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Transcript

Command Data You're Probably Not Tracking · The Mound Visit

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  Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to the Mound Visit podcast. Today
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we are gonna talk about command. And command, I think,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is finally making its comeback of being the main focus
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of what pitchers and coaches are talking about. For the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: last several years, stuff has kind of been the headliner,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and it's for a good reason, right? Like velocity and stuff,
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  Speaker 1: or velocity and off-speed movement and nastiness is important. That's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: important to the success of a pitcher. But having good
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  Speaker 1: stuff without the ability to throw strikes is all for nothing.
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  Speaker 1: So today I want to talk about command, and more specifically,
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about intended targets. So for those
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  Speaker 1: of you that don't know what intended targets are or
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  Speaker 1: what they do, they are measuring how far you miss
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  Speaker 1: your spot by and in what direction did you miss
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  Speaker 1: it by. There's a new Twitter account called Open Command
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  Speaker 1: that I absolutely love, especially during the postseason. It's been
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  Speaker 1: awesome to see some of the posts that they've been making.
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  Speaker 1: They dive into, or not dive into, they post videos
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  Speaker 1: of where the pitcher is trying to throw the pitch.
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  Speaker 1: So they basically detect where the catcher's glove last indicates
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  Speaker 1: where he wants the pitch to be called or thrown.
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  Speaker 1: And then it measures the distance of where the pitch
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  Speaker 1: is actually located. So is it a perfect science or
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  Speaker 1: is it perfectly accurate? No, it would be impossible to
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  Speaker 1: know that without knowing exactly what the pitcher's intention is.
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  Speaker 1: But I think it paints a clear picture and provides
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  Speaker 1: a good visual of what we're trying to depict and
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  Speaker 1: talk about today. So for those of you that are
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  Speaker 1: listening on Spotify or whatever the podcast platform is that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you listen to, I have some slides next to me here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm making a YouTube video for this. So I'll make
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  Speaker 1: sure that the link for this video is in the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: show notes so that you can actually watch this and
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  Speaker 1: you can see some of the visuals that I'm showing here.
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  Speaker 1: It's not critical that you see these while I'm talking.
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  Speaker 1: It's just for those of you that like to follow
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  Speaker 1: along and have more of that visual aspect, this is
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  Speaker 1: for you. So let's now dive into... a few questions
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  Speaker 1: that we need to start asking ourselves when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to intended targets and exactly what we're looking for. So
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  Speaker 1: the first one is, did you hit the location that
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  Speaker 1: you intended? The second one is, how much did you
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  Speaker 1: miss by? And the third part is, in what direction
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  Speaker 1: did you miss? So essentially what I just said about
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  Speaker 1: what Open Command is doing, we need to know where
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  Speaker 1: are we trying to throw the pitch, how much did
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  Speaker 1: I miss by, and in what direction? Because that's going
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  Speaker 1: to impact so many things and so many decisions that
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  Speaker 1: I make. And then to go a layer deeper, we
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  Speaker 1: need to understand What does that look like in different
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  Speaker 1: situations or different scenarios? Does my execution rate and my
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  Speaker 1: ability to hit my intended target change based off of
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  Speaker 1: what the location is? So do I execute fastballs to
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  Speaker 1: the glove side better than to the arm side? So
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  Speaker 1: as a left-handed pitcher, if I'm going inside on a righty,
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  Speaker 1: is my miss different when I'm going for the inside
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  Speaker 1: corner than when I'm going for the outside corner? That
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  Speaker 1: could be very useful information as a coach or as
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  Speaker 1: a player. How about when there's runners on base? Do
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  Speaker 1: I execute better or worse when there's a runner on
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  Speaker 1: first compared to when there's a runner on second? How
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  Speaker 1: about when there's nobody on base? There's all these different
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  Speaker 1: variables within that that could largely impact how well I
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  Speaker 1: hit my spots. And then the third one could be
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  Speaker 1: the count. Does my execution rate go up or go
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  Speaker 1: down when it's 3-0 compared to 0-2? Maybe 0-2, my
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  Speaker 1: execution rate is horrible because I put so much pressure
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  Speaker 1: on myself to not leave a pitch over the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the plate because I can't give up an 0-2 hit.
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  Speaker 1: Versus three, my target's going to be down the middle.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be free and easy. I'm just going
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  Speaker 1: to throw it. It's probably going to be a take.
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  Speaker 1: And now I'm just pitching more free. There's all these
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  Speaker 1: different variables, and there's definitely several more than these three.
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  Speaker 1: But I think these are three important ones that we
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  Speaker 1: can think about and apply immediately to our training or
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  Speaker 1: to the pitch calling that we're making as a coach.
