Change spin question.

[NorthMS]

My DD's PC showed her a change up yesterday. It's, what I would call a back hand change (not sure the real name). Anyway, I was catching her today and she started throwing it pretty good. When she threw low and outside, it had a few inches of movement (away from a RH batter and a little downward). When she missed high or inside, I didn't notice it as much, or not at all. Is she releasing it wrong? Should it have a 6-12 spin?

Thanks in advance.

 

[James Smith]

It sounds like a flip change and the spin sounds correct. I am surprised it has any movement. You want her to work on controlling the speed and location, any movement the pitch might have is a bonus.

 

[WaSpeed02]

A flip change (where she will lead with the back of her hand through release and "flip" the ball) will have close to 12/6 backspin on it. The plus side is that this will closely resemble rise ball spin once she develops that pitch. However, the flip is notoriously difficult to throw consistently and has a tendency to miss high and hang in the wheelhouse. For that reason I have steered my DD away from it.

I am having my DD learn a back door change. While it doesn't have the deceptive rise ball spin, it is very, very accurate and when thrown with good whip has good movement down and in on a RHB (my DD is a LHP), resembling a drop/crop. She has been deadly with that pitch the last two tournaments.

 

[inde53546]

Waspeed, can you describe how the back door change is thrown?

 

[NorthMS]

Thanks for the input. It doesn't have a 6-12 spin. It's more of a 9-5 spin. She just started working on it.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Flip changes are more effective changes at the 10-12U age range then after that get pounded. (in general)

 

[WaSpeed02]

Waspeed, can you describe how the back door change is thrown?

Well, I will try. Allow me to tell a little story first, though. Last weekend during DD's first pool play game she couldn't throw her change up. She couldn't get any speed off of it and she was extremely distraught when we got home that night. She has only been throwing it for a couple of weeks and caught on really fast, but for some reason when last Saturday morning came, she forgot how to throw it. Go figure. Anyway, when we got home she begged me to go work on it. I didn't even get a chance to get the cooler out of the car and she was hounding me to catch for her. And so I did. After about 20 minutes of trial and error, she figured out what she was doing wrong. I was so proud of her determination. I didn't really have to do anything except guide her through backward chaining a bit. She figured it out on her own.

As to how to throw it: It is thrown similar to a turn-over drop, except the last digit off the ball will be the thumb in concert with the palm. When my DD backward chained it to figure out what she was doing wrong, she realized she was releasing the ball too early in the whip, off the back hip. She was essentially throwing a turn-over drop without really trying to put a lot of spin on it. So it was coming in a little slower than her dropball, but didn't have much movement. She realized she holds on to the ball a split second longer and doesn't release until I/R is almost complete and her forearm is fully pronated. At that point the release is more of a "push" with the palm and thumb (leave the other fingers out of it as much as possible) and takes maximum arm speed to give it enough gas to get to the plate. Also, she uses a 4 seam grip for this pitch. Hope this helps.