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Changeups Work Better When You Call Them
Ask anyone who knows a thing or two about fastpitch softball pitching about the changeup and they’ll tell you it’s one of the greatest weapons a pitcher can have in her arsenal. The ability to take 10-15 mph off the speed of a pitch while making it look like it will be delivered at the pitcher’s top speed works at every level, from rec ball to college to international play.
Here’s the thing, though. Just like a $500 bat works better when you swing it than when you stand there watching pitches go by, the changeup is far more effective when you throw it.
Now, that may seem obvious but from what I hear from frustrated pitchers, parents, and pitching coaches across the country apparently it’s not. For whatever reason, it seems like when many or most coaches are calling games they prefer to try to blow the ball by the hitter with every pitch rather than mixing in changeups and offspeeds.
Even when the pitcher is clearly not capable of blowing the ball by every hitter on the opposing team.
Personally, I don’t get it. One of the fundamental tenets of pitching is that hitting is about timing and pitching is about upsetting timing.
What better way to upset timing than to throw a pitch that looks like it will be fast but actually comes out slow? Not only do you get to make the hitter look silly on that pitch, you’ve now planted the idea that she can’t just sit on the speed and hit it (because she doesn’t want to look silly again), which means you’re now living rent-free in her head.
I think in some cases one reason coaches will shy away from the changeup is they try one and the pitcher either throws it toward the sky or rolls it in. They’ll then make the decision it isn’t working so won’t call it again.
That’s crazy though. Does that mean if a pitcher throws a fastball in the dirt or into the backstop they won’t call the fastball anymore?
Of course not.
So why shy away from a great pitch when the first one doesn’t work? Try a few, and if it’s still not working then table it for that game and come back to it another time.
Now, I will admit that some fortunate coaches may have a pitcher who actually can blow the ball by all the hitters on opposing teams so they may feel that pitcher doesn’t need to throw a changeup in games. After all, she’s already successful without it.
But that’s short-term thinking. Because if the pitcher really is that good, and wants to continue playing at higher levels, she’s going to eventually find that speed alone no longer gets the job done.
And if she finds that out in college (as some do every year) she’s then going to be scrambling to try to learn to throw a pitch that she should have been throwing regularly since she first learned how to spot that fastball. It could make for a very rough season.
A good changeup has the opposite effect of a pitching machine. The reason most hitters find it tough to hit off a machine (at least at first) is that the speed of the arm feeding the ball doesn’t match the speed of the pitch coming out.
In other words, the arm moves slowly to put the ball in the feeder, but then the ball comes out at whatever high speed it’s set at. The visual cue of the arm doesn’t match the speed of the pitch and thus the hitter has trouble figuring out when to swing.
A great changeup gets the same effect in the opposite way. The visual cue of a well-thrown changeup makes it look like it will come at the pitcher’s top speed, but then the ball comes out 10-15 mph slower.
By the time the hitter’s brain has processed what’s happening she has either already swung or was frozen in place by the incongruity of what she saw, and doesn’t recover until after the umpire has called the pitch a strike.
None of that goodness can happen, however, unless someone actually calls for the changeup.
My recommendation on how to use the changeup is the same as the instructions for how to vote in Chicago: early and often.
Show it early so the hitters know it’s a possibility, meaning they shouldn’t get too comfortable. Even if it doesn’t work the first time it may just set the hitter up for the next speed pitch, i.e., it will make the fast pitch look faster.
Use it often to keep the hitters off-balance. Again, even if it’s not actually working the best.
Force the hitters to learn to have to lay off of it and maybe you’ll get a few more called strikes on other pitches as hitters and coaches try to guess when it’s coming. A little confusion at the plate goes a long way.
Finally, use it regularly to help your pitchers learn to throw it more reliably in games. Many coaches and programs talk about “developing players.”
Here’s a chance to put your money where your mouth is, metaphorically speaking. Help your pitchers become more effective in the long term by developing their changeups, even if it costs you a win now and then, and you’ll have fulfilled that part of your mission.