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  Speaker 1: So that leads me to the three main points that
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about today. And these are the
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  Speaker 1: three most impactful ways that I think you can use
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  Speaker 1: intended targets to ultimately perform better on the field. The
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  Speaker 1: first one is the catcher setup. So the catcher, in
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  Speaker 1: my opinion, largely impacts the pitcher's ability to hit their spot. Now,
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  Speaker 1: are they throwing the pitch? Of course not. But I
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  Speaker 1: think that you would find if we dissected a college
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  Speaker 1: roster or we looked at professional pitchers, I would assume
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  Speaker 1: or I would be willing to bet that their strike
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  Speaker 1: rates or their execution rates might change. Even if it's slight,
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  Speaker 1: I think they're going to change based off of who
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  Speaker 1: is catching them. So the goal with the catcher setup
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  Speaker 1: is can we now set up better, give better targets
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  Speaker 1: based off of where our pitchers tend to miss. So
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  Speaker 1: let's use an example of a curveball. So let's just
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  Speaker 1: say I am a left-handed pitcher to a right-handed batter
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  Speaker 1: and I want this pitch to be just middle down.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe without this information, my catcher just sets up middle
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  Speaker 1: down and he has his glove at the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: the zone. But for me, I tend to miss up
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  Speaker 1: with my curveball or I tend to miss down. Let's
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  Speaker 1: say actually I tend to miss down too much. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: I need that glove to be shown above, above the
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  Speaker 1: zone or at my catcher's mass to kind of signal
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  Speaker 1: to me, hey, throw this pitch here rather than trying
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  Speaker 1: to throw it at the glove exactly. I know the
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  Speaker 1: glove is where I want it to end up, but
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily mean that that's where I need to
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  Speaker 1: start the pitch. And that leads me to my next
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  Speaker 1: point of one of my favorite cues that I use
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  Speaker 1: with guys all the time. And that is throw the
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  Speaker 1: pitch where you want it to start, not where you
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  Speaker 1: want it to finish. And this comes with knowing yourself
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  Speaker 1: and knowing what you do well or not what you
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  Speaker 1: do well, but knowing how your pitches move and how
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  Speaker 1: you need to adjust that starting point accordingly. A curveball
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  Speaker 1: is the easiest one to understand. Let's just say I'm
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  Speaker 1: throwing a 12-6 curveball. I can just kind of picture
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  Speaker 1: that 12-6 shape. in my head over the plate. So
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  Speaker 1: if I want it to be middle down, I can
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  Speaker 1: just picture that in order for it to end middle down,
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  Speaker 1: I need it to start at the top of the
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  Speaker 1: zone so that it can drop straight down to the
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  Speaker 1: bottom of the zone. So this is one example and
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  Speaker 1: an easy visual for you to understand of having your
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  Speaker 1: catcher set up more appropriately based off of the pitch
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  Speaker 1: that they are calling and the location that they want
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  Speaker 1: so that I can execute better. Now for the second
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  Speaker 1: way that this can impact on field performance, pitch calling.
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  Speaker 1: As a pitching coach, if I know how well my
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  Speaker 1: pitchers can execute their pitches, think about how that's going
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  Speaker 1: to impact the locations and the pitches that I call
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  Speaker 1: in certain situations. Sure, without intended targets, you might know
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  Speaker 1: what pitches they throw in zone, what their best width
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  Speaker 1: pitch is, all these details, but you're not seeing the
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  Speaker 1: very fine details of where are they missing in certain
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  Speaker 1: situations and certain locations and what is their best pitch
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  Speaker 1: in this scenario. The more information I have, that's going
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  Speaker 1: to impact my decision making. Because at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, I want to make sure that I am
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  Speaker 1: focusing on pitching to my pitcher's strengths. That doesn't mean
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  Speaker 1: that I don't worry about what the hitter's weaknesses are
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  Speaker 1: or what his strengths are, but my foundation has to
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  Speaker 1: be good with me understanding what my pitcher can and
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  Speaker 1: can't do. So now when I'm in a game situation,
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  Speaker 1: if he can't execute a glove side fastball very well,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pressure situation where we really can't afford
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  Speaker 1: to make a mistake leading this pitch or leaving this
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  Speaker 1: pitch over the middle of the plate, I'm probably not
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  Speaker 1: going to call a glove side fastball in that situation.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see here in
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  Speaker 1: this next slide, we have a misdirection grid. And what
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  Speaker 1: this is showing us is what direction are they most
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  Speaker 1: often missing relative to the target. So we have this
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  Speaker 1: middle grid here, and this doesn't mean middle of the zone.
