Previously I’ve talked about the importance of keeping a bit of a bend in the arm when you’re throwing the backhand change. That helps get rid of the dreaded “hump” in the pitch, where it starts to go out, then goes up a little — right into the hitter’s wheelhouse. Raising the arm slightly allows the pitcher to throw it out flat, which will keep it down.

Sometimes, however, pitchers think they’re bending the arm to pull the ball up but they’re actually not. Here’s a way to help them get the feel of it.

Take a lightweight object and hold it at the pitcher’s release point. I usually use a garden kneeling pad since it’s flexible. Hold it at the bottom of the normal circle. Then have the pitcher throw the change. If she’s dipping down instead of raise her arm, the ball will hit the object as she throws it. This will give her the feedback she needs to know where her hand should go.

Normally I tell the pitcher I’m going to hold it in the regular path of the ball. In truth, I actually hold it lower than that. They really have to work to hit it. But the idea of having it down there is usually enough to make them concerned and to bring the ball a little higher. Once it’s there, the arm is in a weak position — which means the pitcher can throw the ball as hard as she can without risking it being fast.

It’s a great trick, and works every time.

I was having a discussion with a coach named Gail last night about the signals for her pitchers. There apparently were some inconsistencies on her team about the numbers assigned to various pitches. A couple of her pitchers come to me for lessons, and a couple go to someone else. The other pitching coach uses different numbers than Gail does for the pitches, and there were some questions about whether they should use different signals for the pitchers. This is actually more common than you might think, especially on younger teams.

In my mind, I don’t really care what numbers are assigned to various pitches by a team coach. Many of the team coaches of my students use a different numbering system than I do. That’s fine with me. I just need to know what system they use so when a student throws a pitch I know whether it did what it was supposed to do.

What I do believe is that whatever signals the team uses, they should use them for all pitchers. It’s just too confusing to have two or three sets of signals for different pitchers. A mistake will be inevitable, and since the softball gods can be cruel it will occur at the worst possible moment. If you or your catcher call for an outside pitch and the pitcher thinks it’s an inside one it’s probably going to end up at the screen.

How much do I believe this? Last the pitchers and catchers on the team I coach used a different numbering system than I use. There was confusion early in a practice game, so I told them to get together and figure it out. I believe it was the catchers who had the most input, since they call the pitches and needed to be confident in what they were calling.

Of course, that was a 16U team. If you’re not quite at that point, the head coach needs to make a decision and set the signals. That’s what Gail said she was going to do. You want everyone on board and pulling the same way. Having consistent pitch signals is one more way to do it.

Ok, I decided to borrow the Army’s slogan for this one. The full saying from them is there’s strong, then there’s Army strong. With a son who is on his way back to Afghanistan after a 15-day leave I guess the Army is on my mind.

What made me think of this today was working with one of my students, a girl named Haley, tonight. With the holidays and all it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen her. Haley was working hard when I got to the facility tonight, really putting a lot of effort in. Yet because she was trying so hard she was forming a bad habit. As she moved into release, she sort of did this arm curl move where she pulled her hand straight up instead of letting the forearm and hand whip past the elbow.

I told her I realized she was doing it because it felt strong, but it actually was limiting her speed. It was also putting her at risk of injury, most likely to the elbow but also possibly the shoulder the way she was tightening everything up.

We worked on getting the arm long again at release and after a little while she was back on track and moving on to other things. As she got it corrected she could feel how much easier it was to throw hard by staying loose. I told her she’d last a lot longer at a tournament that way too.

Fortunately, Haley is very coachable as well as being talented, so it was easy to get her to change. Not every kid is like that, however. They will want to stay with what feels strong instead of what actually is strong. But just because something takes a lot of effort doesn’t mean you’re using strength efficiently. Most players who are “in the zone” will tell you the activity feels almost effortless. That’s definitely true for pitching. They’ll use a lot of energy, but it will be easy energy. If it’s not, something is wrong.

Just saw this article referenced at DiscussFastpitch.com. The article is on a site focused on fastpitch pitching called PitchSoftball.com, and represents the observations of Gerald Warner, a pitching instructor from Colorado.

For those of you whose 14 year old daughters DON’T throw 65 mph with eight pitches (as the daughters of most people on eTeamz’s boards seem to do), don’t despair. According to the site, while the average pitch speed at a particular age varies by region, Coach Warner puts an average 14U pitch speed at 50. A 13 year old will pitch between 40 and 50, he says.

