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8 Valuable Lessons from the 2026 WCWS
The Division 1 Women’s College World Series (WCWS) has come and gone – a little sooner than some would have liked, and not the outcome everyone was looking for depending on which team (or player) was their favorite. But it was definitely entertaining throughout and a great showcase for our sport.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the first five days saw an average of 1.5 million TV viewers per game, an increase of 33 percent year-over-year before the final series. Some games got more than 2 million viewers, with the peak being 2.6 million. No word yet on the final series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they topped 3 million.
For me, though, one of the best things to come out of it for rec league, travel ball, and high school players, parents, and coaches is to see the approach to the game used at such a high level. There are, as always, several lessons that can be learned and applied if people are willing to do so.
Here are a few of the big ones from my perspective
Lesson #1 – Even the Best Players Make Mistakes
And sometimes at critical moments. Coaches and parents of youth players tend to get very upset or even angry when their fielders make errors in the field, catchers don’t block properly and a ball gets away from them, pitchers throw a pitch straight down the pipe that gets blasted for a game-changing home run, etc. Yet if you watched the WCWS for any length of time you saw at least some if not all of those things happen – and often to some pretty big-name players.
I didn’t get to see all the games (although I have the ones I missed on the DVR for later viewing), but I did see two fielding errors made on ground balls in the 7th inning of an elimination game. You wouldn’t expect that since they were fairly simple plays but there you go.
What I didn’t see is the coach of that team charge angrily out of the dugout and scream at those players, or even worse yank them out of the game in the middle of the inning yelling about how they have “expectations” and all that. Instead, the team just moved on, played the game, and ended up winning anyway.
The same with critical home runs. There were some big-name pitchers who have won many accolades and accomplished much during their collegiate careers who unfortunately didn’t quite throw the pitch they were going for and watched as their WCWS run – and in some cases their careers – essentially ended.
I saw fielders attempting to place a tag before fully catching the ball and instead knocking it away from them, allowing another run to score instead of killing the play. I saw fielders throw balls away on relatively routine plays, and catchers let pitches in the dirt get by them because they tried to pick the ball instead of blocking with their bodies.
None of them set out to make those mistakes. They just happened. unfortunately with 1-2 million people watching. Keep that in mind the next time you’re mad that your daughter or your player(s) made a mistake.
It happens.
Lesson #2 – The Changeup Is An Important Pitch
Not really a lesson for me – I’m quite aware of it, honestly – but it was probably a good lesson for many.
It’s easy to get caught up in speed, speed, speed. We all love it when we have pitchers who can throw harder than the competition can handle.
But speed alone is not enough. If you watched for any length of time you saw the top pitchers using their changeups liberally.
It may be a cliche to say that hitting is about timing and pitching is about upsetting that timing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Keeping hitters off-balance by changing speeds is critical when the hitting is that good.
Two things to note about changeups too:
- The speed differential between their fastest pitches and the changeup was generally in the 10-15 mph range. No one was taking 4 or 5 mph off and calling it a changeup. You need to commit to a big enough difference to make a difference.
- No one was slowing their arms or their bodies down to get that speed differential. To be effective you need to be able to go as hard, move your arm as fast, and generally look like you’re going to throw the fastest pitch you’re going to throw all day while having it be slower due to the design of the pitch. If you have to slow down any part of your body to throw a changeup I’m sorry, you’re not throwing a changeup. Just a more hittable version of your fastball.
Lesson #3 – Pitchers Need Time to Warm Up
I’ve seen multiple people point this out, and I have talked about it before as well, so I won’t belabor it too much here. But at no time did you see a coach make a pitching substitution by pulling a player out of a field position and just have her go in and throw cold.
The best example here was Texas Tech. When Coach Glasco decided to pull NiJaree Canady in favor of Kaitlyn Terry, who was already in the game in a field position, he didn’t just call time and bring her in from the field. He took her off the field, sent her to the bullpen, and had her do a proper warm-up.
The lesson here is if one of the best and most experienced pitchers in the world can’t just walk in and be effective, there is no reason for you to expect your 12, 14, 16, even 18 year old pitcher to be able to do it. Give them time to warm up and you’ll like the results much better.
Lesson #4 – Coach Your Players the Way That Works for Them
Coaches often like to talk about their coaching style. Some are proud of being tough. Others hang their livelihoods on being empathetic.
But the reality is, if you’re going to be effective you can’t have just one coaching style. You have to be able to adjust what you’re doing to what is most effective for each player, i.e., you need about as many coaching styles as you have players.
Some players need to be coached hard. If you’re not doing that for them they feel like you don’t care about them.
Others would crumble under that style. They need to feel like you understand them and have their backs; they need support not screaming.
As a coach, it’s your job to figure out what your players need and deliver it to them in a way that helps them play their best.