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  Speaker 1: It's just the middle of whatever the target is. If
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  Speaker 1: it's on target, that means they hit their spot. And
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  Speaker 1: then all these other directions are telling us how often
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  Speaker 1: they're missing down to the glove side, up an arm side,
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  Speaker 1: down an arm side, all these different directions. So now
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  Speaker 1: I'm getting a clear picture of with each pitch type
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  Speaker 1: in each location, where do they tend to miss or
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  Speaker 1: how often do they actually hit their spots? And that
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  Speaker 1: ultimately can impact the pitches that I'm calling. And then
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  Speaker 1: moving on to the third and final reason for today,
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  Speaker 1: and that is your training. With all this information of
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  Speaker 1: understanding what we can and can't do, now we have
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity to improve those weaknesses, to actually get better
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  Speaker 1: at hitting our spots, and to reduce our margin of
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  Speaker 1: error and how far we miss our spots by. And
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  Speaker 1: my favorite way to do this and to train this
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  Speaker 1: is with differential balls or really just differential training in general.
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  Speaker 1: And what this is is differential balls are any ball
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  Speaker 1: or any implement really that is different from a baseball.
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  Speaker 1: So it could be footballs, it could be a handball,
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  Speaker 1: it could be a volleyball, anything other than a baseball.
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  Speaker 1: For the sake of what I'm talking about though, I'm
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  Speaker 1: referring to differential baseballs, which driveline makes. They are bigger
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  Speaker 1: and smaller balls and also heavier and lighter balls or
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  Speaker 1: combining the two. And what I love about this is
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  Speaker 1: it challenges you to adapt. It challenges you to, even
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  Speaker 1: though I have a different implement, can I still execute
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  Speaker 1: the location that I'm trying to throw to? It's creating adaptability.
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  Speaker 1: It's creating resilience within the throw. And you might be thinking,
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  Speaker 1: why would I want to throw something other than a
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  Speaker 1: baseball if I'm trying to improve my command? And the
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  Speaker 1: reason for that is no two throws you ever make
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  Speaker 1: are exactly the same. Yes, we want to reduce that
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  Speaker 1: change or that difference, and we want to be as
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  Speaker 1: consistent as we can. But the reality is we're never
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  Speaker 1: going to be perfectly consistent. Our mechanics are going to
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  Speaker 1: be different. Our release point is going to be different.
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  Speaker 1: The environment that we're in is going to be different.
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  Speaker 1: So it might be cold one game. It might be hot.
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  Speaker 1: It might be humid. It might be dry. The mound
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  Speaker 1: conditions are going to be completely different. One day I
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  Speaker 1: might be on a turf mound. The next day there's
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  Speaker 1: a crater at the landing. The next day, the mound
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  Speaker 1: I'm playing on is flat. There's all these different variables
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  Speaker 1: within the environment and just the mound alone. Never mind
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  Speaker 1: just how your body feels that day, the pitch you're throwing,
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  Speaker 1: the location you're throwing to. All these different circumstances are
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  Speaker 1: going to feed into this. So there's all these different
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  Speaker 1: variables that are at play here. The goal with variability
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  Speaker 1: training and using differential balls is to challenge us to
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  Speaker 1: be able to adapt to really large variables and really
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  Speaker 1: big differences and I like to think of it as
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  Speaker 1: we're trying to increase our bandwidth and our ability to
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  Speaker 1: withstand all these challenges and all these challenges. changes and
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  Speaker 1: still do what our job is, and that's to execute
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  Speaker 1: our pitches and hit our spots. So that's one of
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  Speaker 1: my favorite ways to do it. Some things to note
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  Speaker 1: when you're doing this type of training is we're not
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  Speaker 1: just trying to be as random as we can, and
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  Speaker 1: we're also not trying to make it as difficult as possible.
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  Speaker 1: If I am failing more times than not, well, as
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  Speaker 1: a player, that's going to wreck my confidence. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: going to have buy-in anymore, and I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: get the adaptation that we're looking for. So there needs
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  Speaker 1: to be a balance of an appropriate difficulty in order
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  Speaker 1: to make the changes that we're looking for. And then
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  Speaker 1: we also don't want it just to be random things
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  Speaker 1: that we're doing. We're not going to just throw sidearm
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of it. We're not going to just
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  Speaker 1: throw a bigger ball for the sake of it. There
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  Speaker 1: needs to be a reason and a change that we're
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  Speaker 1: trying to make by using that implement. So every variable
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  Speaker 1: needs to have a purpose. And a simple way to
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: think about this, like a very fundamental way that you
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  Speaker 1: could use differential balls is to match the ball to
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  Speaker 1: the miss that you typically have. So if I tend
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  Speaker 1: to miss with my fastball up an arm side, I
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  Speaker 1: might want to use a bigger ball or a heavier
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  Speaker 1: ball because using a bigger ball or heavier ball is
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  Speaker 1: going to amplify that miss. You're going to be more
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  Speaker 1: prone to missing up an arm side, which in result
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  Speaker 1: and as a return, you're going to make a greater
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  Speaker 1: adjustment in order to not miss up an arm side. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be difficult. Yes, you still might miss
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  Speaker 1: up an arm side or miss middle rather than getting
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  Speaker 1: it fully to the glove side, but it's going to
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  Speaker 1: force you to exaggerate those adjustments and make those changes.
