Playing Time: A Method to Align Coaches, Parents, and Players
/Coaches make decisions. It's what they do. They make calls during games, and those calls aren't always easy. They have to choose. But with that privilege comes a weight. You have to stand by your decisions, explain them, whether you want to or not.
But what if you could make decisions that were clear and fair? What if you could reward the ones who put in the work and perform when it counts? What if you didn't have to carry the burden of choosing the pitcher, and instead, the decision spoke for itself? What if, when a player asked, “Why am I not pitching?” they accepted your answer and went out to get better?
There is a way. You take two things and keep them close. Track them. Talk about them with your pitchers and their parents, early and often.
Count the spots your pitcher hits.
Watch if their pitches move.
A spot is a place in the strike zone, sometimes just outside it. It’s small, the size of a glove. It’s where the ball needs to go. It’s not a strike. It’s more than that.
You can’t measure that unless you call the spots. And you need your catcher. Counting balls and strikes won’t tell you much. It won’t show you what kind of command your pitcher has. That’s what you need to see.
The catcher has to know. She has to watch the ball. She has to see where it moves, where it ends up. She can’t be distracted by throw-downs or the noise of the game. She has to tell you what happened, every time. She might tap her leg to let you know when it’s a hit.
If you don’t track the spots and the movement, you’ll be in trouble. Let’s talk about Emma.
Perhaps Emma throws strikes, and she throws a lot of them. She looks good on the mound. But she’s not hitting her spots. She’s throwing somewhere in the strike zone, and the other team isn’t hitting her. But they’re not good hitters, and you think Emma is fine. You’re wrong. Then she faces a good team, and they hit her. Hard. You’re surprised. So is she.
Or Emma is hitting the spots. She’s doing what you told her. But the other team is hitting the ball anyway. The catcher didn’t tell you she was hitting her spots, so you assume Emma is missing them. You start calling pitches that don’t work. Emma gets hit again. Or worse, she starts ignoring you, throws where she thinks she should. Neither is good.
Now Emma’s throwing her curveball. She thinks it’s moving. But the catcher knows it’s not. No one tells you. Emma’s happy, thinking she’s got a good curveball. At practice, she works on her rise ball. She doesn’t fix her curveball. The next team she faces, or the coach at the clinic, they know the truth. They see her curveball doesn’t move. Emma gets hit again.
Then you ask your catcher how Emma’s dropball is. She says, “Yeah, it’s good.” But it’s not good enough. You can’t make decisions on that. You need the truth. You need to write it down, every pitch, and tell your battery that’s how it has to be.
Now a parent comes up. She asks why her daughter isn’t pitching. You say, “Well, she wasn’t accurate last game.” That’s not enough. The parent shows you their own stats. You’re stuck.
Parents, what if the coach doesn’t know what your daughter needs to improve? Coaches are busy. They have one practice a week, if that. They don’t have time to teach a first-year catcher everything. You’ll need to track accuracy and movement at home. Do your best.
I ask players to define the strike zone. I do this because college coaches ask it, too. They’ve seen pitchers who don’t know. Top-level athletes who can’t find the strike zone. You think your players know, but they don’t. You have to show them. It’s new to them. Don’t forget.
And knowing if a pitch moves, that’s everything. It’s often wrong. Players think they’ve got it, but they don’t. If you don’t know, you can’t fix it. You can’t get better. The man said, “What gets measured, gets managed.” Go to a Bandits game. Stand behind their pitchers. Watch the junk they throw. You’ll understand.
In the end, if you measure these two things—accuracy and movement—you’ll know your pitchers. You’ll know the parents, and you’ll have a team that works. You’ll win.
