My daughter is in bad need of an effective change up. Sometimes she has a backhand flip that is inconsistent, and doesn’t seem to grasp the release for a push/horseshoe change. She is a student for about a year with a Tincher pitching coach, and the coach is reluctant to teach a change u til she has mastery of all her mechanics. Objectively, she is about 80% there. In your experience what is the best change to throw and some simple cues to have her be effective. Thanks in advance.
Change up
- Thread starter Texas McE
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Per the other recent threads, we’ve had success with a horseshoe grip (grip the ball around the “c”), holding it a little deeper in the hands, and stiffening the fingers. We’ve tried to keep everything else about the pitching motion the same.
Some have suggested to “shovel” the ball vs whip it, or pretend you’re throwing a glass of water at the batter, or shove/pass the ball under the table.
I’d just start with the grip - you might find that just that difference kills enough speed that she can continue to use the same mechanics as her FB, and slowly add in things like turning the wrist over to get more drop if needed.
But she has to be comfortable with the grip. It’s not going to help her if she can only throw it 0-2 b/c it’s only a strike 25% of the time.
IMO, trying something as different as a flip change is over complicating things, but in the end, it has to be what works for her.
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Some have suggested to “shovel” the ball vs whip it, or pretend you’re throwing a glass of water at the batter, or shove/pass the ball under the table.
I’d just start with the grip - you might find that just that difference kills enough speed that she can continue to use the same mechanics as her FB, and slowly add in things like turning the wrist over to get more drop if needed.
But she has to be comfortable with the grip. It’s not going to help her if she can only throw it 0-2 b/c it’s only a strike 25% of the time.
IMO, trying something as different as a flip change is over complicating things, but in the end, it has to be what works for her.
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Thanks. All makes sense.
The backhand change is not a good pitch. It's too hard to control and too slow. A lot of pitchers think they are throwing a backhand but the spin will tell you if that's true. A backhand has backspin. Most of the time they are releasing the ball before the hand is turned a full 180 degrees and the ball will have some side spin. So try applying side spin by coming around the outside of the ball with the fingers pointing down.
