Charting Pitchers and Hitters - Page 3

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What Age To Start Charting

Fear of Being Hit - Batter

With younger players, the emphasis is to try and get them to swing the bat and be aggressive at the plate. Their fear of getting hit will often keep the bat sitting on their shoulder. Discussing pitch selection and how to approach different counts will have little to no value for the player. Instead, extra practice correctly getting out of the way of pitched balls will be more beneficial to help the player gain confidence and comfort in the box. Once a player can step in the box and overcome his fear, he will be able focus on an approach. Until then, everything else will be an afterthought.

Attention Level

One of the biggest problems with coaching is the tendancy to over coach. Young players can only process so much input and often our expectations are just too high. If a player doesn't have the attention span to sit down with you and go over the information in the charts, then only use the charts if it benefits you to identify weak areas with a player. You can use this information to help determine appropriate drills to strengthen these areas.

Skill Level

Charting kids that aren't at a certain skill level will be of little value. If a young pitcher only throws a fastball and has little control, then there's no point in charting his pitches. Spend your time working on his mechanics rather than discussing pitch location. The same is true for hitters. If they have flaws in their swing, work those out first.

How to Chart

There are many types of charts that you can purchase. I have created some charts for you to use free of charge. All charts are set up to chart an individual pitcher or hitter. Samples and instructions are provided with each chart.

Hitting Zone Chart

In the hitting approach instruction page, there is a section on getting a good pitch to hit and developing an approach at the plate depending on the count. The hitting zone chart can be used to graphically list out that approach for each player. You can use the Plate Discipline Tee Drill to help define the hitting zone for each player and the Plate Discipline BP along with game charting to help further define the hitting zone.

Hitting Zone - Example
Hitting Zone Template

Standard Charts

The standard pitching and hitting charts are easy to enter data into and contain less information. These are set up for simplicity and ease of use.

The hitting chart focuses on pitch location for each pitch in the at-bat. If you are charting from the dugout, the catcher can be a good indicator of the pitch location. See where he sets up before the pitch and then see where he catches it. This will give you a good indication of the location in or out. The height will be easy to determine from the dugout. Some coaches may want to track what type of pitch. Since this can be difficult to do, I would suggest just tracking whether the pitch was hard (fastball, slider) or off-speed (curveball, changeup).

The pitching chart contains more detail than the hitter chart, but still allows for easy input. There is one page for each hitter that the pitcher faces. Location, pitch type and result can all be tracked on the chart. This chart can be used in a few ways. It can be kept as a cumulative chart for each hitter the pitcher faces or as a cumulative chart for the game, where each 20 pitches is charted on a sheet. Another way to use this chart is to break it up by inning. That way a pitcher could see how he approached a portion of the lineup the last time he pitched to them.

Compact Charts

There is a compact version of the pitching and hitting chart. This will allow you to save paper, but will be more difficult to enter information into. Also, there is a lot of information that can be collected on the compact charts. Use only the information that you feel is relevant. The pitching chart will be mirror the score book in that each opposing hitter will be charted in order. The hitting chart will not mirror the score book in that you want to keep a separate chart for each hitter. Each chart allows you to track pitch type, location, and result. The pitching chart will also allow you to keep a running pitch count. View the charting example page below to see a sample of how the charts are used.

Worksheets

Use the links below or in the navigation area to open a new window and print the chart that is set up to either fit in a clipboard or in a binder. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about the worksheets, please e-mail don@qcbaseball.com