What Coaches Are Saying

Hear from coaches who have passed Basics of Pitch Design

Justin Barber

Pitching Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at Taylor University

I thought the entire course was really well done. There were plenty of nuggets throughout the course that have helped me become a better coach to the athletes I work with on a daily basis.

Dylan Schoknecht

Director of Analytics at a Private Training Academy

The in-depth detail of each pitch helped me really further understand and differentiate what is being looked for in each pitch type.

Jason Immekus

Juco College Coach

I’ve continued to use this course as a resource through my notes. Such great content.

Become a Driveline Certified Coach

This course contains 28 videos teaching the in's and out's of identifying and teaching new pitches.

  • Learn the basics of pitch tracking technology and the terms used to describe movement

  • See how coaches can classify different movement profiles and make common adjustments that we recommend in gym

  • All of our insight is backed by years of testing and utilizing technology in pitch design

What to Expect

A comprehensive online course covering all things pitch design

Recent advances in technology have greatly changed the pitching landscape. While the technology has shown great promise, it can also be overwhelming. There are new terms, ideas, and context to learn before a coach can truly know how to get the most out of pitch tracking technology.


More than ever, players are looking for coaches who can utilize this technology to help them improve. But players and coaches today don’t need more information—they need to know the right context for what they’re seeing and to learn a system for making decisions.

This course will teach you the basics of the terms, technology, common adjustments, and decision making system that Driveline Baseball uses with our pitchers. We show how mechanics are intertwined with pitch changes and how even very small changes can make huge differences in pitch quality. We teach you our system for making decisions and thinking like a Driveline trainer, using the same course that we use internally.

  • 28 videos and quizzes on what a coach needs to know about designing better pitches

  • Review the basics of technology, how the various tools are different, and define relevant terms that coaches will see throughout their careers.

  • Dive deeply into spin rate, pitch movement, spin direction, and spin efficiency

  • Examine pitching mechanics and different arms slots, as well as how both can affect movement

  • Review pitch-type profiles with examples of how to classify different pitch types

  • Get an inside look at how we assess a pitcher’s arsenal 

  • Study breakdowns of the thought processes we use to decide when to make pitch adjustments 

  • Break down the biggest issues we see with fastballs, sliders, curveballs, and changeups, and learn the most common fixes

  • Review some programming basics and how coaches and players can refine pitch design throughout the year

  • We’ll teach you how to better use public data to examine the best pitches in MLB


Included are bonus lessons on how coaches can set up a pitch design session using Rapsodo and camera. We also include a walkthrough of a practical pitch design where you can see how we interact with our pitchers during a pitch design session.


Reviews of Basics of Pitch Design

5 star rating

Great into to Pitch Design and the Characteristics of Eac...

Andy Johnson

I would recommend even for people who are well versed in Rapsodo and pitch metrics. Great material to refer back to at later time.

I would recommend even for people who are well versed in Rapsodo and pitch metrics. Great material to refer back to at later time.

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5 star rating

Excellent Primer for Pitch Design Ideas

STEVEN RUBY

Thorough information and a great base for coaches/players/et al to get started

Thorough information and a great base for coaches/players/et al to get started

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Want to See What's Included?

Create an account and watch our introduction lesson for free!

Course curriculum

  1. 1

    • Welcome to the Basics of Pitch Design!

    • Introduction Survey
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6

    • Introduction to Pitch Types

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Fastball Profiles

    • Fastball Profiles Quiz

    • Two-Seam Profiles

    • Two-Seam Profile Quiz

    • Cutter Profiles

    • Cutter Profiles Quiz

    • Slider Profiles

    • Slider Profiles Quiz

    • Curveball Profiles

    • Curveball Profiles Quiz

    • Changeup Profiles

    • Changeup Profiles Quiz

    • Seam-Shifted Wakes

    • Seam Shifted Wakes Quiz
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9

    • Introduction to Pitch Design Programming

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Training Phases

    • Training Phases Quiz

    • Off-Season Pitch Design Programming

    • Off-Season Pitch Design Programming Quiz

    • Pre-Season Pitch Design Programming

    • Pre-Season Pitch Design Programming Quiz

    • In-Season Pitch Design Programming

    • In-Season Pitch Design Programming Quiz
  10. 10
  11. 11

Course Details

Driveline’s Basics of Pitch Design course is entirely online and self-paced.

Certifications are good for the life of the course. No coach is considered certified until they have completed the final quiz of the course.

Each video is followed by a short quiz. Coaches must score 80% or higher on the quiz to move on to the next section.

Upon completion of the course, coaches will be considered certified. We do not give permission to individuals or programs to represent themselves as “Driveline”, but instructors may represent themselves as “Driveline-certified” or a variant that is appropriate.

Coaches who pass will not be listed as certified on Driveline’s website, but we may confirm completion upon request.