That’s pretty consistent with what I’ve seen too. There are always exceptions on both ends, but the speeds listed here are more the norms. Incidentally, an average HS pitcher is listed at 53-57 mph.

As people point out in the DiscussFastpitch post, keep in mind that speed is only one element of a successful pitcher. You need enough speed to be respectable, but you don’t have to be overpowering to be successful. Movement, location, and intelligence/pitch selection are also important – perhaps even moreso, especially at the upper levels.

Check out the article. It’s a quick read, but a good one.

You would think this would be self-evident but apparently it’s not, so I bring it up here.

There are two things that make a pitch move — the direction of the spin and the speed of the spin. You need to have both in order for the ball to do what it’s supposed to do.

Still, I am amazed at how many times I will watch a pitcher throw a “curve ball” or a “drop ball” or whatever and see that it’s not spinning in the right direction. The Magnus Effect dictates that air rushing around a spinning ball will go across the sides at different rates, creating a difference in air pressure. When the difference gets to be enough, the ball moves.

So, as shown in the illustration here, if you want the ball to drop sharply, it has to be spinning 12 to 6. No other spin will create that same effect. For a right handed pitcher to throw a curve ball, the ball has to be spinning 3 to 9 (from the pitcher’s perspective), or darned close to that.

So when you’re working with a pitcher, that’s the first thing to check on a movement pitch — the direction of the spin. Because if you don’t have that, none of the rest of it matters. You can do all the other mechanics perfectly, but if you’re not releasing the ball in a way that imparts the proper spin you’re wasting your time.

Keep in mind that a drop ball is not a ball that angles downward. It is a ball that comes in fairly flat, or maybe with a slight downward angle, and then drops suddenly — the old “falling off a table” description. A curve ball has to be more than a pitch that moves from throwing hand side to glove side. It has to be traveling in one direction, then suddenly change directions. If it doesn’t, it’s not a true curve ball.

The speed of the spin is the other factor. Once you have the direction correct, you need to make sure it’s spinning fast enough to move. The faster the spin, the more the ball will move because the bigger the pressure differential will be on the ball. Balls that spin in the right direction, but tumble more than spin, won’t move. You don’t need a lot of forward speed on the pitch to get it to move either. Even a 40-45 mph pitch can move if it’s spinning fast enough.

Once you have the spin direction and spin speed, then it’s time to worry about locating the pitch. Up until that point you’re wasting your time. Focus on good spin and the rest will fall into place. And if you have a pitch that isn’t moving sharply, check the spin. You may have some work to do.

I know it seems like I’m obsessed with the change this week. And perhaps I am. But it’s an important pitch and worth focusing on.

Sometimes a pitcher can have trouble getting her hand turned around in time to throw the backhand change. If that happens, try telling her to make sure she brings her thumb to her thigh as she brings the ball through the bottom of the circle. This cue is specific, and helps assure that her hand is coming knuckles first through the release zone.

Tonight was the first time I’ve used the cue, and it worked in the situation where it was needed. It may not work for everyone, but it’s certainly worth a try. The challenge for any coach is to find a way to communicate what the player needs to do in a way that makes sense to her. Thumb to the thigh is part of the rhyme often used for overhand throwing — thumb to the thigh, raise it to the sky, wave bye-bye. Now I know it works for pitching too!

Have you ever watched a pitcher who generally has a good changeup suddenly start struggling to throw it well? The pitch comes in too fast, or it goes high, or it rolls in — or sometimes all of the above. The pitcher will work diligently to correct it, but it just seems to get worse.

Often there is a simple cure, but one that doesn’t make sense on the surface. What I’ve found works is to tell the pitcher to just throw the heck out of her changeup.

Here’s why it works. The changeup depends on a certain timing. It’s built to look like a fast pitch but come in slower. If the pitcher throws it incorrectly once for whatever reason, often her correction will be to try to slow her arm down a little in order to take off speed. But in doing so, she throws off the timing of her arm with the rest of her body. That leads to another bad changeup and more “corrections” until she’s not throwing the pitch she’s been trained to throw.

Instead of going slower, the pitcher needs to go faster. She needs to trust in the pitch and just let the mechanics work for her. If she has a good change, driving into it and throwing it hard will get her where she needs to be when she releases the ball. Again assuming she has the pitch to begin with.

This idea seems to work no matter what type of change the pitcher is throwing. Have her be confident, and just throw the dang thing. It’s amazing what our bodies can do when we get our brains out of the way.