It’s easy to think of the changeup as being a “beginner pitch” because it’s usually the second pitch a pitcher learns. And because movement pitches such as drops, rises, curves, etc. seem more impressive.
But the reality is a pitcher who is changing speeds effectively, and at will, without tipping the pitch, is going to be awfully tough to hit at any level. Start calling the change more often and you just might be pleasantly surprised at the results it delivers for your pitcher – and your team.
Accuracy Without Speed = Batting Practice
One of the age-old controversies in fastpitch pitching is whether it’s more important to develop speed or accuracy first.
Of course my answer to that question is always “yes.” Because I don’t believe they are, or have to be, mutually exclusive.
But there are definitely those, including one of America’s most famous and beloved pitching coaches, who will tell you to learn to throw strikes first and then you can worry about speed later. Here’s my problem with that.
Take a look at Internet forums or Facebook groups and what is one of the most common pleas from pitcher parents? It goes something like this:
“My daughter has been pitching for X years and has always been great at throwing strikes. She led her rec league team to a championship when she was 10, and she is still the most accurate pitcher on her team. But her speed is below the other pitchers we see. I’d like to see her get faster. Please help.”
Then the parent posts a video of a kid pushing the ball toward the plate or otherwise forcing it to go where she wants it to go.
I’m sorry, but the best advice I could give that parent is to invent a time machine so he/she can have his/her daughter start learning to throw hard right from the beginning.
A lot of developing speed is about learning to move your body quickly – and having the intent to do so. In other words, you need to have athletic, ballistic movements in order to impart energy into the ball so it will go fast.
But if your focus is on learning to throw strikes, especially at young ages, you’re not going to learn to move ballistically because it’s harder to achieve the goal of throwing strikes. Fast-moving body parts are more difficult to control, which means fewer strikes. It’s much easier to “get the ball over the plate” if you slow down and find an effective way to lob it there.
The problem is that’s what you’re training your body to do – throw slow strikes. In the meantime, another girl who is learning to throw hard is going through all of the growing pains throwing hard requires while learning to move her body quickly.
Her body may be out of control for a little while, until she develops greater body awareness (proprioception for those of you who like the big words) and learns the proper mechanics as well as how to apply them.
As she continues, though, those fast-paced movements become easier to replicate. She then learns how to control them, and becomes not only fast but accurate.
In the meantime, Suzy Slow Strike Machine suddenly finds out that throwing the ball over the plate without speed is like volunteering to throw front toss without a screen as hitters mature.
So naturally she (and her parents) want her to learn to throw faster.
Unfortunately, now she has to go through the same growing pains that the hard throwers did three years ago. Which means she not only lacks speed but also her famous accuracy.
And who wants a slow, wild pitcher?
Or think of it this way: When players are running the bases do we teach them to run slowly first so they don’t overrun the base and tell them they can then add speed later? Of course not.
We tell them to run full out and teach them to stop or slide on time.
The same is true for pitchers. Putting an emphasis on accuracy at the expense of speed is a poor strategy.
It reminds me of the saying, “The race doesn’t always go the swiftest nor the contest to the strongest. But that’s the way to bet.”
As I said earlier, the reality is you don’t have to sacrifice speed development for accuracy – IF, and that’s a big IF, the pitcher is learning proper pitching mechanics. If you learn how to do things the right way, and practice enough to make those movements precisely repeatable, the ball will go where it should.
In my mind accuracy is not a goal. It is a result, just as speed is a result.
If you wait to develop speed you just may find you’ve painted yourself into a corner with no way out.
Yes, I get that throwing strikes is important. But it’s hardly a mystery.
By focusing on developing mechanically sound pitchers who throw with effort and intent rather than fear of failure, you can achieve both speed and accuracy pretty much simultaneously. Which is the key to a long, successful pitching career.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 