Category Archives: Pitching
A corollary to the Law of Opposites
In a previous post I described what I cal the Law of Opposites, which essentially states that to make a ball move in one direction you must first go in the opposite direction.
There is a corollary to this law however. It applies to the changeup. This law says that to make a ball go slow, you must go fast. Not for one of those weak slow your arm down types of changes, but for a true change where you disguise the pitch speed.
Even those who are throwing a true change sometimes will let up off the pitch, especially at the end. That is the wrong approach to take. What it will do is actually make the change faster than it should be. Instead, you should focus on bringing the arm around as fast at you can. Going fast will take you past the normal point of release for a fastball, helping you release the ball at a weaker point. Throwing the ball from a weak release point, of course, will make it go slower.
It is counter-intuitive, but it works. Keep the arm speed up throughout and you’ll have greater success with the change.
Making the backhand change work
Most of you are probably aware of the importance of having a good changeup. It’s great for upsetting the timing of hitters, and even if it doesn’t work as it should (i.e. get thrown for a strike) it can still help set up the next pitch.
One of the most popular changes these days is the backhand change. It’s also called the flip change, but over the years I’ve found it’s better if you don’t flip the wrist.
I’ve talked previously about some of the mechanics, such as knuckles to nose and keeping a little bend in the arm as you bring it through. But one thing that bears repeating now and then is the importance of maintaining arm speed. Certainly it’s important for fooling the hitter. But it’s also important for taking speed off the ball.
That’s right. It may seem counterintuitive, but providing you’re using the right mechanics, the faster you go and the harder you try to throw it the slower the ball will go. And by the same token, if you slow your arm down you’ll throw it too fast, turning a good fastball into a crappy one, not a change.
Maintaining arm speed helps you get the ball past the fastball release point and out in front of the front leg. Slowing the arm down changes the timing, bringing the release point back closer to the normal fastball release.
If the change is coming out too fast, don’t slow down. Speed up. It’ll work a lot better.
A drop is the same as a fastball to a blind horse
Calling pitches is as much an art as a science. There are all kinds of rules of thumb you can follow, but the truth is some people have a better feel for it than others.
If you have the knack for it, or have a coach or catcher who does, consider yourself very fortunate. It makes things a whole lot easier for everyone.
But what if you are a pitcher (or the parent of one) whose has someone calling pitches that just doesn’t have the talent for it? Especially the kind who calls a fastball down the middle when you’re ahead in the count thinking you’ll go for the strikeout?
If you can blow the ball by the hitters it’s not that a bad a call. But as you move up the ladder, it becomes increasingly difficult to make that fastball stand up. Give a good hitter too many looks at the plate and it’s like letting her hit against a pitching machine. Sooner or later she’s going to figure out.
So what do you do if you know the person calling pitches is making bad calls? If it’s the catcher, you can always shake her off. She may not like it, but you have to throw what you’re comfortable with. Hopefully the pitcher and catcher can talk and get on the same page.
What about if it’s a coach, though? This gets a little tougher. Hopefully you have the type of coach you can talk to. Let the coach know it’s not working and you’d like to try something else, then make the suggestion.
If you don’t have a coach who’s open to suggestions, you may have to take more drastic action. One thing you can do is substitute a peel drop for the fastball. A pitch with movement is much tougher to hit, and a peel drop pretty much looks the same as a fastball, especially from the bench. For hitters who tend to stand up as they swing it’s a great pitch, because they’ll pull the bat up and over the ball as it moves down. For hitters who can follow it down, the tendency will be to hit ground balls; hopefully your infield is up to fielding them. Either way, it’s better than watching a home run go over the fence.
Understand that this strategy is more of a last resort. You shouldn’t go changing the pitch calls on a whim. But if what’s going on just isn’t working, and your “survival” is at stake, you may need to take things into your own hands. You’ll be doing everyone involved — including the coach — a favor.
Short-term failure v. long-term success
On my way home from teaching lessons tonight I was thinking about how hard many pitchers work on different pitches. Yet when it comes to games, often they (or their coaches) are reluctant to use them. They find it’s easier to be successful win if they stick with fastballs rather than taking a chance on throwing changeups or movement pitches they’ve spent the off-season learning.
That’s the wrong attitude, though. For a pitcher to develop so she can compete at a higher level, she needs to use all her pitches in game situations, even if it causes her to struggle a bit for a while.
