5 Steps to Improve Your Pitcher’s Control

Provided by: Softball Excellence

Softball has gotten much better over the years with college softball more popular than ever, but pitching is starting to fall behind the hitters. Here are 5 things that will help your pitchers improve their control.

While pitchers were busy focusing on getting faster and "spinning" the ball, along the way they've lost the ability to attack batters and hit their spots. Discover 5 things that will help your pitcher's control.

Before we go any further, please know that I am not saying that I think pitching is horrible or that pitchers are weak. NOT AT ALL! Pitchers are throwing faster than ever and on the whole, have physically stronger skills at much younger ages than at any time previously. But, I am saying that for many pitchers, their physical skills have passed up their mental skills. If your pitchers want to be successful at ANY level, they've GOT to have better CONTROL, and to have better control they've GOT to be strong mentally.

We all have a pretty good idea of what a physically strong pitcher looks like, but what about a mentally strong pitcher - what do they look like? Before we can become something we need to know what that something looks like. To me, a mentally strong pitcher looks like, or has the following qualities:

• Keeps a Calm Exterior

• Controls Her Breathing

• Maintains Her Routine

• Stays Very Focused

• Attacks the Hitters

• Calmly & Quickly Adjusts

• Makes Big Pitches at Big Moments

• Doesn't Panic

Being mentally strong as a pitcher helps your control be strong. Those two qualities go hand-in-hand and pitch control is THE most important quality a pitcher can have! Hitting your spots with deadly accuracy every time you want to, while mixing speeds will help you be a successful pitcher at any level!

So, to help your pitcher improve her control, and in turn, improve her success, check out these 4 points:

1. College Teams Score Runs:

• So far in 2015 for Division 1, teams are averaging 4.88 runs per game which is even higher than Major League Baseball – who average just over 4 runs per game!! And D1 teams are averaging .71 home runs per game in 2015! That's a TON more offense than most pitchers are used to allowing in travel ball or high school – AND – that they're used to coaches keeping them in for!

• Our pitchers have come from a world where teams didn't really score runs against them. They're used to 2 runs being a lot (if their team was defensively good) so it's a HUGE mental adjustment for pitchers to suddenly allow 4-5 runs and still feel like they're ok and in command. Pitchers will start to panic if anyone scores and panic leads to tension which really hurts movement and control.

• It will help your pitchers (and possible yourself as well) figure out how many runs per game your team is averaging, and then tell your pitching staff to simply help kept the other team near that. That takes so much pressure off the pitchers to feel like they need to be "perfect" which is where so much of their lack of control comes from.

2. Know Their Sniper Pitch:

• Snipers have one rifle and one bullet and that's what they focus on and master. They aren't snipers with a hand gun and a machine gun and a rifle. Sure, they're GOOD with all 3, but they're only a sniper with one of those! So your pitchers need to figure out what pitch is their Sniper pitch! That's the one they pick off the opposition with. That's the pitch they throw on a 1-2 count to convert that count into an out. Sure, they can shoot with the others, but they aren't a sniper with their other pitches.

• I think most pitchers have too many pitches. It's too hard to be really good with every single pitch they have. Pitchers have so many pitches that they become careless with them because there's always another one. And, they lose the point of having pitches – which is to HIT THE TARGET WITH THEM, and not simply to throw them.

3. Aim Small, Miss Small

• Pitching to me is a lot like shooting – if you breathe, calm yourself, sight correctly and then pull the trigger with belief, you'll likely hit your target. The same is true with pitching. Our pitchers need to be more thorough in their sighting, preparation to shoot and belief in pulling the trigger instead of rushing and then hoping the bullet does a good job. Also, pulling that trigger requires pressure from our finger pads – just like throwing a pitchfork finger pressure at release or pull isn't going to get the job done.

• Instead of aiming for the spot, aim for the middle of the spot – or the bulls-eye. Shooters aren't trying to hit the target; they're trying to hit the middle of the bulls-eye, which is exactly what our pitchers should be practicing to do!

4. Remember You LOVE It!

• Being good at anything involves relaxing enough to enjoy it, and pitching is no different. Too often, though, pitchers put so much stress on themselves to save themselves (possibly from the bench), save their team, save their season, or save humanity – that part isn't really true, but pitchers can feel that type of "save everyone from everything" kind of pressure.

• Instead of pitching to avoid "that one inning" or giving up hits when ahead in the count, or whatever the danger zone has been – help your pitchers remember to LOVE pitching. It can be as simple as simply reminding them to tell themselves they love being a good pitcher or to love pitching in front of a crowd.

• Getting your pitchers to think they're better and CAN beat the batters will really help them relax. Loving pitching and knowing that it WILL make them better is often all it takes to help your pitcher calm down enough to get her control back.

5. Pitching eDrills

• Knock Offs:

° Instead of pitching to a catcher, your pitchers are going to pitch to cones with softballs on them. The idea is to knock off the ball. Using a cone-target instead of a catcher forces your pitcher to be more specific, doesn't allow her to blame the catcher for missing and generally, makes her much better!

° Place a ball on a short cone for the Low target and on a tall cone on a bucket (for the High target) on the opposite side.

• Adjustment Game:

° Each pitcher throws 2 of each of their pitches. They get +4 points for getting the first pitch to move & work like the catcher wants, and +2 points for the 2nd This incentivizes them try to nail the first pitch instead of needing another pitch to make the adjustment. But, since adjustments are good, we give them points for those.

° Each pitcher throws 2 rounds and the most points wins.