When & In What Order Do We Teach The Different Pitches?

One of the best (and by best I mean most ridiculous) things we hear as pitching coaches has to do with movement pitches. I bet everyone has been to a game or tournament and heard something like this from a parents or coaches:

“Yeah, my daughter is 9 and she knows how to throw 5 pitches.”

Or

“We just started pitching but we are working on the rise ball.”

If you are a pitching coach and you have new students reaching out to you, you may have heard something like this:

“Hey, so I know we just started learning the fastball mechanics but my coach wants me to be throwing a drop, a curve, and a rise, so can we focus on those?”

And my personal favorite –told to me by one of my 12U students’ father who was approached by another parent who said to him,–

“My daughter can throw 32 pitches.”

Really? 32 pitches? Care to name all of those for me?

Here’s the thing…being able to command pitches is all about learning the optimal mechanics, starting with the fastball. Fastball mechanics are the basis for all of the other pitches. If your fastball mechanics are not solid, your movement pitch mechanics will not be either. So when we hear people say that their 9 year olds “throw 5 pitches,” or when students ask to learn all of the other movement pitches when they are still struggling with the fastball, we kind of shake our heads and sigh.

It would be extremely rare for a 9 year old to master 5 different pitches. It is often very difficult for young pitchers to master even fastball mechanics, as their muscles and bodies have not yet fully developed. There are developmental and strength related issues that young and new pitchers have (e.g. weakness in the core, hips, legs) that may prevent them from having solid fastball mechanics, and as I said above, if your fastball mechanics aren’t solid, your movement pitches will not be solid either. So when we hear this from parents and coaches, it can be very concerning. More likely than not, they are focusing so much on what they think is a movement pitch that they are leaving solid mechanics behind and may be building poor mechanical habits into their young pitchers.

Furthermore, there are definitely movement pitches that are more difficult to throw than others. So while we may have a student who has pretty much mastered the fastball, the next question should not be, “Can we learn the rise ball?” For us, there is an order in which we teach pitches, and it goes from easiest to learn, to most difficult to learn.

So when and in what order should you be learning the other pitches? Here is what we teach:

1. Fastball: As I said above, the fastball is the very first pitch every pitcher learns. The mechanics for the fastball are the basis for every other pitch, and if you don’t solidify these mechanics, all of your other pitches will be more difficult to throw. This pitch can be taught at any age!

2. Changeup: It is our belief that EVERYONE needs to have a really effective changeup. We don’t care if you come to us as a 9 years old throwing 60+ MPH and are able to blow your fastball by batters. You MUST have a changeup. As we are seeing more and more in high level softball, straight speed just isn’t cutting it. Batters are very capable of hitting high speeds with ease, but when you can keep them off balance with off speed pitches, you become much more effective as a pitcher. We teach several different kinds of changeups and they can be taught at any age as soon as the pitcher is having success, command, and solid mechanics with her fastball

3. Drop: The drop ball is the first movement pitch we teach because it is the most similar to the fastball mechanics. The delivery of the drop ball (we teach primarily a turn-over drop) still utilizes a completely relaxed arm and wrist with the palm facing down on the finish. The differences between the fastball and the drop are body position and where the glove is pointing. However, because they are so similar, it is the first movement pitch we teach our girls. I have taught this pitch to girls who are 11 years old and up, simply because younger girls tend to not have enough wrist/finger strength to create true spin. This is why when parents of 9 year olds claim their daughters know 5 pitches, we know it’s probably not true. She might have a pitch that she throws low, or a pitch that she throws high that they call a drop or a rise, but it probably lacks the spin of a true drop or a rise ball.

4. Curve or Screw: Now that you’ve learned a pitch that goes on the vertical plane, we want to teach something on the horizontal plane. The pitcher can choose whether she wants to learn the curve or the screwball first (I always prefer the curveball because I think it has much more true movement than a screw ball, but it is entirely up to the pitcher to choose). Both pitches have the hand coming away from the power line (either across the body for a curve or away from the body for a screw) and both pitches require the palm to be facing up during the delivery. These two pitches require a lot of wrist and finger strength and quickness in order to get true bite, which is why we teach them a little bit later.

5. Drop-curve: This is a great pitch to throw to slappers! It is essentially a combination of the drop and the curve ball so we might even teach this before the screw ball. Because it is a combination of 2 pitches, we like to teach it after the other 2 have been learned. It becomes very easy to throw at that point.

6. Rise Ball: In my opinion this pitch requires BY FAR the most wrist and finger strength and speed. This pitch requires backwards spin and it takes a tremendous amount of wrist snap and finger strength to throw it and actually get it to move. By learning all of the other movement pitches first, a pitcher is developing her wrist and finger strength and therefore will be more prepared to throw this pitch. This is also the only pitch where you need to be throwing a certain speed in order for it to work (I think 55MPH, Coach Phil says at least 60). So again, when you’re telling me that your 9 year old can throw a rise ball, my answer is, probably not a true rise.

7. Rise-screw (for righties) rise-curve (for lefties): This is the last pitch we teach, and it is only for our most advanced students who have mastered all of the other pitches. Again, this is a combination of 2 different pitches so we need to make sure the other 2 pitches can be thrown on command before we teach this one, especially the rise ball. The rise-screw/rise-curve is a student favorite, as it rises up and in underneath the batters hands making it very difficult to hit if thrown correctly. But these pitches take a huge amount of wrist and finger strength so you must be able to command all of the previous pitches before learning these.

So if I was forced to pick an age to start movement pitch instruction, I would say around 11. Of course this varies with each student’s natural abilities. But I must reiterate, we will not teach any movement or off speed pitches until the fastball mechanics are solidified. Even if a pitcher is 15 years old, if she is still having trouble with mechanics and commanding the fastball, we will not teach them any other pitch until those mechanical problems are addressed and fixed. I know this is not what people want to hear. Everyone wants to be able to say they know every single pitch. But if you’re not throwing them with the correct mechanics, or you’re not throwing them with true spin and command, then there is no point in throwing them at all.