What makes it even more complicated is that some players may require different coaching styles depending on the situation. If you come down hard when they need empathy, or tell them “that’s ok” when they need you to be firm so they get out of their own heads, you won’t get what you want.
If you take the time to get to know the person first and then the player, you’ll stand a much better chance of giving them what they need when they need it. And getting their very best performance out of them.
Lesson #5 – The Short Game Is Still Important
Sure, no doubt about it, ESPN loves the long ball. You get a couple of hitters going yard and it’s going to show up in the between-innings highlights, and maybe even later on SportsCenter.
Bunting and slapping may be less glamorous, but if you work at them they can be more reliable.
No matter what it seems like on TV, it’s still difficult to hit the ball out of the park. A lot of things have to go right in order for that to happen, and you generally need a certain set of skills and mindset to do it regularly.
Bunting in particular, however, is a skill that every player can and should have. Now, I’m definitely not a fan of the automatic sacrifice bunt of a runner on first to second, especially early in the game.
But there are times when a well-placed, well-timed bunt can be a game changer.
Slapping seems to be making more of a comeback as well. As former Arizona coach Mike Candrea always said, speed never has a slump.
Put it in play, make the defense rush, and you can make something good happen. Especially in the postseason.
Lesson #6 – Be Ready When Your Opportunity Comes
Everybody wants to be a starter. If you don’t at some level you’re not much of a competitor.
But there are only 9 positions on the field, and teams usually have more than 9 players. That means some of them will be sitting out.
I can remember two instances offhand, however, where a pinch hitter came in off the bench and turned a game around with one swing. That doesn’t happen if she hasn’t mentally prepared herself to be ready if and when her number is called.
If you’re a bench player you have a tough job. But remember you’re there to do more than just cheer for the others.
Prepare yourself mentally and physically to go into the game at a moment’s notice to ensure that when your number is called you get the job done. And perhaps set yourself up for a more regular role in the future.
Lesson #7 – There’s No One Right Way to Do Everything
As we watched the 8 teams in the WCWS, not to mention all the others in the lead-up to it, if there’s one thing all the players had in common it’s that they were all at least a little different from each other.
Yes, there certainly are some core principles for various skills such as throwing, pitching, fielding, hitting, etc. But you could hardly say everyone doing each skill looked exactly the same.
Jordy Frahm, Karlyn Pickens, NiJaree Canady, Kaitlyn Terry, Tegan Kavan, and Citlaly Guitierrez were all great pitchers, but you could definitely pick out one from another. They shared some similarities, sure, but not enough to say if you clone this you will be successful.
So as you’re working with players, keep that in mind. Realize your 5’10” 155 lb. hitter is not going to have the same swing as your 5’0″ 95 lb. hitter.
Even the things they do have in common will probably look a little different from one another due to different muscular structures, levels of balance, injury history, conditioning and a whole bunch of other factors. So don’t try to get them all to look like each other – or like someone you saw on TV.
Instead, work within their own frameworks in a way that gets the best out of each individual and you will be a lot more satisfied with the results.
Lesson #8 – Sportsmanship Still Matters
The WCWS has become more of a high-stakes event than ever, which means any problems that were present in past years, or are present now at the lower levels, are far more magnified. No one wants to lose with all the NIL money at stake and/or in front of millions of fans.
Still, we saw plenty of examples of good sportsmanship, whether it was a baserunner and a fielder having a quick laugh between pitches, losing teams setting aside their sadness long enough to shake hands, or opposing coaches crediting the other team for its good play.
We also saw some questionable examples but there’s no need to go into those here. Just remember that while things can get tough in the heat of the moment, the moment will pass but how you conduct yourself will be remembered forever. Be a good person and a good example and you will never go wrong.
Plenty More
These were not the only lessons, but I think they were some key ones from the biggest stage in the fastpitch softball world. At least in terms of audience reach.
Keep them in mind and you’re likely to be a whole lot happier when you watch your own kids/players play.
Now it’s your turn. What lessons did you take away from the 2026 WCWS? Leave your thoughts in the comments please so we can all learn from them.
What the WCWS Can Teach Us about the Changeup
Whenever I see one of my students after a tournament weekend, the first question I usually ask them is “How did it go?” Knowing how they performed in game situation is very helpful in determining what we’re going to work on in that lesson.
Hopefully I get more than “good” or “fine” or “terrible” as a response.
The next question I ask pitching students is “What pitches did you throw?” (assuming they have more than just a basic fastball). That’s where it can get a little dicey.
The answer I least like to hear is “Mostly just my fastball,” especially if that pitcher has also developed (or is developing) a decent (or better) changeup. Sorry, I know that was a lot of parentheses in one sentence but hopefully you followed it.
Now, I know that pitchers these days, especially the younger ones, often don’t have a lot of input into the pitch calling process. But I will still ask them why they didn’t throw their changeups more.
