Right on Sir I could not agree more. I was taken aback when my 13 year old Coach told me he calls all the pitches. I have invested time in educating my son. We watch MLB and discuss what pitches are thrown and work on why? And see the results. Crazy times we live in. You also nail it when you talk about the Coach doesn’t know the pitchers well enough. My son only throws 3-4 curveballs a game and when he gets a hitter in a 0-2;1-2 count for an out pitch. His Coach had him throwing curves first pitch trying to get a strike. My son’s curve drops down in the dirt. He has been taught to start his pitches at his targets and let them break off. To fool the guys. Thank You for all your great content. God bless
I remember an over bearing catching coach on my high school team. This was about 15-16 years ago when this was just starting. He liked to call pitches and location. I was a right fielder and and could see what he called for. a fastball on the inside corner. Our pitcher threw a fastball but it ended up on the outside corner. The kid at the plate struck out. The coach ran out of the dugout and proceeded to scream at the pitcher that he has to better and needs to hit his spots. One “wild pitch” that our catcher caught and got a k on it and this coach lost his mind. Crazy.
I'm glad I watched this video. It more or less confirmed what I've been thinking the last couple of years watching my 11 year old lefty grandson pitch. His coach is excellent but his calling every pitch has literally been driving me crazy in my bleacher seat directly behind home plate watching the results.
I had an instance growing up, maybe middle school, where I was the starting pitcher. I was feeling good, on a roll and I shook off a fastball only to get the sign again. I shook it off again and got another fastball. Stepped off and back on, got the same pitch call. Stepped off and on again and finally just decided to throw the pitch I wanted. I was LIVID and completely off rhythm after that. Was it the biggest game of my career? No. But pitching is like art and each pitcher is a different artist. And there's a huge difference between teaching someone how to hold a brush, and painting the picture for them. And like a good artist, it's important to let pitchers find their style. Definitely a great video!
Smart video..when I was potching coach and have a lot problems with the mananger or head coach, cause this was my corcen let's the pitcher learn by playing..
Great stuff Dan! I've been pitching and coaching for many years and although I always considered myself a better pitch caller than the players I coached I would never call pitches because I thought one of my main responsibilities is to teach them the game - how am I doing that by calling pitches for them? You make many great points to expand on the reasons for coaches to stop doing this, well done!!
I am an associate coach for one of my daughter’s teams. The head coach insists on calling pitches. I’m no expert, but I did pitch in college, where this guy quit at the LL level. No matter how much I try and discourage him from calling pitches, he insists. Forgot to mention that my daughter is the catcher and we work together on pitch walking.
yep. its a pervasive problem where these coaches have no skin in the game. If they got fired after a losing season you bet they'd take their hands off the wheel. There's literally no consequences for coaches calling games - the pitcher bears all of it. Imagine if that was the case in other aspects of business or life...
I played against a team with coaches calling pitches ... and they were worse then their players ie they just called fast ball till 2 strikes then curveball/change
my dad was my coach and he was very strict, he always called the pitch. He used to yell to the mound you must throw a STRIKE! You will not eat dinner if you do not throw a STRIKE!
@@DanBlewett yea I'm saying he "called" the pitches by saying to throw a strike. I saw your video on pitching velocity and I relate to what you said. My dad used to tell me to through strikes while I was on the mound (and he was nice about it) and it would definitely get into my head. If the count was bad, I would lob the ball just to throw a strike. But, when I threw at a comfortable fast speed, I was at my best. It would make me very consistent and my accuracy was better as well. I also remember how if I tried to through even faster, I would speed up at the beginning of the throw and it would go high as you said in another video.
I liked this video as soon as it started based on the title. No one has a better feel for the game than the players playing it, especially a pitcher and catcher.
@@DanBlewett I'm all in. Let me know how I can help. I sent the video to my sons, who are of a like mind and work with amateur baseball players. I said every high school and amateur coach in the country should have to watch this video. Probably some college coaches, also.
