DD#2 is moving up to 14U this year, she turns 13 soon. We are heading into the off season and its time to start thinking about what we want to work on. I love this time of year as we can try new things. We have been messing around with a 2 seam fastball some but her pitching instructor wasn't to excited about it.
She currently throws:
4 seam fastball with good IR it runs 51-53MPH with pretty good control.
Good drop ball, not great but generates a ton of ground ball outs. Sometimes she can really feel it and those games are a ton of fun to watch.
Horseshoe/handshake change up with good control however it is only about 9-10 MPH slower most of the time she just can't seem to figure out how to get it 2-3 mph slower. She sells it very well and has a ton of success with it.
Working on a riseball, but it is currently used primarly as a waste/setup pitch.
When we asked her pitching coach about adding a new pitch in the off season she suggested a backdoor change up. We worked on it last night she picked it up very fast and it is 15-17 MPH slower than her fastball. She suggested we might want to think of her horseshoe change as an off speed pitch and the backdoor change up as her true change up. I would have never considered this but the idea of having an off speed and a much slower change up is interesting. Her horseshoe change doesn't normally fall off the table at the plate it only works because she sells, however the backdoor change up just falls off the table hits the back of the plate kind of a pitch. My question is, is it common to have two different change ups? I'm also wondering what is the best way to use them, would you ever throw them together, meaning throw the off speed pitch and then the change up next or vice versa. Any thoughts or advise on how to leverage them is much appreciated.
My concern is putting time into a pitch that might not be used that much. Her other suggestion was to pick up a curve, we have tried it but haven't had a ton of luck.
She currently throws:
4 seam fastball with good IR it runs 51-53MPH with pretty good control.
Good drop ball, not great but generates a ton of ground ball outs. Sometimes she can really feel it and those games are a ton of fun to watch.
Horseshoe/handshake change up with good control however it is only about 9-10 MPH slower most of the time she just can't seem to figure out how to get it 2-3 mph slower. She sells it very well and has a ton of success with it.
Working on a riseball, but it is currently used primarly as a waste/setup pitch.
When we asked her pitching coach about adding a new pitch in the off season she suggested a backdoor change up. We worked on it last night she picked it up very fast and it is 15-17 MPH slower than her fastball. She suggested we might want to think of her horseshoe change as an off speed pitch and the backdoor change up as her true change up. I would have never considered this but the idea of having an off speed and a much slower change up is interesting. Her horseshoe change doesn't normally fall off the table at the plate it only works because she sells, however the backdoor change up just falls off the table hits the back of the plate kind of a pitch. My question is, is it common to have two different change ups? I'm also wondering what is the best way to use them, would you ever throw them together, meaning throw the off speed pitch and then the change up next or vice versa. Any thoughts or advise on how to leverage them is much appreciated.
My concern is putting time into a pitch that might not be used that much. Her other suggestion was to pick up a curve, we have tried it but haven't had a ton of luck.