Pitch Location Chart (2026): The 9 Strike Zone Locations Explained, and Where to Throw Each Pitch

Quick answer: a pitch location chart divides the strike zone into nine boxes, three rows (up, middle, down) by three columns (in, middle, away), usually numbered 1 to 9 left to right, top to bottom, from the catcher's point of view. Coaches call a pitch plus a box ("fastball, 9" or "fastball, down and away"), and charters mark where each pitch actually crossed. Four more "chase" zones outside the box make it a 13-zone chart at higher levels.

Ask a youth pitcher what they threw and they'll say "fastball." Ask a good coach and they'll say "fastball, down and away." The location half of the pitch call is where games are actually won. It's why a modest arm with command beats a live arm without it at every level below the pros.

This is a chart we know intimately: the 9-zone location grid below is literally the interface of MAVTRAX, the coach taps a pitch, taps one of these nine spots, and the catcher hears "fastball, down and away" in the helmet speaker. Here's what each zone is for, and the count-based strategy that makes the grid a weapon.

The zone, viewed from the catcher's seat (in/away flips with the batter's handedness):

Here is the standard numbered grid, drawn from the catcher's view with a right-handed hitter standing on the left side of the plate. The most common convention numbers the boxes like a phone keypad:

For a left-handed hitter, the box numbers stay fixed to the plate but the words flip: box 1 becomes up and away, box 3 becomes up and in, box 7 becomes down and away, and box 9 becomes down and in. That's why most coaches (and the MAVTRAX app) call locations in words, "in" and "away" relative to the hitter, rather than box numbers. Words survive a switch hitter; numbers cause cross-ups.

Catcher's view or pitcher's view? Charts for catchers, umpires and broadcast graphics are almost always drawn from behind the plate (catcher's view). Some pitching coaches draw them from the mound. Before you share a chart with a team, write "CATCHER'S VIEW" on it. It prevents a season of confusion.

Past about 13U, a 9-box chart isn't enough, because the most important two-strike pitches are outside the zone. Many charting systems add four chase boxes around the grid (numbered 11 to 14 in Statcast's zone chart), one for each corner quadrant:

MLB's Statcast also groups locations into four "attack regions": the heart (the middle of the zone), the shadow (the band straddling the edge, where framing happens), the chase region (just off the plate) and the waste region (well out of reach). It's a useful mental model for youth coaches too: call strikes in the shadow, call two-strike pitches in the chase, and never call the heart on purpose. More on the shadow zone in our pitch framing guide.

Home plate is 17 inches wide at every level, from tee-ball to MLB. Split three ways, each column of the grid is about 5.7 inches across, a little under two baseballs wide. And because a pitch counts as a strike if any part of the ball touches the zone, the effective width is about 20 inches (17 inches plus roughly half a ball on each side).

Both measured in the batter's natural stance. Wording is paraphrased; check your league's current rulebook. The practical takeaway: a 4-foot-8 10-year-old has a zone only about 18 inches tall, so each row of the grid is roughly 6 inches high. A youth "location" is about the size of the catcher's mitt, which is exactly why "within a glove of the call" is the right bullpen scoring rule.

A "pitch locator" or pitch chart is simply a record of where every pitch actually went. It's the most honest development tool in youth baseball, because it replaces "he was wild today" with a map. How to do it by hand:

1. Print a sheet of small 3 x 3 grids, one grid per batter, drawn from the catcher's view. Label "RHH" or "LHH" above each.
2. Mark each pitch with its number in the sequence (1, 2, 3...) in the box where it crossed, using a symbol per pitch type: a dot for fastball, a circle for changeup, an X for breaking ball.
3. Mark the result beside the grid: K, BB, GB, FB, LD, or the called and swinging strikes.
4. After the game, compare called location with actual location. This is the number that matters: what percentage landed within a glove of the call?

Charting by hand needs a dedicated parent. The shortcut: when you call pitches through a pitch-calling app, the "called" column fills itself. MAVTRAX logs every called pitch and location per pitcher for free, so the only thing left to chart is where it actually went.

Pitching coaches often skip in and away entirely and talk in glove side and arm side, because those terms follow the pitcher, not the hitter. For a right-handed pitcher, glove side is the third-base side of the plate; for a lefty it's the first-base side.