The typical answer are:
- The other team couldn’t hit my fastball so my coach didn’t want to give them a slower pitch to hit
- I threw one but it rolled in/went high/went wide so my coach didn’t want to throw it anymore
- I had a little trouble with it during warmups so my coach didn’t want to chance it in the game
- My coach says he/she doesn’t like the changeup or prefers to go with speed
- I threw a few but when one got hit my coach quit calling it
- I dunno
I get the thinking behind most of these reasons (except the last one). Coaches want to win games so will tend to go with what they think will accomplish that goal.
They also tend to be risk-averse, and often view a pitch that looks so different from everything else in the pitcher’s arsenal as too risky to throw, particularly in close games.
I hope those coaches were watching the #2024WCWS (Women’s College World Series). Because it was a veritable clinic on how effective a changeup can be – and how often it can be used.
I’ve commented to a number of people that I think I’ve seen more changeups thrown in one inning by some of these pitchers than I’ve seen in total over the last five years. It was like someone suddenly remembered how great the changeup is and passed a memo along to all the top D1 college teams in the country.
Stanford’s NiJaree Canady, to me, was the poster child for this display of pitching chicanery. Because she wasn’t just throwing a couple per inning.
No, she was often throwing at least a couple per HITTER!
She also did a great job of wiping out excuse #1 above. Canady was consistently throwing all her other pitches at 70 mph+.
I don’t care how good a hitter you are, that’s going to be tough to catch up to, especially if you can locate the ball to match the hitter’s weaknesses. At one point I saw a quote from Monica Abbott saying she thought Canady could be the first female pitcher to throw 80 mph in a game in a couple of years.
Yet Canady and the Stanford staff didn’t go there and try to blow everyone away with speed. They actually used that speed to set up her changeup, which is where she was getting a lot of her strikeouts. If it’s good enough for one of the last teams standing in the WCWS…
Another thing I saw was various pitchers (including Canady) throw some sub-par changeups. They would throw them for close balls in tough counts.
I remember at least one pitcher (I think it was Nicole May in the final game of the championship series, a pretty important time) roll the ball in on a change at least once, maybe twice. Yet the Oklahoma coaches didn’t quit calling it.
I also remember a few along the way going high, going wide, and (gasp!) even getting hit – occasionally for a home run. But those pitchers’ coaches didn’t quit calling it, because they understood that’s going to happen, even to very high-level pitchers, and that the next one in the zone will still be effective.
There were also times when a pitcher might not be throwing her best changeup. But again, on softball’s biggest yearly stage, the coaches understood that changing speeds that way could be effective even if the pitch didn’t go for a called strike.
After all, nobody wants to look bad on national TV swinging through a changeup, so it gets in the hitters’ heads. If a highly accomplished, high-level hitter can feel that way imagine the psychological pressure a changeup can put on a 12U, 14U, or even older hitter.
Probably the only argument against the changeup that the WCWS didn’t answer directly was the coach wants to call the pitches he/she thinks will win the most games. And throwing a changeup on a regular basis doesn’t give us as much assurance of winning this game right now as throwing a speed pitch does.
So here’s my question: where do you think all these high-level pitchers learned to throw their changeups in pressure situations? I can pretty much guarantee that it wasn’t at the WCWS, or even during the college regular season.
Those pitchers most likely had youth coaches who believed in them, and believed in developing them to become the best they could be. I don’t have direct knowledge of the circumstances but I’d bet pretty good money that NiJaree Canady, Kelly Maxwell, Nicole May, Teagan Kavan, and all the other pitchers we watched this past weekend who throw in the high 60s and low 70s didn’t have youth team coaches who told them to just go out and blow the ball by everyone.
My guess is their coaches threw the changeup even when they didn’t need to, because they knew it would help those players (and countless others) become the best they could be. They also knew one single pitch rarely determines a tournament outcome so they could always come back with something else or change strategies if the changeup didn’t work.
All those young women throwing changeups in the WCWS were given ample opportunities to develop that pitch so it would be ready for when it mattered most.
Hopefully today’s youth coaches were paying attention, and saw how effective the changeup can be when it is called early and often, sometimes a couple of times in a row, even against some of the best hitters in the game.
If you have a pitcher who can throw a changeup, even if it isn’t the greatest in the world right now, take advantage of it and use it. If you let her develop it now I guarantee it will help your team win more games in the long run.
And you might just get the pleasure of watching one of your pitchers throw it on TV someday.
Changeups Work Better When You Call Them
Ask anyone who knows a thing or two about fastpitch softball pitching about the changeup and they’ll tell you it’s one of the greatest weapons a pitcher can have in her arsenal. The ability to take 10-15 mph off the speed of a pitch while making it look like it will be delivered at the pitcher’s top speed works at every level, from rec ball to college to international play.
