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Baseball · Pitching · Ages 13-15

Baseball Pitching Practice Plan for 13 to 15 Year Olds

At 13 to 15, pitching becomes a craft with a budget. The mound moves back, the hitters stop chasing, and the currency becomes COMMAND: the fastball to both sides of the plate, the change-up landing where it is aimed, and sequences thought in pairs (what this pitch makes the next one look like). Breaking stuff, if and when a coach adds it, comes with physical maturity and supervision; nothing in this plan requires it, and plenty of high school innings get won without it.

This is a 75-minute session wrapping 40 to 50 counted pitches in arm care, mechanics, and ledger discipline. The workload rules are now non-negotiable adult rules: band work before, ramp always, counts and rest tracked across every team, showcase, and lesson, and pain treated as a full stop plus a conversation with a doctor, not a toughness test. The arm is a career now; the ledger is its accountant.

Practice Plan

Bullpen Workout: Command Is the Currency

Both sides of the plate, a change-up that lands on purpose, and sequences thought in pairs. Wrapped in bands, ramps, and a ledger kept like the career depends on it, because it does.


Warmup · 15 minutes

Bands, Ramp, Sequence Check

Duration15 minEquipmentresistance band, gloves, ball

Band routine: pull-aparts, internal and external rotations, rows, ten to fifteen each. Throwing ramp twenty to ninety feet with a few easy crow-hop throws at the top. Then three slow-motion deliveries and five half-speed pitches checking the chain: hips lead, chest rides the front leg, arm whips last, finish flat-backed with the eyes level. The pen does not open until the chain feels ordered.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Bands, ramp, order. The pen opens when the chain says so."


Block 1: Command Fastballs · 20 minutes

Both-Sides Ladder

Duration20 minEquipmentgloves, ball, a split target, counter

Twenty-five counted fastballs in rounds of five: two rounds down-away, one down-in, one up (chase height, above the zone ON PURPOSE, the pitch that makes down-away play), one pitcher's choice mixing all three. Scoring: called spot two, zone one, else zero, logged per round. The read on misses stays mechanical: arm-side spray is the front side flying open; everything up is the finish standing tall.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Two rooms and a roof. Own both sides, rent the top."


Block 2: The Change-Up, Mastered · 20 minutes

Location Changes

Duration12 minEquipmentgloves, ball, target, counter

Twelve to fifteen counted change-ups in rounds of three after two fastballs each (the game rhythm): arm speed identical, target now CALLED, down-away and at the shins. The pitch has an address now, not just a disguise. Grade both halves out loud: did it lie (arm speed), did it land (location). Three lied-and-landed in a row is a teenage weapon very few hitters solve.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Same lie, new address. Deception plus location is a strikeout in two acts."

Pair Thinking

Duration8 minEquipmentgloves, ball

The last counted pitches (six to eight) thrown as CALLED PAIRS, stated before each pair: fastball down-away then change same tunnel; fastball in then away; chase-high then change at the shins. The catcher (or parent) grades the pair as a sentence: did pitch one make pitch two harder to hit? Sequencing thought out loud at 14 becomes instinct at 16.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Every pitch writes the next one's introduction."


Block 3: Off the Clock · 10 minutes

Fielding Your Position

Duration10 minEquipmentgloves, ball

Zero-stress pitching adjacency while the arm cools: five comebackers fielded off the finish (balanced finishes make this possible, which is the point), three phantom covers of first at a jog, two bunt charges with the throw shaped, not fired. The fifth infielder gets built in the leftover minutes of bullpens, which is exactly where varsity coaches look for it.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "The finish is also your fielding stance. Land ready."


Finish · 10 minutes

Flush and the Ledger

Duration10 minEquipmentband, gloves, ball, the log

Easy throws melting from sixty feet to twenty. Light band flushes, ten each. Then the ledger, written and said: today's count, the week's count across everything, next outing and its required rest, the two no-throw days, and any arm notice at all (which triggers rest first and a doctor if it repeats). Log the command scores per round beside it.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "The ledger is the second arm. Keep both healthy."


What to watch today: effort masquerading as command practice. Teenage bullpens drift toward max-effort show-off innings, and command training only exists at controlled game effort where the chain stays ordered. If the radar-gun voice takes over the session, cut the count short and close the ledger honest. Velocity is a byproduct here; the currency is where the ball lands.

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Common questions

When do breaking balls belong in the mix?

With physical maturity and a qualified coach supervising grip, volume, and mechanics, typically mid-teens, and even then as a complement to command and the change-up rather than a replacement. Plenty of successful high school pitchers throw fastball-change with real command; nobody survives on a curveball with neither.

How many pitches per week is safe for a teenager?

Follow league and national guidelines (Pitch Smart-style counts and rest by age) as the floor, and add the honest ledger across ALL teams, lessons, and showcases, since overlap is where injuries actually come from. The pattern that protects careers: one game outing, one controlled bullpen, two full no-throw days, every week, no exceptions for big games.

What should a 14 year old work on to pitch in high school?

In order: fastball command to both sides (the tryout separator), a change-up that lies and lands, a delivery that repeats under fatigue, fielding the position, and a workload ledger that keeps the arm available. Velocity opens doors, but every varsity staff has a hard-thrower who walks the yard; coaches start the kid who lives down-and-away.

Pitching plans for other ages
Ages 9-10Ages 11-12
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