Using the GRS Zone to Change Pitchers - and - The Power of Fear-Fighting Actions

Table of Contents

• The Power of Fear-Fighting Actions

• Using the GRS Zone to Change Pitchers

Total Reading Time: 6 minutes

Today we’ll dive into noticing the clues for changing pitchers BEFORE the 3 run homerun along with some methods for helping your pitchers fight their fears.

Let’s go!

If you aren’t already a member - I’d love to have you join our community of curious pitching coaches!

The Power of Fear-Fighting Actions

As you read this article I’m in the middle of getting a total knee replacement. I’m not saying that to get sympathy but to talk about a feeling I’ve been dealing with since they called and gave me the date.

Oh I wanted this new knee. I’ve been living with a bone-on-bone situation in my left knee for years, and it had finally gotten so bad I was done with the shots and said “let’s just do the new knee”. So I was ready. Until they called and said my surgery date was 3 weeks away. 😱

Then the fear and panic set in. Oh, my 97 year old Mom could tell me all she wanted about the 3 (yes, three) new knees she’s gotten over the years and how it wasn’t that hard, but I was still nervous. And yet I wanted this. I asked for it.

It’s this duality of emotions - desire for something and fear of that same thing - that I battled with.

Our pitchers are no different. They desire to be good and yet are afraid of throwing their pitches through the zone. Desire and Fear, Want and Doubt…whatever words you give these two emotions they’re simply that - emotions.

Emotions are feelings and we all know how feelings can get in the way of a lot of things.

What I had to do to get out of my Fear Feelings was to take Action. I had to make sure I had a walker, that I knew all the surgery instructions, that I rearranged my room to make it easier to have access, that I had clothes to wear that I could easily get on and off, that I’d made all my appointments, that I’d done everything around the house that I could before I was unable to do much for about a month. On and On…

Here’s a look at my Fear-Fighting list of Actions:

ACTION is what hijacked my Fear. And it’s what will help your pitchers hijack their fears as well. Some of the Fear-Fighting Actions your pitchers can take include:

• Taking care of their bodies

• Getting enough rest

• Eating healthy (and drinking water)

• Putting in the focused work in the bullpen

• Controlling their attention to THEIR skill (instead of on the hitter’s skill)

• Staying in their routine

• Controlling their breathing

• Making sure they nail the grip

• Picturing the pitch in their mind

• Throwing the pitch that they pictured

• Reviewing the past inning and reviewing the upcoming hitters

Each pitcher will have a slightly different ACTION LIST. In fact, it’s a great exercise for them to make a list of their ACTIONS - those things that take them away from their Fears. You can use the list below for your pitchers - and for YOU. Letting your pitchers see that YOU also have fears will help ease theirs and help make you more relatable.

Have each pitcher write out what their Fear is on one side and the Action they can take to Fight that Fear on the other. They don’t have to share their list, but simply making one will help disarm the power that Fear can have over them. Over all of us.

Now for me, it’s all about the recovery, and the meds. 😂

Using the GRS Zone to Change Pitchers

Knowing when to change pitchers is super easy - after the 3 run bomb!! It’s having the foresight, or the courage, or both to make the change BEFORE the damage happens…before you get to suckville.

Looking at the picture below, the green arrow is your pitcher just cruising along. She’s handling their hitters, staying ahead in the count, keeping hitters off base and limiting damage from their big hitters.

And then suddenly…she sucks. Sucks usually looks like a combination of walks, hit batters, homeruns, and RUNS SCORED. And it seems like it comes out of nowhere.

But does it?!

It can seem like there’s only 2 zones - the Cruising Zone and the Suck Zone. But hidden in there is the most important zone for us to see - and that’s the GRS ZONE…the Getting Ready to Suck Zone.

Every pitcher has one. They give signs that things are starting to slip. The signs might not be very big, but they’re there. It’s up to us to know what each pitcher’s signs look like and to look VERY closely for them.

GRS signs can look like:

• Riseball pitchers start missing a little bigger around the zone, and not getting as many swings and misses

• Dropball pitchers start hanging a couple pitches or over-throw them in the dirt

• Their swing and miss pitch starts only getting fouled off

• She can’t throw the same pitch back-to-back with the same break

• She loses control of her usually dependable changeup

• It’ll be the 3rd time through the lineup against the same pitcher

• Monster-Hot hitter against this pitcher is coming up again, with runners on and a close game

• HERE’S A COMMON ONE…You trying to wring out “just one more inning” from this pitcher telling yourself “she’s not doing that bad”

By themselves, none of these signs look huge, in fact you might only notice them AFTER the damaging inning, but they are precursors of what’s to come.

As a pitching coach, you’re like an investigator at a crime scene looking for the tiniest of clues…except you’re looking BEFORE the crime happens!

Take some time this week and make a quick list of what the GRS signs are for each of your pitchers. Each pitcher has them for each of their pitches and it’s your job to know them so you can recognize them as soon as they begin to appear and make the switch BEFORE that 3-run bomb takes you on a speed train to suckville.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Curveball Chronicles Issue.

Be sure to check out PitchingCoachCentral.com for all past issues as well as news on this year’s Pitching Summit!

See You Next Week!