Here’s the thing, though. Just like a $500 bat works better when you swing it than when you stand there watching pitches go by, the changeup is far more effective when you throw it.
Now, that may seem obvious but from what I hear from frustrated pitchers, parents, and pitching coaches across the country apparently it’s not. For whatever reason, it seems like when many or most coaches are calling games they prefer to try to blow the ball by the hitter with every pitch rather than mixing in changeups and offspeeds.
Even when the pitcher is clearly not capable of blowing the ball by every hitter on the opposing team.
Personally, I don’t get it. One of the fundamental tenets of pitching is that hitting is about timing and pitching is about upsetting timing.
What better way to upset timing than to throw a pitch that looks like it will be fast but actually comes out slow? Not only do you get to make the hitter look silly on that pitch, you’ve now planted the idea that she can’t just sit on the speed and hit it (because she doesn’t want to look silly again), which means you’re now living rent-free in her head.
I think in some cases one reason coaches will shy away from the changeup is they try one and the pitcher either throws it toward the sky or rolls it in. They’ll then make the decision it isn’t working so won’t call it again.
That’s crazy though. Does that mean if a pitcher throws a fastball in the dirt or into the backstop they won’t call the fastball anymore?
Of course not.
So why shy away from a great pitch when the first one doesn’t work? Try a few, and if it’s still not working then table it for that game and come back to it another time.
Now, I will admit that some fortunate coaches may have a pitcher who actually can blow the ball by all the hitters on opposing teams so they may feel that pitcher doesn’t need to throw a changeup in games. After all, she’s already successful without it.
But that’s short-term thinking. Because if the pitcher really is that good, and wants to continue playing at higher levels, she’s going to eventually find that speed alone no longer gets the job done.
And if she finds that out in college (as some do every year) she’s then going to be scrambling to try to learn to throw a pitch that she should have been throwing regularly since she first learned how to spot that fastball. It could make for a very rough season.
A good changeup has the opposite effect of a pitching machine. The reason most hitters find it tough to hit off a machine (at least at first) is that the speed of the arm feeding the ball doesn’t match the speed of the pitch coming out.
In other words, the arm moves slowly to put the ball in the feeder, but then the ball comes out at whatever high speed it’s set at. The visual cue of the arm doesn’t match the speed of the pitch and thus the hitter has trouble figuring out when to swing.
A great changeup gets the same effect in the opposite way. The visual cue of a well-thrown changeup makes it look like it will come at the pitcher’s top speed, but then the ball comes out 10-15 mph slower.
By the time the hitter’s brain has processed what’s happening she has either already swung or was frozen in place by the incongruity of what she saw, and doesn’t recover until after the umpire has called the pitch a strike.
None of that goodness can happen, however, unless someone actually calls for the changeup.
My recommendation on how to use the changeup is the same as the instructions for how to vote in Chicago: early and often.
Show it early so the hitters know it’s a possibility, meaning they shouldn’t get too comfortable. Even if it doesn’t work the first time it may just set the hitter up for the next speed pitch, i.e., it will make the fast pitch look faster.
Use it often to keep the hitters off-balance. Again, even if it’s not actually working the best.
Force the hitters to learn to have to lay off of it and maybe you’ll get a few more called strikes on other pitches as hitters and coaches try to guess when it’s coming. A little confusion at the plate goes a long way.
Finally, use it regularly to help your pitchers learn to throw it more reliably in games. Many coaches and programs talk about “developing players.”
Here’s a chance to put your money where your mouth is, metaphorically speaking. Help your pitchers become more effective in the long term by developing their changeups, even if it costs you a win now and then, and you’ll have fulfilled that part of your mission.
It’s easy to think of the changeup as being a “beginner pitch” because it’s usually the second pitch a pitcher learns. And because movement pitches such as drops, rises, curves, etc. seem more impressive.
But the reality is a pitcher who is changing speeds effectively, and at will, without tipping the pitch, is going to be awfully tough to hit at any level. Start calling the change more often and you just might be pleasantly surprised at the results it delivers for your pitcher – and your team.
The First Rule of Changeups
Whether you have seen the movie or not, I think most people have heard that the first rule of Fight Club is that you never talk about fight club.
This quote came to mind a few days ago while I was working with a new student on developing her changeup. As I watched her it hit me: the first rule of changeups is that they can never LOOK like changeups – at least until you release the ball. After that, they’d better!
What do I mean by they can never look like changeups? Basically, you don’t want to have to do anything with your approach, your body, or anything else to make a changeup work.
The changeup should always look like it’s going to be a fastball until the ball is on its way, when suddenly the hitter realizes (hopefully too late) that the pitch they thought was coming is not the pitch that’s actually coming.
