How many pitches should you teach?

[Coach Stan]

I teach the basic pitches (fast ball, change, curve, drop, rise, screw ball). But I do not teach them all at one time. I feel developing consistency in each pitch before transitioning to another. What I have found is most pitchers fall into 2 categories they are either a down pitcher or an up pitcher. This normally happens when they start to mature as a pitcher.

A down pitcher are more consistent with drops and of course the up pitcher is more consistent with the rise. However, once the determination is made to which type pitcher the pitcher is I do not stop working on the opposite pitch.

And of course there are those rare few out there that are consistent with any pitch you teach them.

 

[sluggers]

Stan, don't you teach the back door, rise screw change? My kid learned that one when she was 7...

My experience has been the same as Stan's. Kids usually can throw a really good rise or a really good drop, but not both. There only a few that can throw both effectively.

Ray

 

[Coach Stan]

I stay pretty basic with all pitches I teach and then when a student gravitates with either an up or down pitcher then we start working on a little more advanced types pitches such as the back door types. However, I am a firm believer that for the fancy type breaking pitches to work correctly the basic pitches must be extremely consistent.

 

[sluggers]

I was just kidding...I'm in total agreement with you about teaching the basics. There are a bunch of softball parents convinced that their DDs can throw all kinds of exotic pitches, when they in fact are simply throwing fastballs.