Teach the athlete to understand the idea of taking power off of the baseball by moving the fastball fingers inside the baseball (from the fastball grip… to the three-finger change-up grip… to the four-finger or circle change grip). Young pitchers, however, should focus first on the speed and location of the change-up and allow the movement to happen naturally. The desired action of a change-up is similar to that of a two-seam fastball: down and in on a right handed batter. Whereas the most important ingredient in the success of a change-up is speed, movement may become a factor in the change-up of a more advanced pitcher as well. A good fastball is necessary for a change-up to work, while a solid change-up can help a fastball appear faster. The change-up is an effective complement to the fastball because of the similar arm action and speed. While this will work for 8-year olds, it’s a sure give-away for ages 10 and above. Additionally, young pitchers should be steered away from accelerating their wind-up in an effort to deceive the batter. Instead, they should have confidence that the change-up grip will ensure that the pitch comes out with less velocity than a fastball (off speed!). Pitchers should not slow down their arms when throwing a change-up. A change-up’s effective deception is established by throwing the pitch with the arm speed, delivery, and release nearly identical to those for a fastball.
#Grip for fastball 2 finger full
The most important point to emphasize when teaching the change-up is to maintain full arm speed. Now out in front of the pitch, a batter will either slow his bat down to make contact or swing and miss altogether. As the batter times his swing to the pace of a fastball, he will swing before the pitch has entered the strike zone.
The purpose of the change-up is to make the batter think that he sees a fastball.
Because the palm faces home plate and there is little wrist movement, the change-up is safe and can be taught at an early age. It is a deception pitch intended to disrupt a hitter’s timing and rhythm, and the unique grip of the change-up results in less velocity and subsequently more movement than with a fastball. The change-up, thrown with the release and mannerisms of delivering a fastball, is the first of these off-speed pitches. Available for purchase here, this is from Chapter 1: Pitch Types and Theory:Īs a pitcher advances into more competitive baseball, high school, and beyond, changing speeds is a necessity for success. The information following below is copyright’d material from Dan Keller’s, Coaching the Beginning Pitcher.
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