Why it matters: a two-seam fastball runs arm side and a slider breaks glove side, no matter who's hitting. So "two-seamer, arm side down" is the same instruction against every batter, while "two-seamer, down and in" is only true against a same-handed hitter. Teach pitchers glove side and arm side for their own pitches, and let the call to the catcher use in and away.

Location is only trainable when the pitcher can see the target and the result. Three verified-in-stock tools, cheapest first:

• A hanging strike-zone target such as this strike zone target for practice nets (about $12) clips onto any backstop or net and gives a visible zone for bullpens.
• A 9-hole net turns the chart on this page into a physical target. The Bearwill 9-hole pitching net (about $70) has numbered pockets, so a coach can call "9" and the pitcher sees instantly whether he hit it.
• A helmet speaker for the catcher, if you call locations from the dugout. Our top pick is a motorcycle-style helmet-mount Bluetooth headset (about $13) whose thin pods velcro inside the catcher's helmet; see the full headset comparison and the free pitch-calling app guide.

Location by count: the standard game-calling logic in one screenshot:

Deeper sequencing logic: how to call a baseball game · which pitches belong at which age.

The math youth coaches live by: hitters at every level time the fastball they expect. A pitch 4 mph faster but middle-middle arrives exactly where the barrel already is; a pitch 4 mph slower but down-and-away requires the hitter to do something they can't do yet: cover the outer third with authority. Zone command IS youth pitching velocity.

This is also the whole argument for coach-called games: an adult who can read a hitter's feet and hands picks better locations than a 11-year-old catcher guessing, and with the call going silently from the dugout, the location plan actually survives contact with the game. (It's also why MAVTRAX logs every called location: after three games you can SEE a pitcher's real command map, not the one everyone remembers.)

1. Two zones first: down-away and up-in. Everything else is a variation of "away from the barrel."
2. Bullpens with targets, not just strikes: a strike-zone target or 9-hole net makes location visible and scoreable.
3. Score command, not outcomes: "7 of 10 within a glove of the call" is a better bullpen stat than strikes thrown.
4. Call locations in scrimmages early: pitchers who grow up hitting spots on request become high-school pitchers; throwers become former pitchers.

Locations become a weapon when they're chained. The six standard sequences, when to run each, and the trap to avoid:

The universal trap: patterns repeated become batting practice. Run a sequence twice through an order, then break it on purpose. This is exactly where dugout calling shines: an adult tracks "what has this kid seen today" better than any 11-year-old catcher, and with MAVTRAX logging every call, the third-time-through plan writes itself from the actual data.

Not every pitch plays in every zone. What belongs where:

Cross-reference with which pitches belong at which age, a 10U mix is four-seam everywhere + changeup down, and that's genuinely enough to run five of the six sequences above.

The rulebook zone and the Saturday-morning zone are different documents. What youth coaches consistently see: the low strike and the away strike are generous (umpires reward catchers who receive them quietly); the up strike barely exists below 14U; and the inside call tightens whenever hitters crowd the plate. Strategy follows reality:

• Live down-away MORE than the pro chart suggests: it's the biggest zone on the field at 10U-12U.
• Use up strictly as a chase location, not for called strikes.
• Watch the first two innings: every ump's edges are personal: find them, then camp there. (The coach with a phone in hand can literally log which edges are getting calls.)
• Teach the catcher that framing IS location strategy: a well-received borderline pitch expands tomorrow's target.

Location command is built, not born. The drill ladder we see work, ages 9 to 16:

1. Colors catch (9+): playing catch, receiver calls "glove-side hip / head / knee" mid-flight targets. Command starts as catch-with-intent, zero mound needed.
2. The 9-hole scorecard (10+): a strike-zone target or 9-pocket net, 20 pitches, called pocket each time. Score: within-one-glove = 1 point. Track the score weekly; kids compete with their own number.
3. Called bullpens (11+): every bullpen pitch to a CALLED location (the age-based bullpen plans build this in). No "just throwing."
4. Live-read scrimmages (12+): coach calls pitch + location from the dugout, pitcher executes vs live hitters, the full game loop. This is the exact flow MAVTRAX runs on game day, so scrimmage reps double as system reps.
5. The command benchmark: a youth pitcher who hits the called half of the plate 60% of the time is ahead of the curve; 70%+ to a glove-sized spot is high-school-ready command.

The grid gets smarter when the hitter picks the zone for you. The five tells youth coaches can actually use:

One tell per at-bat is enough: pick it in the first two pitches and call the plan. More on the full mental game: how to call a baseball game.