Off speed pitching

[halskinner]

I guess I have been watching this board for around a couple years now. I read posts and replies by pitcher’s Dads and coaches talking about the kids fast pitches and slow change ups. Maybe I missed it but I do not recall reading any discussions on using off-speed pitches.

Does your pitcher have any off-speed pitches that she practices? Assuming she might not, I would strongly suggest she develop at least one, preferably two, in-between speed pitches and work those in a great deal.

If a pitcher only has fast and slow, those are somewhat easy for the batters to deal with, not many choices they have to deal with. Once the batters see her throw a slow change up three or four times in the first part of the game, they all know what to look for and they see how fast it will come. They ready themselves for one of those two speeds and they adjust well most of the time.

If the pitcher can develop an off-speed, I would estimate her strikeouts would jump up around 50%. Batters can deal and are trained to deal with two speeds of pitching. They have major problems dealing with three or four speeds and NEVER knowing which speed the ball is coming at for THIS pitch.

Let me ask you this; If the pitchers motions all say 'Fast pitch', right up to release, what does the batter have to do to determine what speed the pitch is coming in at? They have no other alternative available to them, THEY ARE FORCED TO WATCH THE BALL TRAVEL FROM THE PITCHER'S HAND PART WAYTO DETERMINE HOW FAST THE BALL IS COMING, SO THEY CAN DECIDE WHEN TO PULL THE TRIGGER AND START THIER SWING. That takes time the batters do not have.

Taking away the batter's ability to time the pitch by watching the pitcher's motion takes half their reaction time away. Batters are trained to rely and depend on watching the pitcher’s motions to help them make the biggest decision they have to make, again, when to pull the trigger and start their swing.

Most coaches and pitcher’s Dads have the same mindset; to be a better pitcher you must be a faster pitcher. Wrong. To be a better pitcher, you must be a smarter pitcher.

Everyone has heard the old saying ‘Speed kills’. That applies to driving skills. A more correct way of saying that, when applied to pitching, would be ‘Speeds kill’.

Constant use of speed variations in pitching is a tactic unto itself.

Any pitcher that uses more than two speeds will quickly gain the reputation of being a ‘Junk-ball pitcher. The pitcher’s win-loss percentage will go up dramatically also because it is a well-known fact that seldom does a good junk ball pitcher EVER serve up a hit that makes it out of the infield.

I am convinced that 99.9% of the team coaches and hitting instructors out there all train their hitters the same way in one respect, they ALL do one particular thing EXACTLY the same. As long as they continue to do that one thing, I can teach a pitcher how to destroy that hitter’s timing. BUT, that would be a completely different thread.

 

[1999Coach]

Hal, I can verify exactly what your talking about here,at a recent practice session we had the girls rotating through hitting off the machine,when they were killing the ball at one speed we would vary it only by two or three mph and and it would throw there timing.Then it would take two for some and up to four or five pitches for others to get their timing back.So yeah a pitcher that has several differant speeds can destroy a batters timing. On a differant subject: The suggestions you gave me for my DD's pitching are coming along nicely. I have some video on my camera but I didn't realize that my camera didn't have the pc cable with it,as soon as I get one I'll try to get it posted.

1999Coach

 

[Coach JV]

We have all seen lineups make a good adjustment the second time through. I believe that
more than 2 speeds would be ideal. My DD throws a screw that breaks viciously when thrown in the 45 mph range. She hesitates to use it (12U-A) because of the speed, I disagree 100%. Batters do make contact and the majority of these are slow rollers to the middle infield, thus an easy out. If the mid-speed pitch does not break, it will be hit deep every time

 

[sluggers]

I couldn't agree with Hal more about this. And, my DD's pitching coach (a former men's fastpitch player) would be 100% in agreement with Hal also.

If you watch pro baseball pitchers, you'll see that their fastball speed is not constant. It changes by 4 or 5 mph. If you go to a college fastpitch game, you'll see a pitcher throw the same speed, pitch after pitch.

It simply isn't that hard to learn to "take something off" of a pitch. But, it isn't taught much.

CoachJV:

At 12U, an off-speed breaking pitch isn't any more effective than any breaking pitch. At 18U and at the college level, off speed breaking pitches are a great way to compensate for not having the 65 MPH fastball.

Keep insisting your DD to throw that pitch, and encourage her to learn to throw that pitch with four different speeds.

 

[halskinner]

OK. I am usually the one with the different take on many things in pitching. What 'I' consider an off-speed pitch is this; any pitch that the delivery speed is something different that what the pitcher’s motions indicate. In other words, an off-speed pitch can be a pitch where the motions say fastball, but something slower is delivered. I also consider an off-speed pitch to include motions appearing something slower than fast, but a faster pitch than what they expect from the motion speed is delivered.

The speed of the pitcher’s motions are noticeably different than the ball speed that is delivered.

Hitters can be taught to think (and they thoroughly believe) that they are ONLY watching the hip or only seeing the ball once it gets to the hip at release. That is not the case. The pitcher’s entire body is in the batter’s view, in their line-of-site. What the hitter thinks is irrelevant in that respect because they DO see everything whether they want to or even think they do not. They see the pitcher’s motions and that can be used against them.

You would be very surprised at how little that type of intentional difference has to be to make a HUGE effect on the batter’s timing and confidence.

ANYTIME you can do anything to slow the batter’s reaction time down, advantage – pitcher.

L

 

[Coachmom]

My daughter is exactly the type of pitcher that you describe. She doesn't throw hard enough to blow fastballs by anyone so she has learned to be a very effective junker using three different speeds.
She throws a change up and an off-speed curve ball in addition to the hard curve and drop. Her change-up is her money pitch. She will throw it for a strike on any count and most of the time a batter will just watch it float through the strike zone -frozen.
Then she uses the off speed curve as a chase pitch.
I love watching this type of pitching because of the strategy involved in calling this kind of game.
She rarely ever throws the same speed twice.
Unfortunately, many coaches are so enamored with speed that they do not understand how to call this type of pitchers game and therefore my DD has had to actually teach some coaches how to call her game effectively.
It's really fun to watch a big hitting team that is anxious to hit fastballs swinging out of their shoes to try to hit those junk pitches.

 

[Coach JV]

Coachmom; a good changeup is always nice, rarely gets hit hard as we teach our girls to have a fast bat.
The mediocre fastball looks like its coming in at 70 when following a change-up. Good luck to your DD, you didn't mention
her age, but I watched a High school game last spring where the pitchers on the winning team threw only 6 fastballs
for the entire game. Granted this was an instance where the competition was inferior, but it was impressive to watch.
Final score: 11-1