Category Archives: Pitching
Pitching speeds and reality
Saw a game last night where a 12 (or probably 13 by now) was clocking speeds in the high 50s, and even a couple of 60s. This was on my own Jugs radar gun, which I keep tuned. The batteries were dying so there’s a chance it might’ve been off, or I might’ve had it pointed at the bat instead of the pitch, but it seemed like it was correct.
That’s pretty amazing, at least to me. I don’t even see many older kids throwing the ball that hard. When I mentioned it to another coach he asked me how a kid that young gets to throw that hard. My answer, based on what I saw, was she picked her parents well.
I didn’t see a lot of extraordinary technique. She seemed to rely mostly on her arm rather than getting her legs into it or attacking the pitch. But she was still zipping the ball. My guess is a lot of it is just raw ability, enhanced by good, solid mechanics that allow the ability to do its thing.
That got me thinking, though. People will bring their daughters to a pitching coach with expectation that the coach will have some magic that gets her to 60, or 65, mph. But there are more factors than just mechanics involved.
To understand, let’s think of another athletic skill in softball — running. Some kids are just naturally faster than others. A big, plodding kid who runs 60 feet in 3.8 seconds is never going to improve that speed to 2.8, no matter how many coaches she sees or how hard she works. Running a 2.8 is pretty extraordinary, which is why it’s valued. If you don’t have the DNA to begin with, you’re not going to get there. The kid who’s running 3.8 can improve on that score and get fast-er. Through maturity, hard work, effort, improved mechanics, etc. she might be able to get to 3.3. But that’s not 2.8. There’s a huge difference.
The same goes for pitchers. Some will never hit 60 mph, because they simply lack the physical capacity to do so. They aren’t strong enough, or they don’t have enough fast twitch muscles, to get there. There are things they can do to improve their pitching speed, but at some point they will have maxed out what their bodies can do. If that wasn’t true, elite pitchers would be throwing 90 mph because they keep working on technique and strength training.
Everyone has a point they can’t get beyond. The reality is it’s lower for some than for others. The good news is pitchers can still be very effective even if they’re not throwing in the 60s if they get good movement, change speeds, and mix their pitches well. And once the hitters catch up to the speed, the 12 year old who throws 60, if she doesn’t keep working to improve her technique and develop other pitches, may very well find herself playing a different position, wondering what happened.
Identifying elite pitchers
A while back a friend put up a list on his blog. Unfortunately, it is no longer active, but in it he identified the characteristics he would use to determine whether an 11 or 12 year old has the potential to be an elite pitcher. It’s based on his experience in training, as a grad student, and coaching.
I looked at the list and I would agree with everything he says. It does seems like those are the characteristics for an elite pitcher. The thing that might discourage many people about the list, though, is if they see their daughter doesn’t have some or all of those characteristics. Does that mean she shouldn’t pitch?
Not necessarily, in my opinion. First of all, most of those attributes are true regardless of position. Becoming an elite player takes more than hard work or wanting to play at UCLA ASU. There’s a certain amount of good fortune involved. As I told my own daughter last night, certain people in the college game did a better job of picking their parents than she did.
The point is, she doesn’t have any particular desire to be an elite player, but she does love to play and does love to pitch. The attributes she does have lend themselves to being successful at the level to which she aspires to play. You don’t have to be everything on the list to pitch. You mostly have to want to, and be willing to work at it. Those things are required regardless of the level.
People fanatical enough to hang out on softball boards and read softball blogs often hope their daughters will be the next Cat Osterman. But those players are rare. Fastpitch softball is a huge sport, though, with a great many levels to it. There’s a place for everyone who wants to play.
If your daughter wants to be an elite player, definitely check out the list and see how she measures up. It’s a great level set. But if she doesn’t, don’t sweat it. Just make sure she does the things to be successful at the level she can compete at. That’s the single best thing you can do for her.
Pitch speeds in the WCWS
Ask anyone what kind of speed you need to pitch in Division 1 college softball and the answer is sure to be “mid-60s.” (Of course some people think that’s also a typical speed for a 12 year old, but that’s a story for another day.)
As I’ve been watching the Regionals, Super Regionals and Women’s College World Series this year, though, I’m noticing a different trend. I’ve been seeing more pitchers throwing consistently in the mid-to-high 50s. Case in point: tonight’s game with Alabama and ASU. The ASU pitcher fit the mold — her pitches were mostly 62 to 66 mph. But the ‘Bama pitcher was more in the 55-59 mph range. Yes, ASU went on to win the game, but it was on what looked to me to be a foul ball. Up until the seventh, they were held scoreless.
Not sure exactly what to make of all of this. Maybe it’s tough to get those tall California girls who throw in the 60s to go to Alabama. But I’ve seen other teams where that’s the case as well. Perhaps it points out that movement really is more important that speed as everyone likes to say. It may also point out that D1 coaches are starting to believe it too.
Finding the release point for the backhand change
One of the challenges of learning the backhand change is finding the correct release point. Let it go too early and it either rolls in or flies in too fast. Let it go too late and there’s a tendency for it to arc in.
One trick I often use during lessons is to stand in front of the pitcher with my arm outstretched about shoulder high. The arm is placed approximately where the hand will reach as the pitcher comes through with the pitch. I tell the pitcher to hold the ball under her hand gets under my arm, then release. If she follows this direction, the pitch will usually come in low and slow, with a kind of floating effect.
That’s great for practice. But as I remind the pitchers, I can’t exactly stand in front of them with my arm outstretched during a game. Even if it wasn’t against the rules, which it is, it would be kind of obvious when the change was coming — which would defeat the purpose.
There is another way to do it, though. Tell the pitcher to hold the ball until her hand gets to where her stride foot has planted. If she takes it there, and keeps her arm loose, she’ll throw a perfect change every time. Over the front foot is the exact release point needed. Give it a try!
What it’s all about
Had another one of those moments last night that reminds me of why I love coaching. One of my students came to her lesson all excited. She had pitched what the parent of another student called the game of her life against one of the top 14U teams in the area. She said she was throwing really well, all her pitches were working, and she was completely baffling them.
Although her team eventually lost the game 2-1 on two unearned runs in the bottom of the last inning, she felt like she’d won. She definitely made a statement.
Here in the midwest we spend a lot of time indoors working on pitching. In fact, often we spend far more time indoors than outdoors. The summer season runs from about April to August, with fall ball encompassing September and October. With so much time in the gym it’s easy for pitchers to lose perspective and forget why they’re practicing. Games like the one Rachel had this past weekend are the reward for what can often be long and tedious hours spent throwing ball after ball indoors.
I can tell you this much. Not only did she come in pumped up, she was as attentive and worked as hard as I’ve ever seen her work. A little taste of success can sure leave you hungry for more!
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.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 