Young Pitchers: Develop Your Changeup

I saw his tweet this morning and couldn't agree more!

Prepster,

 

Agree with you, Robert and PIS.  So, why do you think this isn't a more featured pitch these days?  Is it a machismo thing?  For some reason, the change up is a little more prevalent in college than high school in my experience over the last 5 years.  So, I'm thinking it isn't getting taught as much at the high school level or kids are taught it they just don't stick with it.  It is a feel pitch, so maybe they lose patience with it. Or they would rather try to strike someone out and make them look silly than get a ground ball.

 

I taught it to my 3 sons prior to high school and two of them used it extensively in high school, and one used it as his secondary pitch in college. My third son felt more comfortable with the curve as the the second featured pitch, but he had a decent change up but it only got called a couple times a game.  .

 

What do you think?

My theory is that it's a combination of related factors:

(1) Most college-bound pitchers have a fastball that's adequate to get as many strikeouts as they need coming up; so, they don't see the immediate need to develop it. 

(2) They reason that if their fastball is fast enough to get by the average high schooler, why develop a pitch that's more the batter's preferred speed that doesn't break?

(3) The "Cult of Velocity."

(4) It's tougher to develop a consistent feel for it than it is a breaking ball. Doesn't feel natural.

 

What their experience usually can't help them understand is that college batters feast on fastballs when they can sit on them; that a pitch that looks like the fastball coming out of the hand, but that comes in at 10 mph less is often devastating against college batters. However, their college coaches certainly know it.

 

 

I've never understood why changeups aren't just taught as three fingered fastballs.

"Hey Johnny we're going to learn a new pitch today...three fingered fastball. Just grab it with three fingers and throw the crap out of it just like your regular fastball. The movement on it is sick!"

When kids are taught "changeup" they know it's supposed to be slower but don't have the confidence to let the grip take away the velocity. So they slow down their arm. If taught young enough maybe we can convince them to just throw their fastball with a slightly different grip. Mentally it's a fastball if done right. Then have them throw long toss with that grip to get used to throwing it with full arm speed. Maybe that will keep their mind from getting in the way?

Good point, it is all in how you teach it.  For younger pitchers why not the circle or palm change.

 

I believe I was at the very game where Prepster's son may have been.  If not his son, then it was another VT scout.  But anyway, the pitcher threw only fastballs.  He was throwing hard and it mostly worked.  I say mostly because the other team was not as skilled and the game was over early due to mercy rules, and our team coming alive at the plate.

 

Having said that, my pitcher has a nice CB (when it works).  He is constantly trying to add a CU but it has never really worked for him.  Lately he has been working on a sinker as a 3rd pitch. 

 

Originally Posted by Prepster:

My theory is that it's a combination of related factors:

(1) Most college-bound pitchers have a fastball that's adequate to get as many strikeouts as they need coming up; so, they don't see the immediate need to develop it. 

(2) They reason that if their fastball is fast enough to get by the average high schooler, why develop a pitch that's more the batter's preferred speed that doesn't break?

(3) The "Cult of Velocity."

(4) It's tougher to develop a consistent feel for it than it is a breaking ball. Doesn't feel natural. ...

 

While I’m sure at least the 1^st 3 of those are certainly contributing factors, I’m pretty sure the main reason is the guys calling the pitches are afraid to call it for the unwarranted fear it will get blasted.

TPM, 

 

Brandon throws 5 pitches for strikes.... primary pitch is two seam fast ball followed by sinker... slider...curve...and change... MOST of the time he goes to the bullpen and works through each pitch.. and gets an idea of what is working that day and what is not and goes forward.  some days all 5 are good...  But the velo just really went up this past season. He might  be told to just use 3 pitches this fall I don't know what they will have him do

Thats great, most MLB pitchers dont even use 5.  

 

I would think at some point this fall he will need to focus on three pitches to make them plus pitches.... but while he was in Juco ball why not experiment 

Can't speak for the rest of the country, but in the Atlanta area the circle change is used until the kid gets "man hands" and then the traditional CU is taught.  My son's personal experience was that he had very little control with the circle change and preferred throwing a 4 seam and/or a 2 seam FB until he was taught the real CU grip, which is working out a LOT better for him than the circle change ever did.