Yes, I know, it’s easy for me to say. I’m not the one watching her struggle, or watching my team lose a game while the pitcher tries to develop. But I have been. In fact, I used that very strategy with my own daughter, while coaching my own team. By her first year in 14U she had developed a drop, curve, and screw to go with her fastball and change. Before the season we made a commitment to limit the use of the fastball, and instead focus on the other pitches. It was tough for a while — the control was a little off, and the movement was less than ideal. She got knocked around a bit, but as the season wore on she got better. Today, changes and movement pitches are the core of her game.
I will admit during that season we did wind up using more fastballs than the original plan. It was a worthwhile compromise that helped the team win more games. But we still relied primarily on the movement pitches.
It can be tough sometimes to lose games you might otherwise win. But especially at the younger ages it’s important to sacrifice a few wins now for more wins later. Use those new pitches and let the pitcher develop. It’s the key to long-term success.
For a faster arm, try faster feet
Saw this on Cindy Bristow’s Softball Excellence site and thought it was worth passing along. We often try to get our pitchers to increase their arm speed in order to make the pitch go faster. But sometimes, in focusing on the arm, we forget about the feet.
Cindy points out that increasing the speed the feet move during the delivery phase will cause the arm to speed up automatically. Or at least it should. The body wants to remain in balance whenever it can. If the arm is going too fast for the feet, the pitch will be way off. The reverse is also true. But it’s easier for pitchers to think of speeding up the arm than the feet, especially because the legs are heavier and thus require more effort to move.
If you can get your pitchers to speed up the footwork, it will make it a lot easier for them to speed up their arms and deliver the ball not only faster but more reliably.
Learning spins with the TightSpin Trainer
A little while ago I received a very interesting product — the TightSpin Trainer from Spintech. It looks like a softball on the end of the handle of a paint roller handle, but it’s a lot more than that. There is actually a braking wheel that allows you to adjust the tension to go from free spinning to very difficult to turn.
The manufacturer says that the TightSpin Trainer was originally developed to help pitchers build wrist strength. I can see where it would. The idea is you turn the ball 20 times in a row, quickly and powerfully. As the pitcher finds it easier to turn, you increase the tension. In that aspect it’s like any other weight lifting program. In conversations with George at Spintech, he says a pitcher can add 3-4 mph by training regularly with it.
I have not been able to confirm that part yet. But what I have discovered is that it’s excellent for helping pitchers learn the wrist snap for the curve ball. I have used it with several pitchers, and every single one was able to improve the spin on the ball after 10-20 turns of the unit.
This is important because true curve ball spin can be difficult to learn (as detailed in my post Getting Proper Spin on the Curveball). You have to be able to get the hand under the ball, palm up and fingers pointed to the side. And you have to be able to snap the wrist sharply from side to side rather than upwards as with a fastball or peel drop.
When pitchers are struggling with the curve ball, both of those aspects become a problem. The TightSpin Trainer helps them learn it quickly. Here’s how to make it happen.
Start by having a coach, parent or friend hold the handle straight up and down, with the ball at the bottom. The pitcher then grasps the ball palm-up. Don’t worry about getting the proper grip relative to the seams. Any grip will do. Then instruct the pitcher to snap the wrist quickly. Odds are she will turn it slowly and/or just a little bit. Encourage her to snap it quickly. Watch out for the elbow flying out — make sure it stays tucked in. Once she has the feel of turning it properly, go back to pitching. 
The TightSpin Trainer can also be very effective for training the rollover drop. It is another pitch that requires the wrist to move in a direction that is other than the standard up-snap.
One of the nice things with the TightSpin Trainer is that it comes with an instructional DVD if you catch it at the right time. Otherwise the DVD is $14.95. The DVD is helpful for learning how to use it — especially for me, who thought it should always spin freely.
Cost for the TightSpin Trainer is $39.95. In my opinion it’s well worth the price. Especially with its “guarantee with teeth” — if you haven’t increased your strikeouts in 90 days after following the program, call them and you’ll get your money back. Can’t beat that.
If you’re looking to improve the spin of various pitches, or just want to increase wrist strength, check out the TightSpin Trainer.
Motionview! video analysis software
This is a reprint of a product review I wrote last year for Softball Magazine. The product is definitely worth checking out, so I thought I would post the review up here. Hope you find it helpful.