Yet people teach crazy and self-defeating stuff about the changeup all the time. So to help those of you who are just getting into it, here are some things you definitely don’t want or need to do to make a changeup work.
Using Strange Grips
This is something I see all the time. I’ll ask a new student who says she throws a changeup to show it to me, and the first thing she does is start tucking a knuckle or two, or go into a “circle change” grip where you hold the ball with the middle through little fingers while the thumb and first finger make a circle.
All of that is not only unnecessary but it’s actually counter-productive. What makes a changeup work is that it surprises the hitter.
If you go into some crazy grip that is easily spotted from the coaching box, or worse yet from the batter’s box, the only surprise that’s going to happen is you being surprised at how quickly that pitch leaves the ballpark.
If you really want to disguise the change you should be able to use your fastball grip to throw the changeup. Because, and I will say it loud for the people in the back, it’s not the grip that makes a pitch work; it’s how the pitch is thrown.
If you have a well-designed changeup you’ll be able to use your fastball grip, maybe with a slight modification such as sliding the thumb over a little, and still take the right amount of speed off.
Slowing Down Your Arm or Body
This is another one that is pretty obvious to the hitter, the coaching staff, the players on the bench, and even people just cutting through the park to get to the pickleball courts.
If you have to slow your arm down to throw a changeup, you’re not throwing a changeup. You’re throwing a weak fastball.
Think of a changeup as being the polar opposite of most people’s experiences hitting off a pitching machine fed by a human. The human slowly brings the ball down to the chute to put it in, maybe fumbles with it a bit, then the ball shoots out at 65 mph or whatever speed the coach thinks will help hitters hit better. (Spoiler alert: setting the machine too high actually hurts your hitters.)
The reason machines are so hard to hit off of is that the visual cues of the arm don’t match the speed of the pitch. Because if you actually threw the ball with that arm motion it would go about three feet away at a speed of 5 mph.
A great changeup turns that model on its head. The arm and body speed indicate a pitch coming in at whatever the pitcher’s top speed has been.
But because of the way it’s released, the ball itself actually comes out much slower. The mismatch between the arm speed and ball speed upset the hitter’s timing and either gets her to swing way too early (and perhaps screw herself into the ground) or freezes her in place while her brain tries to figure out the discrepancy,
Either way, the hitter is left wondering what happened – and now has something new to worry about at the plate because she doesn’t want to be fooled again.
Making a Face or Changing Body Language
This is something that often happens prior to the pitch.
Maybe the pitcher has developed a habit of sticking her tongue out before she throws a change. Maybe she changes where she stands on the pitching rubber or does a different glove snap or alters their windup or has some other little “cheat” that helps her throw the pitch.
All of these things can send a SnapChat to the hitter that a changeup is about to happen.
Smart pitchers will video themselves throwing fastballs and changeups , especially in-game, to see if anything they’re doing is giving away the pitch that’s about to be thrown. If there isn’t, great.
But if there is, they need to work at it until they’re not giving it away anymore. The pitcher’s chief weapon when throwing a changeup is the element of surprise.
They need to make sure they’re maintaining it until the ball is actually on its way.
Keep the Secret
A changeup that everyone knows is coming is not going to be very effective. And given today’s hot bats it can be downright dangerous for the pitcher.
Remember that the first rule of throwing a changeup is that it can’t look like you’re going to throw a changeup and y
No Need to Paint the Corners with a Changeup
Recently my friend and fellow pitching coach Linda Lensch, a trainer with the NJ Ruthless and owner of Greased Lightning Fastpitch High Performance Instruction LLC attended an online presentation about how new technologies are improving and changing the game.
Linda was kind enough to share the PowerPoint of the presentation with a few of us pitching coaches. Included was some data, presented by Florida State assistant coach Troy Cameron, that came out of pitching tracking by YakkerTech at five D1 schools.
One of the things I found most interesting was the heat map on changeup locations and results, which you can see on the far left.
Notice how both the vast majority of pitch locations AND the vast majority of whiffs (swings and misses) aren’t on the corners. Instead, they are dead red.
I have been preaching this for years based on my own observations and experience, and have heard many college coaches say the same thing. You don’t have to be clever or try to paint the corners if you have an effective changeup. Just throw it down the middle, mid-thigh-high or below, and you’ll get the desired effect – a whiff.
Now we have the data to prove it.
I’ll say it again a little louder for those in the back, and for those who have been coaching he same way for 20 years and don’t like new information: YOU DON’T NEED TO PAINT THE CORNERS WITH A CHANGEUP. JUST THROW IT DEAD RED.
What does this mean from a practical standpoint?
For one, pitchers can quit wasting time trying to lean how to paint the corners with a changeup and instead focus their time on disguising the fact that it IS a changeup.
