Off Speed Pitch

1. If you are holding your circle change in your palm, try it more in your fingers.

2. vice versa

3. Put three fingers on top of the ball as if you are going to throw a fastball with another finger on top.

4. Throw a normal fastball but move your top two fingers a little farther apart and put your thumb on the side of the ball instead of under the ball.

 

Hopefully one of these or a combo helps.

Good luck!

 

BaseballByTheYard.com

First of all, understand that anything other than a straight 4 seam FB is going to be slower, providing the same amount of energy is put into it. Second, don’t allow yourself to be conned into thinking that the circle change is the best change, because it all depends on the pitcher.

 

The easiest of the CUs to throw is the 3 fingered CU. Take your FB grip, then move the ring finger up, right alongside the middle finger. Its how every kid learns how to throw a ball when its too large to handle easily. No matter what you do, you won’t be able to throw it with the same velocity as your FB.

 

Another simple CU is to take your FB grip, then spread your index and middle fingers apart. Even as little as an eighth of an inch will slow the pitch down, and of course the more you spread the fingers, the slower its going to get.

 

Then there are about a gozillion differences, from across the seams to moving the thumb that will all have different effects, and those effects will all differ with your pitching “style”. I.e. over the top, three quarters, sidearm, or submarine. What you have to do is keep experimenting until you find something that works for you.

 

Here’s a pic of basically what my son used. For him it was a devastating pitch, but of others it didn’t work worth a darn. http://www.infosports.com/scor...per/images/CUnew.jpg The main thing is to keep trying until you find something you can control and has the effect you’re looking for, then refine it.

 

baseballguy,

I strongly suggest you study this video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17GDx8KVF9A

 

Roll up a ball of socks real tight and every night throw 50 CU's against your bedroom door while concentrating on throwing the side of the ball.

Baseball guy:

 

If you are a freshman, and throw a decent fastball, and decent curve ball, you have all that is needed to be successful in HS.  Those two pitches alone are more than enough, if sequenced correctly, with command to dominate hitters.

 

The change up at the HS level is taught often, and mastered infrequently.  Most CU in HS are basically bad fastballs, and if thrown in the zone, get hit hard.  I know college kids who struggle learning it.  It is one of the pitches that come easy to a very few, and as stated earlier, there are tons of different ways to throw a CU.  The key, is you must maintain FB arm speed, the same arm slot, and for the most part spot it at the knees or lower.  Easier said than done, and at your age, pitchers change their FB mechanics too greatly when throwing the CU.  Remember, a CU is not a bad fastball, it is an actual pitch, and the most common is throwing the Circle change, which amounts to a great amount of pronation at pitch release, hence the cue - "throw the side of your hand" at the plate....easier said than done.

 

Just my opinion, but if you have two pitches now that you can effectively throw, then maybe keep working on the CU, but don't sweat it if you can't throw it yet.  A good four seam, two seam, and curve ball will get you by if you can command them all.

I agree with this but want to know how big your hands are?  If they are smaller then the circle change MAY come as you get older and mature.  If they are bigger then you probably won't ever get it and need to find a different pitch.

 

I'm not disagreeing with backfoot slider but more along the lines of wanting to explain it differently.  In talking about the arm speed saying the same as a FB I truly believe your arm does slow down when throwing a change up BUT it shouldn't be enough to tell the difference.  If a hitter can tell the difference in arm speeds then you're throwing it wrong.  You are now throwing a terrible fastball.  I've seen kids totally not get the change up because they were focusing so much on throwing it same arm speed that they lost the natural feel / effect of the ball coming out.  It's not going to hurt to slow the arm down a little to get control of the feel of the ball coming off the hand.  But if it's so slow you can tell a difference then you're doing it wrong.

 

The key thing for a change up, and hand size doesn't matter, is getting it deep into the palm of the hand.  The more surface area your fingers / palm get of the ball will lead to a decrease in velocity coming out.  While doing what meachrm said about moving the ball around in your grip make sure you're keeping it deep.  This should help the most.

There may be some slight difference in arm speed, but as coach2709 stated, it should not be noticeable to the hitter.  There was a video going around the web on Darvish, it had three motions, one a two seamer, one a split finger, and one his change up.  The video would not immediately show you the pitch at the plate, just the arm action.  It was amazing how all three pitches in real time had the same arm speed, and exact same arm slot, then the video showed the entire motion including the pitch, and you could clearly see the three different actions of the pitches, was pretty amazing.  That's what I'm talking about. 

 

My advice to the OP is stick with your good FB, and curve, while continuing to work on a change up that is comfortable to you.  The real thing that is hard for most pitchers to understand, is the change in grip, and release is what kills the speed, not the arm speed.  My son can't throw one...they all come out as a really bad fastball.  Maybe some day.  But he is still able to pitch VERY effectively with his two seam, four seam, and very nice power curve.

 

Coach2709 I have pretty big hands. Double XL in batting gloves.

In that case, consider a split-finger fastball as your cu. It's easy to do so without changing slot or arm speed. My son has never been able to master a change, but this pitch has been a huge add to his fb/curve regiment. It comes in and just dives.

OK that should help play into being able to throw the circle change.  I still say make sure the ball is deep in your hand but you can still work the placement of the fingers to get comfortable with it.

 

One thing I think you could do to help a few things is start working in changeups in your long toss work.  Don't do it when you are at max distance but around 75-80% max distance.  You should have to put effort into the throw but not max effort with crow hop and launching it.

 

A) It will help work on getting that fastball arm action backfoot is talking about.  That's a great story about Darvish and I don't doubt it one bit but he's also that 1% who can do things us 99% cannot.  But that doesn't mean we have to stop working towards doing what the 1% can do.  Work towards getting arm speed the same for both pitches.

 

B) You'll start getting a better feel for how the ball comes out of your hand.  Now you can play with the grip because you SHOULD be able to see the action in change of speed near the top of the arc being thrown.

 

Just keep working and experimenting.

One thing I've learned over the years coaching and giving hitting instruction is that different players learn the same thing through different explanations. The key is finding the explanation that works for that particular player. I'm not a pitching guy so I can't give you a bunch of CU explanations but I can give you the one that clicked with my kid and maybe it will work. He tried throwing a CU for two or three years and it was a disaster. Finally a new pitching coach told him this and six months later it was his best pitch.

He said take your pointer and middle finger and place them on your wrist. Now push down as hard as you can. Now take your middle and ring finger and do the same thing. Feel the difference. That difference in force creates the CU. now get a four seam grip. Now replace the pointer and middle finger with the middle and ring finger. That's the base of your change up. The placement of the other fingers is just personal comfort, control, and movement. Put the ball in your hand, on the fingertips, pointer and pinky on the sides then underneath and so forth until you find the grip that works for you. Son also switched it to a two seam grip and got better movement. Good luck.

Learn every pitch and throw the ones that are working that day.

 

My son threw different 'changeups' through HS depending on what was working.  Choose from a palm ball, splitter, circle, or 3 finger.