If Coaches Call Pitches, How Do Pitchers Learn?

As a pitcher, I am no doubt totally biased on this topic. But in my opinion one of the biggest problems in youth baseball is when coaches take the game away from the pitchers by calling pitches from the dugout. I believe wholeheartedly that calling pitches for pitchers is a bad idea. Like helicopter parenting, where parents do everything and kids learn nothing, calling pitches takes the learning out of pitching. It takes the thinking out of pitching.

Pitchers perform much better when treated with respect by a coaching staff. I always did. Give your pitchers the opportunity to make decisions on the mound, on their own. Let them decide what to throw. Then, in between innings, talk about the good pitches and the poor ones. Foster and support an environment in the dugout and in baseball practices where you let your players take ownership of the outcome of the game. Losing hurts. But sometimes letting your pitchers fail and learn is how they'll ultimately succeed at the next levels. And that's what's most important, anyways.

Comments

[Jeff (Corsairkid)]

My coaches ALWAYS call pitches, and if you shake them off, they chew you out. I really don't like this, and I am hoping that I will be able to call my own pitches at the college that I decide to attend.

[expressbaseball]

Calling pitches at any level of baseball depends on the mentality and strategic awareness of the pitcher, and the amount of time that coaches spend at practice educating them on when in the count to throw off speed, where to locate, how to analyse batter's weaknesses and conteract those weaknesses with certain pitches and/or locations. Often pitchers at the youth travel age lack the ability to do these things, and with the costs of tournaments these days it is not a good idea to let the pitchers learn from their mistakes in games. Coaches should call pitches until the age in which pitchers are educated enough to call their own.

[Steven Ellis]

expressbaseball, very nice comments. Thank you for contributing.

Jeff, keep me updated on how the college visits go.

Steven Ellis