Most pitchers start out learning to throw different pitches down the middle, and then once they can do that will move on to moving them out. In this case, once a pitcher can throw it low and slow without giving it away in her motion she can move on to other pitches.
It also means coaches can quit insisting until their hair is on fire that their pitchers must be able to spot their changeups inside and out. Less stress for the pitcher and the pitch caller.
The pitchers’ parents can also relax in the stands if they see their daughters throwing changeups down the middle. It’s fine, dude or dudette. That’s where it’s most effective.
Why is it most effective down the middle? Now we get into speculation and theories, but I have a pretty good suspicion on that topic based on 20+ years of teaching that pitch.
The whole point of a changeup is to either induce a hitter to swing well ahead of the ball arriving at the plate or confuse her on what she’s seeing to the point where she lets the pitch go by before she can process it. The way you do that is by bringing the body and arm at one speed while having the ball travel at a different, slower speed. Easier said than done, by the way.
It’s like a reverse pitching machine. With a machine, the feeder’s arm usually moves glacially slow (and may even fumble putting the ball in the chute) while the pitch is delivered at 55, 60, 65, etc. mph. The arm speed and the pitch speed don’t match up, so the hitter is perpetually behind the pitch unless she know the keys to hitting off a machine.
With the changeup the opposite is true. The body and especially the arm are traveling through space at a rate of speed that matches the pitcher’s fastest pitch (usually the fastball), but the design of the pitch allows it to be delivered 12-15 mph slower than the fastest pitch without any visible clues that it will be slower.
That’s why you see hitters’ knees buckle when a well-thrown change comes at them. The visual clues and the reality don’t match up and they contort themselves into a pretzel trying to adjust on the fly.
And if you can do that as a pitcher, down the middle works just fine. In fact it’s probably preferable because it can fool umpires too, so why not make it easier for them to call?
Now, before anyone starts saying “Oh, that only works at the lower levels” remember where this data comes from. It comes from five colleges that tracked every pitch of their pitchers and their opponents during home games.
And since these are not cheap systems by any means, you can bet that these were some pretty big schools, i.e., ones you see on TV all the time. They’re the only ones with the budgets to afford it.
So if it works at that level, you can be pretty sure it will work at yours.
The data doesn’t lie. It’s all there in black and white and red.
Quit wasting time focusing on painting the corners with changeups and just turn your pitchers loose to deliver them where they will be most effective based on the data: dead red.
You’ll get better results. And your pitchers will have one less thing to worry about.
Beginner’s Guide to Calling Pitches
This came up recently when the mom of one of my students asked me for a little help in learning how to call pitches for her daughter. Makayla worked very hard through the off-season, pre-season, and then the season itself to learn to throw a good, reliable fastball, a strong change, and the beginnings of a drop ball.
The thing is, knowing how to throw those pitches isn’t enough. You also need to know when. Sarah wanted to use the pitches strategically but wasn’t sure how.
Now, you can search for fastpitch pitch calling guides on the Internet, but most of them assume a much older, more experienced pitcher with a variety of pitches at their disposal. Yes, it’s great to say “throw a curve followed by a rise” to this type of hitter. But what if you don’t have either?
To help her out, I put together the guide below. You can either copy and print it out, from this post or you can download the attachment which contains the same information.
The guide essentially speaks to how to use “just” a fastball and a change to get ahead of hitters and keep them off-balance so they either strike out or make weak contact. It goes through what to throw different types of hitters as well as some core strategies.
This information has been vetted, too. I checked in with Sarah after Makayla’s last tournament and she said it worked great. So if you’re just getting into the whole cat-and-mouse game between pitchers and hitters, this guide should give you a good start.
Basic Pitch Calling Guide
This guide assumes the pitcher has a fastball and changeup, and can locate her fastball reasonably well. Keep in mind that you also have to pay attention to what the pitcher has that day. If she can’t throw to the outside corner this day, you won’t want to do that as often and so on.
Good hitter (1-5 in lineup most likely)
- Start low and out. Most hitters don’t like that pitch and will let it go by for a free strike. “When in doubt, throw low and out.”
- When ahead in the count (0-2 or 1-2), don’t throw strikes trying to go for the “quick kill.” Try throwing a high pitch, or well outside.
- Mix it up. If you threw two outside pitches in a row, come back inside. But don’t do it every time. Having a set pattern will come back to haunt you.
- If the changeup is working, try starting a strong hitter with a change. They’re usually looking to rock a fastball so a change will throw them off – maybe for the entire at bat.
Power hitter
- Keep the ball low. You want ground balls, not fly balls.
- Again, try starting with a changeup.
- If the first change worked, don’t be afraid to throw another one right away. Hitters rarely expect back-to-back changeups.
- Depending on the situation, a walk may not be a bad option. Better to give up one base than four. Especially with runners on base.