One of the best and most popular tools for helping player development is video. With a simple camera and playback device (such as a TV), players have the opportunity to see themselves in action and perhaps gain a better understanding of what their coaches mean. After all, it’s one thing for a coach to say “you’re dropping your elbow when you throw.” The player may think the coach means the elbow is dropping to a point just above the shoulder. But when watching the video, he/she can see the coach means it’s dropping to a point just above the bottom of the rib cage.
The camera/TV combination is fine for basic viewing, but it makes it difficult to really get into the topic. Downloading the video to a computer and watching it on Windows Media Player, Apple QuickTime, or RealPlayer is somewhat of an improvement, but those applications are still very limited in their ability to show and explain exactly what’s happening.
Recently I downloaded such a product. It is called MotionView!, a software application from AllSportsSystems. It is a feature-packed program that allows a coach to provide a thorough, multi-point analysis of a student’s performance, either from live or previously captured video.
The version I downloaded is called MotionView! Coach. It is their mid-level product, but it provides everything I (and most coaches or parents) will need.
The drawing toolbar is robust but easy to use. The basic drawing tools include the ability to draw lines, circles, and squares. An extended toolbar adds the ability to draw angles, arrows, freehand shapes and more. You can choose from six different colors, and even change the thickness of the lines as needed.
One interesting tool, especially when working with pitchers, is the ability to add an analog clock face. When you’re telling a pitcher that the hand should be between 10 and 11 o’clock when the stride foot toe touches it helps to be able to draw that clock. Keep in mind a lot of kids these days rely solely on digital clocks, which means they aren’t really sure where 11 o’clock is. But they’ll never tell you. They’ll just nod as if they understand. 
Another handy tool is called the “kite tail.” This one is a bit more complicated because it first requires you to carve out a brief section (called a canister) of your video. Once you have the small clip, though, you can mark each point of a moving object to create a continuous line. MotionView! advances the frames for you automatically. Once all the frames have been marked and you hit the “play” button, the video traces the line, showing the motion. For example, if you mark the tip of the bat during a swing, you can see the whole path the bat takes. The only problem is it doesn’t give you the smooth curving line that’s shown on the Web site. It’s more of a polygon – a series of straight lines that create a shape, Still, you can gain a lot of insight regarding the path of moving object with this tool.
There’s more to MotionView! than drawing tools, though. You can run the video backward and forward, adjusting the speed from regular to slow to frame-by-frame. You can also reverse the view, turning a left hander into a right hander or vice versa. You can open two videos at once for side-by-side comparison, say between your student and a top-level player or a before-and-after comparison, and even synch them together. With the Coach version you can overlay one video on top of another, and export still shots to pass along to the students.
Sounds like a lot for just $85 (with the online coupon). But as they say on all the Popeil commercials, wait! There’s more! There is a built-in timer that shows the elapsed time in the video. You can convert a section of the video into a film strip so you can see the entire movement at once. You can zoom in on sections of the video and adjust the display to different sizes – including full screen mode. You can even type in titles or instructions that can then be exported along with the video.
The download itself is a little kluge. No matter what version you want, you have to start by downloading the free “Lite” version. Once you have done that, if you have purchased a higher level version you have to send an e-mail or go online to request the code to unlock your version. AllSportsSystems is pretty responsive but you still may have to wait a few hours to get your key code depending on the day and time you make your purchase. After I did the download the application started looking for a file that didn’t exist, and would give me an error message. But an e-mail to AllSportsSystems solved the problem quickly. They responded within 12 hours on a weekend, so I give them an A for customer service.
This is an outstanding, feature-packed application that allows you to perform an unbelievable variety of analysis. If you’re a coach looking for a better way to show students what they’re doing, or a knowledgeable player who wants to improve his/her game, check out the MotionView! family of products. You won’t be disappointed.
Getting proper spin on the curve ball
The basics of pitching dictate that there are two things that make a ball move — the direction of the spin and the speed of the spin. In other words the ball has to be spinning in the right direction to move as it’s supposed to, and it has to be spinning fast enough for the Magnus effect to work in order for the ball to change directions.
The fastpitch curve ball presents a particular challenge in both aspects because it requires the wrist to move in a way that’s different from other pitches — especially the core fastball and peel drop. Rather than snapping up, it has to snap sideways. It’s often described as sliding the back of the hand across a table. While I’m not a believer in the muscle-driven wrist snap on the fastball/peel drop — I see it as more of the end of a chain of events than event in and of itself — with the curve, you do have to make a strong and powerful snap across.
