is the quickest, fastest kid on the team who also is to be a terrific baserunner. She gets off the bag well, runs like a cheetah in pursuit and has slid under too many tags to count.
Their pitcher is GOOD! Only two kids have gotten hits this game, those came several innings apart, and not very many of your kids have so much as put the ball into play. You can't count on the fates to allow the current hitter to break out and get a hit or drive one deep enough to get the runner in. She hasn't hit well all day and looked very bad in her previous at-bat when she struck out swinging at a ball two feet outside the zone. This pitcher seems to have the girl's number.
So you think perhaps you might be able to call a squeeze except that this hitter is not that great of a bunter. Actually, she doesn't care very much for bunting. Neither do her parents who have watched way too much high school, college and professional baseball. They think bunting is for kids who can't hit. Their kid can hit! If you so much as ask this kid to bunt EVER, you are setting yourself up for an hours long discussion with the mother since the father will not deign to even speak to you for weeks after you ask his kid to bunt. But you'd really, really like to call a squeeze play right now.
You give the sign and the girl scrunches up her nose, calls time-out and jogs towards you. Oh great! Nobody can figure out what you are up to! You've got the element of surprise going for you ... NOT!
You ask her, what she wants. She whispers, "you want me to bunt? Now?" You say, "yes. You gotta get this one down. Do it and we win the game." She trots back to the box as the opposing coach instructs, "watch the bunt. Hold her at third but get the out at first. You have plenty of time." (This batter is not a fast runner.)
The pitcher goes into her windmill and your batter breaks her hands squares about a half second too early and then bunts at the pitch as your baserunner commits suicide and blazes towards home. The batter whiffs by a good six inches and the catcher tags your runner out. Two down, 0-1 count, nobody on. The batter takes strike two, swings and misses at another riseball two feet over her hands, and you go on to lose the game. The batter and her parents are actually a little PO'd at you for putting her in an 0-1 hole from which she was pretty much forced to strike out wqhen they thought maybe she would go yard and win the game.
That's pretty darn painful!!!!
Sqeezes often end like this. That's why a lot of teams don't attempt them. But if you want to win ITB games against really tough pitchers, that's often your best option.
Everybody ought to work on squeezes. Every player who steps onto a softball field ought to be able to bunt. But the reality is many girls cannot put one down into play at will.
We work on bunting all the time. Very often I hear one, two or more girls complain under their breath that "I hate bunting." I have coached teams where more than one girl has, I believe, been told by her parents or taken the position on her own behalf that if I am called on to bunt, I will simply miss the bunt and then get a chance to hit away with just one strike.
As a coach, it is very frustrating to encounter girls with this attitude. We tell them that if you cannot bunt, you do not belong playing softball. If you want to play money baseball, that is played on another field and you are welcome to go there.
Still, even with extensive bunt practice, with everyone fully understanding that an at-bat in which you are asked to bunt and don't pull it off is a failed at-bat, girls still often fail top put one down in play. There are a few kids who always get it down. But those girls never seem to be up with a fast runner on third in the tight games. It's always the "big hitters" in the midst of a slump.
If it isn't the big hitters, it is the girls who can bunt but only in drag situations for basehits. The trouble with those girls is they struggle to make plain vanilla sacrifice bunts. They get bunts down and get on base about 25% of the time but the usual sequence involves missing the ball completely the other times. You can't count on them to get a sac down. You can't count on them in a squeeze situation.
I think I have set the stage properly to discuss an alternative strategy to the suicide squeeze, conventional sac "bunt" which requires that the batter A) absolutely make contact with the ball, B) absolutely not pop it up into the air, and C) hopefully get it down in fair territory. What I'm talking about involves not splitting the hands in a conventional bunting manner. What's important is contact with the ball. What's important is not popping it up. The rest depends more on the baserunner than on the quality of the "bunt."
I have observed many teams which utilize what I refer to as the "two-strike swing" approach in which the girls do not pull back to a full load and, thereafter, do not take a full swing at the ball. Instead, they place the bat into the zone and pull back about three quarters to full, take a quick chop at the ball, and generally make contact. This is utilized anytime the batter is down to her final strike but becomes very important when there is a runner on base and a grounder is needed to move her over. I've watched many girls at high levels use this to great advantage. But that is not exactly the technique I want to use in my squeeze scenario.
What I want you to teach your batters to use when they are called upon to execute squeezes is a "pepper" swing in which they merely put out a check swing and tap the ball into play the way they would when playing "pepper." You have your team play pepper, don't you? You should!
If you don't know what pepper is, listen up. You place three or more girls about 20 feet from a batter, give 'em a ball and say, "play pepper for a few minutes!" basically, the three fielders toss the ball underhand to the batter and she taps it back to them. The player who picks up the ball tosses it again and the batter taps it to hopefully another fielder. It is a great exercise to awaken fielders' reflexes. It is a great exercise to have batters practice their hand-eye coordination, not to mention bat control skills. It is a great exercise to have fielders work on their underhand tosses. And now, you know, it is great to work on suicide squeeze "bunting."
Basically, when playing pepper, the batter keeps the bat near the strike zone and then reaches to tap the ball into play towards the fielders. It is a lot like bunting exceopt for the technique with the bat. It is not a conventional bunt. It is a check swing. And most girls given very little practice can make contact with nearly every "pitch" tossed to them.
Playing pepper is not enough of an experience to teach girls to get suicide squeeze bunts down. You n eed high speed, live action "batting" practice for that. Turn the pitching machine up as high as it can go and have girls repeatedly tap balls into play. While you are doing that, have your pitchers warm up. Then have them throw live-pitched tapping practice.
Tell your pitcher to deliberately make it hard for the batters to make contact with the ball. If you get to game situations with runners on third and the other teams suspects you may try a squeeze, you can bet the oppposing pitcher will waste one high or outside on the first pitch. You want your pitchers throwing this practice to do the same. They can mix in some strikes, throw their movement pitches, etc. But they must sometimes waste some pitches since that provuides the most effective suicide squeeze "bunt" tapping practice.
I was watching a game on TV when i first saw this technique employed. I cannot remember which game it was or which teams were involved. All I can tell you is that the game was at a reasonably high level - that should be obvious since it was televised. The batter easily tapped the ball into play. It was not really a "good bunt." The ball was hit a little too hard to call it that. But, do you know what? It was a very effective technique. The batter had absolutely no trouble making contact against an otherwise tough pitcher. The baserunner from third had no trouble making it home in a not very close play at the plate despite the infielder making a clean play and good throw. I believe that, if you practice this technique, your percentage of successful suicide plays will increase dramatically. I hope none of our competitors are reading this!
Suicide squeezes are always painful. That is never a question. They are always painful for one of the parties involved. Which one do you want to be, the inflictor or sufferor?Labels: batting practice, Bunt, Offense, practice
Permanent Link: Suicide Sqeeze Is Painful
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