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  Speaker 1: So it should be easier when you get back to
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  Speaker 1: the baseball to actually make that change. And then with
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  Speaker 1: a smaller ball, it would be the exact opposite. If
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  Speaker 1: I tend to miss down to the glove side or
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  Speaker 1: yank it, a smaller ball will amplify that miss and
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  Speaker 1: force me to make the adjustment to actually get it
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  Speaker 1: over the plate and more to the arm side. So
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  Speaker 1: those are the two most basic, most fundamental ways that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you could use those tools. It's not always as black
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and white as having a consistent mist on one side
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: of the plate. You might be somebody that kind of
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: sprays it everywhere and your training is going to look
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  Speaker 1: a little bit different. You might be doing more of
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  Speaker 1: a blend of multiple tools, multiple implements, working on just
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: general athleticism on the mound. There might be a mental component.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, there's always a mental component, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 1: in command training. But from a skill standpoint, I think
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  Speaker 1: differential balls and differential training in general is one of
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  Speaker 1: the best ways that you can do this. So here's
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  Speaker 1: the thing. I get it. Command isn't as sexy as stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody wants to just work on command training until they're
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  Speaker 1: blue in the face. They want to work on throwing harder,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: developing better off-speed pitches, all those things. But you have
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to remember, command is essential to your success. I don't
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: care how good your stuff is. If you can't throw
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the ball over the plate, you are not going to
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  Speaker 1: see the field. So just to recap. Three things that
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: we can do to actually improve this. Improve our catcher setups.
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  Speaker 1: We can have smarter pitch calling now as a result.
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  Speaker 1: And now we can have more targeted training because we
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: know where our misses are. We know what our problem is,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: so to speak, that we need to work on. And
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: we've created a really cool free resource for you guys
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that you can access on the Pitching Coach U website.
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  Speaker 1: Once again, absolutely free. We have a bullpen script builder
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: where you can build custom bullpens or use a couple
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: of our own templates that we've included on there. And
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  Speaker 1: you can also track your intended targets on there as well.
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  Speaker 1: So as you're doing your bullpen session, you can click
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  Speaker 1: on the pitch that you're throwing, where the intended zone is,
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  Speaker 1: and then you can click on where it was actually executed.
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  Speaker 1: It will give you your miss direction, your miss distances.
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  Speaker 1: And at the end of that session, you're going to
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  Speaker 1: have a full report that shows you your grid of
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: where your miss directions are by pitch type. And over time,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be able to get a really clear
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: picture on what your typical misses are and how you
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: can improve. And as a coach, you'll be able to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: use this with all your players. So you'll have a
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: full stat page of everybody. If you're a player, an
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: individual player, you can do this for yourself for your
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: own bullpens. So I hope you'll take advantage of that.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: We're going to include that in the show notes, a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: link to check that out. Very valuable resource. We've been
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: using that at our facility for several months now, and
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: it has been huge for improving command and giving us
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: a clearer picture of what direction we need to focus
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: on and the training that we need to give that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: specific player. So as always, I appreciate you guys taking
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: the time to listen today. Looking forward to bringing out
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: some more episodes. We're going to try to get some
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: guests on here and dive into more pitching education. My
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: goal for this platform, I've kind of had a new
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: spark and excitement for what we're doing. Not that I
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: lost it, but it's always good to get re-motivated and
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: reminded of what your purpose is as a coach or
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: whatever venture it is that you're diving into. My goal
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: is to make this the number one pitching coach resource
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: out there. I want you to have tons of free
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: content and ability to digest whatever information it is that
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: you need. We're going to provide courses, webinars, maybe even
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: a cohort at some point in the future, some sort
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of community-based format. I just want to provide a bunch
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of different avenues for you as a coach, whether you're
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a high school coach, college coach, or professional coach, to
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: get better so you can get your players better and
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: ultimately win more baseball games. So as always, I appreciate
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: you guys, and we'll see you next week.