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How Can I Take
More Speed Off My Change Without Giving It Away?
We are talking about
change ups this week at the academy. First off, I
ask the students the purpose of a change up.
Some say to strike
out the batter, some say to have him hit it softly,
and some say to mess up his timing.
I say, you can have
all of those as goals. But probably the biggest
reason to throw a change up is to mess up the
hitters timing. I encourage kids to entice the
batter to swing and hopefully hit a soft ground
ball, or pop up.
When is a change up
in order? Really any time a fastball is appropriate.
If the hitter is expecting a fastball, they are more
likely to be fooled by the change up.
A question I get a
lot is how much slower should my change up be
compared to my fastball. That depends. It depends on
how fast you throw. For hard throwers, the change of
speeds doesn’t need to be as great as a slower
pitcher. If the hitter is geared up for a hard
fastball, a small change in speed will throw his
timing off easier than a slow pitcher with a small
change in speed.
What I see most often
is a pitcher trying to slow the ball down with a
slower arm speed or slowing down his body.
If we slow down the
arm or the body, we lose the purpose of the change
up. To deceive the hitter.
How do we slow the
pitch down without giving it away? Well, it all has
to do with the grip and wrist angle. I encourage
pitchers to experiment with different grips. What
I’ve found the easiest grips to teach are the change
up grips that have the thumb underneath the middle
finger. Essentially, the thumb and middle finger
split the ball in half. For most kids, throwing the
circle change is difficult to control. And most of
the times, their hands aren’t big enough or strong
enough to use that grip.
I also encourage the
kids to experiment with the firmness of the grip. My
best change ups are held loosely in my hand. It
promotes the ball to come out of the hand softly. If
I can rotate my wrist angle a little, opposite of a
curveball, I can usually get a little more speed off
the pitch and get a little downward sink on the
ball. So, I’ve got a little movement with the pitch
and slowed the ball down. A couple of great traits
of a change up.
I encourage the
pitcher to experiment. Once they’ve found a good
grip and hand pressure, it’s now a matter of
experience.
Keep training like a
champion today!
P.S. We’ve got a few
more spots left in this weekend’s Pitchers Boot
camp. Call or email us today to reserve a spot.
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