Off-speed pitches are a must for a pitcher to be successful. While we recommend adding change ups into your daily warm-up routine, it is important, especially when learning the pitch, to work on the release and feeling the ball come out with less power while the rest of the pitch feels identical to your fastball.
These are the steps we use to teach pitchers a change up or to improve their release.
This video goes more in depth with each change release and shows you how to get started with each one. The release makes this pitch, so be mindful when breaking it down.
The best part about throwing a changeup is that there isn’t a “right” way to throw it. Make it your own, and spend some time playing around with the release that works the most for you!
We want to use the same warmup progression we do for fastball for our changeup as well. It’s best to alternate fastball and changeup here to make sure your motions feel the same
Once you get a feel for the changeup release you like, it’s time to move back into some easy arm circles. This video covers what to focus on when you move on to this step.
Move on once it feels right 80% of the time.
The last step before throwing your change up from the mound, start a couple feet in front of the pitching rubber working on your release, throwing hard, and feeling it be the same as your fastball.
Get 80% consistency before moving on.
The best way to master a change is to constantly mix it with other pitches. Even when you first start throwing it, mix it with your fastball to keep feeling your timing. If you've done the complete progression, you know how to release it, so it's all a matter of throwing it like normal. Here, we mix it with our fastball and talk about the key things to focus on.
This pitching drill helps to get over some common changeup mental hurdles. If you feel like you are “trying” to slow the ball down, stopping your arm, or trying to aim the ball, this is a great drill to help break that mental block!
Eyes closed is one of our favorite go-to drills that focuses on feel. Watch this video to see how it can be used to throw a more dominant changeup.
When it comes to throwing a changeup, we want it to feel the same as our fastball motion. This drill is really going to help you focus on the feel of staying through your release, allowing you to throw a deceptive changeup.
Plyo balls are great for feeling the timing of our pitch. For mixing fastball and changeup, they help to really focus on how the ball is coming out of our hand.
The first step in learning a changeup is understanding the role of the pitch and what’s actually important when throwing it. In this video, we go over the four most common types of change ups thrown and what we want to look for in each.
The next video goes over how to get started with the change. If you're just learning it or don’t like your current one, try all of the releases and see what clicks.