Mound Visit Advice

When becoming a coach, one of the most frequently thought of questions is how to handle mound visits. Quite honestly this was one of the questions that I had when I started coaching. Many great coaches can give the right advice to help settle down a pitcher in order to turn a rough situation into a successful one. In this post I will go over mound visit advice that can help a pitcher settle down in order to have success. 

It is first important to understand the different personalities of your pitchers. In order to understand this you can do two free quizzes that can be found online. Those quizzes are the Love Languages Quiz and the Learning Styles Quiz. The Love Languages Quiz is important to use because it will help you as the coach understand how to give praise to your players. The Learning Styles Quiz will help you teach your players the best way possible. Players will appreciate that you have taken the time to understand them as human beings first, while also helping them in their development as baseball players.

There are two ways to help talk to a struggling pitcher during a mound visit. One way is by using a cue that can help them refocus. The other way is to give the pitcher an actionable event that they can do with something they are doing well in the game. 

Before going further I want to give an example of using each of these strategies. The pitcher that is on the mound is a visual learner whose love language is primarily physical touch. This pitcher is also having good sink on his two-seam fastball but is struggling to locate in consitent areas of the zone. When you are out during the mound visit you can tell the pitcher to imagine the scenario you are about to give him. Have him throw his two-seam fastball down the middle and let it sink to the low inside corner of the strike zone to create a soft ground ball to the shortstop, that will create a double play to get out of the inning. Then you can give him a pat on the back. Doing this uses his learning style, love language, and current strength to allow the pitcher to refocus and get out of the jam. You can also use a cue instead of a scenario as well that can help the pitcher recall how he should feel on the mound. A cue is especially helpful if the pitcher doesn't have anything working for him. 

This advice has been used by successful coaches for many years in the game of baseball. It is rooted in psychology to help a struggling athlete refocus to go one event at a time. It takes some time to get to know the learning style and love language of the player, but it is worth it for their development as a person and player. Not to mention that it also helps the pitcher when you are giving them advice in a tough situation. Therefore the next time you have a pitcher on the mound who is struggling, use this advice to help him get back to focusing on the current pitch.