- With an 0-1 count, try coming inside. Let her crush a pitch foul down the left field line (right handed batter). It’s just a long strike, but it provides an overblown sense of self-confidence. Then go back outside, or throw a change.
Weaker hitter
- If you can blow the ball by them, do it. Don’t try to get too fancy until they prove they can catch up to the fastball. A changeup may be the only pitch they can hit.
- Don’t worry as much about inside/outside either. If you’re overpowering them, just rear back and rock it in there.
- If they look nervous at the plate, come inside for a strike. One inside pitch ought to be enough to freeze their bats.
Slappers (if you see any)
- Watch how they run toward the front of the box
- If they go directly at the pitcher, throw inside to try and jam them; throwing low and out just helps them by putting the ball where they want it
- If they try to run to first base right away, throw outside
- Throw changeups to take away the advantage of a running start
- Throw high to try to get them to pop up
Good times to throw a changeup
- First pitch to a good hitter (but not all the time).
- Right after pulling the ball far down the line foul. She’s ahead of the fastball. She’ll REALLY be ahead of the change.
- When she fouls a pitch straight back.
- Right after she missed a changeup.
- When she’s been fouling off several pitches. She has the timing down, just hasn’t quite gotten the bat on the ball. Throw the change, even if it’s for a ball. The change in speed will upset her timing.
Hitter location at the plate
- Standing close to the plate – throw inside (but be careful – some hitters like inside and not inside; I teach hitters like that to crowd the plate on purpose to turn outside pitches into middle pitches and to try to draw inside pitches)
- Standing away from the plate – throw outside; they won’t be able to reach the pitch, and are probably scared of being hit
Getting the feel of dragging the changeup
I could have sworn I have posted this before, but I just ran a bunch of searches and couldn’t find it so just in case here it goes again.
One of the keys to throwing an effective backhand change is to pull or drag the ball through the release zone knuckles-first rather than pushing it ball first. Or snapping it like a fastball.
Sometimes, though, it can be difficult for pitchers to get that feeling. That’s what the drill shown at the top of this post is for, demonstrated by a former student of mine named Tayler Janda (helped by her mom Jennie) back when she was in high school.
Essentially, you set the pitcher up with her feet apart so they won’t move. Then have her grasp a swim noodle with her knuckles facing forward. When you say go, she pulls the noodle out of your hand and flings it forward. (NOTE: have her try to do it without spinning her shoulders like Tayler is doing in the video.)
The goal of this drill is to get the pitcher to feel what it’s like to hold onto the ball until she reaches forward as far as she can go before releasing, and to maintain speed all the way through.
A few repetitions and she should start to get the feel. The nice thing about this drill is you can do it indoors on a rainy day just as easily as you can on a field or in a cage.
If you have (or are) a pitcher who is having trouble finding the proper release on your change, give this one a try.
My fastpitch learning by osmosis theory
I have always been a big believer in the ability of kids, at least certain kids, to learn the nuances of softball through osmosis. I certainly saw it with my own daughters, who were eight years apart.
When my older daughter Stefanie was playing, we dragged all the other kids out to her games. We had to – she was the oldest, and we couldn’t leave the others at home.
When Stefanie was playing 14U, my youngest child Kim was 6. I was coaching, so I mostly remember seeing her heading off to a playground or just sitting in the grass. We never talked to her much about what was going on.
But somewhere along the way it must’ve stuck in her brain, because by the time she started playing she had a pretty high level of innate knowledge about what to do when. For example, I never had to teach Kim about going after the lead runner on comebacker to the pitcher. She just knew.
I am convinced that’s because she saw so many games. Even if she wasn’t constantly thinking about what was going on, she picked up a lot of it by osmosis. I think that’s the benefit the younger sister (or brother) gets.
I bring this up because of something that happened last night that just tickled me. I have been working with a 12U pitcher named Jenna for a little over a year now. (I refuse to say anyone is 11, 13, 15 or any other odd number of U. Old school.)
Anyway, I started with Jenna when she was 10U, and she’s made the transition to 12U pretty easily. It’s fun to see how far she’s come in a short period of time, and how she can take command of a game.
This summer, her dad Gary decided it would be a good time to get his younger daughter Sammie started. She was 8 when we started, playing rec league, but I know Gary has aspirations for her future. 🙂 She turned 9 not long ago.
At first she had all the challenges 8/9 year olds typically have. Like being so literal about her form that she looked all stiff and robotic.
But she’s determined, and has been working hard. The last couple of lessons the light bulb has started coming on and she’s been throwing more relaxed. Her strikes are going up, and she’s definitely throwing hard. So last night I thought it might be a good time to get her started on the basics of a changeup.
When I said that, Gary told me, “Sammie’s already gotten started on it.” Apparently she’d been watching Jenna and thought it looked pretty cool, so she decided to start working on it on her own.