Easier said than done, however. It can be challenging to get under the ball and snap the wrist sideways. Here are a few tips to make it happen:
- The throwing side shoulder has to get lower than the glove side shoulder. That’s an absolute. If the throwing side shoulder comes up, you’ll have a tendency to pull over the ball rather than snap under it.
- Try to bring the throwing side elbow to your bellybutton. You probably won’t actually get it that far forward, but it’s a definite destination. The reason is if the elbow gets far forward, it will cause the arm to snap across toward the outside corner rather than straight forward. It will also make it easier to get underneath the ball.
- Keep the ball in the fingers and use the fingers to propel the ball forward as well as sideways. I just discovered this explanation tonight. I had a pitcher who was having trouble getting the spin right, so we went all the way back to the basic spin, just popping it up into her glove. What we found was she was getting it out too soon, which resulted in a riseball back spin instead of a side spin. By keeping it in her fingers a little longer she was able to get the side spin.
- Start cupping you hand under the ball just past the top of the circle. If you wait until the bottom of the circle you will likely be late, and will wind up snapping the wrist up instead of sideways.
Remember, just because you have a curve ball grip doesn’t mean you have a curve ball. If it ain’t got that spin, it ain’t a curve ball.
Bill Hillhouse and the PCM
I admit I’m a little behind on my softball reading, but I just read a great article on Bill Hillhouse’s House of Pitching Web site. It’s a rant about what he calls the Pitching Coach Mafia (PCM) and how it’s ruining the chances of pitchers to have a great career. He couldn’t be more right on.
Bill is a somewhat controversial guy because he calls it like he sees it, and doesn’t mind it if people don’t like that. As I read the article, though, all I could think was “right on!” He is constantly crusading against some of the bad techniques that are being taught by various instructors who may mean well but shouldn’t be teaching.
One example Bill mentioned is locking the elbow while pitching. I have stood in gyms where kids I knew were taking lessons extended their arms out as far as they would go, locked their elbows, and pushed the ball through the circle. They tend not to continue pitching by the time they’re about 15. Other examples are “closing the door” (slamming the hips closed), exaggeration of the wrist snap, and slapping the leg with the glove. Ouch!
One I’d like to add to that list is touching the shoulder with the hand after the pitch. The reason given for doing it is to make sure the pitcher follows through. But she doesn’t really. A follow through involves bringing the elbow through, not just the hand. Trying to touch the shoulder with the hand is a proven way to develop elbow problems, and it will actually make you throw slower, not faster. It will also prevent you from learning other pitches.
In the article, Bill also talks about the folks who know nothing about hitting but teach it anyway — which is why this post is also classified under hitting. Things like slapping the back with the bat make no sense at all, yet enough girls do it that somebody has to be teaching it. Bill says he thinks the hitting problems are worse because while not everyone feels qualified to talk about pitching a softball, everyone thinks they know how to swing a bat.
Be sure to check out this article, as well as others on the site. He’s a great resource to tap into.
Strength of the arms v. the legs
Last week my friend (and former assistant) John Parssinen sent a link to an article from the NY Times (I think) that explained an important consideration in both hitting and pitching. The article was about some advice that new Cub Kosuke Fukudome was giving to players in the Japanese industrial league as part of his farewell tour.
He was talking about how important it is to use the legs instead of the arms alone. He was talking about hitting, but it applies to pitching and throwing as well. Fukudome told them to imagine someone told them to stand on their hands. How long do they think their arms would support them? Then he said think about standing on your legs. You can do that all day, because they’re much stronger.
Hitters develop more power when they get their legs and torsos involved than when they just swing with their arms. I’ve never understood why anyone would think arm swinging is a good idea, but there are still plenty of fastpitch coaches who teach it.
It’s even worse for pitchers. It frustrates me to watch an otherwise good pitcher throw all arm. Some can throw hard for a little while, but they tend to tire easily. The arms are just not made to carry that kind of load. Pitchers’ arms need to be fast and loose, not tight and muscled up. That’s not to say they don’t need to be strong – they do — but the arm’s strength is needed to transfer power, not create it. That’s basic physiology. At best they can only add to power over the long term.
One last thing to keep in mind: Fukudome was talking to a group of men. Men’s upper bodies are far stronger than women’s. So if men need to use their legs to create power, it’s even more important for women.
Take a cue from Fukudome. Use the strongest parts of the body to create power and you’ll throw/hit harder and last longer. That’s the way Nature planned it.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 