I began playing baseball at age ten, late for many kids. Because I was always big for my age, I found myself on the pitching mound a lot. I threw hard and enjoyed the feeling of striking kids out. What kid who throws hard doesn’t right? I continued striking out hitters through high school with a good fastball and curveball.
As I entered college my coach told me that I had to develop my change up more to keep hitters off balance. While I didn’t fully see the need to add the change at that point early my freshman year, I worked on one nevertheless. I couldn’t figure out the circle change as the grip never seemed comfortable enough for me to locate the pitch well. I ended up just messing with a few different grips each time I would warm up before practice. They were strange grips, the kind that no coach would show you. I finally found a grip that allowed the ball to come off my hand and tail away. I just grabbed my four seam fastball grip but instead of having the thumb under the baseball, I brought it up the inside of the baseball and rested it against outside of my index finger. I knew this was the change up grip I would got with. [Read more...]