I asked her to show me, and darned if she didn’t do a nice job! The pitch was really high, but it was straight, and more importantly it was the right speed without slowing her arm down. She did a couple more and it was the same thing.
Honestly, I was impressed. I asked Gary if he had been working with her and he said no. Sammie had just picked it up by watching Jenna.
I think what knocked me out was that she was maintaining her arm speed. Normally, when a new pitcher is trying a change on her own she’ll slow down to make the ball go slower. (Which, by the way, is the opposite of what you really want to do.) Not Sammie, though. She just cranked it right out there and let the design of the mechanics do the job.
Of course, it helps that she has a great example to model herself after. Jenna throws a killer change that is quite effective in games. But still. Sammie just sort of figured it out by watching.
We did some quick work and got Sammie throwing it for a strike at least part of the time. But it sure was nice to start from a solid foundation!
So there you go. Learning the game, or even parts of it, doesn’t always require a formal setting. Sometimes, if you’re fortunate, it just happens. Gotta love osmosis.
Fastpitch tip for learning the finish of a backhand changeup
One of the most important pitches in fastpitch softball is an effective changeup. By effective I mean one where the pitcher can go through her motion and appear to throw it hard while having the ball come out much slower than expected.
This is as opposed to a changeup where the only thing that changes from the fastball is the grip, or one where in order to get the ball to go slower the pitcher slows her arm down. Those aren’t changeups. Those are just bad fastballs.
While I teach a few different types depending on the pitcher, the one I teach most often is 
the backhand change. Essentially, that is one where the back side of the hand leads the ball through the release zone.
Note that this is not a “flip” change. There is no flipping of the wrist at the end; I want the pitch to be dragged throw the release zone and thrown in a way that still has 12 to 6 forward spin. Flipping it puts backward spin on the ball, and often results in a pitch that comes in around belt high before traveling about 220 feet in the opposite direction.
The key to the finish of the backhand change as I teach it is to bend the elbow slightly and (again) drag the ball forward through the release zone until the pitcher’s arm is fully extended. After a momentary stop the ball comes out about hip high, immediately loses a bit of altitude to thigh high and then tails down around the plate. To do that the pitcher has to keep her hand moving forward and low until release rather than pulling it up as many like to do.
One cue I’ve used before is “punch your catcher in the nose.” In other words, go straight out instead up up and out. It’s worked pretty well, but it still requires the pitcher to do a little visualization.
So here’s another option. Have the pitcher line up sideways to a backstop with stride foot (left foot for a righty) right against the bottom of the screen. Then have her get her arm in the proper position (without the ball), pick out a spot on the screen that’s the right height and have her stab her fingers straight into the chain link fencing.
You might not want to have her go full speed, especially at first, to avoid jammed fingers.If you can’t get to a field, you can also do it into a tarp or even a shower curtain at home, as long as there is something specific to move the fingers toward.
Have the pitcher do it multiple times, until she starts to get the feel of what it’s like to go out straight instead of up. Then you can back her off the screen a bit and try the finish, or go back out to the pitching plate and see if there is improvement.
It’s simple yet effective. I only came up with this idea recently and so far it’s helped every pitcher I’ve tried it with.
If you have a pitcher who is struggling to keep her hand going out directly instead of bending the elbow or otherwise pulling up, give this a try. It just might work.
What are some other ideas you’ve tried to accomplish the same thing? How effective have they been? Anything you’ve tried that failed horribly? Go ahead and share – you’re among friends.
Sticking with the change
Regular Life in the Fastpitch Lane readers know that I am a huge fan of the changeup. I believe it’s essential if a pitcher is going to keep hitters off balance instead of getting comfortable in the batter’s box. 
Still, it can be tough for a pitcher to stick with it when it’s not working. If she doesn’t throw if for a strike the first time there is a temptation to just abandon it in favor of other pitches.
What’s odd is that if the other pitches don’t work she usually doesn’t abandon them. It seems peculiar to the change.
That’s what made what I observed tonight so interesting. I was watching a high school sectional game between two very good teams. The pitcher for the team I was rooting for was definitely having trouble with her change. Not just a little trouble either.
She was throwing them high – catcher has to jump up for them high. And she was throwing them low – as in rolling into the plate. In fact, I only remember her throwing one for a strike, called or swinging. Even on her best day it’s not her best pitch, but it’s usually more effective than it was today.
Yet she kept throwing it. Whether it was the pitcher, the catcher or the coach, when the situation called for a change they called it.
And darned if it didn’t help. As the hitters were getting on to her other pitches, the change would give them a different look. Even if it rolled in, it was enough to throw off the rhythm.
The team I was rooting for won. And as I recall there were only two or three well-hit balls all day. It was a great illustration of why you want to keep throwing the change, no matter what the outcome of the pitch is.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 