       
       
My experience with change ups is different grips work for different pitchers.  The 3 finger works for very few as far as I can see.

       
       
Not sure.there is a traditional change.  I guess the palm ball maybe.  But many different grips for change ups.

There are a lot of ways to throw a CU.  Basically, the gist of it is to find a grip such that the pitch is thrown with an increased degree of inefficiency (not all of the arm speed is transferred to the ball).

 

Which one works best may change as the kid grows.  My 2016's hands grew a lot in the past 18 months.  His fingers got so much longer that he was having a hard time throwing any conventional CU consistently.  If he kept it choked properly back at the base of his fingers, his fingers provided too much resistance (causing him to "spike" the ball) or he would have to open his fingers at release, which caused all manner of control problems.  Or he would let the ball roll out toward the fingertips, which effectively allowed him to throw a FB with a CU grip (which you can do with really long fingers).

 

He switched to a splitter about 4 months ago, which seems to have solved the problem and works well with his hands.

I don't care what change up it is...I was just using "three finger fastball" as an example. "Changeup" signals in their mind to slow their arm down. Basically it's this: fastball mentality, changeup grip. What type of changeup is personal preference.

I taught my son to throw the circle change at a young age.  He used it a lot from around 9 until 13 or so.  After that thru HS, he didn't like to throw it a lot because he said most batters are late on his FB, so why would I want to throw something that speeds up their bats?  I continued to hound him to throw it in bullpens and continue to work on it, even though he didn't throw it a lot in games.  Once he got to college, the FB wasn't so fast anymore and he went back to using the CU.  It has been his go to pitch.  Very effective.  I'm just glad I made him keep working on it all those years.

 

What is the "traditional CU"?  My son has been throwing the circle change since he was 9 and still throws it as a 21 year old (almost 22).  Tom Glavine made the HOF throwing a circle change.  But mostly, I'm honestly not sure what the "traditional CU" is.  

The splitter is what my son eventually had to go to. He's never been able to get a good feel for any change grip. He threw a circle change for awhile, but could never get it any slower than about 5mph at most slower than his FB. At least not without control problems. The splitter has worked fine, but we've still been trying to develop a more "traditional" change with what little spare bullpen time he has this summer.

I have found many youth are already throwing a change up thinking it's a fastball.  They just can't grip the ball with the end of the fingers.  I think this is the number one reason "CU grips" don't have a big impact for most youth. 

 

Second, most youth pitchers should be learning to throw hard and start to work on command. 

 

Third there is only so many throws available in a week.  It's hard to find "enough" throws after working on FB velocity and command to devote towards the CU. 

 

Fourth I have yet to find a kid that isn't "playing" with secondary and off speed junk away from BP.  Which is a good thing. 

Originally Posted by 2020dad:

My experience with change ups is different grips work for different pitchers.  The 3 finger works for very few as far as I can see.

 

What you’re seeing is most are teaching the circle change because that’s what being talked about most. 25 years ago, the talk was about “choking” the ball by cramming it away from the fingertips into the palm. I’ve always advocated the 3 fingered change because it’s the one grip every players has used at one time or another, and is the most versatile grip of any in baseball.

 

When the majority are using one grip, of course the appearance is the other grips aren’t working, when in fact it’s something else entirely that makes a CU “work”. Its effectiveness comes from how much it looks like a different pitch that has more velocity, and that depends on how well the pitcher throwing in executes both pitches.

Originally Posted by roothog66:

The splitter is what my son eventually had to go to. He's never been able to get a good feel for any change grip. He threw a circle change for awhile, but could never get it any slower than about 5mph at most slower than his FB. At least not without control problems. The splitter has worked fine, but we've still been trying to develop a more "traditional" change with what little spare bullpen time he has this summer.

 

Contrary to what many believe, the closer the arm action and rotation of the CU is to the pitcher’s FB, the less velocity difference is needed.

 

Just for fun, have him try this grip. It doesn’t take much to make it move one way or the other, and it doesn’t come with some of the problems a split does.

 

http://www.infosports.com/scor...per/images/CUnew.jpg