What's up softball players? I'm Coach Dan Blewett. In today's
video, this is going to be for pitchers but also for hitters to
understand. Let's talk about the relative middle of the plate. So
when we talk about where is the center of home plate, it's
actually kind of irrelevant where the actual middle is. So
in today's video, we'll talk about why the center of the
plate effectively changes based on the hitters stance.
Alright, so if you're new here, I'm Coach Dan Blewett. I'm a
former pro baseball pitcher. I do tons of videos on softball
mechanics, on mindset on pitching strategy, strength
training, arm care, all that stuff. So if you're new here,
definitely subscribe to the channel, check out my links in
the description below. Okay, so let's talk about where is down
the middle. And why does it change based on the hitter. So,
number one, most hitters are going to have a stance, you can
see the batter's the batter's box lines here a yellow, most
hitters are going to have a stance where their barrel is
going to live pretty much in the center of the plate, that's like
a standard, you know whether it's six inches off the inside
line, or whatever, but it's going to be somewhere where as
you I as a pitcher, you're going to say this hitter is not too
close to the plate. And they're not too far away from the plate,
right. So everyone's going to be a little bit different. But in
general, the standard stance is maybe six inches from the line,
something like that. And so here, we've figured that out
over time, because we want the again the barrel to be in the
middle of the plate. Now, what's important to understand as a
pitcher and as a coach is that as the hitter stance changes,
the middle of the plate effectively changes. And that
has a lot of implications for where you're going to pitch. So
say I'm a hitter who's crowding the plate, and I'm standing
here. So this is the middle of the plate, this is the inside
third, and this is the outside third or corner, whichever you
want to call it. So now you can see it's the same relative
distance away. But the middle for me as a pitcher, as a hitter
who crowds the plate is essentially the outer half or
outer third, that's really critical to understand because
now what has happened to the middle, the middle is now the
inner half for me. So this has big implications because as a
pitcher, if you're saying, okay, I don't want to throw this down
the middle of this hitter down the middle is not is not the
middle anymore, and down the middle is inner half, which is
still a dangerous location. But guess what, the true inner half,
which is where this ball is, and the inner third are much more
accessible to you now because the hitter has changed what that
location means that hit that location is now a lot tougher
than to get to the barrel to so in my other video I've talked
about, you know that to hit an inside pitch hard on the barrel,
you have to have the bat farther out in front. So if the middle
is over here, great. Guess what, now this inner half pitch, I've
got to get my barrel pretty far out in front of the hitter,
essentially as if it's an inner third fastball or pitch,
whatever. And now I've got to be even faster on time with it. So
this is critical. Now let's go the opposite way. So say I am
always reset this year. So again, here's my typical stance.
Now say I'm a hitter, who likes to be really far away from the
plate. And this is probably only going to be for six inches
farther away. Now the middle has changed again. And you can see
that the inner part of the play doesn't exist anymore,
essentially. And there's a lot of the plate beyond this one,
this is this represent the outer third, the outer third is almost
inaccessible to me. So the inner part or the inner part of the
plane has become the middle for a hitter who's kind of a little
bit farther away. So obviously, as a coach when you're coaching
young hitters, this is important to explain, because it's this is
pretty easy to see that I really can't reach that pitch well,
without starting to stick my butt out, we're having to really
step towards that spot. And as a pitcher, I know the same thing
if I saw a hitter who stands way far away, he has no chance of
hitting the ball hard against me on the outside third, and it's
the same thing with you pitchers, they have no chance of
hitting that ball far away if they're off the plate. So in
most cases, you're not going to see this stance that often what
you'll see a lot of times is an open stance, which I'm going to
talk about that in a different video how to approach those
kinds of hitters. But the big takeaway here is more on hitters
that crowd the plate, and a lot of pitchers get nervous when
hitters crowd the plate because they feel like they don't have
much plate to work with. But in reality, what happens is that
these hitters are screwing themselves. When I'm this close
to the plate, I cannot possibly keep this inner third pitch fair
to hit this ball hard. I've got to basically make contact all
the way out here. And that ball is going to go out if I hit it
hard. Everything else, find a contact with that inner inner
third pitch inner corner pitch here. I'm gonna jam myself. I'm
gonna hit a little three hopper to my third baseman or to your
third baseman. So hitters that crowd to the plate and because
they're effective middle shifts so much,
they're not going to be able to access the inner third of the
plate, they're just going to get eaten up by it. And even the
inner half with hitters who have any sort of length, like they
have a long swing, they're going to have just a terrible time
trying to hit anything on the inner half the plate. So unless
they are really solid with their mechanics, and they have a short
compact swing, you're going to own the inner half of the plate.
So it's a death sentence to hitters, when they crowd the
plates you much in a lot of instances, what happens is
though, pitchers get afraid, they don't want to hit up, they
don't want to hit a girl. And so guess what, they don't even try
to throw the inner part of the plate, even though they have
lots of room to work with. Throwing a pitch right here,
you've got a lot of room for error, right? That's, that's
pretty much on the way to the plate. So what am I worried
about? You just got to be mentally tough when you see
hitters that crowded plate a lot, because again, they're
screwed if you throw hard stuff in here, and they want you to
throw away because you're our third pitch, that loan away
pitch that used to be so effective, that's the middle of
the plate for them pretty much. And so it doesn't become
effective for you anymore. Because again, I've moved, this
is the new middle of the plate, boom, I can pull that ball into
the gap. And that does not deter me. Whereas if I'm out here,
that pitch is pretty difficult to drive. Okay. So hopefully
today's conversation about the relative middle of the plate is
helpful to you, especially as a pitcher, you got to understand
where is the middle of the plate to this hitter that I'm facing.
If they're crying a plate, the middle of the plate goes with
it. If they're far away, the middle of the plate follows
them. And then you're going to base where you're throwing to
each location. After that, middle halves, thirds and
corners, I have another video that goes into all of that,
you're going to dictate where you throw laterally on the plate
based on the count. So again, knowing where your starting
point is, which is always spreads out from the middle. If
you know that it's going to change based on their stance,
then that's going to give you a much higher probability of
having success and pitching and picking smart pitches to best
get hitters out. Okay. Thanks for watching. I'm Coach Dan
Blewett. And I'll see you here in the next softball video.